'80s Movie Montage
Breaking down our favorite decade of flicks. Hosted by Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke.
'80s Movie Montage
A Nightmare on Elm Street
In their 150th episode, Anna and Derek discuss just whose parents were in on Freddy's murder, why in the world Marge would keep the glove, and much more during their breakdown of the Wes Craven masterpiece A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
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Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.
You've acting all this time. And you've been acting like it was something I made up. Something wrong with you, you're imagining things. You'll feel better when you sleep. It's just as simple as that.
SPEAKER_02:Hello and welcome to 80s movie montage. This is Derek.
SPEAKER_00:And this is Anna.
SPEAKER_02:And that was Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson talking to Ronnie Blakely as her mom Marge Thompson in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street.
SPEAKER_01:Marge.
SPEAKER_02:Marge. I didn't know that, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Also, you should know this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to our 150th episode. That's right. Yeah. We can't afford the real, real noise. But yeah, it's our 150th episode, and we get to celebrate with a nightmare on Elm Street.
SPEAKER_02:It only took us 150 episodes to get to a nightmare on Elm Street.
SPEAKER_01:Well, to be fair, we try, I break my own rule, but we try not to do horror outside of our Halloween series. Yeah. So that's look, that just shows you how many awesome, I mean, some maybe not so awesome, but mostly super awesome horror movies there are from the 80s. It's my favorite.
SPEAKER_02:There are a lot. And this is one of them.
SPEAKER_01:Are you saying it's a horror movie from the 80s or are you saying it's one of your favorites?
SPEAKER_02:I'm saying it's two of those three things.
SPEAKER_01:Two of those three things?
SPEAKER_02:It is a horror movie from the 80s, but it is not one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, okay, okay. Ooh, controversy. Yeah, let's let's dive in. There's obviously so much to talk about with this movie because it's not just a horror film from the 80s. It kicked off one of the most popular horror franchises of all time. It introduced one of the most infamous horror villains of all time.
SPEAKER_02:It did.
SPEAKER_01:And, you know, made by an amazing filmmaker. There's there's a lot, so let's get into it. And we're gonna start with that amazing filmmaker, Wes Craven.
SPEAKER_02:He's he's uh he's big in this horror thing, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01:He was, he's no longer with us. He passed in 2015, um, which I remember when he passed being really sad about that. I mean, he wasn't like I don't know, in his like 30s or 40s, but it felt really young for him to pass away at that time. But we are so lucky for what he left to us in terms of the rich like cinema history that he's contributed to. And yes, you're absolutely right. Like he really I would say right there with John Carpenter, as far as being known as one of the most maybe not prolific, but one of the most well-known, well-respected horror filmmakers of all time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. No, I I I think that's that's I don't I don't know why his films didn't grab me the way that Carpenter's or other horror movies did. Um last night was the first time that I had ever watched the movie from start to finish. And I think we both noticed something at the very start that like I didn't.
SPEAKER_01:I yes, I mean, I thought I had seen this movie in its entirety more than once. Yeah. It had been a very long time, but I don't think I ever saw the intro where he's making his fingers.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's like making the glove. He's he he's a big fan of the X-Men of Wolverine.
SPEAKER_01:I when we were watching it, I was like, is this actually part of the movie? Like, I I was like so stunned that I had never caught that before.
SPEAKER_02:So fun fact, when he first put the glove on, uh Robert England actually cut himself.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that is actually a very fun fact.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Because as as we were watching it get made, I'm like, how do you fucking even wear that without cutting yourself? That's the neat part.
SPEAKER_01:You don't see the funny thing is, is like obviously they used something that was very akin to real blades for him to cut himself. Which is like, you didn't exactly have to do that.
SPEAKER_02:You didn't have to make it a real thing.
SPEAKER_01:However, I'll say this. This kind that kind of tracks because when we were watching it for the first time, and I'm I'm really like not this is not gonna be an episode where I'm like bagging on this film, I promise. But I was like, oh, this movie's a little bit more rough around the edges than I remembered. Like in terms of production value.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And so I'm not surprised that they probably just like it probably was like cheaper to just like go with something that was like real real blades instead of trying to do something fancier that might have protected the actor.
SPEAKER_02:But when you when you use about 500 gallons of fake blood, you know, that eats into the budget.
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot of blood. There's a lot of blood. But let's uh let's dive into Kraven's filmography. So just to put it out there, he both wrote and directed this film. So there's gonna be a lot of overlap between the two categories because I do like to separate them out. We're gonna start with his writing credits. Okay. And so preceding this film, he had a couple horror films on uh on the docket. That's not exactly right, but starting with The Last House on the Left. I mean, very well-known horror films. The Hillsheav Eyes, uh part two, I think, came after Nightmare on Elm Street, but I always just kind of put the sequels together. Swamp Thing. And then so we get to Nightmare on Elm Street, and I guess this is maybe as good a place as any to talk about why this and New Nightmare were the only Nightmare and Elm Street films that he directed. He's gonna get writing credits for everything because he originated the material, but it's clear that like first of all, he didn't he didn't really even want there. He it was kind of a carpenter thing. He didn't really want there to be a sequel. He was like kind of upset with the way that ending, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He just wanted he wanted her, Nancy's character to have the ending that it deserved. Right. You know, and the studio very much wanted a setup for a franchise. Yeah, and and Craven hated that. Yes, the ending that you see.
SPEAKER_01:And that is why he is not directing most of the films until we get back to New Nightmare because of the fallout between him and the studio.
SPEAKER_02:Um, so creatively, I'm on the side of Kraven, but it's it's literally called like the studio the film house that that Freddie puts. Right, right. Like so financially, commercially, they probably made the right call. Although you can end it however you want, and you can just figure out a way to start the next one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I mean I'm sure that they're well, I'm not gonna speak on his behalf. I don't know how he felt about the whole situation, but I would like to think that even if he was unhappy with like story-wise, maybe where they went with the franchise in a lot of regards, hopefully it brought him some pride that he created a character that was so beloved even as a horror villain that people kept wanting to see more Freddy Krueger. So I I would be proud of that that I created something like that.
SPEAKER_02:So he the Freddy Krueger character is this like beloved, I guess, like uh horror character because of how like snarky and like the personality begin to really amp up in the subsequent films. Yeah, because you I was gonna say you don't get really much of that in the first one. Like his his uh his lines are like weak in some areas where like the most menacing thing he says is like, gonna get you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he doesn't have a lot to say.
SPEAKER_02:Um they really like build on that in in all the subsequent movies, right?
SPEAKER_01:What I appreciate even with this first film is that I think as a villain, they do differentiate him from what we've already seen in terms of Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. Yeah, for sure. Like, first of all, he speaks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So there's that. Him saying anything. Like, imagine if Jason was like, gonna get you.
SPEAKER_01:So, first of all, here he he talks to his victims.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And while I do think that there is an element of cat and mouse with both Jason and Michael as well, it's to me much more overt with Freddy Krueger in that he's he's toying with his victims, he's playing with them.
SPEAKER_02:He enjoys tormenting them, like he enjoys the torment. The first time you really see the full like character is in one of Tina's nightmares. And it's the scene where his arms are like hilariously extended.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:So just right off the bat, you get the sense like, oh, this is gonna be this is gonna be bizarre.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I I really do appreciate that about this new character that was created. So I did feel like Craven did an amazing job of like, especially when it has to be in his head as he's writing this, like, okay, look, we already have a Michael Myers, we already have a Jason Voorhees. How do I create a villain that doesn't look like I'm just like spoofing them and and like making it my own?
SPEAKER_02:And also, like um Myers and Voorhees are like like you you cannot kill them. They are immortal for no real reason. But to say that Freddie is like this like quasi-ghost, undead, evil spirit that that exists in dreams, well, okay, cool. So like you can't you can't now he's unstoppable for a good reason.
