Knock Knock: First horror film of the week! Apart from his contributions in Tarantino's films, I haven't really seen anything by Eli Roth and this definitely doesn't make me a supporter of him. This feels more like a footnote in the future when people look at Keanu Revees's departure from Hollywood films to more independent "cult-classic" stuff like this, the upcoming Refn/Amirpour films, and Man of Thai Chi. Feels like the torture-porn version of Daises but without any visual imagination and if the two female protagonists were really annoying. Interesting for the first half and updating the plot (apparently this is a remake of an obscure exploitation film from the 70's) to blackmail people via social media is actually a clever idea, but it just becomes a really dull home-invasion "comedy" with a punchline at the end that leaves you rolling your eyes and actually feeling bad for Keanu Reeves's character.
Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The one thing I like about the direction that this series was going in was that unlike the Friday the 13th series where they pretty much got exploitation directors that could easily deliver the product with any hassle, Elm Street was more interested in visual-heavy directors like Chuck Russell and Renny Harlin which gives this and 3,4, and 5 a stylized MTV-esque look. Instead of Frank Darabont and Bruce Wagner writing the script, you've got the Academy-Award winning screenwriter of L.A. Confidential and director of Legend, Brian Helgeland doing it here. Boasts pretty much the dumbest and corniest lines of the entire franchise and I'm not exactly the biggest fan of them killing off a lot of the characters from the previous installment but visually, the film is well-done (the roach motel sequence is one of the best nightmare sequences in the franchise) I know a lot of people weren't fans of Freddy switching to a more comedic presence, but I'll take that any day of the week rather than the monotonous presence of Michael Myers and Jason in their sequels.
Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Might be my favorite installment in the series. It actually helps that Alice is actually an interesting character in the franchise, so I'm really glad that she reprised her role for more than a cameo. Contains some really dark but visually impressive sequences and possibly my favorite nightmare sequence in the entire series (the comic-book nightmare). Really like the gothic-tone of the film despite some of the deaths being on the humor side (the girl eating herself). Not much else to say except that I'm glad they never really killed off Alice and gave her a bitter-sweet ending.
Freddy's Dead: Apart from Freddy Vs. Jason, this is the lowest the franchise has gotten which is really depressing considering that it's directed by someone who essentially worked on every Elm Street film to some capacity. You could essentially cut out the first hour of the film and nothing would honestly change because it kills off the protagonist that we follow for most of the duration. Problem with this one is that it has extreme tonal changes, it tries to be tongue-in-cheek for a good chunk and then it tries to be a serious horror film when it explores Freddy's past and the style doesn't mesh. Features really strange cameos from Roseanne and Tom Arnold and a pretty funny one from Johnny Depp along with possibly one of the worst examples of CGI in horror in the early 90's, holy fuck is that exploding Freddy head and sperm worms so laughably bad.
New Nightmare: Probably the only installment I was really excited for after I watched the third one and thank god the 4th and 5th one are pretty good because this one's simply…okay. I remember someone mentioning that Craven is more of an idea's man and I definitely have to agree with this statement because this film is just so visually dull, like it could have been exceptional if they got Chuck Russell (Dream Warriors) to mix his visual style with Craven's script. The whole metaness aspect is actually a really well-done concept and I like Craven's idea of a main star of a horror film having being haunted by that legacy and how it affects her family as well. The final battle with Freddy feels like something that would have happened if Elm Street kept churning out films and lost any sort of originality and slashed the budget around the 9th film. I'll take this over 2 or Freddy's Dead, but this film feels more like a blueprint of what's to come next in Wes's filmography.
Freddy Vs. Jason: I can't think of a better film that pretty much highlights everything wrong with horror movies in the 00's that weren't Japanese remakes than this. Bad CGI (holy shit is that bong Freddy creature so atrociously bad), the poorly done Wong-Kar Wai esque stop-motion, hacky filmmaking, in-your-face editing, and the list goes on and on. Problem is, Friday and Nightmare are two different series with different goals. Nightmare is interested in a visual atmosphere and humor, while Friday the 13th is more interested in how the victims are killed in the franchise. Also doesn't help that the protagonists are dull, you pretty much know that Freddy has a stronger advantage to Jason which culminates into a lot of uninteresting fight scenes. If you ignore the remakes, this film is pretty much proof that these two icons just couldn't make the jump to the 00's.
Scream 3: Surprisingly enough, this was the odd man out of the Scream franchise that I just never made the effort to see. Ehren Kruger (I really hope Wes chuckled at that during production) is no Kevin Williamson, but he makes a good chunk of the meta elements funny especially during the Stab production scenes even if the film essentially knows its engaging in the lazy elements that it mocks. Apart from that, it just becomes so dull and lazy in its last half to the point where you don't really care who the killer is and want the movie to end and it doesn't help that Neve Campbell's character is there as a supporting role.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003): This film came out the same year as Freddy Vs. Jason and it's a million times better looking than the former (Fun fact: the DP of the original TCM came back to shoot this one). What I've noticed about the Platinum Dune remakes are that they essentially just slap a modern music-video style with a lot of blood and gore to it and update the plot, forgetting that the original films worked due to their atmosphere and suspense. I think John Landis said it best when he said that this film looked like a "shampoo commercial". Can't really remember much from this forgettable remake apart from the only real praise I have for this film is R. Lee Ermey's performance, dude was born to play these types of roles.