Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

Runtime: 240 minutes

Directed by: Daniel Farrands & Andrew Kasch

Starring: Many of the people who made those films, just not the real famous ones; it is narrated by Heather Langenkamp

From: 1428 Films

Here's a documentary I've heard all about even before it was released in 2010; I found the DVD last year at a MovieStop store. Finally, last night I sat down and I watched this 4 hour documentary, which tells in chronological order the history of the franchise; each film gets plenty of time in the spotlight as they show behind the scene stuff and interviews; they are candid, too, as people are willing to admit if one of the entries was a disappointment or downright bad. Many people are interviewed and it's pretty comprehensive. Of course the real famous people (such as Johnny Depp, Laurence Fishburne, or Patricia Arquette) aren't interviewed but that's to be expected.

It's all produced and put together very well, and it is 4 hours that fly by pretty quickly as to me at least it's always interesting and informative. If you dig the franchise as a whole then this is a must-see. I haven't seen any of the special features but I'll presume they are all at least good. There's even some cool stop motion animation that is used throughout.

I have heard podcasts with several of the people involved with the production, and I do know that it was a small production, so putting everything together in a short amount of time was like the Bataan Death March for the main people involved; I am talking about much stress and going who knows how many nights in a row with little to no sleep. I am happy then that things turned out as well as they did. Also, Ronee Lee Blakely (the mom in the first movie) wasn't interviewed for a good reason; when she showed up for the interview she acted REALLY horribly, being totally unreasonable and treating the crew like crap; finally the head honcho in charge had enough and demanded she leave. Apparently she acted not so great back in her heyday, too, which may explain why her heyday did not last so long.

Anyhow, there isn't too much left to say except that this documentary was as great as I've been hearing for years now, and I imagine the same crew's new documentary Crystal Lake Memories is just as good if not even better. I'll be back tomorrow night.