FINALLY! The rest of the damn year is just filler, I swear to god. I’ve been waiting for this since November 1st.
Every year, I try to watch at least one horror movie a day and then write a micro-review on social media about it. In the past it was Facebook, but this year I’ll be reviewing on Twitter. I do love a challenge.
There was no better way to start this year’s marathon than at the Mile High Horror Film Festival at the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton. I bought my ticket yesterday to a memorial screening of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street. Funny thing is, I had not seen this movie until tonight. Horror fan that I am, I’m pretty ashamed of this fact. So I was in for a huge treat (and a few spoilers) when the movie’s final girl, Heather Langenkamp, gave an interview via Skype before the screening.
Fellow audience members had some good questions and statements, the best of which I think came from Jeffrey Reddick (creator of the Final Destination franchise). He asked how she felt to have played Nancy – one of the first proactive Final Girls in horror – a character who stood up, fought back, and wasn’t just a victim of circumstance.
I was a tiny bit disappointed with Langenkamp’s answer at first because she tried to get away from the gender distinction, but she made a provocative point when she said, “All of us can identify with Nancy because Wes made her so universal, and very few women in film are written as such a universal type.”
Now this interests me because I’m wondering what exactly the character’s universality is. Is her will to survive what’s missing from female characters in film? After watching the movie, I think it would be more accurate to say that Nancy’s universality is expressed in her refusal of victimhood; in her actions to take back her power. Not all of us stand up to our bullies, but all of us who have bullies would certainly like to.
“All the four teenagers represent one person. All of us have these aspects, and parts of us want to avoid dealing with the truth. Some do destructive things, others try to get at the truth. You have to figure out how to face this fear and get through it.
When I hear people say Nancy was an amazing final girl… Well, she’s an essence of something Wes thought all of us have. Wes really believed we all have this characteristic in ourselves to face the truth, and I believe the reason this story has lived on as long as it has is that Nancy stands in for that.”
– Heather Langenkamp, Mile High Horror Film Festival 2015
A truly fantastic experience. I can’t wait for the rest of the weekend!
BLOG OF RHIANNIMATOR 