“A Nightmare on Elm Street” remains Wes Craven’s master opus, a film that is his most creative and most visually appealing. There aren’t many horror films that dabble in the iconology and symbolism of dreams and end up being truly horrifying, but Wes Craven’s film continues to be something of a crowd pleaser to this day. While it hasn’t aged too well since its initial release (which is the case with all of Craven’s films, I’ve found), it remains one of the most influential films of all time considering its primary character is a dream demon who plays more of a supporting role than taking center stage.
Since George A. Romero’s seminal 1968 independent horror film was released without a copyright, the horror classic we know as “Night of the Living Dead” has been in the public domain for literal decades. Since then it’s been remade, re-released, re-dubbed, re-edited, restored, colored, chopped, extended, spoofed, satirized, animated, prequelized, sequelized, novelized, sampled, and so on ad nauseum. Much to Romero’s chagrin, “Night of the Living Dead” has been the Mr. Potato Head of the horror world upon which independent film directors can switch and mix without worry of a lawsuit.
One of the more entertaining moments of “Next Avengers” involves the eventual emergence of the Incredible Hulk from the eccentric form of Bruce Banner, now a scientist in hiding. Watching the Hulk smash these cheesy robotic copies of the avengers was quite cathartic, and it’s also refreshing to see the team stick to the mold of Ultron as we know him, a corruptible and despicable technological force who will prove to the be prevalent menace if a series pans out. I also really enjoyed watching the original Thor talk to his daughter Torrum in the climax; it’s a surprisingly touching moment that may sell me on watching this with my nephew.