Canon-Strike XI: Never Ending Horror

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 34 - The Omen IV: Awakening
Following a failed attempt to make a fourth film, one eventually saw release as a made for TV effort. The film follows an orphaned girl named Delia who begins to emerge as the successor for Damien, displaying similar traits and influence on others. The film was panned on release leading to the studio abandoning plans to produce a chain of sequels based on the property.



Work of the Devil?

[Dogg Thang]

I feel bad leaving all these hanging because I’m enjoying reading them. I remember loving the first movie when I rewatched it a few years back but I have a suspicion that it’s the only one of the series that I’ve seen. I’m not 100% certain.

[Neon Ignition]

It's definitely a franchise that whilst well known and long running, is nowhere near as prolific and well watched as many of its rivals

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 35 - The Omen
2006 and a reboot of the original story was released in cinemas following a very short turn around. The writer of the original is cited as the scriptwriter here also however he never had any involvement, listed as the writer purely because the new script was deemed to be so close to the original that no-one else should be given credit. Made in just a few months, the film released on the sixth of June 2006 - 666. It received mixed reviews just like the original but was similarly successful earning $120m against a $25m budget though no sequel ever came this time. This brings the franchise to an end. A sixth film, a prequel titled The First Omen, has already been filmed and will be releasing at some point in the near future.




A Bad Omen?

[Neon Ignition]

I don't remember too much beyond it coming across as fairly forgettable by the numbers stuff... which would be why I don't remember too much

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 36 - A Nightmare on Elm Street
We move on to the next gruesome franchise and in our third year of examining the canons of horror franchises we finally reach Freddy's nightmare inducing tales. Well known for also being an early role for Johnny Depp, the first Elm Street movie brought the world Freddy Kruger and Nancy Thompson who finds her friends and herself being stalked in their dreams by metal clawed, burned faced killer with a traumatic past link to them all. Wes Craven used multiple elements he recalled from his own youth to make the film and the nightmare element created a way of using imagery that other horrors were not as well a hook that made running away not an option. Almost played by actor David Warner as well as Jason actor Kane Hodder, the role would infamously be taken on by Robert Englund and become a pop culture phenomenon.




A Genuine Classic or a Nightmare?

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 37 - A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Five years after being defeated by Nancy, a new family moves into her home and the daughter finds herself being stalked in her dreams by a revived Freddy. The films school bus intro was born from an agreement Craven enforced for such a sequence not to be in the original whilst Craven also heavily increased a swing of focus in the sequel away from the films original intent to be about the male lead. The studio also filmed a sizeable portion of the film using an extra for Freddy, feeling that they could save money. However, watching the footage the execs quickly realised that Englund was vastly superior in the role and brought him back in to refilm sequences. The film was a hit and has gained appreciation with time.




A Worthwhile Follow Up?

[Neon Ignition]

Since becoming older it's really made me clock on to the fact that Elm Street was blessed, incredibly so, by finding Robert Englund to play the role. If you remove him from the equation - and this is partially where the reboot stumbled - you remove almost the only thing that works within the franchise. The franchise and Freddy aren't scary, there's far too much goofiness about it to stick the landing and it's that pop culture appeal of Freddy that does almost all of the heavy lifting. The original film is a smart idea, the execution though isn't amazing in a lot of places. The second film I've seen less often but I've never really enjoyed it on any occasion.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 38 - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Releasing a taking place two years on, Kristen begins to dream of Freddy again and is sent to a psychiatric ward where she meets the psychiatrist Nancy Thompson. With both Kristen and Nancy discovering their shared histories of facing Kruger, they meet others who have the ability to control their dreams with Kristen able to pull others into her own dreams. Together they face off against Freddy in a battle that see's Nancy pay the ultimate price. Craven had been so bothered by the quality of the second film that he signed to co-write the third planning to make it a meta entry about the actors filming a sequel to the original film (an idea we'll get around to). The studio said no though and this entry was written to end the franchise. The film became the highest grossing entry up until this point and so despite intentions, another film was quickly greenlit.




A Dream Entry?

[Atticus]

Dream Warriors is great. First film hold up too. I didn't know the stingy studio had tried a Freddy stand-in on part 2 ... what an insult to Englund. At least they back-pedalled on such nonsense. I watched all the films again a couple of years ago and could happily dive in again for another run.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm pretty sure it's the third film - if so, it's the only one that has ever scared me and it's one bit specifically. I think I first saw it around the age of 7 or 8 when my parents rented it and watched it on a Sunday morning. It's the bit in the hallway when Freddy controls a girl like a puppet dangling her with her veins. That played on my mind for ages.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 39 - A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Following the success of the third film, this fourth entry was rushed out for the next year and see's Freddy finally complete his revenge against against the families that killed him. With his mission complete he uses a young woman to draw in new victims. This marked the first film to not have any direct involvement from Wes Craven. He was asked for his usual pitch but when he proposed a plot that would have been based on Freddy and the victims using their dreams to time travel the execs stepped away from his suggestions and went for the used pitch that was seen as more in line with what had succeeded in the previous entry. The studio began filming without a director in charge, by the time they found one their initial preferences didn't want to be involved and so they ended up using a new starting Finnish Director, Renny Harlin. The film went on to be the most successful entry in the franchise to date, a success that set up Harlin's career and led him on to direct other hits such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. The film is a well recieved entry, intentionally embracing the pop culture success of Kruger along with the focus on him as the main centre piece as the producers identified that his scare factor was now gone.




Was the shift away from horror something that made the franchise better?

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 40 - A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
With the fourth entry working so well the studio repeated the trick of rushing out another entry the following year. This time they steered the film back toward a darker tone but continuing the theme of leads with abilities to control their dreams, this time however the lead is pregnant opening a new front for Freddy to exploit. The idea of dealing with pregnancy had been put forward before but rejected by one of the studio execs who had been pregnant herself at the time, a few years later she returned to the idea however after feeling it would be a match for fans of the original who by now would have grown enough to be having children of their own. The film was a success for the studio but earned much less than its predecessor and had weaker reviews.




A Tipping Point for the Franchise?

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 41 - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Set a decade on from present day, Freddy has killed every child and teenager in the town of Springwood. Just one remains who is on the outside of the town out limits with amnesia who is soon taken back into the town with several other troubled teens where they discover the fate of Freddy's child and finally learn how to kill him once and for all. The film was panned by critics but made more than the fifth film bringing the initial franchise to a close on a relatively high note.





Was it the right end and the right time to end it?

[Neon Ignition]

They might have been the peak of the franchises popularity but these films represent where I struggled the most with the series. The levels of stupidity is too high and it's not in an amusing way, more cringe worthy. The trouble with Nightmare is that whilst Freddy is cool in design they compromised him far too much too early on and with the general dream concept being a hard one to deliver on as well he ended up being the runt of the horror genre rogues gallery with these films being the ones that really cement it.