Movies
Robert Englund Starring in Freddy Krueger Doc ‘Nightmares in the Makeup Chair’; Watch Trailer
Watch Robert Englund become Freddy Krueger one last time.
Back in 2014, Robert Englund appeared at Chicago’s Flashback Weekend and provided fans with a once-in-a-lifetime experience: he was fully decked out in Freddy makeup, allowing diehards to take photos with him as Krueger for the first time. Talk about a memory you’ll never forget, huh? If you missed it, don’t be sad. Because a new documentary will soon peel back the curtain.
Directed by Mike Kerz, the upcoming doc Nightmares in the Makeup Chair was primarily filmed at Flashback Weekend, and in it Englund shares behind the scenes stories while FX artist Robert Kurtzman applies the makeup. The doc, hitting the festival circuit this year, will “take fans on an exciting, funny, and emotional journey through Englund’s years as Freddy Krueger with stories and anecdotes, all while paying tribute to the legacy of Wes Craven.”
Kerz explains why he wanted to make the doc:
I was inspired by the vintage photos of the legendary artist Jack Pierce applying the Frankenstein makeup to Boris Karloff. Sadly, those sessions were never documented on film. That is why we created our documentary – fans will see two modern horror legends at work. Robert Englund is fascinating as he shares insightful stories about the Elm Street films and Freddy with the audience. And it is amazing to watch Robert Kurtzman apply the various stages of makeup to transform Robert Englund into Freddy Krueger.
Adds Englund himself:
Nightmares in the Makeup Chair is my love letter to the Nightmare on Elm Street series and to practical makeup. I’ve always been in awe of the multi-talented makeup effects artists. From sketching to sculpting, they realize the design. Then to the fine precision of the molding and the manufacturing of the makeup appliances which are nearly paper thin. And then, the application process where I sit in the makeup chair and I become their living canvas as they glue me in and paint the appliances. This documentary not only captures their talent, but I think it might inspire a new generation of practical effects artists. I was happy to become Freddy once again to share the makeup process with the fans.
Check out the trailer below and visit the Nightmares in the Makeup Chair website for more.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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