New Line memories

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In '85 and '86 I worked for New Line Cinema as a freelance publicist on both coasts. A little Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, a little Critters, a little in-house p.r. writing. I worked out of my home in Los Angeles, and worked at New Line's offices on Eighth Avenue for a period after that. In one sense it was a warm and familial place to be (my co-workers included a very young Mike DeLuca and producer Janet Grillo), and in another sense it had a dark neurotic vibe.

I grew up under the domain of an alcoholic dad, and can tell you that I felt the same disturbed, frazzled, self-loathing aura. But at the same time I was relieved that New Line wasn't a chilly corporate place. Everybody felt, fed into or responded to the New Line vibe. Everyone worked hard, and no one was without their flawed, emotional, anxious and passionate moments. It was a very human place to be. I kind of loved it.

I worked hard and well for New Line, but they eventually canned me because they thought I was too full of my own juice and didn't pay enough attention to proscribed boundaries. My biggest accomplishment was selling the idea of Freddy Krueger (as played by Robert Englund) becoming a kind of midnight-show cult figure among horror fans. (I'll never forget marching up Fifth Avenue with Englund in Manhattan's Halloween Night parade.)

The Nightmare om Elm Street films became a profitable franchise for New Line, and I was the first guy to sell the idea of Freddy's cult coolness to pulse-takers like N.Y. Times feature writer Aljean Harmetz and Entertainment Tonight segement producer Pete Hammond.

I'm mentioning all this because the independent New Line is toast now, and because I was part of the team before it came big and flush and everyone cashed in/out and went swanky. Thank God in heaven I wasn't there during the Lord of the Rings era.

In a 3.1. N.Y. Times obituary, critic A.O. Scott writes that "it's not for me to argue the merits of the decision to snuff out New Line's independence. The dissolution of one corporate entity by another is rarely an occasion for sentiment, except perhaps among stockholders. But New Line Cinema was a link between the smooth, conglomerated present and a gamier, more entrepreneurial past. Mr. Shaye may live like Hollywood royalty, but his roots are in New York retail and in the nervy, disreputable world of grindhouses and exploitation pictures.

"[Shaye] was the man who made the 1930s drug-scare propaganda movie Reefer Madness into a staple of the late-'60s campus counterculture. He picked up, on the cheap, North American rights to Bruce Lee movies, and he helped turn John Waters's Pink Flamingos into a cult classic. And let's not forget Freddy Krueger of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 3, 2008 at 10:49 AM

comment #1

JD says ...

Jeff actually appears in an extra on the 2006 DVD of A Nightmare on Elm St. Has anyone else seen this?

Posted by JD at March 3, 2008 12:14 PM

comment #2

mutinyco says ...

"You are all my children now..."

Posted by mutinyco at March 3, 2008 12:24 PM

comment #3

berg says ...

New Line started out distributing films for people who get high and see movies ... Reefer Madness ... fast forward to 2008 ... Harold and Kumar

Posted by berg at March 3, 2008 12:26 PM

comment #4

scooterzz says ...

wells-- i've always wondered how new line publicity staff was instructed to handle the gay aspects of 'nightmare 2' back in the day...was it off-limits or embraced?...or even an issue?...

also, btw.... it was just announced that deluca is going to participate in the las vegas junket for his movie '21'.....i'm guessin' there will be a lot more 'new line' talk than '21' talk.....

Posted by scooterzz at March 3, 2008 12:29 PM

comment #5

Abbey Normal says ...

Help yourself...FUCKER!

Posted by Abbey Normal at March 3, 2008 12:33 PM

comment #6

Edward says ...

I never thought about it til now, but Freddy was such a reprehensible character. The murderer of children who is killed by vengeful parents and yet he's become this fun, evil cult character. That's some marketing.

Posted by Edward at March 3, 2008 12:39 PM

comment #7

BurmaShave says ...

I've been very interested to hear what DeLuca has to say about this.

Posted by BurmaShave at March 3, 2008 12:44 PM

comment #8

Craptastic says ...

I'm with ya Scooterzz... next to Brokeback, Nightmare 2 is one of the most homoerotic mainstream films I've ever seen.

It's a good question, Wells. Was that ever discussed?

Posted by Craptastic at March 3, 2008 12:49 PM

comment #9

Mumbleboy says ...

mutinyco: I had the same exact quote in my head when I saw the posted pic. And I'm not one who can quote many films, even the ones I've seen multiple times.

Thanks to Wells for pushing the Freddy brand. My favorite horror icon of them all.

Posted by Mumbleboy at March 3, 2008 1:01 PM

comment #10

Wrecktum says ...

I thought the red head in Elm Street 2 was smoking hot back in the day. Of course, I was just a little kid with raging hormones, so I might have been wrong. I just remember that I was pissed that she didn't get naked. So long ago.....

Posted by Wrecktum at March 3, 2008 1:26 PM

comment #11

High Chaparral says ...

Respect to Wells. It took another 15 years for DeLuca to be canned for the same reason!

Posted by High Chaparral at March 3, 2008 1:54 PM

comment #12

Dzayson says ...

I've seen the Wells footage from the Freddy DVD. Having read his thread-counting propaganda for years now, I was shocked to see him pop up in the special features for movie that appeals to the most base aspects of the mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers it was intended for.

Posted by Dzayson at March 3, 2008 1:56 PM

comment #13

Spicer says ...

Did DeLuca greenlight LOTR before he got canned?

Posted by Spicer at March 3, 2008 2:13 PM

comment #14

CinemaPhreek says ...

I've never liked the NIGHTMARE films for the simple reason they broke their own rules for cheap/lazy "surprises." A horror film has to abide by its own rules, because otherwise why care what happens to the characters if they really have no chance to survive?

