Nightmares in Red, White and Blue... NOW!

It's here! It's Alive!

Writer/producer Joseph Maddrey (Survive This! A Haunting, The House Between) teases his upcoming 2009 documentary on a century of American horror films over at the movie's new web site.

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film is Joe's labor of love, a feature-length work adapted from his 2004 reference book of the same name (which I reviewed here before I knew Joe very well, or had worked with him.)

Over the months, I've kept up with Joe's progress as he conducted a variety of interviews with horror movie legends including John Carpenter, George Romero, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Roger Corman, Mick Garris, Tom McLoughlin and more.

The documentary is narrated by Millennium's Lance Henriksen, who does a terrific job. I was fortunate enough to receive a screening copy of the film a few weeks ago, and actually -- in my humble opinion -- this is one of the best documentary on horror films yet made.

I'm not just saying that because I happen to know and like Joe, or because I was able to give him a hand on the project here and there (most notably with my extensive archive of film photographs...and a few on-screen quotes...), but because it happens to be the truth.

Here's why: most genre docs tend to just hit the "hot" spots -- the famous movies we already know about-- and that's not the case at all here. On the contrary, Joe's documentary is incredibly detailed, and the interviews with the horror luminaries are more than just informative; they go into genuine depth. Joe made a very smart decision early on: he prepared good questions for his interviewees and then let the horror "stars" answer them at length, without interruption. The results speak for themselves.

The decade-by-decade outline of the documentary (carried over from Joe's book), serves the production well. It not only provides context, but gives the interviewees the opportunity to discuss genre films that they love, not just the films they made. There's a funny little section involving George A. Romero discussing the Howard Hawks' version of The Thing, for instance.

In other words, just imagine John Carpenter, Romero, Cohen or Dante giving a lecture about horror movie history...

Anyway, enough of my blabbing. Head on over to the site, and watch the preview, read about the project, check out the links, and so on.

I'm eagerly awaiting the official release on this one...