Movie Chatter

Whatever Happened to that Nice Boy Freddy Krueger?

2009-10-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Horror films get a bad rap. The genre is rarely taken seriously. After all, how many Oscars have been given to horror films? On the other hand - how many other genres have created such diehard fan bases or given a new meaning to the word sequel? There is a reason we aren’t on “Gone with the Wind XII – Rhett vs. Captain Von Trapp – This time it’s personal.”

Horror films are more than good bloody fun. They could save our lives. Norman Bates taught us that it is important to lock the bathroom door if you’re showering in a motel. We also know we should resist the impulse to torch the neighborhood pedophile, and that if you’re a counselor at a summer camp keep shoes and car keys handy at all times. More recently we’ve learned that if someone tells you they’d "like to play a game" – well – it’s time to leave.

All good stuff – all valuable life lessons taught by the likes of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and the newest member of the club, Jigsaw. All characters so famous that they are recognized on a first name basis – like Madonna.

I love Freddy, Jason, and Michael as much as any sixteen-year-old slasher geek. Halloween was the first horror film I saw in a theater, when I was, gulp, around nine (I know, I know), and it affected me so much that when I became a filmmaker – my first film, Red Canyon, was also a horror film.

But I have to confess – that while I love Freddy, Jason, Michael, and even occasionally, Jigsaw – I don’t love what they’ve become. Seeing them now is a little bit like seeing a venerable member of the community – a beloved teacher perhaps – giving hand jobs on the corner for ten bucks. Alas, the boys have become easy. I don’t like to single anyone out, but Jason – he’s done over ten sequels…and frankly – after seeing him with one movie, then another, well you’ve got to wonder…is this really someone I want to bring home to mom?

This has happened before to the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man (and yeah, they were scary at the time). Those films worked so well they made sequels, then combinations, such as the not so memorable: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Finally, those creatures became spoofs and B-movie staples. Eventually, the lack of innovation and new ideas in Hollywood led to a sort of horror hiatus for the next thirty years.

Oh, there were exceptions: Cat People, Diabolique, I Walked with a Zombie and Psycho, and a few others, but horror didn’t really come back from the brink until the late 1960’s.

So what does that have to do with us? Does the title Freddy vs. Jason raise any warning bells? At a time when the world economy is very tight, and the distribution networks for film are shrinking faster than contestants of The Biggest Loser, the people with the money, power, and increasingly less and less competition – are not choosing to innovate or tell new and fantastic stories - they are doing what is easy. Re-packaging the boys over and over again: Freddy, Jason, and Michael and a few other classics like Last House on the Left.

And I confess - I was excited when Rob Zombie chose to do a re-make of the original Halloween. Zombie had just made The Devil’s Rejects, which was a terrifying and brilliant film. But when I saw Zombie’s Halloween, I realized the original film still works better and always will. Halloween was a film of its time and the sequels and remakes, well ultimately, they’re just imitations.

Copying seems to be what Hollywood does best lately. Some of the most interesting and innovative films to come out of studios in the last ten years have been remakes of Asian cinema. The Ring, The Grudge, The Eye, and Pulse, among others. But in all fairness, in some cases the American versions have been better. The Ring gave me the scariest ten seconds of my life.

Unfortunately, the new ideas in horror over the past decade or so – when not skinned from Asia or Europe – have come from independent filmmakers. Even SAW, the newest addition to the Hollywood sequel juggernaut, got its start in the indies. Rogue Pictures has made a few notable films, but for some reason horror seems to loose something when it’s done by committee. Maybe it needs the personal connection with the deepest fears of one storyteller to give it a heart.

I’m sure a few Indie horror films will break through, or get picked up by studios, like Paranormal Activity, every now and then, but as an Indie filmmaker myself – I can tell you – it’s not pretty out there. Studios have always had the advantage of squeezing smaller films out of theaters, but now Blockbuster is closing 20% of its stores and moving toward the rental box model. The boxes hold maybe 60 titles at most – so if you do the math – it makes a lot more sense for the boxes to represent studio films that already have advertising behind them. And again, some of the best American horror of the past decade has started with independent filmmakers. Certainly that is where the new ideas have originated.

As a genre we’ve been moving through a spate of remakes lately. Rob Zombie, my former hero, fell off the pedestal when he agreed to make Halloween II…a remake of a sequel. And don’t get me started on the remake of Nightmare…

Maybe certain horror films should be given the status of classics. There is a reason people don’t try to remake “Gone with the Wind” – if horror were more respected maybe they’d leave Jason, Freddy, and Michael alone – and let them shine in their original glory. If they did studios might actually invest in new ideas and new monsters that are creatures of our time. Not pale imitations of past brilliance.

As for Rob Zombie and I, although it can never be the same again, I guess we’ll always have The Devil’s Rejects.

2009-03-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

“Last House on the Left” and “Red Canyon”
Adventures in Independent Film

Making an independent film is a lot like having a kid. The sexy part is coming up with the idea and the money. Actually making the film is a lot like giving birth – both painful and exciting. Then you have your bouncing baby movie - and you have to raise the little bastard.

