I love all the macabre touches, especially all the spectral guests "from over the mountain" and the ghostly jury of cutthroats and traitors. Even better is the sound design that features escalating animal screams and wails as Mr. Scratch first approaches, or his frenzied fiddle-playing that amusingly recalls the "Faster! Play it faster!" from REEFER MADNESS.
Walter Huston is pure fire here as the Devil, and let me admit that I was fully expecting a young JOHN Huston, not realizing…
I've seen this called "masterpiece" a few too many times to contest, but my viewing and review will be frustratingly superficial. Is it feminist? Queer? Allegorical? Freudian? It would almost have to be, given the larger reception. Me? I saw some suspense, some overrated and overhyped "sequences" that didn't amount to much, and a talky, complicated narrative that left me exhausted by the time it was finally over.
I enjoyed the picture though it sounds like I did not, but…
Actually pretty brilliant in execution. Achieves verisimilitude through banality. Who would bother making fake ads for a carpet outlet or a local Greek Festival? It's so charming throughout that the horrific events become much more potent. This was my second watch and I was more impressed this time around with the storytelling and the structure, and the growing dread. The first time, I was mostly dazzled by the absurd recreation of shitty local TV. A Halloween treat and definitely on rotation as mandatory holiday viewing.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
The Nightmare films have taken on a historical remove that makes them almost unassailable now, despite whatever shortcomings one might see in them. The nostalgic affection and the historical significance of 80's horror franchising creates a kind of space of acceptance that is immune from offence. At least for me. Like the Friday films, they are a comfort food filled with their own flavors and textures and joys. It's a kind of myth-making, a storytelling passed down now generationally.
Dream…