SPEAKER_01:That's an excellent point. I didn't even that even occur to me in this conversation is that like a huge differentiator is that like obstensibly Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees are living beings, even though, like you just said, they've shown that like they're more than mortal because they should have died in a lot of especially like Jason Voorhees, there's a lot of confusion around like how did this guy like I thought he drowned, what is he?
SPEAKER_02:No, he's on a spaceship, what's happening?
SPEAKER_01:So there's there's a lot of question marks around that as well. But you're absolutely right that like uh a huge difference is that Credit uh Freddie Krueger's dead. I was trying to say Creddy Creddy Kruger. He's dead. So, and I asked you that last night when we were watching this for the podcast. Like, what would you consider him? Is he a ghost? Like, is like what what kind of like entity is he? And I don't think that's quite defined. I think there is a ghost element because he's a he was human, he died, but he is still in some realm.
SPEAKER_02:He was a uh he was someone's sleep demon before people started using the phrase sleep demon.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So, and another thing too that's I think really interesting is the fact that like with both Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, you can tie back their stories to something traumatic that either happened to them or that they did as a child. Whereas Freddie Kruger, at least like in the in the subsequent stories, you learn about like how his mother conceived him and all of that kind of stuff. But in this first movie, he's just an adult, he was an adult guy who killed children.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So a very different kind of like a uh origin story.
SPEAKER_02:It yeah, it it almost um it was very light on the or like it gets right into it. Like this movie Right into it. This just yeah and in spite of that, there's only three people I think that are killed in the entire movie.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it it is a really contained film um that gets like right right to it immediately. And I I suppose I'm a little spoiled by like I I don't know. There's something that I do really like about knowing more about origin stories and understanding more of the context around what's happening. That felt a little lacking to me, but it's not really much different than like, say, the first Friday the 13th, where just all of a sudden we get a ton of exposition at the very end.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they didn't even really like Jason Voorhees isn't even right.
SPEAKER_01:He's he's obstenbly dead in the first movie. Like, yeah. But like his mom goes on the whole tangent about like why she's doing what she's doing. But I would have liked to, especially once March starts revealing to uh to Nancy why this is happening or what they did. I was like, can we learn a little bit more about what the hell is going on?
SPEAKER_02:And I almost put that in for the uh intro clip, but it was just she really goes on for quite a long time talking about Fred Krueger and all the kids he killed and how he got off on a technicality in terms of like serving any prison time. And and then she like reveals that she she has kept the uh nightmarish glove with the blades.
SPEAKER_01:Why would you keep that?
SPEAKER_02:In like well, I I don't know what that was in, not in their boiler or something, but somewhere in their basement.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. No, it was yeah, I don't know what the the thing was that she was keeping it in. Like some kind of like oven.
SPEAKER_02:Marge, huge alcoholic. I wonder if it has anything to do with like her and the other parents murdering the person that was killing a bunch of kids.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. It it's fascinating to me. I also, you know, this is not the first time this come up. Other people, I've seen this like online with people asking, like, how did none of these teenagers ever hear of Freddie Krueger? Yeah. You know, I mean, that's a pretty big story. I know you made the point. Well, like, if we're talking about the 80s, there's not the internet, it was like a lot easier to keep information contained. But I feel like there would have been stories about this guy. Because the thing is, is that when the parents, like she says, I'm a parent, I was a parent.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Nancy appears to be an only child. So Nancy was already born when all this went down with them killing Fred Krueger.
SPEAKER_02:So it's like it in in the But then Glenn's parents don't seem to give any sense that they knew about it.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. Like it's hard to say because like we don't we don't get a lot about them. But like Tina's only 15. So my my sense is that Nancy and Glenn and Rod, Rod looks a little older, but like that they're around the same age. So let's say Nancy was like two, two or three, maybe when this happened. That's only that's only a barely a decade removed.
SPEAKER_02:We never find out how old Rod is, do we?
SPEAKER_01:No, we don't.
SPEAKER_02:Which which I feel is kind of important given that we don't find out that Tina is 15 until after her and Rod have sex. Correct. Which which makes the question of his age a little bit more relevant.
SPEAKER_01:But okay. So let's we have not even gotten through the writing credits yet. What's craven? So what's craven? So here we go. Like again, even though there was kind of a falling out, he wasn't really on board with many of the films until New Nightmare. He does have writing credits for A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Freddy's Revenge, 3, Dream Warriors, 4, The Dream Master. It's not called Five, but it's just called, I think, The Dream Child, The Final Nightmare. And then he does come back, and I'll get into all his directing credits, but he does come back for New Nightmare, which he writes. Uh, outside of that, I mean, this is a franchise that has had legs even outside of like film. So there was a TV series called Freddy's Nightmares. Really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And then there was the film, which it's fun, it's stupid. Freddy versus Jason. He has writing credit for that, of course.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna have to give that another shot.
SPEAKER_01:It's dumb.
SPEAKER_02:I I had it on the other day, but my my capacity for dumb is so fucking high because I just watched Jason X. Right. It doesn't even get dumber than that.
SPEAKER_01:But it can it? I will say I am totally a sucker for when they do these like franchise matches.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, no. I'm gonna watch Freddy versus Jason, then I'm gonna watch Alien vs. Freddy.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly, exactly. So I do love them. And then he is writing credits for the remakes of um There was The Hills Have Eyes in 2006, and then it's followed up right away with The Hills Have Eyes uh two in 2007, and then one of his last credits is the remake that's like completely independent of like um any of the actors who are part of the original franchise, a Nightmare in Alm Street from 2010.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. I I did think it was interesting in this one. He was just a guy that killed kids, and then in the 2010, he's a child molester, and the reason they didn't make him that in the original was because there were like recent cases in California, they didn't want it to seem like it was connected. Connected.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I think being a kid killer is bad enough as it is.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um it's an interesting choice that they made. I I don't know. I'm not gonna go down, I don't want to really go down a rabbit hole of like child molaster, child killer.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know how they make those decisions. I just know that they made it and that was the reason they made it back then.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I don't know if 2010 they're like, yeah, we finally get to do it. Yeah I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:So Wes Craven, the director. Oh. So a lot of what he wrote, he did direct, but not everything. So he did direct The Last House on the Left, he did direct The Hills Have Eyes and part two, like the original films. He did direct Swamp Thing, but uh even outside of things that he had written, like he uh directed on the TV series of The Twilight Zone for a minute. The Rod Sterling ones or the No The New ones that but but when we say new, we're still talking like 80s, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's fair. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He directed The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs. As I've mentioned a couple times at this point, he did come back finally, and he and I I like New Nightmare. I think it was a really interesting concept. It's very meta, is it? The definition of, yeah. Like if you're gonna talk about a meta film, I think you would just point to New Nightmare.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I'll I'll give uh uh honorable mention to the return of the living dead.
