Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is a documentary that takes viewers through a definitive and nostalgic look back down Elm Street. Never Sleep Again starts in 1983, looking at the humble beginnings of New Line Cinema, where a handful of people distributed films from the boots of their cars to any cinema or video store they could. It explores how the first Elm Street films would launch New Line down a path that would make them modern cinematic pioneers; The House That Freddy Built, until they were sadly brought by Time-Warner in 2008.

Each of the Elm Street films are broken down into roughly four segments; Writing and casting. Interviews looking at the conflicts and friction amongst writers, directors, cast and New Line, along with a superb collection of first hand inside stories and trivia. Special effects and box office reception.

Not only does the documentary look at each of the seven original movies and Freddy Vs Jason, but it revisits the long forgotten Freddie’s Nightmares television series and musical collaborations with Dokken and The Fat Boys. It also includes a collection of never-before-seen photos, footage and behind the scene clips that hadn’t been released with previous bonus material. (Much to my approval it skips over the Time-Warners 2010 remake; like me, choosing to pretend that doesn’t exist.) The many cast and crew that have contributed to the in-depth interviews would take too long to list, obvious people missing from the line up are Patricia Arquette and Johnny Depp. Watch out for a great cameo from Jay, of Jay and Silent Bob. The real treat for hardcore fans is the marvelous stop-motion animated clips that have been made for this documentary. Darkly beautiful, these clips recreate some of the most memorable scenes and deaths spanning the series.

At four hours you’d better set aside a while evening, any shorter would have been an injustice to any self-respecting Fred-head. This documentary is certainly best and most informative guide to Elm Street available. Brilliant.

I’m not going to rate Never Sleep Again, but I have listed The Nightmare on Elm street Collection in descending order, from best to worst.

1. Nightmare on Elm Street

2. Dream Warriors

3. Freddy Vs Jason

4. Wes Craven’s: New Nightmare

5. Dream Master

6. Freddy’s Revenge

7. Dream Child

8. The Final Nightmare: Freddy’s Dead