before the year's close, and various squeals to slasher franchises were all in theaters at once. People lost interest due to such over-saturation, and the slasher film fell out of favor overnight.
At the decade's turn, it seemed that slasher movies were as washed-up as haunted house films; predictable and too cliche to be taken seriously. But Wes Craven, who gave the genre one of the most memorable villains Freddy Krueger (a dream dwelling murderer who torments people in their sleep), breathed new life into the well-worn A Nightmare on Elm Street films with a new angle; self-awareness.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare was released in 1994, ten years after the original, and rather than being a part of the franchise's story canon (this is technically the 7th in the series) is set in a fictionalized reality of our own, where the previous six films exist as films. The story centers around Heather Langenkamp (played by the real Heather Langenkamp), who is the actress who starred as the final girl Nancy Thompson in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street and is having to live with the fame of the successful franchise. She has married a special effects technician named Chase Porter (a completely fictional character) and they lead a fairly normal family life with their sensitive eight-year-old son Dylan (played by Miko Hughes)in Los Angeles. Heather has been being plagued recently by an obsessive fan who calls her on the phone and leaves cryptic notes in her mailbox on a nearly daily basis and has been
At the decade's turn, it seemed that slasher movies were as washed-up as haunted house films; predictable and too cliche to be taken seriously. But Wes Craven, who gave the genre one of the most memorable villains Freddy Krueger (a dream dwelling murderer who torments people in their sleep), breathed new life into the well-worn A Nightmare on Elm Street films with a new angle; self-awareness.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare was released in 1994, ten years after the original, and rather than being a part of the franchise's story canon (this is technically the 7th in the series) is set in a fictionalized reality of our own, where the previous six films exist as films. The story centers around Heather Langenkamp (played by the real Heather Langenkamp), who is the actress who starred as the final girl Nancy Thompson in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street and is having to live with the fame of the successful franchise. She has married a special effects technician named Chase Porter (a completely fictional character) and they lead a fairly normal family life with their sensitive eight-year-old son Dylan (played by Miko Hughes)in Los Angeles. Heather has been being plagued recently by an obsessive fan who calls her on the phone and leaves cryptic notes in her mailbox on a nearly daily basis and has been
having odd nightmares about working on the set of an Elm Street film, where Freddy's glove comes to life and murders crew members. Her stress is intensified by a sudden series of earthquakes in the L.A. area, which leave large cracks in her bedroom walls that resemble the slash marks of Freddy's four-finger knife glove.
She dismisses her fears and goes through with an interview about her career on a talk show while Chase goes to a job at a nearby film site, leaving Dylan with his babysitter Julie. Heather handles the interview in stride despite her recent experiences, but is startled again when Robert Englund (in his Freddy make-up) arrives unexpectedly at the interview.
The strange occurrences continue with Heather suddenly being offered a job to be in another Nightmare film in which her character from the first film (Nancy Thompson) would resurrect Freddy. She refuses, then returns home to find Dylan watching the original 1984 film and upon turning it off, the boy screams at her. Horrified by the day's events, Heather calls Chase to come home, who has been actually been working on the prospective film (building the very glove Heather saw in her dream) unknown to his wife but agrees to come home.
On his way back to his family, Chase begins to nod off. Suddenly the glove he has been working on tears into him from under his car seat, killing him and crashing the car. Heather is horrified when she goes to claim his body that he has four slash marks across him. At his funeral, several other members of the Nightmare production circle pay their respects alongside the widow and her grieving son. All goes fairly normal, until a sleep depraved Heather suddenly falls
into a nightmare in which Freddy appears in Chase's coffin as it is being buried and drags Dylan away. She attempts to jump after them, but it then switches back to reality where Heather has seemingly just passed out. She talks to former co-star John Saxon (played by the real Saxon) and confides her fears to him, who tells her that perhaps both she and Dylan should get medical attention for their strange behavior.
Though she attempts to comfort her grieving child, Dylan slowly reveals the Freddy has been tormenting him as well, and begins to speak lines from the original film (which seems to perpetually be on television) and behave like the villain by attaching sharp objects to the ends of his fingers.
