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The American Nightmare - A Celebration of Films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Fright

The American Nightmare - A Celebration of Films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Fright

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best doc on horror movies, ever!
Review: a beautiful documentary that treats these horror films with the respect they deserve" dawn of the dead, shivers, halloween, last house on the left, texas chainsaw massacre.

it combines interviews with the directors, tom savini, and several film scholars; as they all describe how the films were actual unconscious reflections of the times. combined with the beautiful music of "godspeed you black emperor," this film gives overdue creedence and social justification to these films.

and, i have to say, the ending of shot of the leatherface dance, combined with music from "godspeed" is one of the most beautiful pieces of film i've ever seen!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best doc on horror movies, ever!
Review: a beautiful documentary that treats these horror films with the respect they deserve" dawn of the dead, shivers, halloween, last house on the left, texas chainsaw massacre.

it combines interviews with the directors, tom savini, and several film scholars; as they all describe how the films were actual unconscious reflections of the times. combined with the beautiful music of "godspeed you black emperor," this film gives overdue creedence and social justification to these films.

and, i have to say, the ending of shot of the leatherface dance, combined with music from "godspeed" is one of the most beautiful pieces of film i've ever seen!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Insightful, Respectfuk Documentary
Review: A well directed, informative documentary that explains the links between horror films of the late sixties and seventies and the social changes going on in the United States at the same time. This documentary serves as a great companion to David J. Skal's book "The Monster Show" and other essays that tackle horror movies from a more sociological standpoint. One cannot ignore what was going on in the world at the time their favorite film was made. Even with escapist fare, the social and political goings on of the era often trickle into horror movies in the most surprising of ways as this doc shows. I've always been a fan of George Romero's Zombie movies, but was even more impressed with the way this doc dealt with Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" and David Cronenberg's "Shivers", two movies that I've found in the past to be pretty unredeemable. Hearing the filmmakers discuss their motivations for these two movies helped me understand them better and made me want to give them another look! My only complaint with this movie was that it was not longer. I think that the film makers could have expanded on their thesis and covered more ground. I would love to see a sequel documentary that deals with the slashers of the later seventies like "Friday the 13th" and the arrival of the more psychological and fantasy oriented "Nightmare on Elm Street" series that came on the scene in the eighties and how they were linked to their respective decades.


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