SPEAKER_01:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But but I mean, New Nightmare, you've seen it, right? Like, I mean, they are talking about them, like they are the actors and direct like they are all themselves in the film talking about their characters, and that's more meta. It it is like it it gets into like multiple levels of meta. It's it was a really fascinating concept. Uh he directed, I thought this was funny, he did direct Vampire Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. The one with uh Eddie Murphy. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And so here, here's what I find really interesting about his career is that you know, he originated a nightmare on Elm Street. He he was the original story maker and storyteller of that franchise. However, he had a much longer stint as the director of an entirely different franchise, which we all know as Scream.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:So even though he did not, I mean, I'm sure he had some maybe influence on, but like Kevin Williamson is like the the writer of the original Scream, and he was with it for a while. But it was Wes Craven who directed the first Scream and then two, three, and four. I think he I think he might have did he um was he still living when one was directed uh without him being being at the helm of the film? I don't remember, but he he might have passed the torch before he passed away. I don't I don't quite remember. Uh, but he did direct the first four films. And I wish, I I really don't want to go down the rabbit hole, although I'd love to in a lot of ways to go down the the scream rabbit hole because it's a fascinating franchise and has its own meta influences. It very much does, yeah. Meta, like as in, you know, like um what's her name? Uh Rose McGowan, the character. She's wearing a shirt for some of the scenes in the film with the 10 that is a direct nod to Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Street because she's wearing that 10 shirt. Yeah. So there's like it's so it's it is a very fun franchise, especially that first film is just Chef's Kiss. It's perfection. So I mean, I I have like my own little hang-up about there being the loophole of two killers, but I I liked it.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it seemed it seems obvious in retrospect because it's like how could they but I I liked it as a way of getting around it being like some supernatural killer. Sure. It's just like two regular idiots.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just a little bit of a purist. I like there to just be one serial killer for a movie, but anyway. Um, this to me was so funny because it's like record scratch. So I'm listing horror after horror after horror film. He also directed Music of the Heart. Oh. With um Meryl Streep and Red Eye was one of his last directing credits. So well, I'm sure he's gonna be coming up all throughout this conversation. But let's move on to cinematography. Jacques Hakin. What do you think?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_01:He passed away very recently. He passed away in 2023, and he had he's he had some interesting credits um over the course of his career. I love this title. I had to put it in. I don't know what this movie is, but it's called They Went That Away and That Away. So he shot that. So obviously, because we're talking about him, he shot the original Nightmare and Elm Street. He does come back for a Nightmare in Elm Street 2, Freddy's Revenge. He shoots that one as well.
SPEAKER_02:That's all he does is get revenge, really.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, yeah, and you made actually a very excellent point when we were watching it.
SPEAKER_02:They got revenge on you, man. You're the one who killed all the kids. Yeah. So now you're gonna go like, come on.
SPEAKER_01:You kind of deserve to die. Just let it go, dude. Yeah, you deserved all that. He shot we're talking serious money. Okay. Apparently, that's the film. I do remember when this came out, The Silence of the Hams.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, yeah. The silence of the hams. Like on every like, yeah, the parodies. Correct. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He shot Bloodsport 2.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I don't know about Bloodsport 2. I have not seen that. I I admire the purity of Bloodsport, the original.
SPEAKER_01:The purity?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He shot some of the episodes of Team Knight Rider, the TV show. He shot the film Face of Terror, and then his final credit was a film called Forgotten. Okay, moving on to music, which it's extremely subtle, I would say, in this film, but it does become, I would think, one of the more well-known horror scores. You know, you know what franchise we're talking about when you hear that, like those piano keys. I can't do it.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I guess, I guess I do. Yeah. It it is um like it stands out. Like you're gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So originated by Charles Bernstein, and he has come up before, actually, and could well, I don't want I don't know if I want to do this movie. It's gonna be very, very, very long. He also, I'm getting out of order, but he scored Cujo.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, no, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_02:I I have seen it and I've read the book, and I cannot same, same.
SPEAKER_01:I saw it way too young. But he has come up before. It's been a minute, so let's go over some of his credits. I have actually kind of you know what's interesting? I've said it a bazillion times at this point. I very rarely put down TV movies. However, maybe I said this the last time we talked about him. He had a really interesting career in that he has like several very well-known TV movies that I was like, okay, well, let's let's include those. Yeah. Let's start with a couple movies. The man from Orgy.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't know if you're gonna To be fair, it is the man from O-R-G-Y.
SPEAKER_01:Correct.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's an acronym. A film that's called This Is a Hijack.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I don't think you would announce it that way, but maybe sound it sounds like uh it could happen in Pulp Fiction, maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe. He directed or I'm sorry, he scored a film called That Man Bolt. So he did the TV movie Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby. I have heard of that before. As well as the TV movie Are You in the House Alone? Which sounds like kind of a ripoff of When a Stranger Calls, but Yeah, it very much does. He uh scored the 1983 movie Independence Day, has nothing to do with aliens taking over the earth. What? Really? Yeah, I did a quick look. It's like a woman who I think is like trying to like find herself and find so it's like her independence day.
SPEAKER_02:That's a very different independence day. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:Like I said, he scored Cujo. So we brought him up for April Fool's Day.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So he did that. And then some more TV movies. He did Too Young to Die question mark, which the only reason why I remember is because it's like uh a very, very, very young Brad Pitt. Oh, okay. Who's in it? And then he also scored the TV movie Miss Ever's Boys, a TV series called, and I I included this one just because he was part of it for like I think a long duration. Uh a Lehole and Valentina, I think is how you say that. And then lastly, the TV movie Sharktopus versus Whale, I can't say it. Where wolf. Whale wolf? Whale wolf. And I do remember bringing that up the last time we talked about him.
SPEAKER_02:Um the only thing I was gonna add, and it's unfortunate that it's one year too early, but 1979's Love at First Bite with George Hamilton as the uh vampire who believes that this woman is the reincarnation of, you know, that's kind of like Dracula's story, you know. But I remember that being kind of like a cheesy, funny, like vampire comedy.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, moving on to film editing. So here is a little interesting tidbit. In IMDB, we have two people credited, although one is called co-editor. However, in the movie, if you're looking at the opening credits, there's just one person who's called out as the film editor. That is Rick Shane. So we're gonna start with him. And I have all films for him. He's kind of all over the place in terms of I think he might, I don't know, he might be retitled at this point. His last credit was in 2020, but definitely not uh strictly loyal to just horror, although he did Eyes of a Stranger, Easy Money, so comedy, yeah, Crossing Delancy, I would say that's straight up drama.
SPEAKER_02:Looks like it.
SPEAKER_01:Dutch, which I've said many times. I think it's fun. Yeah. Yeah, I would say more comedy, family comedy. A film called Enough. That's the one I think Jennifer Lopez. Yes, definitely not, it's like a thriller, probably.
SPEAKER_02:She has had enough.
SPEAKER_01:She has had enough.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He also I thought this was really interesting. He uh cut The Incredible Hulk.
SPEAKER_02:Which one? The Ed Norton one, probably, or the I think so. Eric Banna one.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's Ed Norton. Not positive. I always get the No, maybe that is Eric Banna. I don't know. Anyway, he also cut the first, or no, this wasn't the first one, but one of the Chronicle Narnia's films. He did uh The Voyage of the Don Treader. And then, like I mentioned, his last credit, as of night right now, is in 2020, and it was a film called Chasing the Rain.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. As far as the Hulk one, it was probably the Ed Norton one because I think the Eric Banner one was just called Hulk. Hulk.
SPEAKER_01:Is that the Aang Lee one?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think so. And then he also did this like weird um Vin Diesel movie. It's not it's not a weird movie. Pitch Black, he uh was editor on was had like a interesting concept to it, but uh which was what? They're it's like a sci-fi horror, they're on this planet where they're kind of like running from the sun.
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:But when they get into the area where there's no light, there are these like aliens that come out of monster.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. So the co-editor who maybe I didn't I didn't look at the closing credits too closely, but again, in opening credits, it's only Rick that's credited. However, Patrick McMahon in IMDB is credited as co-editor, and we have brought him up. Oh my god. Not that long ago, in fact. So let's go through some of his credits. He cut on the TV series Kojak for a while. We brought him up just earlier this year for Strange Brew. Oh, nice. Yeah, he did that. He also did Little Monsters, which we could do at some point. Maybe one day. I remember talking about him because I remember bringing up all of the Stephen King miniseries. Yeah. So he cut the stand, he also cut the TV mini series of The Shiny.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, with the guy from Wings.
SPEAKER_01:I guess so. You you know all that way better than I do.
SPEAKER_02:I just remember seeing that they made a miniseries with that guy, but because at the time, and even really now, it's like I I so much more prefer the book to the movie that I never even watched the series. Got it. Maybe one day.
