Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

**** (out of 4)

Four hour documentary covering the entire series (minus remake) is without question one of the greatest things ever produced for the horror genre. Both HALLOWEEN and the Friday THE 13TH series have had documentaries done on them but there's no doubt that this film here is above both of them and ranks as one of the most well-informed ever produced. I prefer both Jason and Michael but it's impossible not to be impressed with this film because the filmmakers were actually able to bring pretty much everyone back (with the exceptions being Depp and Arquette). Not only do you get all the directors, writers and main actors but we also get several who had very small parts like the "where's your hall pass" girl from the first film. All seven movies and then the cross over are given a large amount of time so that we can hear about them being made, hear about the various production issues and we also get to see some deleted scenes that I don't believe have ever been shown before. The entire film is one big highlight but some of the most memorable moments can be found in the section on part 2, which has become known as the gay Freddy. It's funny seeing the writer, director and cast talk about the gayness to the film and it's even funnier to see how most of them didn't realize while making the film. The troubled production here is also very interesting as if Craven's thoughts on a sequel to a film he had planned on keeping single. The Craven aspect is another one of the most interesting things here because, again, I don't believe he's ever really talked about any of the sequels outside the ones he was involved here but he comments on all of them here. His opinion of them is rather low, which is to be expected to a point but it's funny to see other directors, especially the man behind part 2, dishing on the original. FREDDY VS JASON gets a lot of time given to it as we hear about the dozens of screenplays that were denied before they finally came up with a winner. There were years of rumors and fake reports about what was going on with this film so to finally hear some true stories was a nice tough. The various endings were discussed as well as an alternate version that featured more of Freddy. The cast list is too large to even start with but fans won't be disappointed because all the majors are here as well as most of the smaller characters and we even get Alice Cooper for good kicks. Horror fans can always debate which series is the best or which films are the best of a series but I don't see how it would be possible for someone to sit through this thing and not be impressed. The passion of this thing hasn't been touched by any other documentary of its kind and I'd be willing to bet that those other guys are going to have to step up their game if they want to come anywhere near this. Everything you want to know will be answered here and it really gives one a major respect for what a small studio ended up doing with one character.