Shocker
Wes Craven was that rarest of things when it comes to directors in any genre, much less horror, in that he literally found himself being able to shape and mold the conventions of the genre itself in which he worked. He also would look at the work of others and seemed to have some strong opinions about it, most notably the trend of âhorror franchise villainsâ that had become so prevalent during the 80s and was epitomized more than anything else by his own lethal creation, Freddy Krueger. Looking at the trend of endless sequels where the whole concept was sold on the appearance of the recurring VILLAIN that was supposed to be EVIL and instead were being marketed to young audiences as representing the epitome of âcoolâ, especially in the way that they were intended to just reappear in film after film in order to kill even more innocent people, Craven was reportedly particularly appalled at the popularity of Freddy himself, who had taken on the persona of a wisecracking comedian always ready with a one liner when butchering teenagers. Having lost control of the direction of the Krueger character after the original film, Craven decided instead to try to one up everybody. He pitched the idea to Universal of creating a franchise built around a ânewâ horror villain, one that would presumably be more evil and âcoolerâ than even Freddy himself. When the studio jumped at the offer, Craven sweetened the pot for himself even more, having it written into the contract that he be given full creative control over the entire franchise as well as the character himself, with any consideration given to make sequels being solely at his discretion only. The deal was signed, and Craven brought out this âfirstâ of the series in 1989 (released just 4 days before Halloween so everyone would be aware). Whereas Freddy was a lowly boiler room employee who enjoyed both murdering and molesting children, this new villain of his was actually a scumbag TV repairman who enjoyed breaking into homes and murdering entire families, parents and children included. What people didnât realize back then (and many still donât now) was the fact that Craven had successfully come up with what was actually his most subversive movie ever, one which was really a horror / comedy / satire, with most relating those elements to being that of the general publicâs addiction to television coming back to bite us in the ass, but as per Cravenâs intentions, he was really commenting on what he believed to be the nadir of the genre itself, creating a villain that was shamelessly derivative in every possible way, shape, and form and yet still came across as being all franchise friendly and âready for prime timeâ right off the bat (which the dark, spooky, mysterious Freddy from Nightmare 1 was never intended to be). Literally the only redeeming factor about the character is that of the actor who plays him: Mitch Pileggi, later lauded as the cool, calm FBI Assistant Director Skinner from The X Files, does a complete 180 here playing his Horace Pinker as a constantly cackling, foul mouthed, in your face type bad guy with about as little subtlety as possibly imaginable (as Craven obviously intended), coming across as your typical horror villain prototype yet still enhanced by the fact that Pileggi seems to be having a hell of a time playing him. Unlike the early Freddy image of a dark creature coming out of the shadows, Pinker and his warped macho male ID seems to dominate the screen from literally the very first shot, as he apparently considers television as being part of his ongoing religion along with animal sacrifices and the occult (though the film greatly tones it down when it comes to actually showing his most horrific acts). Moreso, after his murder spree has become a regular part of the local TV news, he shows some real balls and panache by going right after and then outright murdering the family of the actual COP who was heading up the investigation to catch him. Problem is, the copâs adopted son (Peter Berg), a local football star, has actually DREAMED about the killings (an obvious nod to Elm Street) and even seemed to appear (briefly) to Pinker himself in person before disappearing into thin air and then waking up. Telling this info to his grieving cop father (Michael Murphy), who at this point is willing to try anything, Pinker is tracked down and eventually caught, but when sentenced to the electric chair, shows no remorse (or fear) whatsoever, mostly because he has devised a way to travel through electrical waves after his execution, and eventually, through television signals as well, which now enables the dead killer to emerge from quite literally any TV he so chooses and then butcher everyone in the room right on the spot, which thus turns the second half of the movie from a serial killer flick into a supernatural possession thriller, with Pinker also having the ability to enter into random people on his seemingly relentless quest to kill the Berg character, although the possessed victims can easily be spotted by having both Pinkerâs trademark limp and also his penchant for harshly obscene language (including from a little girl whom he enters). It goes without saying that much of this does come off as being comical rather than dark or scary (with more than its share of so called MST3K style moments), but yet it all fits into Cravenâs commentary on what constitutes so called âprototypeâ horror movies, with a smattering of dialogue thrown in about how Pinker is supposed to be the âultimateâ form of depraved evil, along with the dynamic of how Bergâs beautiful, pure hearted, blonde haired, blue eyed girlfriend (Cami Cooper) brutally falls victim to Pinkerâs murderous clutches, only to come back in Bergâs dreams (and in real life) as a powerful spirit of good with what appears to be Care Bear like powers, even as this film manages to influence such later efforts like Fallen (with the villain able to possess seemingly random people) and even The Lovely Bones (as we learn that all of Pinkerâs victims have formed a sort of afterlife support group in order to encourage Berg and spur him on). In what would seem to be the pivotal role of the hero, Berg is actually pretty dry acting wise, with his only useful strategies for combating Pinker appearing to be a sort of magical necklace that represents the love of his dead girlfriend and his willingness to have an all out fistfight with Pinker across several planes of the television world in a climax that seems as much inspired by oneâs tendency to change their TV channel often (resulting in the changing of TV landscapes) as well as an old school acid trip psychedelic release from anything being even remotely realistic anymore (with Craven even throwing in a cameo from none other than Timothy Leary himself as if to signal just that). The filmâs satiric themes on addiction to and our dependence on television have now manifested itself tenfold in the years since to include all modern technology in and of itself, with all of this material nonetheless predating the era of cell phones, the Internet, and the horrible realization that a little boogyman called The NSA could be spying on you at any and all times. Itâs actually a very creative and entertaining mix, with the icing on the cake being the heavy metal soundtrack that one can tell that there was a lot of effort put into (even Alice Cooperâs former guitarist Kane Roberts cameos as a possessed victim), gathering up some of the top names in that musical genre to keep the movie rocking along. But really itâs just the unbridled, let it all hang out intensity of Pileggi (who had to know going in that he would be drawing heavy comparisons to Robert Englund himself, but still just threw everything he had into playing a mean, nasty son of a bitch), and Cravenâs brilliant yet gentle mocking of horror franchise conventions that make this what it is, something thatâs not very scary but still eminently watchable, and despite the common misperception that it somehow bombed at the box office (it actually made quite a tidy, if not a whopping profit), when the time came for Craven to ever decide if he alone wanted to move forward with any sequels, he ultimately decided not to do so, having said basically everything he was ever going to say about the matter right here (despite having a very open ended final scene that makes it quite clear that Pinker is not yet completely destroyed, similar to the forced ending used for Nightmare 1) even if he would later manage to pick up the reins once again just for Freddy and make an even further statement about the glamorous treatment of depraved horror villains with his New Nightmare, which was just another one on the manâs long list of classicsâŚ
9/10