First off, the fact that this review is in that book really doesn't mean shit. A list of 1001 movies is far from discriminatory...
That said, and against my better judgement, I'll pick at nits:
Ack wrote:"combine horror and humor
I guess I just didn't find too much about the film to be humorous..what would be an example of something funny that happened? I have a sense that this gets played out more in later films...
Gothic literary motifs and slasher movie conventions,
so it is a genre film...
gory special effects and subtle social commentary
...a genre film that does pretty much what every other film in the genre does...
"Craven's first two films, Last House on the Left(1972) and The Hills Have Eyes(1977), had established the former English professor as a low-budget horror auteur along the lines of Tobe Hooper and George Romero.
completely agree
one of the most profitable series in the history of horror cinema.
this has no bearing on its strength as a film
plot overview
I am not going to be able to come up with the references off the top of my head, but certainly there's plenty in the plot which exists in previous horror cinema and literature. calling the ideas completely original is a bit much, though I give Craven credit for combining them in this film - it just doesn't seem compelling
to me. Besides, plot is not necessarily the most importnat component of a horror film.
The film's spectacular set pieces, laden with special effects wizardry and gallons of fake blood
Most of the points I gave the film in my review are for these things. I concur.
are balanced by an anxiety-inducing score
really? it doesn't hold a candle to Carpenter's work or Manfredini's Friday the 13th score. Really, as horror scores go, I didn't find Nightmare all that compelling....
a gripping narrative
only if gripping=predictable
as we feel for the intended victims in their hopeless battle to stay awake.
maybe if more than 1-2 people in the film could act at all...
an archetypal "evil trickster," a kind of gothic antihero, a vicious killer who with charm, sense of humor, and flair for the dramatic
I'll give the reviewer credit - this thought hadn't occurred to me, perhaps because I didn't find the humor in the film. He's like Loki or something? That's an interesting idea, but I am almost positive that they are projecting the character's development in future films backwards to the first one...
proves appealing to viewers
.
not to this one.
Nightmare combines elements of gothic literature-the seductive villain, the terrible place
so it is a genre film...
the emphasis on dreams and subjective vision-with elements of the generic slasher movie-victims picked off one by one, the indestructible killer, the resourceful and virginal female survivor."
Again, this is part of the reason I didn't completely trash it. The film does a nice job of combining and riffing on ideas that appear in other films, but that's still only enough to make it "decent" or "fair" - 2.5/5 instead of 4/5 or 5/5...
Figured I'd throw that up and add fuel to the fire.
you did!
I could've sworn I saw another doc w/ her in it that was made not too long ago and she still looked pretty good for her age. It might have been the Going to Pieces documentary but I'm not 100% on that and I'm pretty sure that was released before the ROLTD special edition was. Either way it was sad imo.
