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[REVIEW
> AMERICAN NIGHTMARE]
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| Tobe
Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" |
"If
you like horror movies, Adam Simon's insightful and intellectual
'American Nightmare' is a must see." |
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Reviewed by Quentin Lee
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| Wes
Craven's "Last House on the Left" |
If you like horror movies, Adam Simon's insightful and
intellectual "American Nightmare" is a must see. "American
Nightmare" is a documentary on the landmark independent
horror flicks, ranging from "Last House to the Left" to
"Halloween" made between late 60s till late 70s, and their
ideology. It features interviews from filmmakers such
as John Landis, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg
and Tobe Hooper along with highly intelligent critics
such as Carol Clover. Enlightened and articulate, "American
Nightmare" represents the long-waited response from smart
horror fans. |
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| I remember when I was seventeen I was telling a friendly
critic of a community newspaper how much I loved and wanted
to make horror films. He told me immediately that I should
never tell anyone that if I wanted to be taken seriously
at all as a filmmaker. In many ways, the critic's response
represents what most people think about horror movies,
that they are dumb and low-art exploitation. |
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| Carol Clover, the author of "Men, Women and Chainsaws,"
has been one of the most articulate academic that supports
horror films. Interviewed in "Nightmare," she says that
going to see a movie shouldn't be about being safe or
feeling good. Instead, it's an opportunity for us to explore
the darker side that we normally can't or don't explore
in real life, and hence horror movies perfectly serve
that purpose. |
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| David
Cronenberg's "Rabid" |
In many ways, Clover's remark extends into independent
films which often precisely transgress and explore themes,
styles and territories that your typical mainstream feel-good
expectable Hollywood movies leave at bay. The films featured
in "Nightmare" such as Craven's "Last House on the Left,"
Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Cronenberg's "Shivers"
and Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" and "Night of the Living
Dead" are both independent and horror. They are independent
horror films that are ideologically, stylistically and
genre transgressive. |
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| John Landis in "Nightmare" talks about how excited he
was as a young aspiring filmmaker to see a black man as
the protagonist in "Night of the Living Dead." He was
impressed at the complex racial politics in the film which
culminates in the final depictions of disposing the black
protagonist's body. |
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Tom
Savini's exploding head in "Dawn of the Dead"
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Tom Savini, the prosthetic make-up meister of the 70s
and 80s landmark horror independent films, relates his
experience as a military photographer in Vietnam to his
relation with films. In Vietnam, he had to face the gruesomeness
of war, of broken limbs and splattering brain matter.
Through the camera he was carrying, he was able to instill
a distance so he could analyze and take apart the real-life
horror images which culminated toward his later perfection
of horror make-up techniques. |
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"American Nightmare" refrains from making a general
conclusion or theorization, which in a way is a good thing
because it inspires and stimulates intellectual ideas
rather than pounding them over your head. All the interviews,
especially Clover's, Savini's and Landis', enlighten us
not only about the intent and influence of the makers
(which is cultural, political and intellectual) but also
about the relationships between these films, their genre,
their making and their audience. The clips are also very
well chosen. They are not only fun and gory (okay, I'm
a gore-hound), but they also illustrate well along with
the interviews. "American Nightmare" makes the 1986 pseudo
horror documentary "Terror in the Aisles" look like a
tedious green band R-rated trailer. Check out "American
Nightmare" if you can in a midnight show (I saw it at
Nuart) in a theater, or you can also catch it on Independent
Film Channel or maybe on video..jpg) |
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