SPEAKER_01:He also cut on the TV series Roswell, as well as the TV series Masters of Horror. He cut the movie Amityville Colon The Awakening.
SPEAKER_02:God, there are so many. There's so many goddamn Amityville.
SPEAKER_01:So many Amityville films.
SPEAKER_02:There are like more Amityville. I'd have to go like down like a research project of just like copyright on the name or something?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Because there's so many Amityville colon the something.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. Yes. Which we stumbled upon one once upon a time, and then one of our really good friends was in it, and we never knew, and he never told us.
SPEAKER_02:He was great in it.
SPEAKER_01:He was great.
SPEAKER_02:There's a lot of was that the one with like the uh no the the vampire?
SPEAKER_01:The vampire. No, there was like found footage. It was like is that okay? These kids were messing around in the house, they were taping themselves, they all die, and then a family moves in, they find the found footage. Yeah. Or the footage.
SPEAKER_02:But that's yeah, I was thinking of something totally different.
SPEAKER_01:And then yeah, and weird things start happening, and he's amazing in it. He also was a three-time guest on this podcast. That's right. So that really narrows it down if you want to go figure out who that is. Uh okay, and then I don't know if I said this. Patrick McMahon's uh one of his more recent credits is The Lost Twins. So, all right, we're finally at the stars of this film. Starting Okay, so he, I am completely reorganizing the way that they did this on the way that IMDB sets this up is I was shocked and appalled by the way that they were I know why they did, but I'm I'm gonna, in my own estimation, give credit where credit is due first. I'm starting with Heather Lingingcamp. Yeah. She is, in all regards, the final girl of this film, and she's a fucking badass in this movie. She literally throws herself at Freddy Krueger at one point.
SPEAKER_02:Grabs him to pull him out of the dream into a reality, right?
SPEAKER_01:Like that's what she really is a tough cookie, and it's very fun to see her. I mean, she really gives me like Ripley and Sarah Connor vibes. I love Lori Strode. I know in a lot of regards people consider her like the original final girl. I'm not saying anything contrary, but they they did a little reworking of her character later on in the franchise.
SPEAKER_02:Big time because at the beginning she was just like kind of surviving.
SPEAKER_01:Correct.
SPEAKER_02:But she didn't take control of it in the way that some of these other characters do, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. So I think Nancy's amazing. She's really, in all senses, a very strong character. And yeah, she's Heather Lingkamp is is great in this movie. I don't know if she's just made choices to be particular about what she wants to do acting-wise. I don't know if she has, you know, sometimes it happens where you become so identified with a particular character that it can prove difficult to move on from that character and do other things. So I don't know. I don't know. She she is definitely still working, like up to this very day, but let's go through some of her credits. So she she doesn't come back for a nightmare in Elm Street 2, but she does come back for Nightmare in Elm Street 3, Dream Warriors, which I think a lot of people would say is the second strongest film in the franchise.
SPEAKER_02:It's a much beloved film. What's the strongest? The first one. Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's the one that kicks everything off.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, but I know a lot of people love Dream Warriors, so she comes back for that.
SPEAKER_02:I just like the concept of it that, like, we're gonna fight back in the dreams. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So then she also she's done TV work. She was on the a TV series called Just the Ten of Us for quite a long time. I think she's one of the kids in that. Okay. She also comes back, like we mentioned, for New Nightmare. So she is Heather Linging Camp in the film and talks about her character as Nancy Thompson. Yeah. So it's fun. She was also in the film Star Trek into Darkness. Which I liked.
SPEAKER_02:People, you know, they don't they don't like the fact that it's essentially a Wrath of Khan remake where things are changed and they in very much change the ending where instead of Spock having to sacrifice, it's Kirk who does that and Spock has to save him. But I thought it was really good. I don't know who character, I don't know who Moto was, but that was that was her.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and you if you if you don't know, I certainly don't know. Fair enough. I'm sorry, I'm not a Trekkie.
SPEAKER_02:I I I think that's not I'm not either. I like a few of the movies a lot, but um yeah, I I wouldn't consider myself.
SPEAKER_01:No shade. No shade to trekes. I'm just not one of them.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like it would be disingenuous for me to consider myself a trekie.
SPEAKER_01:But you do know more about the franchise than I do.
SPEAKER_02:I have yeah, but there's like Deep Space Nine and Voyager and all this other I I haven't seen any of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01:So she also uh was on the TV series The Midnight Club, the film The Life of Chuck, and then very recently, I think just in the last like year or two, she was in the films Little Bites and Plea. So the next person that I have listed is Robert uh will you say his last name for me?
SPEAKER_02:Who? Robert England?
SPEAKER_01:England. Is it just like England? I did why am I tripping on it? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:England.
SPEAKER_01:Robert England. So in the film they have him credited as Fred Kruger, but I think past this film everybody just calls him Freddy Krueger.
SPEAKER_02:It's uh more, you know, less less formal.
SPEAKER_01:Rose off the tongue.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And talk about somebody who has become identified with a particular character. Uh he is Freddy Krueger. I think I don't I hope I'm not making this up. I think I recently saw that he is going to like, he's he does want to pass the torch, like officially. I think if there's anything else that comes up in the future, I mean, like, look, he originated this like over 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_02:It's just gonna be that Skarsgard guide, isn't it? He's just gonna take over everything. Yeah, can you imagine the voice that he would create for Freddie? Probably pretty good. Based on what he did for Nosferatu, that would be incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Probably pretty good. And also, I did also read that England is going to get his star on the Walk of Fame on Halloween.
SPEAKER_02:That's fun.
SPEAKER_01:Isn't that fun? Much deserved. So he, I mean, look, he's had a huge career. Go to his filmography. It goes far beyond a nightmare on Elm Street. I think he is pretty solidly in the horror world for the most part. Yeah. So that is that is like kind of his little niche. But let's let's go through his credits. So, well before a nightmare on Elm Street, he was in the films Eaten Alive, Dead and Buried.
SPEAKER_02:Sounds bad.
SPEAKER_01:Galaxy of Terror. Oh. So horror. Horror, horror. He I know that this was a show, and then it was like, I think, rebooted, I don't know, what, 10 years ago, but it's it stopped V. The TV isn't about aliens.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god. That was so V was basically the nerd drama type version of like um the Thornbirds. Or like, you know, it was like the TV is like. Is it not about aliens? No, it is. But it was like in terms of like the the scope of it, like people being interested in it. A super popular like thing about aliens, but then it got into like being like a drama, and it's like, oh, this person is having a kid with this alien. What's that gonna be like?
SPEAKER_01:Like it got it did get rebooted like 10 years ago or something, right?
SPEAKER_02:I guess so, yeah. They were a couple seasons. The aliens were all lizard people, and I'm pretty sure that's where like that's why people will say like Mark Zuckerberg is basically an alien person. They're making comments about V.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Oh god. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So Lizard Man. Lizard Man. So he does that, and then now I'm just like listing out all the Nightmare on Elm Street films. So we get the original, which we are talking about at this very moment. He comes back for everything. He comes back for Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, The Dream Child, Freddy's Dead, The Final Nightmare. He comes back for New Nightmare as himself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Why not?
SPEAKER_01:Robert Englund and Freddy Krueger. And he also is Krueger in Freddy versus Jason. So he does all the films. He does the TV series. He so he does Freddy's Nightmares. Uh, other films. He has done Wishmaster, Meet the Deatles. I remember him in Urban Legend. I think he's like one of the professors. He's interesting in that. You watched this with me, right? You watched Behind the Mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Yes. Which was a fun, a fun idea. I don't know if it was really executed as well as it could have been, but it was a very fun idea.
SPEAKER_02:It was this guy trying to become a serial killer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Talking about like the cardio and that stuff is fun.
