Jared McMillan // Film Critic
With the many streaming options now available to go with wide releases, it’s good to know about the smaller titles in case they are better entertainment options for your budget. Even now, with the summer movie calendar in full swing, a couple of horror options have hit streaming this week that you can check out all from the comfort of your couch, starting with…
BROOKLYN 45
Not rated, 92 min.
Available today on Shudder.
It’s December 1945. A group of childhood friends comes together at the behest of Clive “Hock” Hockstatter (Larry Fessenden). Not only are they childhood friends, but they’re military vets fresh off of WWII. Marla (Anne Ramsey) is a former interrogator of Nazis, married to a Pentagon staffer in Bob (Ron E. Rains). Hock was a Lieutenant Colonel, where Arch (Jeremy Holm) and Paul (Ezra Buzzington) served under their friend. Hock has had a rough time since his wife committed suicide, so they’ve all come over to help lift his spirits. Only, unbeknownst to them, their evening will involve a different kind of spirit.
Directed by Ted Geoghegan (WE ARE STILL HERE, MOHAWK), BROOKLYN 45 quickly becomes a ghost story, as Hock tells people his reason for bringing everybody here is to perform a séance so he can speak to his dead wife and make sure she wasn’t damned due to committing suicide. As they embark on this ritual, a shocking turn of events lets the audience know that the spirit isn’t the only thing they need to be afraid of. One by one, each of them brings to light circumstances that they have tried to keep buried in their past and their true colors that take their friendship to the ultimate threshold.
A few things make Geoghegan’s film wholly unique and elevate the material for the audience. The most noticeable factor is that the movie is a chamber piece, meaning it takes place in one location. Not only is it in one location, but it’s also in one room, as they are trapped due to breaking the séance circle. It’s a great move to help elicit a claustrophobic tension that envelops the story as it moves passed ghost story cliches, almost acting like an emotional guide for the viewer.
This tension carries as the story progresses, and we get to the emotional core of BROOKLYN 45, as everyone realizes they can’t just brush off the trappings of war. Marla wants to forget all of the torture she’s had to give; Arch wants to forget a heinous crime he’s committed; and Paul clings to his duty with voracious hate, bound to Hock and his whims. Geoghegan weaves in the scares and the horror of the ghost in the room because it’s secondary to the horrors of their reality, paranoia, and fears. Because sometimes the skeletons in the closet are actually what’s haunting you.
Grade: B+
HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY
Not rated, 134 min.
Now streaming on Screambox and available on Digital.
If you’re a horror fan, there’s no way you don’t know who Robert Englund is in this genre. The man behind arguably the most famous cinematic killer, Freddy Krueger, Englund’s journey before and after the role that gained him notoriety is certainly arduous.
HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES offers a detailed experience of the life of Robert Englund, starting with his childhood and his expectations growing up and how he discovered acting, much to the chagrin of his father. Once Englund gets the acting bug, he does everything in theater in high school and college before making his way to Hollywood.
Documentaries like HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES are interesting in that the person of subject is still alive. Not only his he alive but Englund provides a lot of backstory and commentary about his filmography. So, it’s a little disjointing initially because documentaries aren’t really a first-person account. Often, it is just clips, some way to accentuate the storytelling, and secondhand evidence from friends and family. The movie does these things (the animation they use to add to his recollection is nice), but there’s an added feature in predominantly hearing from Englund.
As the movie goes on through Englund’s career, with guests like his wife Nancy Booth, Heather Langenkamp (who played Nancy in the Elm Street franchise), former VFX/makeup crew, etc., we get additional tidbits from Englund’s perspective. It’s incredibly revealing how he is as a working actor and consults with his directors to help him change mannerisms from shot to shot, especially as Freddy. It’s also interesting to hear about missing out on STAR WARS, but it led him to the miniseries V (1983), leading him to get the role of a lifetime.
Another refreshing aspect is how he is committed and not at all bitter about being typecast and what some might call relegated to the horror genre. Englund embraces it, going to various cons to sign autographs and take pics with the fans. It would’ve been nice to dig a little deeper into the convention circuit aspects and see how much time he invests with the fans, and at times it does feel like we’re just going through his filmography. But HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES does well to give Englund’s fans a better appreciation of the man behind the glove.
Grade: B-
