Heather Langenkamp returns to Elm Street

Heather Langenkamp leads two very different lives: one as a wife, mother, and business owner in L.A., the other as one of the most popular guests on the horror convention circuit.

Her next stop is this week's Days of the Dead convention, held Friday through Sunday at the Wyndham Indianapolis West, where she will present her new documentary, I Am Nancy. As in Nancy Thompson, the girl of Freddy Krueger's nightmares.

Langenkamp battled the razor-gloved dream stalker throughout her career, appearing in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Dream Warriors, and of course, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Now, after riding the wave of horror fandom, she brings audiences her own view of the macabre world in which horror heroine Nancy thrived.

I Am Nancy follows Langenkamp around five horror conventions in North America and Europe as she explores her role in the Elm Street phenomenon amidst all the Freddy Krueger mania.

As a statement, I Am Nancy is more than Langenkamp's identification as an iconic character of modern horror; it encompasses an attitude she hopes others will adopt when confronting their fears.

"Nancy was really courageous and direct in how she wanted to handle Freddy. That response to fear is really rare," Langenkamp said. "Most of us are just totally in denial about the stuff that's really gonna get us. So, my thesis in the documentary is: Let's all be more like Nancy. Let's try to look at our lives and fears with eyes wide open."

Much to her humble surprise, Langenkamp found fans doing exactly that, using Nancy as a vessel to overcome their own obstacles. A particularly poignant moment in the documentary features a fan confessing how A Nightmare on Elm Street helped her recover from a terrible accident.

It was therapeutic, she says, "to watch someone other than me going through a nightmare" -- a true testament to the cathartic power of the horror genre and what Langenkamp considers a perfect explanation of the overall appeal of film.

"Being able to watch somebody else go through a really sad, painful, or hideous situation makes your life look a little better for that hour and a half," she said.

I Am Nancy has a similar effect, only it makes the horror world look better.

"It puts a human and much less scary face on the genre," Langenkamp said.

The documentary is an affectionate portrait of the crazy convention world Langenkamp "dips her toe into" once or twice a year. She remains active in Hollywood, albeit behind-the-scenes as owner and operator (with husband David Leroy Anderson) of AFX Studio. The special effects makeup firm has appeared in horror films like 2004's Dawn of the Dead as well as Oscar-nominated fare like Cinderella Man and Frost/Nixon.

Langenkamp will be signing autographs and answering questions following the film's premiere, 8 p.m., this Friday, July 1. It's one of the headlining films in Days of the Dead's weekend-long Fangoria Film Festival.

To coincide with the I Am Nancy screening, world-renowned prop enthusiast Mike Becker will debut his Nightmare on Elm Street museum, featuring dozens of items used in the series, including Freddy's deadly glove, which was, of course, no match for Nancy's perseverance, a quality imparted to her fans.

"Using the way she is with Freddy -- always fighting, always tackling head on, not going out the easy way -- is our Nancyness," Langenkamp said.

For more information about the convention, visit http://www.daysofthedead.net/. And for more on I Am Nancy, see http://www.iamnancy.net/.

This article was previously pubished in the 6.29.11 issue of NUVO Newsweekly.

HorrorHound 2010

I'm going to share my convention diaries in chronological order. So, without further ado, I present my first horror convention experience at HorrorHound 2010 in Indianapolis...

HorrorHound Weekend, March 26-28, 2010

For a long time, there was no sense of magic, discovery, and most importantly, fun in horror films. Instead, there were deep, depressing forays into the human psyche (The Ring, The Orphanage, Joshua, etc.). Horror films lost their innocence. They were grim and uncompromising -- no longer about making viewers jump and laugh in terror, but about inflicting nightmares and shaking people to their core. The genre was stripped down to its bloody essence with films like Saw and Hostel -- sadistically simple displays of violence that were often as torturous and painful to watch as the brutal acts their characters had to endure.

The HorrorHound convention (at the Indianapolis Marriott East) is the perfect antidote to this disturbing side of the horror genre world. It revives an old-fashioned sense of fun. Costumed fans danced around me playfully like children on Halloween.

I felt a strange sense of comfort at this event, as if I could walk up to anyone and start joking around. In fact, many people there seem to want you to do exactly that. Even the celebrities were approachable and eager to engage in conversation. Actor Tom Noonan (Manhunter, Last Action Hero) seemed disappointed when fans only spoke to him briefly (I was one of those nervous many).

The major celebrity there was George A. Romero, the master behind such classics as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead -- the films that gave birth to the zombie genre.

If these films, and the people behind them, are so fun, why are the films they inspired often not? Why are modern directors like Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) offering such bleak, painful visions? Something to think about as you roam the campy, retro rooms of the convention.

Go to HorrorHound if you get the chance -- it's a unique experience.

Note: This blog entry was previously posted on http://www.nuvo.net/.

Greetings, fellow horror fanatics

Deep down, I've always loved horror films. When I was a wee lad, I would break off from my parents in the video store to sneak a peek at the horror section. Scanning the sinister collection was like opening Pandora's Box--and watching the films was a rite of passage. Kids always want what they can't have, so I was desperate for a taste of the forbidden fruit that was the horror genre.

As I grew older and explored other genres, my interest in horror became less overt. However, I currently find myself nestled in the bosom of the horror community, writing profiles of local horror filmmakers and previews of horror conventions for Indianapolis' NUVO Newsweekly. It seems that fate intervened. I must be a natural born horror fanatic.

I want to share that passion with all of you. So, in this blog, I will post interviews with local horror filmmakers, my horror convention diary, essays about the genre itself, and more. So, follow me, if you dare. Don't be afraid of the dark...