SPEAKER_01:And I think there's like a whole, if I remembering correctly, there's like a whole conversation about like uh like the cadence of your walk and how you go after somebody. You can't look like you're trying to go fast. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's you gotta look smooth, and then they turn around and you're right there.
SPEAKER_01:It's really good. I mean, it was there are some really funny parts to it. I put this in for you. He was on one episode of Supernatural.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. I think I remember that episode. He was a doctor or something. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh did we watch this strippers versus werewolves?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:I think we watched something. I don't remember. Maybe it was like with zombies or vampires or something. I swear that we watch something where it's like strippers versus vampires. Like they're trying to get into this like strip club or something.
SPEAKER_02:I Are you thinking of From Dust Till Dawn, maybe?
SPEAKER_01:No, I'm not. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not. Then I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01:We watched something like that. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_02:You can add it to the queue.
SPEAKER_01:I put this in because we literally are doing a rewatch of it right now. He is Victor Creole in Stranger Things.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, which I think it's just the one episode that he's actually president. They talk about Victor Creel.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I was only 15 years old when Stranger Things first came out.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? Because we're doing a rewatch, I've been going deep into like Reddit threads about whatever. And there was this really funny comment where somebody's like, I remember when Stranger Things first came out in the 1950s. It was so groundbreaking. It was such an interesting choice they made to have one season per decade. Like it was a really, really funny comment. And that's kind of how it feels. Yeah. And uh and beyond everything that I've already listed, uh, multiple TV appearances on different shows, both sometimes as himself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because now he is like because now everyone knows. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And sometimes, you know, other characters. Okay, so the next person I am listing is Amanda, is it would you say Weiss? Yeah. So she is Nancy's, I'm just gonna say like best friend, Tina Gray. And she's the first victim in this film, and it opens with like her nightmare.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like I said, it opens strong.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So she The running, not strong.
SPEAKER_01:No, they do have that, like, she's like almost running in place. Like, I don't know if it's like the camera work they needed to do. I don't know what was going on, but I was like, you're obviously running in place. The chase sequences were like chase sequences were a little dodgy, a little dodgy, but yeah, so she is uh I got I guess 15 years old in this movie. And so they're very young high school students, and she has this nightmare of this like super creepy guy. She doesn't know who he is, and the next morning she's very concerned about it. It's on her mind, it feels very real. He even ripped through her nightgown, and she tries to talk to Nancy about Nancy. You know, I guess I can't blame her for the way she responds, although she also had a dream with Freddie Kruger. She doesn't seem nearly as disturbed by it.
SPEAKER_02:They're not upset at all. They're like, Yeah, I had a dream with Freddie Kruger.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they don't, she doesn't know, she just thinks she had a nightmare.
SPEAKER_02:That's that they didn't know the name, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if I mean it's kind of interesting to me that he's jumping into multiple nightmares in one night.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because I think Rod at some point was like, guys can have nightmares too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so it's like they all dreamt about him in the same night.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Which I think is really interesting.
SPEAKER_02:So did all of their parents participate in like the hunting down and killing of Kruger?
SPEAKER_01:That's what that's how I interpret it.
SPEAKER_02:Because then I just gets back to me like, well, why did Glenn's parents act the way that they did?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it's uh I think it's left a little ambiguous. Like his dad, when he's staring across the street at Nancy, I get the sense that he kind of kind of has awareness maybe of to some degree. I mean, he's he, you know, still calls her a lunatic.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's like, that girl is a lunatic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so there's that, but I don't know. I mean, I got the sense that he's targeting the children of the parents who killed him. I think a big question, which I would maybe I don't know the subsequent films nearly as well. So I don't know if this is brought up at some point, but like why now?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That was that was gonna be the next question is like what what uh was the catalyst for all those?
SPEAKER_01:Like it goes from zero to sixty. Like they all of a sudden I'll have a nightmare about this guy, and within three days, three people are dead. So it's or actually more than that, because she's already up, she claims for seven days by the time Glenn is killed. So Tina and Rod are killed back to back, yeah, and then it's several days before Glenn is killed, but it all happens very fast. So I don't know if it's like some kind of anniversary of when he was killed. It's not brought up in this movie, so there is kind of a question around that. But as far as Amanda, not the first time we have brought her up. We have brought her up a couple times at this point, although we probably didn't do a dive on one of them. I brought this up just because somebody that we covered a couple episodes ago was on this show, and I thought it was such a funny title, The Righteous Apples. Because it's not the righteous gemstones. No relation, no relation. She probably was mentioned, but I doubt we did a dive on her when we covered Fast Times at Ridgemont High earlier this year.
SPEAKER_02:I think she comes up a little bit, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Only because that is such a ginormous ensemble cast. Unfortunately, we had to make some cuts to who we covered, and she probably was one of them. But she's in that. She's um Judge Reinhold's girlfriend. Yes, yeah, girlfriend slash ex-girlfriend, say breakup. But that's who she's in that. Go check out that episode. She we talk about this all the time about doing this at some point. Silverado, she's in that. I am certain she did come up in Better Off Dead.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So that was several seasons ago. That was with Megan, and go check that one out. So she is in that film. Uh, the TV series Highlander, she was on for a minute.
SPEAKER_02:Honestly, the TV series, if you just take the original movie and the TV series, pretty good. The sequel, the movie sequels, pretty much not good.
SPEAKER_01:But they are doing a remake of you and Josh discussed that when we brought up when we did Highlander.
SPEAKER_02:It's possible.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think you guys had that conversation.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But they are making a new one with uh Henry Cavill. Oh, are they? Interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. He's such a nerd.
SPEAKER_02:I love it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Kind of a nerd. Yeah. Uh yeah, go check out our our Highlander episode. So she's also in Marry Me or Die. I think that's how you proposed me.
SPEAKER_03:That that is the ultimatum, of course. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just kidding. It was an amazing proposal. She was in Assassin's Fury. And I mean, she's still very much working. Uh, she's been like a lot of one-offs, two-offs on different TV shows. And that is uh Amanda Weiss. Okay. Crazy that we have not brought him up before on this show, at least for uh strictly speaking, a film. He probably will come up at least one more time. I am talking about Johnny Depp. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You have heard of him, though.
SPEAKER_01:For first acting credit was this film.
SPEAKER_02:Introducing Johnny Depp. I have that question. Like, how do they determine when to when to start? No, that was a good question. Did like someone come from the future and they're like, look, this kid's gonna be fucking huge.
SPEAKER_01:Right, because isn't it kind of interesting, like you knew he was gonna be huge one day?
SPEAKER_02:I mean he kind of stands out. He the the the intro and the credit stands out.
SPEAKER_01:The intro stands out. I don't know if he stands out so much. He's kind of just a kid in a movie. He's like kind of he's to me on par with anybody we've seen in any of the Friday the 13th films.
SPEAKER_02:Which is fine because you know, we got Kevin Bacon. Sure. There's no shortage of actors who like got their start. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So apparently I have heard the story that when they were doing casting, somebody's daughter was just like, oh, he's cute. And so that's why they put him in the movie. Because they were like, oh, young girls will actually think he's cute. That's what I read somewhere.
SPEAKER_02:No, I I I could see that. And he's like, he's cute, give him half a t-shirt.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Give him half a shirt.
SPEAKER_01:He's, you know, an interesting character in this film because he and Nancy are dating, but they have a very different relationship than Tina and Rod.
SPEAKER_02:For sure.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. And you know, he wants to be more physical with her.
SPEAKER_02:It's like uh it's like the character's relationship in Scream a little bit. I mean, it reminds me of that. God, you're so right.
