Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Average rating

(58%)

Starring:	Robert Englund \| Heather Langenkamp \| Miko Hughes \| John Saxon \| Wes Craven \| Matt Winston \| Rob Labelle \| David Newson
Director:	Wes Craven
Studio:	CINEMA CLUB
Run time:	108 mins
Genres:	Horror
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	None
Released:	September 10, 2001
Also available on:

Freddy's back, only this time he's not confined to dreams in this macabre film within a film. Heather Langenkamp, star of the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, along with other actors and director Craven all appear as themselves. When Heather's husband is mysteriously killed her son begins to have disturbing nightmares, culminating in a bizarre encounter with the fictional boogeyman. As self-referential as Craven's SCREAM movies, but much more serious and creepy. Some scenes shot on location near the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5

Before director Wes Craven came back big time with Scream, he took a stab at the intellectual horror film, adding this semi-documentary-style sequel to the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The terrorised teenager from the original, Heather Langenkamp, plays herself, an actress troubled by (a real?) Freddy Krueger. In addition to the healthy dose of shocks, there's a look behind the scenes of the horror film, and, although the project occasionally reeks of self-indulgence, you have to admire Craven (who also appears as himself) for trying something new rather than just cashing in on the franchise.

Highest rated reviews

3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Typical Wes Craven

Gus from East Yorkshire, England, 28th June, 2007

Apart from The Serpent and the Rainbow Mr Craven's film at best are pretty average. This is about as typical as he gets. Hollywood seems to either plump for comedy horror movies or just gore fest movies. It's a pity these days that there are no good directors willing to take the chance and make a decent horror film. Mr Craven as always has plummed for the easy option again and gone for the comedy horror. Unfortunately, we've seen it all before from him. No suspense, no horror and little humour. Watch only for the predictability!!

Read all highest rated reviews

3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

SAI81 from from Tonbridge, 29th June, 2006

1994. It is 10 years since Heather Langenkamp (playing herself) starred in Wes Craven's (also himself) A Nightmare on Elm Street, which introduced the world to horror boogeyman Freddy Kruger (Englund, who plays Freddy and himself here). Now, in her real life, she and her young son Dylan (Hughes) are being plagued by dreams of Kruger. At the same time Freddy is trying to break through into the real world, to achieve this he must go through Heather, who incarnated the first person to defeat him and Wes Craven is writing a new Freddy film in an effort to trap this ancient evil again within the Nightmare films. Two full years before Scream reinvigorated his career Wes Craven wrote and directed this ferociously original piece of post-modern horror. In doing so he reclaimed Freddy, a character who, through six sequels, had strayed from the horrifying child murderer who chased kids in their nightmares that he created and become a comic lead who occasionally cut people up. Those six sequels are reduced, here, to mere fodder for Craven's imagination. Craven himself posits the film's main idea; that 'Freddy' is actually an ancient evil which can be trapped by storytellers and that, having not made a Nightmare in some years the story is dying and allowing Freddy to try and cross over into the real world. Through this premise Craven fashions a brilliant film which fuses a mock documentary and an accomplished horror film to great effect. Heather Langenkamp wasn't especially good in Nightmare on Elm Street; a film whose premise and execution, directorially, are what lift it out of the ordinary rather than its performances. However Langenkamp is excellent here, you might suspect that that's a given, she's playing herself after all. This is true to a degree but the story is complete fantasy (obviously) as are Langenkamp's husband and child, it's as much a performance as any she's given and it's a very strong one, ringing true throughout. Children in movies, at the best of times, are annoying but Miko Hughes puts in a truly creepy performance that really is one of the great strengths of the film, he can't be more than about seven here and his performance suggests a more mature actor than that. Freddy has gone through many incarnations (though always in the person of Robert Englund) and from the horrific burn make up of the first film he'd degraded into a not very scary kind of melty face make up. He's been re-designed again here and, predictably, Craven has taken a slightly different but more expensive and nastier looking tack with Freddy. All over his face and head it now looks like his skin is splitting, it's a great make up and probably the best the character has ever looked. The re-design of the famous razor fingered glove as an artificial hand works less well. The non-professional actors in the cast (as well as Craven, who's very good, New Line Cinema head Bob Shaye and exec Sara Risher play themselves) all acquit themselves well, where they could have really hurt the film. New Nightmare is a slightly mocking take on horror and has some nice laughs but this is no Scream no horror comedy when the scares come they are as effective as any Craven has fashioned (with several particularly disturbing scares focused on Hughes) and the kills have a satisfying brutality to them. The design plays a large and effective role in the excellent climax, a far more bloody and satisfying face off than in the first Nightmare (though it nods in the original film's direction a couple of times) which takes place in what is best described as 'Freddy World'. Okay. Controversy time. Great though A Nightmare on Elm Street is (and it is, 21 years on it's still clever and scary) Wes Craven's New Nightmare is, all told, a better film. Even post Scream the story remains hugely original and Craven's screenplay carries off what could have been a disastarous failure in atmospheric and entertaining fashion.

Read all highest rated reviews