In the nightmarish netherworld of
horror, there's often a fine line between something simply scary and
something truly disturbing that rattles your core. Witness this
unsettling new A Nightmare On Elm Streetfan film titled In Dreams, created by amateur Italian moviemakers Silvio Marotta and Cristian Tomassini for the Anima Film SRL production company.
This six-minute, grindhouse-style
fright film is a nerve-jangling tribute to the original 1984 classic
written and directed by the late Wes Craven, who delivered the initial
horrific offering before the franchise became a bit of a pun-tastic camp
fest with the numerous sequels. Marotta and Tomassini completed the
entire eerie project in eight days in honor of their horror-master hero,
Craven, and the results are most impressive.
Be mindful that this is a no-budget labor of love shot in less time than it takes to properly binge-watch three seasons of Castlevania,
so open your eyes wide and enter into its somnambulistic sensations.
What these horror enthusiasts lacked in fat production funds they more
than made up for in the short's supreme sense of dread, creepy SFX, and
haunting soundscape. One, two, Freddy's coming for you!
Video of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2020 new movie: IN DREAMS
"The project was born entirely by chance," Tomassini tells SYFY
WIRE. "Silvio Marotta contacted me saying that he had just ordered a
Freddy Krueger mask online and that he wanted photos of him while
wearing it. He’s a huge Nightmare fan. As soon as I saw him all
dressed up as Freddy I said to myself, why don't we make a fan film?
With little money, quickly, let's see what we can do! I was involved in
this Anima Film for the whole production. We make commercials and
company videos in the everyday life, but we never dared to make a fan
film."
Tomassini, his partner Marco Businaro, and director of photography Beniamino Gelain, decided to give In Dreams
a slick '80s style — not in the American way, though, but in an Italian
fashion employing handcrafted inventions, dirty camera movements, and
more than a little bit of craziness.
Credt: In Dreams/YouTube
Italian horror films over the decades have long been noted for their
dark gothic beauty, innovative cinematography, and a surreal visual
style that distinguishes them from more traditional fright films
emanating from the U.K. and America.
Directors like Mario Bava in the '60s (The Mask of Satan, Black Sabbath) and Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria) in the '70s punctuated their classic films with haunting shades of black-and-white and violent flashes of technicolor gore.
Credit: In Dreams/Anima Films
"This is obviously an homage, a tribute to one of the most iconic
films in the history of genre cinema," Tomassini explains. "You can't do
a remake or a sequel to a movie like A Nightmare on Elm Street,
you could only do it worse than the original. So often these fan films
are more rewarding because they are raw. There is nothing to lose in
making them. So you invent new things without being afraid, like for
example using a Freddy Krueger with an Italian accent like we did. The
special effects of In Dreams are all handcrafted, and are
deliberately fake. But they make you smile. They work in their own way
because they're not afraid of being cheap. Once again, it's all Italian
cinema craftsmanship."
Credit: Anima Films
Tomassini and Marotta mined the rich history of their country's
horror heritage to craft an exemplary fan film that delivers on every
level. Actor Alicia Shortman plays the tortured teen, Cheyenne, whose
sleepwalking habits lead her into a hellish dungeon where her dying
mother is resurrected as a demented wraith, and the specter of "the
gloved one," Freddy Krueger, is lurking just beyond the veil of reality.
Let's hope we see more from this talented film crew.
"Silvio Marotta has written a complete 100-page script for a possible
sequel," Tomassini reveals. "What you see in the short film is just a
small piece."
Video of A Nightmare on Elm Street in 2 Minutes | SYFY WIRE
Italian horror films over the decades have long been noted for their
dark gothic beauty, innovative cinematography, and a surreal visual
style that distinguishes them from more traditional fright films
emanating from the U.K. and America.
"This is obviously an homage, a tribute to one of the most iconic
films in the history of genre cinema," Tomassini explains. "You can't do
a remake or a sequel to a movie like A Nightmare on Elm Street,
you could only do it worse than the original. So often these fan films
are more rewarding because they are raw. There is nothing to lose in
making them. So you invent new things without being afraid, like for
example using a Freddy Krueger with an Italian accent like we did. The
special effects of In Dreams are all handcrafted, and are
deliberately fake. But they make you smile. They work in their own way
because they're not afraid of being cheap. Once again, it's all Italian
cinema craftsmanship."
Tomassini and Marotta mined the rich history of their country's
horror heritage to craft an exemplary fan film that delivers on every
level. Actor Alicia Shortman plays the tortured teen, Cheyenne, whose
sleepwalking habits lead her into a hellish dungeon where her dying
mother is resurrected as a demented wraith, and the specter of "the
gloved one," Freddy Krueger, is lurking just beyond the veil of reality.
Let's hope we see more from this talented film crew.
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