In 2008 I produced the film “Red Canyon," right about the time that the world economy crashed and a few of the larger semi-independent distributors such as PictureHouse and Warner Independent closed their doors. Major studios began picking up fewer and fewer independent films and the ones they do pick up tend to be independent in the way that “Slumdog Millionaire” was independent. In other words they cost 15 million dollars, or more, and have star actors, or a star director, and were made in affiliation with a studio.

Throw a film like “Red Canyon” into the mix that has a decent budget, but nowhere near 15 million dollars. Add some great actors like Norman Reedus (Boondock Saints), Christine Lakin (Escape To Witch Mountain), Noah Fleiss, (Brick), and Tim Draxl (Swimming Upstream)…and a wildly un-politically correct, gritty as hell story, and what does a producer get? These days – well the odds are better in Vegas.

Initially, we watched dumb-founded as “Red Canyon” was passed over by the largest distributors. Not because “Red Canyon” is a perfect film, but because it so much better than many of the films these studios produce on a daily basis.

Well, today I happened to see the new version of “Last House on the Left” and it’s expanded my understanding. The new version of the film is certainly entertaining and in many ways vastly superior to the earlier version of “Last House on the Left,” which was Wes Craven’s first film. The new version has better actors, a more logical and realistic story line, and every element of the film looks great.

What it lacks is the gritty realism of the original film. The 1972 version of “The Last House on the Left” meanders through its story telling. In the original version Mari Collingwood leaves her parents, John and Estelle, at their lake house to attend a concert with her friend Phyllis in New York.

As the girls leave the concert they try to score some weed and end up getting abducted by Krug Stillo and his gang of rapists, murderers and drug addicts. Krug recently escaped from prison where he was incarcerated for murdering a priest and a nun - yep, a priest and a nun.

Phyllis is raped by Krug, and his bi-sexual girlfriend, Sadie, as well as their fellow thug, Freddie, but remains resourceful and defiant. She also does her best to protect her more naïve friend Mari and tries to engineer their escape. Phyllis’ defiance awakens Krug’s sadistic tendencies and the girls are forced to perform humiliating acts for the pleasure of their abductors.

In a last attempt to escape Phyllis is murdered. In a surprisingly heartbreaking scene Krug also rapes and murders Mari. It’s so sad that even Krug seems to momentarily feel the horror of what he’s done.

Then, lo and behold, Krug and gang end up at Mari’s parents’ home. The parents eventually discover their daughter’s dead body and ascertain that Krug and his friends are responsible. From that point on it’s a guessing game – will Mari’s parents be able to seek revenge for their daughter’s brutal murder – or will they become victims of Krug themselves?

In one of the film’s more memorable scenes Mari’s mother bites off Freddie’s…ahhh….protuberance after luring him out of the house with a promise of kinky sex.

The earlier version of “Last House on the Left” has major problems with logic, storyline, acting and editing – it’s violent, exploitative, and yet it packs a visceral punch that the newer version of the film doesn’t come close to capturing.

In the newer version of the “Last House on the Left” most of the sexual violence has been removed from the film. While the basic outline of the story remains the same - in the newer version of the film the feistier Mari Collingwood survives.

The bad guys still show up at the Collingwood’s home and once the Collingwood’s discover their wounded and raped daughter carnage creepily ensues – although no one’s schlong gets bitten off.

It’s a well-crafted and well-acted watered down version of the original film. It’s a kinder and gentler “Last House on the Left.” It’s what horror films in America are threatening to become - moments of extreme violence punctuating films whose characters become harder and harder to care about.

When we made “Red Canyon” we wanted the visceral impact of true horror. We wanted the punch that can still be felt from Wes Craven’s 1972 version of “Last House on the Left.” When we began the project we asked ourselves what really happens in the world and why does it happen? Is Freddy Kruger really what scares us? Or is it being in the wrong place – at the wrong time. Is it loosing your life or loosing your soul?

Watching the newest version of “Last House on the Left” was an illuminating moment as a filmmaker. The creators of the new version of the film made the bet that their audience no longer wanted the raw exploitative experience of the original story. They decided to largely remove the sexual component and the heroism of Mari Collingwood’s friend Phyllis. The perversions of the earlier film were hard to watch, mostly because the character of Phyllis was so brave, and that bravery made us care about the girls in a way the new film does not.

The newer version of the film created a story where less is at risk because the two victims are only victims. The Phyllis character (now named Paige) is no longer resourceful or heroic. We know more about the Mari character – but we don’t feel who she is in the way we do in the 1972 version. In the newer version Krug and his gang are angrier too, and not having nearly as much fun being bad as the characters did in the older film. All of which leaves the audience very little stake in the story.

“Red Canyon” is in the final negotiations with several distributors. The distribution deal will most likely be a small theatrical and then DVD sometime in 2009. If we’re right then “Red Canyon” will find its audience in people are tired of the unending parade of sequels, and tired of the Hollywood films where modern horror has more to do with loosing your life, and less to do with loosing your soul.

Personally I like the idea of going back to what made horror great. The first “Last House on the Left,” the first “Halloween” and I like the modern throwbacks of the genre: “Hard Candy,” and “The Devil’s Rejects,” and my own little bastard creation, “Red Canyon.”