Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story is a nice little documentary that should’ve been an hour and a half but it drags on with unneccessary moments that should’ve been slashed by Freddy Krueger’s knives glove. There’s just so many talking heads saying what a heckuva guy Englund is that it becomes redundant. We’ve should’ve more of this with people talking about a moment they had with Englund that reinforces this.
The biggest missed opportunity is when Heather Langenkamp recounts how her son died of a brain cancer and how she received support from Englund. This could’ve been that show don’t tell moment. Or there’s something kinda funny about how his wife is named Nancy, the same name as the character Langenkamp played in three Nightmare movies. The Internet has hundreds if not thousands of stories floating around how someone who played a superhero in a movie is a total dick while the guy who played a crazy Bond villain donates his special blood type refusing money and has for years.
At two hours, this is an afternoon nap that went on too long and afterwards, you feel more tired. The best moments are when Englund in his mid-70s, letting his guard down and talking candidly about certain moments in his life. One of the best ones is when his father, who never initially approved of his acting career, visits him on the set of the fourth Nightmare on Elm Street while Englund is having to perform a complicated special effect. That is one of the moments of the documentary that make you smile, laugh and like Englund a lot more even if you’re not a horror fan.
What’s even more impressive is how Englund started out as a character actor in high acclaimed movies during the 1970s such as co-starring along Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields in Stay Hungry. The transformation from a goofy-looking guy who is the buddy everyone wants to know to a menacing horror icon is a testament to how good Englund is. And maybe why Freddy Krueger, who was a child killer, is so likeable is that Englund brought along that same charm and charisma he did in his earlier roles.
There’s an amusing anecdote in which he had a small role in Hustle where his character kills Burt Reynold’s character. Englund says the armourer loaded the gun with high powered blanks and when he fired the revolver toward Reynolds, the force caused Reynolds’ hair piece to move. He said he was surprised that even then, Reynolds was wearing a toupee.
At the same time as he was appearing in Stay Hungry, he auditioned for Billy Nolan in Carrie which went to John Travolta, Chef in Apocalypse Now which went to Frederic Forrest and Han Solo in the first Star Wars which went to Harrison Ford. Englund also says that at the same time he was hanging around with Mark Hamill and suggested to Hamill he audition for the role that would be Luke Skywalker. It would’ve been a big surprise to see Hamill say this. Or Richard Dreyfuss talks about started a theater troupe with Englund back when they were aspiring actors.
There’s a few missed opportunities that directors Christopher Griffiths and Gary Smart could’ve put in here but who knows why they didn’t. Maybe Hamill and Dreyfuss were unavailable or they didn’t want to be interviewed. Englund does paint a nice era in the 1970s in which it seemed everyone knew everyone and they all hung around. You hear from Lance Henriksen and William Katt, who was in Carrie, who talk about those early days in the 1970s. Katt also briefly can be seen in a black and white screen test for Star Wars.
It’s almost like there were hints of his future as a horror-movie actor. At the same time he auditioned for Star Wars, he was living with a young screenwriter, Jan Fischer, who was working on what would be the first draft of The Lost Boys. And he would be cast in Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive where he plays Buck whose iconic line would be re-worded slightly in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1. But he would go on to appear in cult classics like Galaxy of Terror where he met a young James Cameron and Dead & Buried.
There’s also a nice friendship with Kane Hodder that began early in the 1980s. Hodder at one time was actually being considered for Freddy Krueger as he had suffered burns from an accident early in his stuntman days. But some parts of the documentary that just don’t work. There’s a sequence that discusses the problematic Freddy vs. Jason where Hodder was passed over for Jason Vorhees when Ken Kirzinger was cast instead. This part belongs in a different documentary. Should Englund have refused to reprise the role unless Hodder was cast? It never really examines this mainly because it’s suggest Englund need the money.
Englund comes off as an actor’s actor, who himself admits first thing that he never saw himself becoming a horror movie actor. And while he felt there was some missed opportunities, he decided with the help and encouragement of his wife, Nancy Bishop, to embrace it the way Vincent Price did. And while he may have made schlock horror movies in the 1990s and 2000s that people don’t remember, he enjoyed traveling the world with his wife to make him. And most of these movies are forgettable but Englund talks about them happily as he got to have fun playing different roles than Freddy Krueger.
Speaking of Schwarzenegger, he was being considered for Schwarzenegger’s infamous Crusade movie that never was made that would’ve had him in a supporting role along the “Governator.” It was set to be directed by Paul Verhoeven. My theory is that after the failure of Last Action Hero, the production company, Carolco Pictures, backed out. Even the success of Braveheart couldn’t encourage that movie. But Verhoeven’s work on Showgirls as well as the bankruptcy of Carolco following Cutthroat Island and Schwarzenegger’s heart problems were the final nails in the coffin. There could probably be a whole documentary made about the failure to Crusade.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good documentary and gives Englund his due, and might encourage some people to rediscover the movies he made earlier in his career. Yet, I felt the use of talking head interviews and archival footage is a little overused. There’s no real intimate candidness. Englund and his wife have been married for 35 years now and it would’ve been nice for some footage of them going about their days the Gilbert Gottfried documentary show moments with his wife, Dara Kravitz, and you saw and understood the love and bond they had between them.
I will have to say the documentary uses a tired trope that has been going on since This Film Is Not Yet Rated and Supersize Me where computer animation is used instead of re-enactments of past events. And while it kinda works as Englund recounts performing Pinocchio when he was a child, it’s become an overused trope overall. But it is nice to hear that Englund won praise by Steve Allen.
Following his guest appearance in Stranger Things, his roles in horror movies along with the V miniseries and TV series has made him a star that stretched across the generations. Just as Englund said he initially thought Wes Craven would be a gothic director only to discover he was a sharp-dressed intellectual, Englund shows us how to divide the actor from his roles, even joking his use of eyeglasses look totally different.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 