SPEAKER_01:Holy shit. I bet you that's completely intentional.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's gonna be craven, so yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But he is very respectful of her boundaries. I mean, they also completely mimic that scene in Scream. Well, Scream mimics the scene where he pokes his head in the window. Very much so, yeah. Straight up happens in the opening scene of Scream. Well, not the opening, not the Drew Barrymore, when they when they introduced um what's her name?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, Nev Campbell. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that is completely based off this film, that scene between her and the boyfriend. But Johnny Depp has had a crazy, crazy successful career.
SPEAKER_02:Um you might recognize him from his Sossage fragrance commercials. Is that what it's called? Sossage? I don't think it is.
SPEAKER_01:Like sausage?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think it's called Sausage.
SPEAKER_02:That's what it looks like, though.
SPEAKER_01:Isn't it like a werewolf kind of play in those commercials? Isn't it like a it's like a wolf howling or something?
SPEAKER_02:It's him with like a guitar and then he digs something in the ground.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. But he's had an amazing career. I I don't know where the career is headed. I'm not gonna go down too much of this path today. But, you know, a few years back, there was a lot of coverage of a very acrimonious split he had with Amanda Heard. Yeah. And I don't think anybody knows for sure what happened. I think they both didn't treat each other very well, is as much as I'll say about it.
SPEAKER_02:But I mean, people have created entire podcasts just to talk about that. And from like the snippets that I've heard from people that have done that, it's very like exploitive and just trying to like get clicks. And I'm just here to talk about 80s movies.
SPEAKER_01:I love talking about 80s movies, and look, I'm not saying we are above having mentioned personal tidbits about some of the actors that we bring up.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I guess go you do you if you want to do an entire podcast about the personal lives of celebrities that you don't know and don't care about you, but okay. I mean, that for sure happens, yeah. So, in any case, as far as his acting career goes, and I didn't I didn't actually quite realize. Do you realize that he is a three-time Oscar nominated actor?
SPEAKER_02:No, I did not.
SPEAKER_01:Do you want to take a guess of what films it was for? Don't cheat. Don't you cheat. Well, can I I can't even look at the titles because I have to think of the How about I'll start naming movies and then you can stop me if you think one of those movies is one of them, and is he in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? He is, and actually I'm kind of shocked that's not one of them. Okay, well then There's actually the ones that he's nominated for, I was like, oh, really? And then the ones he's not, I was like, oh, he totally should have been.
SPEAKER_02:Blow? No. Slow to blow? He's not in that.
SPEAKER_01:Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it. Okay. So as far as his credits go, uh, chronological order. So he's still a young'in when he's in Platoon. That's probably the other movie at some point we will cover, and another huge ensemble cast. So he's in that. He definitely gets his like cute boy teen beat, you know, headlines from 21 Drum Street. Yeah. The original TV series. We're not talking about the movies uh with what's his face and what's his face. But Jonah Hill.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um, I always get his name.
SPEAKER_00:What's his name? I always get it mixed up. Say it. What do you got? Channel Tating? Tatum Tating. What is it? Tatum Channing?
SPEAKER_02:Maybe Channing Tatum?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's what I said the first time, right? You was kind of like uh.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, there was an original TV series, and Johnny Depp was in it. So he he does this work when he's still very young, and then he starts doing really, really interesting stuff. He is Edward Scissorhands in Edward Scissorhands. I think he should have gotten some kind of nomination for that. It is an amazing film. I feel bad because Tim Burton just is just never, I think, gonna get recognized by the Academy in the way that I think he should have for a number of different films, to be honest. Yeah. That's one of them. To your point, he is in what's eating Gilbert Grape. So he didn't get nominated. However, Leonardo DiCaprio did.
SPEAKER_02:I yeah, I I thought about it. I'm like, oh well, if he did, there's probably not like that was Leo's first nomination.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, look, I I think we own that film. They're both incredible in that movie, but Leonardo DiCaprio, I think brings as much respect to the role of somebody who has cognitive challenges as somebody who doesn't have co cognitive challenges and portrays someone who does, yeah, could bring to that role. He was amazing for like the age that he was at when that was filmed. Like it's an incredible role. Uh, not to get too far away from Johnny Depp, but it's it's a really good movie. And actually, when I was writing down my notes for this episode, I was like, man, I'd kind of love to see Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio reteam on something.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know what that would look like. Yeah. But so he does Ed Wood, Dead Man, Danny Brasco, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleepy Hollow, which I was like, you know what? It's been a minute since I've watched Sleepy Hollow. I'd watch that again. So he obviously he has this like long and he's not exclusive to Tim Burton movies, but they have a long-standing collaboration together. Yeah. I mean, very much like Scorsese and like originally like Robert De Niro, still Robert De Niro, and Leonardo Leonardo DiCaprio. So some of these directors, they just find these actors that they really like drive with, and that's largely been the case with Depp and Burton. He's also in Chocolat. He does that. To your point, he does blow. So he gets his first best actor oscronom for, and I'm actually super bummed he didn't win, Pirates of the Caribbean, the curse of the black pearl.
SPEAKER_02:That's crazy. I mean, he it was an amazing performance.
SPEAKER_01:Fucking amazing performance.
SPEAKER_02:And it I feel like it's diluted or watered down a little bit with all of the tons of sequels and stuff. But the first the first movie was was amazing. Like it was so much fun.
SPEAKER_01:It was so fucking good. I remember walking to the theater. You know, this happened to me a handful of times at this point, where I walked in really not knowing what the movie was supposed to be about. I was like, oh, it's about a Disney ride. Like I didn't know what this movie could possibly be. It was so good. I remember literally from the moment that movie starts, I was so invested in it. I was so carried along. It was so fun. It was such, such, such a fun theater experience.
SPEAKER_02:The intro to his character when he's like up on top of that like sinking ship and just steps off onto the pier. It's like so memorable.
SPEAKER_01:Miss those types of experiences. I don't know. I don't know if I'm gonna have an experience like that again in a theater. Like it's been so long since I've like just talking about it the way that I was. Like, I have not seen a movie in like the last 10 years, I would say, that gave me that feeling.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Sorry.
SPEAKER_02:The first step is we have to find more time to actually go.
SPEAKER_01:I know. There's that too. But it's the types of movies that are being made. Uh, and he's he is uh what's his name? Oh my god, what's the character's name? Jack Sparrow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Captain Jack Sparrow.
SPEAKER_01:Captain Jack Sparrow.
SPEAKER_02:Come on.
SPEAKER_01:For all of the films. I mean, this was like I mean, it was a gimme that they were gonna make a franchise out of it after the first one did so well, but they got, I think, a little reckless with it.
SPEAKER_02:Like I remember um Disney and getting reckless with a franchise.
SPEAKER_01:I know. I think it was at World's End, maybe, which isn't even at the tail end of the franchise as of right now. That's a third one, I think, right? Yeah, where I was watching kind of behind the scenes. They just fucking started filming that movie before they had a script. And I was like, no, you can't do that. You can't do that. They just had ideas in their head of certain pieces that they wanted, certain set pieces. Like, like, is I think that's the one with like that huge like um wheel or something that they're like anyway. I was just like, oh, that's terrible, and I can't believe you're admitting to that.
SPEAKER_02:But it feels better hearing that because it very much watches like a movie that was made in that way.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so but he's uh Jack for Jack Sparrow for the first one, of course, Dead Man's Chest at World's End on Stranger Tides. I'm surprised that this is the last one so far because it's the best title outside of the first one. Dead Men Tale No Tales.
SPEAKER_02:That is a solid title.
SPEAKER_01:Solid title. Yeah. So he gets his next, so all of his nominations are for like leading best actor. He gets his next nom for finding Neverland. This is a very understated role in comparison. Uh, not my favorite. He takes on the role of um what's his name in Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, he's Willy Wonka, though. That movie, um yeah. No, the the Gene Wilder original is for sure the better experience.