Heather goes to Wes Craven (played by himself) for help, and he explains (though he states it as though he is pitching a movie) that an actual demon from hell who feeds on fear, pays attention to what terrifies mankind the most, and takes on that shape. At the current time, Freddy Krueger is the an image of fear that so many people
recognize, that it has chosen that form, but has molded it to its own evil. Wes explains that the only way to contain the creature is to make another Freddy movie, because since the series end, the demon has been attempting to break into the real world but needs to get through the gate-keeper of Freddy's story: Nancy Thompson, who Heather played. The rest of the film details Heather trying to save her son and seal the demonized Freddy Krueger away for good.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare failed at the box office, but received critical acclaim and has since been citing as a turning point in horror films and for meta-fiction for its self-awareness, something which Craven would do again with his Scream films. Heather Langenkamp (the real one) noted that some of the plot elements, such as having a stalker and being married to a special effects technician, were true to her personal life. She was also a young mother at the time, so she loved the idea of her character having a son. Miko Hughes who played Dylan fondly remembers his
filming experience on New Nightmare, since Freddy Krueger was so popular among children as their "boogie man", he had already been a fan of the series before being cast and watched Robert Englund being put into his makeup every morning. Englund's makeup was altered for the film as well along with the characters costume which mirror more closely to what Craven originally intended for the character.
This was the second sequel in the Elm Street series I ever saw and I always remember the scene where Heather and Wes have been talking about the demon Freddy and after he explains that they have to trap him in another movie, the exact conversation they just were having appears on Craven's computer screen as a film script. The film pays tons of homages to the original film, so I would highly recommend watching the first film then watching New Nightmare.
All and all, this is a creepy, psychologically manipulative, amazing meta-horror film.
Four and a half stars, check it out.
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| Heather Langenkamp (fictionalized) |
The strange occurrences continue with Heather suddenly being offered a job to be in another Nightmare film in which her character from the first film (Nancy Thompson) would resurrect Freddy. She refuses, then returns home to find Dylan watching the original 1984 film and upon turning it off, the boy screams at her. Horrified by the day's events, Heather calls Chase to come home, who has been actually been working on the prospective film (building the very glove Heather saw in her dream) unknown to his wife but agrees to come home.
On his way back to his family, Chase begins to nod off. Suddenly the glove he has been working on tears into him from under his car seat, killing him and crashing the car. Heather is horrified when she goes to claim his body that he has four slash marks across him. At his funeral, several other members of the Nightmare production circle pay their respects alongside the widow and her grieving son. All goes fairly normal, until a sleep depraved Heather suddenly falls
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| The funeral nightmare |
Though she attempts to comfort her grieving child, Dylan slowly reveals the Freddy has been tormenting him as well, and begins to speak lines from the original film (which seems to perpetually be on television) and behave like the villain by attaching sharp objects to the ends of his fingers.
Heather goes to Wes Craven (played by himself) for help, and he explains (though he states it as though he is pitching a movie) that an actual demon from hell who feeds on fear, pays attention to what terrifies mankind the most, and takes on that shape. At the current time, Freddy Krueger is the an image of fear that so many people
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| Freddy attacking Heather |
Wes Craven's New Nightmare failed at the box office, but received critical acclaim and has since been citing as a turning point in horror films and for meta-fiction for its self-awareness, something which Craven would do again with his Scream films. Heather Langenkamp (the real one) noted that some of the plot elements, such as having a stalker and being married to a special effects technician, were true to her personal life. She was also a young mother at the time, so she loved the idea of her character having a son. Miko Hughes who played Dylan fondly remembers his
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| Englund and Hughes behind the scenes |
This was the second sequel in the Elm Street series I ever saw and I always remember the scene where Heather and Wes have been talking about the demon Freddy and after he explains that they have to trap him in another movie, the exact conversation they just were having appears on Craven's computer screen as a film script. The film pays tons of homages to the original film, so I would highly recommend watching the first film then watching New Nightmare.
All and all, this is a creepy, psychologically manipulative, amazing meta-horror film.
Four and a half stars, check it out.
 |
| "All children know who Freddy Krueger is." |
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