AllMovie

Filmmakers Andrew Monument and Joseph Maddrey offer a comprehensive history of the American horror film with this documentary that opens with a reflection on Thomas Edison's Frankenstein, and traces the progression of the genre straight through to the 21st Century. Narrated by Lance Henriksen and based on the 2004 tome of the same name, Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue highlights the many intriguing parallels between the turbulent social history of the United States, and the ways in which filmmakers have continually used fiction to further explore the most pressing issues of the day. Interviewees Roger Corman, George A. Romero, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Brian Yuzna, Darren Lynn Bousman, Tony TImpone, and John Kenneth Muir speak at length about the connections between history and horror cinema, revealing that many genre filmmakers have secret agendas that go far beyond giving us goosebumps.