The American Nightmare



The American Nightmare (2000) is a documentary that talks to some of the major horror filmmakers from the late 1960's though the early 1980's, with a special emphasis on talking about the social conditions that may have spawned the scare films they made. So George Romero talks about the civil rights movement and Night of the Living Dead, make-up artist Tom Saivini talks about his experiences in Vietnam, Tobe Hooper talks about serial killers, etc. There is also commentary from some film professors and John Landis.

I think this documentary was done for IFC, and I can't really recommend it. If you're really familiar with the films covered you aren't going to have heard most of this stuff before (Yes, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is structured like a traditional fairy tale), but if you aren't familiar with the movies there are rarely indications of who did what on which film and clips from films go unidentified. Basically, it's sloppy.

Posted: Sat - November 15, 2003 at      

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