Except for film clips..Garbage!

"Nightmares in Red, White & Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film"


*beep* writer/director Andrew Monument!
Never has a documentary on cinema made me so angry and depressed.

In fact, my 'as it happened' Twitter comments shall make up most of this review.


I was hoping "Nightmares in Red White & Blue". was not going to get too pretentious.
But John 'Psychoanalyst' Carpenter is in it after all.

Of course there are socio/political influences in and around horror films and which gave birth to many of them, but going by "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue" that's all there is about them.
Brian Yuzna was the only person here (about "Re-Animator") who said he wasn't making a statement just a fun horror film.

So American alien invasion films were all about killing off those that looked different?
Oh...*beep* off.

Plus it seems they can't make (genuinely valid and I 100% agree) deep observations about "Last House on the Left" WITHOUT slagging off "Death Wish" for not being critical or liberal enough.

Q: Want to know what"The Amityville Horror" was REALLY about?
A: That the American Dream of home ownership was fraught with demons!!
Oh...*beep* off.

Canadians can also feel free to feel insulted if they see this.
As it has no less than 3 Cronenberg, 100% Canadian productions, shown in this history of American horror.

So far you may think I'm being hard on "Nightmares in Red, White & Blue", but it did use "Evil Dead 1 & 2" as negative metaphors for general 80's excess in American society.
Well? You with me now?

And I wondered where criticism would be aimed in this documentary when 9/11 was reached.
Was it critical of fanatical followers of a medieval supernatural belief that openly embraces death more than life?
NO.
Just critical of silly American's and their paranoid fears.

And as it moves into the 2000's it gets no better.
Or less factually dubious.
"Hostel" is presented as xenophobic American fear of murdering foreigners.
Interviewees state how it says Americans will be safer staying at home!
Strange,what were all those American backroads/backwoods horror films about then?
Xenophobic fears of Americans about Americans and how its safer to stay in America?
A *beep* chimp could do better reasoning than this!

And what is this film about?
What actually does it stand for?
As it's done nothing but laugh and sneer at silly Americans and their boogieman fears of Communists and post-9/11 terrorism.
But then it has Larry Cohen says he fears his kids will live to see an American city nuked!
Silly Boogieman fears was that?

And the biggest poncy, sneering, Americaphobia idiot in a film full of them? (even Directors I like, which depresses me).
Well it's 'film historian' John Kenneth Muir.
Who? Exactly.

I'm so *beep* annoyed at this no fun allowed, up its own arse, *beep* of a supposed Horror movie documentary, I'm going to dump the turd in the bin!
Mr Andrew Monument take note and go back to the day job.

And all the film makers involved with this? Hang heads in shame.