SPEAKER_01:1000%.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm I'm I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01:But I appreciate that he did something different, I guess. He goes for it, he completely commits to the way he portrays that character.
SPEAKER_02:But but yeah, I mean, and that was one of the things that made Wilder's character, in my in my mind, a more compelling version of Wonka because there was more like the character was more reserved, so there would be these like kind of wild manic moments, but it was pulled together a lot tighter instead of just being like kind of slapsticky, wild, weird the whole time. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:He voices in Corpse Bride, which is another Burton film. He does Sweeney Todd, the demon, Barber of Fleet Street. As of right now, that is his third and last Oscar nomination. Okay. He's nominated for that. He does Public Enemies, uh, he does some more Burton work. He is an Alice in Wonderland as well as Alice through the looking glass. He does Dark Shadows. I mean, he's done so many really like love or hate the the movie or the character, he really swings for the fences.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. No, I mean I've no doubt that he was exactly the Willy Wonka that they were trying to get in that movie.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because he he he like you said, he goes for it and he's like really smart about like understanding how it's going to translate, like what they're like filming and how that's gonna look. I've like heard stories of him working with like a newer director where he's like, I can do it like that, but it's not gonna work. And they do it, it doesn't work, and then they just do it the It's fascinating to me that somebody who very much started as
SPEAKER_01:Like a heartthrob has really kind of shed that. I mean, it's been decades now at this point, but like has shed that kind of like image and has chosen really interesting, unique things that oftentimes do not portray him at all in like a conventionally like sexy or handsome or whatever kind of way. Um so it is I I just really appreciate the choices that he's made in his career. He obviously is somebody who like is creative, wants to do different roles, wants to explore different types of stories. Um, so I think I mentioned he does Dark Shadows, and then he does Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, as well as Fantastic Beasts, The Crimes of Grindelwald.
SPEAKER_02:That's right, yeah. And also, I can't believe this is actually on his IMDB. It's uh Dior Sauvage. Oh Sauvage, not Sosage.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, now they put some of those on IMDb, it's weird. He does Murder on the Orient Express, like the remake. I know there's an older one. Um, more recently, he's just done some voice work, and I think it's for some children's shows, interestingly enough. Puffins and Puffins Impossible.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right. So he does both. Sounds like kid stuff.
SPEAKER_01:So we're moving on to Rod Lane, uh, the character who is Tina's boyfriend who is accused of murdering her. So at the time that this was filmed, the actor's name was Nick Corey. Yeah. He has hence since, hence, uh changed his name. I don't know if this is his original name, and Nick Corey was just like his stage name, but he is I would say Sue. Sue? I don't Sue Garcia.
SPEAKER_02:It's J-S-U.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Hisu? Maybe? Or just Sue? Hisu Garcia? Sure. Okay. So he is still very much working. He has a very interesting bio. I'm not gonna go down it, but you can check it out on IMDB. He is a uh, I guess I will say seeker, spiritual seeker. He has done other stuff besides acting. Um but as far as credits go, almost entirely films for him. He was in Predator 2. Nice. He does come back for New Nightmare. He was in Vampire in Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, he does die in the first one.
SPEAKER_01:But New Nightmare is the meta one. So he's alive, yeah. He's like himself, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Fair enough. Got it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, he is in the film Traffic, Collateral Damage, Along Came Polly. The one TV series I have for him that he was like on first int was Without a Trace. And more recently, a film called This Is Christmas. This is Christmas, uh, and multiple TV appearances as well. So, okay, finally, we are getting to the person where no, no shade. I hope um there's no no hard feelings. No hard feelings. Uh John Saxon was first credited at IMDB. I am only getting to him right now. Sorry. Sorry. Uh so he is Lieutenant Donald Thompson, Nancy's dad. He's a cop.
SPEAKER_02:Was did we see him in their home for one single scene?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think he, I mean, okay, so Right after it happened, right after Tina died, maybe? Maybe. That's the other thing about this film is that like clearly Nancy's parents are divorced. It feels recently divorced, because there's still a lot of like.
SPEAKER_02:It is a messy divorce.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they they don't get on very well. Um, and they kind of are blaming each other for what's going on with their daughter. And and so he does not live in the family home, it appears. But uh and also the actor John Saxon, he did pass away a couple years ago. He passed away in 2020. He had a very, very long career before this film came out came along.
SPEAKER_02:And there's always there's always a couple, right? In these movies. Like we've talked about that before, where it's like a bunch of kids or people who are just starting their career, and then you bring someone in who's been doing this for decades.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, he wasn't elderly in this film.
SPEAKER_02:He was like, he was 95 years old in this film. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, when this when he shot this film, but he just he started early. Like, I think I saw that like he had credits from like the 50s. Yeah. Um, so and as I was going through his credits, I was like, huh, he really embraced horror early on. I mean, he was in films called Posse from Hell. I'd watch that. The Evil Eye, Blood Beast from Outer Space, holy shit. Queen of Blood. Like, he does some fun films. Uh, he was on a TV series. He did have extended stints on multiple TV series. One of them was called The Bold Ones, Colonel The New Doctors. Hmm. I didn't know this. Uh, he had a role in the film Enter the Dragon. Interesting. Yeah. He also, I don't remember this, was in the film Black Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:I don't remember that either, although it looks like he was another lieutenant. Yeah. So that that's good. Um, Black Christmas was I I don't really know what it was trying to be.
SPEAKER_01:So it autoplayed the other day. I had something else on, and it just like started up afterwards. So I was kind of periodically looking at it.
SPEAKER_02:I almost like the remade version of it more just because it's Yeah, I um I understand why it's so important in horror history.
SPEAKER_01:It just doesn't do it for me.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:That's all I have to say. It's it it's not for me a fun film to watch at all.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm I'm fine watching like uh I can watch a horror movie that's not just like corny and fun. Like, that's fine. But it just felt like it like what um what is this, what kind of film is this supposed to be? And it kind of like went in like I don't know, different directions. Another one of them.
SPEAKER_01:There are some really interesting, horrific elements. The fact that there's a fucking dead girl in the attic the entire film, essentially. Yeah, that's it. And they just keep not finding her is keep on like showing us like the image of it's horrific imaging of her. Like it, there's some really interesting things about the film. But like, look, I know this is gonna sound weird to some people. Obviously, there's nothing fun about the exorcist, but it's really entertaining and fun to watch, and I just don't feel that way about this film.
SPEAKER_02:It's it's a very different kind, and there's like a different type of resolution at the end of that that you get.
SPEAKER_01:So, in any case, he's in it. He was also in Battle Beyond the Stars. I think it's so funny to me that like he does like kind of these different horror projects, but he also was on Dynasty for a while. Nice, another world, so that's daytime television, or was I don't think it's on the air anymore. He also comes back for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Dream Warriors, and New Nightmare. So he presumably plays himself. I I have watched New Nightmare, it's just been a minute, but I'm guessing they all come back as like air quotes themselves. He was on Falcon Crust. Amazing. Another, like, I think that was Primetime, like that was like a primetime soap opera.
SPEAKER_02:I think so, yeah. And then more did not watch it, so I have no idea, actually.
SPEAKER_01:Hellmaster, he has a part in Beverly Hills Cop 2.
SPEAKER_03:Hmm.
SPEAKER_01:You just mentioned this for totally separate reasons earlier, but he is in From Dust Till Dawn. Oh, he is? Yeah. Okay. And then his final credit was a film called The Extra. What I have listed is just a fraction. He had a very robust filmography. Yeah. And a lot of it also included like one-offs and two offs for like TV shows. So, okay, finally, Ronnie Blakely. So she is Marge Thompson. I don't know why I have to say Marge that way, but it lends itself to that, right? It just lends itself to that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So she is Nancy's apparently alcoholic mother. Yes. That is definitely a through line in this film. She hides alcohol everywhere.
