November 4th, 2015 - Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

Fair warning - I'm a pretty big fan of the Paranormal Activity franchise. They're not earth-shaking films (although you'd be a fool to deny how influential the original was), but I think almost all of them (thanks for the "almost," part 4) work very well as haunted house movies. The tricks they use to build tension almost always work for me - not in a truly terrifying way, but in a fun, anticipation-building way.

So by this point in the game, you probably already have an opinion on the franchise. And The Ghost Dimension is not going to change your mind. But I'd say it knows what worked and what didn't in the last five films and uses those gimmicks effectively and occasionally creatively. It also attempts to tie up some of the convoluted mythology that has ran through the series. And while it certainly doesn't over-explain anything, as a fan I was satisfied with the explanations we get here. It seemed like a fitting end to things, should the rumors be true that this is indeed the last entry. (Until an inevitable reboot in 8-10 years, that is.)

May 8th, 2015 - Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland (1989)

While Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers was markedly different from part one (far more of a comedy, no mystery), part three is really just a rehash of part two. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. All of the little things that worked in part two work here - they're just a little bit diluted from having been done before. It's a little slower, and the kills are not as frequent (or quite as good). But it was still nice to see Angela back at camp again, killing bad kids.

The set up here? Angela (Pamela Springsteen) somehow knows of a camper getting ready to head out to Camp New Horizons. It's a new camp (built on the same grounds as camp Rolling Hills, where Angela killed a bunch of kids in part two) with a unique premise: they get a bunch of teens from the upper class and a bunch of teens from the lower class, and over the course of camp-time they'll (theoretically) learn to overcome their differences and work together. Angela kills one of the lower-class kids (subtly running her down in broad daylight in a semi-truck) and takes her spot at camp. It doesn't take long for her to get back to her old camper-killing tricks - the dozen or so campers are conveniently split into groups of four, so Angela can pick them off relatively easily.

December 29th, 2014 - Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Well, it's nice they didn't end things on a super shitty note. Since New Line Cinema was affectionately known as "The House that Freddy Built," I'm glad that the powers that be saw fit to put a better cap on the Elm Street series than the really, really bad Freddy's Dead. I can't say if it was financially motivated or not, but I'd like to think that they did it out of respect for Mr. Krueger. While New Nightmare isn't anything special, it's a big step up in just about every aspect from parts 4-6. (I would entertain arguments about part 4 though.) I also think that it was probably a necessity for Wes Craven to bring us Scream - New Nightmare plays as a sort of test run for how to present the meta-horror ideas that are prominent in that film.

New Nightmare is about Heather Lagenkamp, the lead actress from parts 1 and 3. She's playing herself here in the "real world," where all six previous films exist as just that - films. The ten year anniversary of the original Elm Street is coming up, so she's invited to appear on a talk show with Robert Englund (also himself) to talk about the franchise. Since they'll do anything for a buck, New Line executives ask her if she's interested in being in a new sequel - Craven is working on a new script and she's slated to be the star. She passes on it... but maybe the movie won't let her?

December 5th, 2014 - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

It's a good thing that "Freddy's Dead" is right there in the title. Because after this terrible entry, he'd be dead to me anyways. Lame introductions aside, this is a really terrible movie, and it's pretty obvious by this point that the Elm Street series is out of steam. They make a semi-logical move by expanding Freddy's backstory a bit - we learned about his parentage in part 5; so here we get glimpses into his childhood as well as his pre-burnt adult life. We learn that he was not only married but also reproduced, and that his child would be old enough to star in one of these movies now...

Usually, once you get to the the origins of a character in a sequel, you're pretty much just treading water. But in Freddy's Dead Krueger's pre-glove life is the best part of the film. Not that these parts are great (or even that good) by any means... it's just that the bulk of the film focusing on our dreaming teenagers is so bad that it makes any breather a welcome change of pace.

October 24th, 2014 - Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of The Dream Child is "Swing and a Miss!"  I admire that they decided to try something different - stylistically, this is obviously a lot different than the other films in the Nightmare franchise.  But ultimately, I think I would have rather watched part 4 again.  Or part 3.  Or part 1.  Just not 2.  Geez.

Fair warning - I was pretty inebriated watching this. Three weeks into this "watching a horror movie every day" thing, I've realized that watching and writing about a movie is more work than I would have thought. Maybe I just don't write fast enough, I don't know.  But at any rate, I like drinking too much to stay sober-ish for every movie (particularly in this case - we had just come back from a concert prior to my watching it).  Even inebriated, I still feel like I have an okay gauge of what I like and what I don't, but this is just something to keep in mind.  If I ever get paid to do this, I'll limit it to 2 beers tops.  Maybe 3 if I'm going out with friends beforehand.

October 11th, 2014 - Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Despite being a child of the 80's, I never really got to know any of the big horror icons as a child.  I could talk my folks into checking out R-rated action movies, but horror was more or less out of the question, for a couple reasons.  One, my mom didn't like violence, unless it was a sexy Van Damme dishing it out.  I guess she couldn't justify taking me to see Jean Claude movies without okaying some of his contemporaries that were, um, less easy on the eyes.  And two, I was scared!  I was not okay with slashers as a child.  I could swing the PG/PG-13 horror and could stomach creature features, but the ol' hack-and-stab was not my thing.  So despite being around for their heyday, I had no first-hand knowledge of Freddy or Jason when they were in their prime.

I watched all of the Friday the 13th movies in one day a few years back, but I am still relatively new to Elm Street.  Obviously, I kind of know about them through osmosis - Freddy is a pretty big cultural force as far as horror goes.  So it's been fun getting to finally check them out - a friend has lent me the box set (Thanks Austin!)  I had have already checked out parts 1-3, and hope to finish the rest by the end of the year.