Saturday, July 31, 2021

A Nightmare on Elm Street (USA: Wes Craven, 1984) and its sequels






There is something undeniably resonant about the simplicity of A Nightmare on Elm Street’s premise: a killer that targets you in your sleep. A gaggle of teens are preyed on by the vengeful ghost of the pederast Freddie Krueger, who holds a grudge against their parents. Unlike other slasher killers of the time, Krueger (an iconic role for Robert Englund) was a monster in life and empowered by death, relentlessly torturing teenagers in their safest of safe places: their own dreams. Wes Craven takes full advantage of the aesthetic possibilities of dream logic, creating some of the most terrifying and celebrated images of modern horror. – Anna Bogutskaya

A Nightmare on Elm Street (USA: Wes Craven, 1984: 91 mins)

Braund, Simon. "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Empire (January 1, 2000)

Hancock, James and Mike Vanderbilt. "One, Two, Freddy's Coming for You." Wrong Reel #329 (October 2017)

Hollinger, Ryan. "The Art of A Nightmare on Elm Street: What Freddy Represents." 8 Hours (ND)

King, James and Mike Muncer. "Slashers Part 9: A Nightmare On Elm St (1984)." The Evolution of Horror (November 10, 2017) ["One, two, Freddy's coming for you! This week, Mike is joined by critic James King to discuss that most 80s of teen slasher movies, A Nightmare On Elm Street. As well as taking a look at the movie in depth, James and Mike explore the 80s obsession with teen movies, the horror cinema of Wes Craven and the phenomenon of Freddy Krueger. "]

Subissati, Andrea and Alexandra West. "Sleeper Hit: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm St. 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), And A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)." The Faculty of Horror #72 (April 30, 2019)

---. "FREDDY INC: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE DREAM MASTER (1988), A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET:THE DREAM CHILD (1989), FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE (1991), NEW NIGHTMARE (1994), FREDDY VS JASON (2013)." The Faculty of Horror #73 (May 30, 2019)




Monday, July 26, 2021

Crash (Canada/United Kingdom: David Cronenberg, 1996)





 Crash (Canada/United Kingdom: David Cronenberg, 1996: 100 mins)

Allinson, Ashley. "Great Directors: David Croneberg." Senses of Cinema #22 (October 2002)

Armand, Louis. "In Suspense of the Real: Cronenberg, Gilliam and Lynch." The New Critique (February 1, 2016)


Ebert, Roger. "Crash (1997)." Chicago Sun-Times (March 21, 1997)

Goldberg, Daniel N. "David Croneberg: The Voyeur of Utter Destruction." Morningside Review #4 (2008)

Kiang, Jessica. "Crash: The Wreck of the Century." The Current (December 1, 2020)

Land, Joshua. "Migrating Forms: David Cronenberg and the challenge of the impossible adaptation." Moving Image Source (February 3, 2012)

Lelievre, Ben. "Crash (1996)." Dead End Follies (June 6, 2021)

Longworth, Karina. "Crash and David Cronenberg (Erotic 90’s, Part 16)." You Must Remember This (September 18, 2023) ["One of the only high-profile NC-17 releases post-Showgirls, David Cronenberg’s Crash was the kind of dark adult art film that the rating was supposedly created to support. We’ll talk about how Crash fits into Cronenberg’s filmography, why it was controversial when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996 and when it was released in the US in 1997, how it played into the UK general election of 1997, how it functioned as an early warning against charismatic billionaires, and how it embodied a post-Prozac and pre-Viagara moment."]

Nayman, Adam. "Dead Man’s Curve: David Cronenberg’s Crash, 25 Years After Cannes." The Ringer (May 20, 2021) ["Two and a half decades ago, the iconoclastic Canadian filmmaker delivered one his most controversial features to the most hallowed of film festivals. The jury was so flabbergasted, they had to invent an award for it."]





Harnessing Perversity: J.G. Ballard, David Cronenberg, and Crash from Jonathan Bygraves on Vimeo.