Nightmares in Red, White and Blue

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Movie
Original title Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue.jpg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2009
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Andrew Monument
script Joseph Maddrey
production Joseph Maddrey
music Paul Casper
camera Michael Bratkowski
occupation

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror is an American documentary by Andrew Monument from the year 2009 , based on the book by Joseph Maddrey . The documentary traces the history of American horror film from its beginnings in 1910 to the 21st century, alternating between film excerpts and comments by well-known creative people such as John Carpenter , Roger Corman and George A. Romero .

content

The content of the film is divided into nine chapters and is based on the premise of showing the development of American horror films in a political and socio-cultural context.

The almost 100 year long review begins with the first film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , which was largely ignored in 1910, ahead of its time. After the First World War , the silent film era began, which produced one of the first stars of horror cinema with Lon Chaney ( The Phantom of the Opera , The Unknown ). As a result of the Great Depression , the classic monster cinema with works such as Dracula , King Kong and The Wolf Man dominated the horror film landscape for many years . The Hollywood Production Code of 1934 stipulated that all movie monsters, regardless of their motivation, had to die at the end of the plot. In the course of the Second World War , films became more bombastic and emigrants from Europe began to dominate US cinema. Val Lewton was among the first filmmakers to introduce a psychological component to their productions.

The atomic age brought monster and science fiction films with anti-communist undertones ( Invasion of Mars , The Demonic ) to the cinema . At the end of the 1950s, the increased expectations of the public also resulted in gimmicks such as stun guns built into the cinema seat or 3D glasses . In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock set new standards with Psycho and led the genre away from the classic "scary romance". The Briton ushered in the era of modern horror films. In the years that followed, numerous productions tried to outdo each other in terms of shock effect, which for the time being culminated in the exploitation style of Blood Feast . The counterculture, which emerged not least from the Vietnam War , reached its cinematic climax with influential works such as The Night of the Living Dead or Rosemary's Baby .

While the horror of everyday life increasingly found its way into Hollywood ( Who sows violence , The last house on the left ), genre cinema became harder and more excessive in the 1970s, which was expressed in so-called savage cinema - the "wild cinema". In addition, the themes of horror films became more diverse, for example the emancipation of women ( Carrie ) or consumer criticism ( Zombie ) were no longer taboos. With Steven Spielberg's Jaws , horror entered the mainstream, and the victims came from middle-class families, not least with adaptations of Stephen King's novels . While the 80s were dominated by slasher films ( Halloween , Friday the 13th , Nightmare ), criticism of Ronald Reagan's politics also mingled with the film landscape. B-movies and independent films with bloody opulent effects and humorous elements ( dance of the devils ) rounded off the picture. The documentary only touches on the cynicism of the 90s ( Scream ) and quickly comes to the horror cinema of the post- 9 /11 era. Finally, the xenophobia and the trend towards hyperviolence, the so-called torture porn ( Saw , Hostel ), of this era as well as the emergence of remakes are discussed.

occupation

The following artists and experts have their say:

Film clips

Although Nightmares in Red, White and Blue is a documentary film, the FSK did not give it a youth release due to numerous excerpts from relevant horror films (FSK 18+). Among other things, short sequences from works that are or were confiscated in Germany by the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People will be shown . The following films are referenced in the documentation:

reception

The film produced by Lux Digital Pictures was released on August 6, 2009 in selected US cinemas and in July 2010 for the first time as video-on-demand . It received mostly positive reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website has an overall rating of 100% based on six reviews. An average score of 7.2 out of 10 points is achieved in the Internet Movie Database .

The horror film magazine Fangoria praised the insightful interviews and the astute editing of the documentation and called it the "best of its kind in years". The criticism of Classic-Horror magazine was similarly positive, describing the film as "incredibly informative and fascinating" and giving it a "unique perspective" from the rise of American horror film. Dennis Harvey found the documentary in the Variety comprehensive but uncritical and saw it as a future "fixed point" in the Halloween TV program. The various commentators are always entertaining, the clips are of high quality, assembly-intensive and clear.

The web portal Bloody Distgusting , which described the film as "uninspired", was less euphoric . Those familiar with the genre would not be able to take anything away from the documentary, which is only suitable for beginners. While the original book from 2004 succeeded in combining the respective cultural zeitgeist with the content of contemporary horror cinema, the film was nothing more than an "extravagant collection of clips". In addition, it does not bring new insights, but the kind of interviews that - apart from a few statements by John Carpenter - have already been seen hundreds of times.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Certificate of Release for Nightmares in Red, White and Blue . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2011 (PDF; test number: 130 864 V).
  2. ↑ Nightmares in Red, White and Blue. Rotten Tomatoes , accessed January 22, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film. IMDb , accessed on January 22, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Nightmares in Red, White and Blue. Lux Digital Pictures, accessed January 22, 2019 .
  5. ^ Nate Yapp: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue (2009). Classic-Horror, June 9, 2010, accessed on January 22, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Dennis Harvey: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film. Variety , July 18, 2010, accessed January 22, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Nightmares in Red, White & Blue (V). Bloody Disgusting, October 4, 2010, accessed January 22, 2019 .