Nightmare Factory (2011)

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This documentary offers a behind the scenes look at the life of Greg Nicotero, a celebrated special effects makeup artist in Hollywood who I know of solely from The Walking Dead but was surprised to learn how many other movies he's been involved with. His Oscar award winning production team (KNB Effects) is basically responsible for any make up and creature effects seen in the last 25 years.Greg himself tells his story here in a "Behind The Music" kind of way. Starting at the beginning with teenage home (monster) movies, his childhood influences, how he got started in the business, the 80's metal-hair days and including tons of behind the scenes footage from movies he's worked on and interviews with assorted directors and actors. Horror, fantasy, zombie, gore and animatronics, If your a horror fan than you'll love this, actually even if your not, its super interesting seeing behind the scenes into so many popular movies. 07.13

This film is about KNB Effects and the guys who created this successful company that specializes in special effects and makeup in films. The best part of the movie is the first half--when it focuses on a few guys who had a love for horror films and horror effects when this sort of thing was in its infancy. Starting with a break from George Romero (of the Living Dead films), the men progressed to better and more spectacular projects as the years passed. And, not surprisingly, they began to receive awards and recognition for the things they created for movies--things that had never been seen or done before that time. I loved this first portion of the film. Afterwards, however, the film lost a bit of focus and then bounced around a little--showing various special effects tricks, more interviews with the men and never really maintaining as tight a focus as it had before. Now isn't to say this part is bad--it's just that by comparison the film lags a bit.

NIGHTMARE FACTORY, like THE SCI-FI BOYS, is one of those documentaries I could just sit and watch over and over without ever really getting bored. That's due, in no small part, to the fact that I was exactly like a lot of the people profiled in these documentaries- with one glaring distinction: I grew up in Abject Poverty, so the odds were always against my doing anything that required even a minimal outlay. I tried to WRITE my way into filmmaking, but things never quite worked out the way I'd hoped (although I DID get a response from George Romero, thanks to people like Forrest J. Ackerman and Bob Michelucci). Another problem I've always encountered: a lack of real interest on the part of any of the people I've known (I finally ran into a fellow comic book fan some years ago and we talked on the phone so much that his wife began to suspect something was up- there wasn't, of course- but even that friendship proved temporary: I haven't seen the guy in a year and a half, now; he grew "sick" of my "s***," he said). It's good to know that I'm not alone in this world when it comes to being a "fanboy." It's also good to know that some of Us make it Big in the end.

Just seen this at a horror festival (like, literally a few hours ago at the end of a very long night of other films) and was blown away at how absorbing I found the whole thing from start to finish. It's always fascinating to listen to anyone talking about any subject they are honestly passionate about, but these guys just appear to be a history of horror from 1980 to the present day in and of themselves, as well as an impressive gamut of non-horror films from the last 20 years. The directors they have worked with, the projects they have worked on, and the skill they bring to the craft are all on show in this brilliant bit of documentary filmmaking and make it worth watching whether you are interested in the craft, history, or just expanding general horror knowledge. I'm deducting one mark simply because I would have liked more detail on the evolving mix of traditional model making and CGI in new horror films even though it was touched on, as well as a bit more detail on some of their past projects that have since become genre set-pieces or examplars of the craft, but that may have made a 3hr doc and may not have been the directors intention. But besides, utterly compelling, even to someone who did not expect much and was exhausted at the viewing!