The ending of the first one was a pathetic attempt to duplicate the ending of FRIDAY THE 13TH, which scared the shit out of everyone when it came out because it earned the right to. NIGHTMARE's message seemed to be "Fuck you assholes, it's our film and we can do whatever we want to get a scare."

Posted by CinemaPhreek at March 3, 2008 2:14 PM

comment #15

CinemaPhreek says ...

I nominate the following as the most unintentionally ironic thing anyone is likely to say this week (barring politicos' statements Tuesday night):

"My biggest accomplishment was selling the idea of Freddy Krueger (as played by Robert Englund) becoming a kind of midnight-show cult figure ..... Thank God in heaven I wasn't there during the Lord of the Rings era."

Posted by CinemaPhreek at March 3, 2008 2:19 PM

comment #16

Rich S. says ...

I could be remembering this wrong, but I seem to recall that they rushed out Nightmare 2 before they realized what they had. It vanished without a trace. But then they put it in re-release after word of mouth had spread on the first one.

They got progressively sillier as they went on, but the first one still has some genuine shocks. And it's got the immortal John Saxon, which is nice...

Posted by Rich S. at March 3, 2008 2:29 PM

comment #17

PerfectTommy says ...

I did enjoy "Critters". (Even "Critters 2", didn't make it beyond that. More sad Oscar ommisions.)
Thought it was more funny than scary, I did get a good fright from the first one after the film. My friends and I walked home in the dark to my second story apartment. There was an outside stairway to the door and when we came to the bottom of the stairway a hairy creature came bounded down the stairs and past us. It must have been a cat or a raccoon or an oppossum. But at that moment, we all would have sworn it was a "Critter".

Posted by PerfectTommy at March 3, 2008 2:41 PM

comment #18

Edward Havens says ...

Fuck Bob Shaye and fuck New Line. Troma forever! :)

But seriously for a second. Fuck Bob Shaye and fuck New Line. Shaye should be kissing the ground every Time Warner CEO walked on for the past decade. New Line could have easily been absorbed into Warner Brothers anytime in the past decade, even when Ted Turner's opinion still mattered for something and especially after the merger with AOL, when TW needed to do some serious belt-tightening.

In the end, New Line gave us John Waters, two great Freddy Kruger films (both directed by Wes Craven), Peter Jackson's second act, Se7en, Dark City... and a bunch of bad Freddy Kruger films, a bunch of bad Critters films, two woefully inept Bob Shaye movies that make the oeuvre of Joe Roth look like classics in comparison, Lost in Space, Paul Thomas Anderson, Chris Tucker, and worse of all, Brett fucking Ratner. Not exactly a glowing epitaph. I gave up on them many years ago, shortly after the strobe-light logo was replaced.

Posted by Edward Havens at March 3, 2008 2:51 PM

comment #19

oakling says ...

And I thought Sweeney Todd was disturbing!

I do love movies that don't have background music telling us what to feel...

Posted by oakling at March 3, 2008 2:55 PM

comment #20

oakling says ...

doh. I got confused about what I was commenting on! that was meant for glenn kenny's entry about 10 rillington place. ignore me please!

Posted by oakling at March 3, 2008 2:58 PM

comment #21

christian says ...

The first NOES is a true iconic horror classic, and before SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and BLAIR WITCH, the last movie to actually scare me in the theater.

The film is a bit sloppy with some dumb dialogue, but Craven is brilliant for tapping into primal fears using dreams. And for using Johnny Depp.

I love it when Tina sees Krueger for the first time and he starts bugfuck chasing her.

The sequels do not exist in my genre world.

Posted by christian at March 3, 2008 3:13 PM

comment #22

berg says ...

... " Bob Shaye movies that make the oeuvre of Joe Roth look like classics " ...

I will take Book of Love and Last Mimzy over Coupe De Ville and America's Sweethearts any day ...

Posted by berg at March 3, 2008 3:49 PM

comment #23

p.Vice says ...

Critters fucking rules.

Or, at least it did until I knew Wells was involved.

Critters fucking sucks!!!

Goddam krites.

Posted by p.Vice at March 3, 2008 5:55 PM

comment #24

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

As slasher serieses go, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise had the most consistent quality. Even at their worst, there'd be some kind of inventive dream kill or gross-out far more interesting than anything in the Jason or Michael sequels (keeping the same actor in the killer role may have been a big factor). And what other series of films can claim that part seven was one of the best?

Not to mention the line-up of directors involved over the years: Wes Craven, Renny Harlin, Rachel Talalay, Stephen Hopkins, Ronny Yu...not a bad list of alumni. (Jack Sholder, who did part 2, now teaches film at a small North Carolina university where my dad also teaches. He's probably jealous as hell at his fellow Nightmare grads)

Posted by Luke Y. Thompson at March 3, 2008 6:33 PM

comment #25

WinslowLeachtheComposer says ...

Didn't Friday the 13th rip of Carrie, as did every other horror movie at the time? Or were you referring to some other aspect of the ending?

Posted by WinslowLeachtheComposer at March 3, 2008 6:56 PM

comment #26

Josh Massey says ...

I prefer Nightmares 3 and 4 over 1 and 2.

Renny Harlin forever.

Posted by Josh Massey at March 3, 2008 7:47 PM

comment #27

le corbeau says ...

Wow, so that's what happened to Jack Sholder? I thought he was going to go places-- Alone in the Dark has some hilarious moments and marked the beginning of Martin Landau's comeback, The Hidden was an instant cult film and Renegades, though it has the ridiculous casting of two Brat Packers as world-weary cops, has one great car chase scene. I thought he'd break through at some point but instead... TV, Supernova and pfft.

Posted by le corbeau at March 3, 2008 8:45 PM

comment #28