Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare (1976)

Best movie of this year hands down!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

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

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This film is an Alice Cooper concert at the Wembley Arena in London from 1975. It probably does help to be a fan of Alice Cooper to watch this film (in the same way as people who dislike ballet will probably not care that they have just seen a really good ballet because it will still do nothing for them). However I watched it partly out of curiosity but also because I am always curious to see how films play when they are not being watched by their target audience. In other words I always assume that a genre film will do the basics to please genre fans but what marks it out is how it plays to audience who have a more general requirement. The parallel is perhaps not great but essentially I was interested to see if the concert was "just for fans" or if it worked for the casual viewer as well.Well, for me it sort of did but probably not in the way that it will work for fans. In my experience of the man (much later in his career) Cooper was always a rocker with a sense of flamboyance, being OTT and not taking it too seriously. I know a few of his songs but his best are behind him by decades and it is only really the couple of biggest hits that get regular airings that the casual viewer will take from this film. What made it worth seeing for my money was the sense of period.The show itself is a wonderfully camp rock concert that made me understand just what it was that Spinal Tap was spoofing. The show is set in Cooper's bedroom where we have creatures dancing around only to disappear into a massive toy box, skeletons coming out during Steven, him beating a woman unconscious during "Only Women Bleed", a giant spider's web, a big furry Cyclops and other weird moments that make up his stage show. It is a million miles away from the modern rock concerts where songs are performed, pyrotechnics explode and those who are about to rock are saluted etc. Within these weird happenings on stage, Cooper is a good fit. Dressed in a sort of adult romper suit and in his famous black eye makeup Cooper staggers round totally bought into the action he is part of. OK at times I was laughing and unable to take it seriously but to a point I guess that was the aim.The production of the film as well as the action dates it as it is obviously not up to modern standards. The sound is not as crisp as you would like, which didn't bother me too much but what did bug me was the fact that it had comparatively little crowd noise on the soundtrack. Similarly the crowd are mostly missing visually and I would have liked to see more crowd shots just to get a feel for how all this stuff was going down with them – it was only in School's Out where we got to see and hear them, which suggests their reactions up till that point had perhaps not been good enough to make it onto the film. Otherwise the action is filmed from several well placed but mostly static cameras – quality is a bit fuzzy but it comes with the territory.Overall then a strangely enjoyable concert film. It goes without saying that Cooper fans will enjoy it but for the casual viewer it is a wonderfully weird concert that delights as a camp throwback to rock of the day. Sure, at times you're laughing at it but mostly it is entertaining.

Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare album was a classic, and his supporting tour was amazing, yet the video documenting that tour is downright awful. As interesting as the tour might have been, the video and audio quality on the tape are so horrible that viewers will have a hard time deciding which song is playing and figuring out if the colorful frogman running around on stage is Alice Cooper, a dancer or a band member. As provocative as the video may be, considering it was one of his most entertaining tours ever, fans should be advised that Welcome to My Nightmare is a complete waste of money and is not even worth attempting to watch. If only the concert had been filmed with higher quality equipment, it just might have been his best video release yet.

I seen this one a couple of years ago, and it is always fun to watch. Alice Cooper made this as a last ditch attempt to rise his career from the ashes after the classic Alice Cooper Band dissolved. Producer Bob Ezrin was a major ingredient in this production as well, showing how he uses some elements that were not common in the rock and roll vein. He uses these elements later on for future high profile projects such as Pink Floyd's The Wall and Kiss Destroyer. Cooper and Ezrin came up with Welcome To My Nightmare, the album and broadway play. The main theme is Alice portraying a demented individual named Steven, who displays an array of emotions such as amusement, confusion, anger, and mostly fear. Steven encounters trolls, giant spiders, a giant cyclops, and dances like Fred Astaire. This play incorporates the "Nightmare" music as well as some Alice Cooper Classics. I don't know if calling it a "play" is too accurate (I used it for lack of a better term), it is more like several music videos back to back, as there is hardly any dialogue between numbers. "concert" may not be an accurate word either, due to the concept involved. This production was unique for it's day. It has a demented aura from start to almost finish (the last 2 songs were too upbeat to follow through the theme).Alice does a great job portraying Steven. Alice Cooper was an "alter ego" of sorts to Vincent Furnier (Alice's real name), and Steven appears to be an additional alter ego of his as well in a professional sense. I know this all sounds like mumbo-jumbo, but to an Alice Cooper fan it all makes sense.Interesting to note:Alice Cooper met his future wife during the making of "Nightmare."A lot about "Nightmare" as well as Alice's full career was outlined in a VH1 Behind the Music episode. Definitely worth watching if you liked "Nightmare."

I was surprised that nobody bothered to comment on this film... so I thought I should say just a few words to make a start."Welcome To my Nightmare", a concert recording from 1975, is really enjoyable to watch. It is a must for every Alice Cooper fan and it is worth a try for everybody who loves classic rock music and/or horror films!Never take anything too serious and you might enjoy it the most - I guess Alice Cooper does not take himself too serious and is proud of his bad taste.The concert includes some of his hits and well-known classics like "Only Women Bleed", "Steven" and "School's Out", of course. There's something for everybody. The show is designed after old horror movies or is at least heavily inspired by them and sometimes it gets quite bizarre, but that's part of the fun. It may look old-fashioned to some people - that is a question of personal taste...I can also recommend the film "Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper" from the Billion Dollar Babies Tour. :)