Release date: May 1st, 2011
Certificate : Exempt
Running time: 120 minutes
Director: Arlene Marechal
Producer: Heather Langenkamp
Cast: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Wes Craven
When you first found out Wes was bringing you back for New Nightmare, was your reaction more of excitement or surprise?
I never knew it but now that I’ve talked to him about it, he always thought that Nancy was the centre of his story. It wasn’t this typical horror movie where you’re going to kill off everybody. He knew that she was the heart and soul of Nightmare On Elm Street so I think it made a lot of sense for him to bring her back, but I didn’t know all of this until recently, after conducting my own interviews with him and asking him myself.”
You and Arlene took to the road, filming at conventions with fans and interviewing them for I Am Nancy. You must have heard some amazing stories and met some incredible people, was there one in particular that stood out for you?
Everyone who sees the movie says she’s the highpoint for them because she’s delightful and she just expresses what the Nancy spirit is all about. Wes calls it Nanciness, and I love that he used that word because Jude is the perfect embodiment of Nanciness. I couldn’t have wished for someone to say the things that she said because when you make a documentary you don’t know what’s going to happen and for some people that’s the frustration because you want someone to say A, B and C but then they say X, W and Z and you don’t know what to do with that. We always said that whatever people bring us is what we’re supposed to put in the movie.
It’s very easy to relate to Jude because what she says is exactly what Nancy represents to many fans. I think that came across very well. Her story is definitely a high point.
Technically you don’t see much proof of Nancy out there at these conventions and that was the funny aspect I wanted to bring out. We don’t see much of her on the surface level but when you do get to know the fans who are so educated about this movie, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s extremely important to the fans. That was the question I was asking; why don’t we see more evidence of this and is it important to see it? In my own mind it’s not important to see the dolls, the toys, the buttons and the badges because I know deep down how important she is to everybody.”
Have you ever seen her as a gay icon?
I read a lot of these PhD thesis’ that talk about the final girl, sexuality and sexuality of horror… they’re kind of on to something but I don’t know if they’re onto the right thing. One theory goes that Nancy is not a particularly feminine hero; she’s not androgynous but she’s not scarily beautiful and as a result she can easily identified by both men and women and I don’t know if that’s the key to her popularity.
Well there are two types of gay icons aren’t there? The tragic martyred one and the popular idol.
The struggle that I see, once people are able to say who they are honestly with their family and friends, its almost like the hugest weight has been lifted from them. It’s not gone forever because they are constantly battling people’s prejudice. I notice, you can almost see it, once they have the power to confide who they really are, then they become incredibly powerful. In a way it’s kind of like Nancy; once she realises her power to fight Freddy in her dreams and actually make herself fall asleep to get there, so she can battle him there and not run away from him.
There’s other situations in life, like Jude, where she has her leg taken off in an auto accident and there’s a moment where she has to decide to I’m not going to be a victim and say poor me and sit in this wheelchair all my life. I’m going to say “whatever”, I’m not going to let it get me down, I’m gonna keep living my life as I want to live it. That experience is so universal and unfortunately everybody has to deal with it in a way that’s uncharted. There’s no map, no way to know what’s at the end of that bad dream.
In so many ways I think of teenagers who are shunned and bullied, I think about how bad their day must be sometimes, and how they don’t even know what tomorrow brings. So many victims of child abuse, all these bad things that can happen, I hope if they watch the movie they can go “hey, she can do it, I can do it!”… I can live another day, I just gotta set my fancy watch to get me out of that bad dream on time.”
I mentioned to Mark Patton that it was something I was going to ask you about and he asked if I was also going to approach the subject of the Lesbian Cult of Nancy! I had no idea there was one! Did you?
I wasn’t sure if it’s either very secretive or if Mark was pulling my leg!
Interview Part 1 | Interview Part 3
The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.
Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.
Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.
Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.
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