SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

bean-d This is a good documentary but not great. I wish the film had been organized according to chronological order, discussing the relationship between the history of the 1960s and '70s and numerous horror films. What we get,unfortunately, is a discussion with a few directors and a few select horror films ("Night of the Living Dead," "Shivers," "Last House on the Left," "Dawn of the Dead," "Halloween"). Those horror films are related to the decades in question, but I never felt as if we went beyond a surface exploration. I will admit, however, that I have read numerous books on horror film, so most 90-minute docs aren't going to be able to encapsulate my breadth of knowledge. However, if you're a horror fan, you'll probably enjoy this.

pizowell This documentary is an absolute treasure for any true horror film buff. Containing insightful interviews from film philosophers and sociologists analyzing films and the circumstances and reflections of the times in which they were made along with detailed and compelling interviews with such pioneering genre filmmakers as Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, George A. Romero, John Carpenter and others. The interview with Tom Savini in which he recalls gruesome instances from his tour in Vietnam is riveting, adding to the overall bleakness of the piece. Fascinating, thoughtful, chilling and ultimately unforgettable. I applaud director Adam Simon for assembling the components to pull off this highly analytical serenade to the most profound and influential horror films and filmmakers and his ability to do so with integrity and intelligence and an obvious love for the genre. Extra kudos for the Godspeed You Black Emperor soundtrack. Brilliant.

Michael DeZubiria You know, you really see movies differently when you hear the directors talking about what the movie meant to them or what they were trying to do with it. I really should watch more of those featurettes that come on the DVDs. I don't think I'll ever have the patience for audio commentaries, but the extra features on DVDs quite often have stuff like what you find in this outstanding documentary. Hearing the creators talk about their work really puts everything into a completely different perspective.I was especially surprised to see how affected most of them were by the Vietnam war, like Tom Savini, who served in the war and now does horror movie makeup, witnessed horrible atrocities and awful, bloody deaths, and then went on to incorporate those things into his movies. Kind of morbid, really, to think that he was an American soldier who, by his own words, would see dead bodies and would just detach himself from the immediacy and finality of it, and instead think more about how he could recreate something like that in a movie. Until I saw this documentary, I never once considered the idea of trying to recreate war deaths, at least by a soldier who is standing right there.Even directors who did not actually go to Vietnam were affected by the war, and it's amazing to see this powerful time in this country come across in what could easily be written off as just scary, gory horror movies. Good horror movies, but still nothing more than horror movies.In some of the clips that were shown, such as scenes from one of Wes Craven's first films, The Last House on the Left, I was amazed at how intense the horror is. I've been watching a lot of horror movies lately, things like the Friday the 13th movies, Nightmare on Elm Streets, Halloween, Child's Play, Texas Chainsaw, etc, and have started to think that I had just outgrown that sick feeling of fear and almost nausea that I would get as a kid just from walking around in the horror section, like the real raw horror movies turned into campy gore-fests by the time I got to the age I am now, but man, I must be going to the wrong video stores. There are some scenes shown in this movie that remind you what the real horror movies were like, back when they were meant to scare, not make tons of money. Back before the Japanese had to come in and show us how it's done, because we have obviously forgotten. Rob Zombie came out with House of 1000 Corpses last year, an underrated horror film that didn't set any box office records because it wasn't meant to. Like the directors in The American Nightmare, he is a lifelong horror fan and remembers what the real horror films were like. House of 1000 Corpses was his reminder to the world, now all these other directors are doing the same.While I loved hearing the directors talk about their movies and I loved watching all of the clips from their films, all the while trying to compile a mental list of movies that I need to rent, I have to say that I found the legitimacy of these horror films in the context of the society in which they were created to be the most interesting part. You don't really think about horror movies having too much social value or meaning, but these movies, as they say, are clearly a product of their environment. I found myself wondering at many points if we are going to see a new breed of horror directors eventually come home from Iraq

Gafke This is a serious look at some of the most groundbreaking and innovative horror films ever made. It is also incredibly graphic, disturbing and somewhat bleak and depressing, so consider yourselves warned. No hardcore fan of horror will want to miss this, but people with weak stomachs may not be able to take it.There are long and satisfyingly gruesome clips from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead & Dawn of the Dead, Last House on the Left, Shivers and many others, each accompanied by a look at what was happening in the world at the time they were made, and the bizarre ways in which art imitates life and vice versa. Gore Make-up Master Tom Savini has some amazing stories to tell about his time in Vietnam and how the atrocities he viewed through a camera later inspired his craft. There are also some wickedly clever moments here, as film footage of crazed shoppers are intercut with scenes from the zombie feeding frenzy in Dawn of the Dead. Nausea inducing moments include the rape and sadistic torture scenes from Last House on the Left, and an unflinching look at such real life horrors as Vietnam, the rioting following the King assassination, the Kent State Massacre and the Kennedy Assassination. The directors interviewed (Romero, Cronenberg, Carpenter, Hooper, Craven, etc) have some great stories to tell about their famous (and infamous) films, not only about how they were made, but also why, how they continue to inspire the current genre, what kind of an effect they had upon being released and how they reflect the times in which they were made. This is a totally engrossing documentary from start to finish that was sometimes hard to watch but which also seemed much too short. I didn't want it to end! VERY well done and highly recommended for hardcore fans.