SPEAKER_02:When uh Nancy's like peeking out the door and her mom is just opening up the linen closet and pulls out a giant fucking jug of vodka.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So understandable, I guess. Like she seems like maybe she's weighing with the guilt still of having killed somebody.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Even if that killer was a kid killer. Or that person was a kid killer. But it's a really interesting portrayal. She is arguably a helicopter parent with Nancy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but everything she did was kind of like it felt like she was intentionally supposed to like be this like numbed kind of.
SPEAKER_01:It was a really that's why it was a really interesting depiction of this character because like she does you can tell something's going on with her. She's not right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like she's kind of like you said, kind of dulled, but she's also incredibly concerned for Nancy. You know, she does these really outrageous things that she thinks is to help her, you know, like bringing her, which she gets an appointment for that sleep center ASAP.
SPEAKER_02:Like I love that. They had this like long hold on the sign to let us know that it was a sleep center, and then it just kept zooming in.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, Tina dies the next day, she's like at a sleep center.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, no, hey, that's that's that's amazing. It would take us like probably a month to get that appointment.
SPEAKER_01:She's got some contacts or something. So she gets her in there, she puts fucking uh the bars on every fucking window of that house, of which there are many to keep Nancy from getting out.
SPEAKER_02:In like a day she did that. In like a day. Well done.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think Nancy even came home early from school that day because she had like the daytime nightmare.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:So she got that done in like halftime. Um, so she does that. She apparently puts a lock on the door that Nancy can't figure out how to unlock. Um, she she thinks she's doing what she should do for her daughter.
SPEAKER_02:She sure does.
SPEAKER_01:Warms up her milk. She does.
SPEAKER_02:She um takes one pot of coffee out of Nancy's room so that Nancy can uncover the other pot of coffee hidden by her bed.
SPEAKER_01:She turns down her bed. Who turns down a bed? Anyway. So she does a lot. But it's a really interesting portrayal. Now, Ronnie Blakely, she does have some acting credits, but actually, she's she's really a singer. She's like a singer-songwriter. Oh, wow. Um, and she is an Oscar-nominated actress. Makes total sense when you say why she was in Nashville. The Robert Altman film Nashville. She gets a best supporting actress Oscar nom, so incredibly early in her career. And she does not have an extended film career. Because again, she is more so like in real life, a singer song. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Singer, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So that is where I think most of her time and attention has been put, which also makes it really interesting that she's even in this film.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Like random. Why? But anyway, she is. Uh, I only have a handful of other credits for her. So besides Nashville, she was in the film A Return to Salem's Lot. Oh, interesting. And then I I did this intentionally. So she's in a film called Murder by Numbers that was in 1989. Her next credit is 30 years later.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Her next credit, she doesn't have another acting credit until 2019 for a film called Rolling Thunder Review. Wow. So it's quite the hiatus. Yeah, from acting. Yeah, yeah. But she's been performing otherwise. She has continued existing. Exactly. So I just wanted to like make clear it's not like she's, you know, just like not doing the thing that is her first love that does happen for a lot of people. She's acting as a sort of thing is not yeah. Acting is just like a side thing.
SPEAKER_02:So it's a good side gig if you can get it.
SPEAKER_01:Side gig. Film synopsis. Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which, if they die, it kills them in real life.
SPEAKER_02:That that is a pretty complex synopsis for IMDB, but but it's not bad. It's it's uh No, it's on the money.
SPEAKER_01:Now we know we have our answer.
SPEAKER_02:He's uh he's a spirit of a serial killer.
SPEAKER_01:But would you say like if you say spirits are in the house, I think that often is synonymous with ghosts.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm fine calling him a ghost.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm really drilling down on this. Is he a ghost? Because this month our social media theme is the best ghosts in 80s cinema, and I do include him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm making the argument that he is a ghost.
SPEAKER_02:He's dead, so he's dead. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So he was once human. That's always a really interesting conversation because uh ghosts are supposed to be obstensibly former humans who have died. Whereas like a demon was never a human. True. So take from that what you will. But I mean, I'm really glad that we finally covered this film. It's so interesting to me that it it and like because I'm not saying that it shouldn't have, but it's interesting to me that some some of these like random 80s um actually a lot of these films do have end up having franchises. It's just that they don't become as popular. Like Sleepaway Camp is a franchise. The Slumber Party Massacre is a franchise. Like all these films go on to have all these sequels. However, Nightmare on Elm Street is, I would say, you know, again, in the top, top five, hands down.
SPEAKER_02:Because of Freddie. Because of Freddie. Yeah, because the the killer has this like attitude and and kind of like interesting look and the cool thing with the glove. I guess it's cool. I don't know. Um, so there's just like like the the thought or the the um I don't know what I would call it, the idea of Freddy Krueger for me is more interesting than the movie. But yeah, it has I'm probably gonna check out the others now just to get because I like I said, the first time I watched the first one from start to finish, and so I'm probably gonna check out the other ones just to like people really bag on the second one, I know. Oh, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I think that there's some interesting things at the second film because I think there are some like subtle, um, or maybe some people would say not so subtle, um overtones of like a gay relationship, like a gay, gay like love or romance or connection between two of the characters. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but that is like largely a takeaway from the second film. And like we were saying earlier, you know, once this franchise gets some traction and people are interested in seeing more Freddie Krueger, which you gotta have a great name, and Freddie Kruger is a great name. Better than Fred. Better than Fred Krueger, yeah. Uh, you know, they really play up his part in in these films.
SPEAKER_02:That's what, yeah, because like just from the first movie, you can see the potential there for that for that villain to turn into something.
SPEAKER_01:They lay seeds that make sense. Yeah. So for future films.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that if anything, though, you know, you saying you wanna, you're more interested now in watching their films. I'd like to do a rewatch of New Nightmare just for ourselves. Because uh I would I am a sucker for like the meta films. I think they're always really interesting in how they do that. Yeah. But yeah, so that's that's it for now on a nightmare on Elm Street. That's it. I mean, there are there are other films in the franchise that we can cover that are in the 80s. Two and three, right? Cracks. Yeah, yeah. So, and I would I would say we'd we would do chronological order. We don't always do that.
SPEAKER_02:When we get to uh episode 200, we will cover one more nightmare movie.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see if that falls on our Halloween series.
SPEAKER_02:We'll have to see. We'll have to do the math.
SPEAKER_01:Which I'm sad because we got one more? One more.
SPEAKER_02:What do we got?
SPEAKER_01:We are ending this season's Halloween series with Talk about Crown Lynch Corridor.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We have already covered a film in this franchise, although a lot of people would argue it has nothing to do with the franchise.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:We brought up the filmmaker who originated the franchise earlier in this episode.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god, we're doing Halloween 3 Season of the Witch.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we are. I love it. I love this movie. It is incredibly divisive. People seem to either love it or hate it. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:You do. I hated it when I first saw it, and now I now I just try to appreciate and enjoy it for what it is.
SPEAKER_01:We have friends, one friend in particular who is like a huge, huge, huge Halloween fan. Yeah. Doesn't seem to acknowledge this film, and that's fair. That's fair, but I love it.
SPEAKER_02:I'll say this much. There are certainly worse Halloween movies in the Halloween franchise. 1000%. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm so excited. To me, the perfect film to end this year's Halloween series doesn't get much better than a film that's called Halloween. So it's right there in the fucking name. Right there in the name. So thank you to everybody out there for hanging with us, whether or not you have been with us for all 150 episodes, which please let us know if that's the case, because that'd be incredible. Send you a gift.
SPEAKER_02:But my call to action, did you listen to Breakfast Club and keep listening? Because if so, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Or maybe this is the very first episode that you're listening to. Either way, thank you so much for taking the time with all the choices out there for podcasts. We really appreciate that you are listening to ours. And we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.