19. Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy dir. by Daniel Farrands, Andrew Kasch (2010)
Never Sleep Again is a 4-hour long documentary covering the Nightmare on Elm Street series from the very first film in ‘84 all the way through 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason. Basically, it covers all the Nightmares that Robert Englund played Freddy Krueger in.
Due to poor planning on my part, I had to split this up into two two-hour viewings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (I think I cut off after Elm Street 4), but I don’t want to give the impression that this doc is slow in any way. I could have easily sat through all four hours without blinking.
Farrands and Kasch tackle the series in chronological order, bookending each movie with brand new claymation/stop-motion Freddy clips to introduce each film. These interstitials are well done, nostalgic, and just generally fun to watch. It reminds me of the old MTV Liquid Television ads.
The films’ cast and crew, series’ directors, and series’ producers all turn up to talk about the respective film(s) they were involved with. The amount of content, stories, and behind-the-scenes footage makes this feel like an epic bonus disc. Noticeably absent from the film are sit-downs with Johnny Depp (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Patricia Arquette (Dream Warriors). The other cast and crew of the films do a good job of telling stories about the two on set though, so they aren’t missed. Not really anyway.
Never Sleep Again is just a well put together documentary on what is probably the biggest horror franchise of all time. If you have any interest in the Nightmare on Elm Street films, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this. And for those that hate campy horror but like docs, you’re in for a treat as well.
The Collector’s Edition even contains a second disc bringing the grand total of watching time to 8 hours. That’s one hell of a special feature.
