Wes Craven's New Nightmare

'A Nightmare on Elm Street' was a scary, gory 80s horror movie. Its sequels were awful. Only two of them were watchable, the third and forth. But still, they never even came close to the original. This is when that changes. 'New Nightmare' introduces a new Freddy. One which is darker, scarier and not the joke that the old one was. This is the only sequel that should have been done in the first place. In my opinion, its even better than the original because it's much darker and special effects are way better.

It's a bit rare to find good acting in a horror movie, but here's not the case. Acting was amazing. Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund gave an awesome performance. The kid was surprisingly believable and the rest of the cast was great too.

Watch this movie straight after watching the first. If you have to watch a sequel, see the third and forth, but this is the one you should immediately go for. I give it a strong 10/10

The actress Heather Langencamp lives in Los Angeles with her husband Chase Porter (David Newsom), who is secretly working in a mechanical hand for the next movie of Freddy Kruger, and their son Dylan (Miko Hughes). During an earthquake, Heather has a dreadful nightmare where Chase's partners die; in the morning she is invited to be the guest of a talk show about the tenth anniversary of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with the presence of Robert Englund. Later the executive of New Line Cinema Robert Shaye invites her to perform Nancy Thompson again in the latest project of Wes Craven based on his own nightmares, but she turns the invitation down. Heater is being disturbed by a man that calls her in the telephone and sends creepy letters to her. When Dylan has nightmares with a man with claw and tells that he is protected by his T-Rex toy showing symptoms of schizophrenia, and Chase dies in a car accident, Heather becomes paranoid with Freddy Krueger. The reactions of Robert Englund and Wes Craven indicate to her that something is going wrong. Further she discovers that Freddy is an entity that does exist and is an ancient demon trying to use her weakness as the gateway to the real world. Heater needs to face the evil Freddy Kruger to protect her beloved son.

"New Nightmare" is an original approach to bring Freddy Krueger back after his death in "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare". The story blends reality with fiction and transforms Freddy Krueger in a millenary evil entity that tries to reach the real world through the actress Heather Langencamp, giving a survivorship to this character. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Hora do Pesadelo 7 – O Novo Pesadelo – O Retorno de Freddy Krueger" ("The Hour of the Nightmare 7 – The New Nightmare – The Return of Freddy Krueger")

New Nightmare, the seventh and final installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. I was lucky enough to get the Nightmare on Elm Street series in the box DVD set and I finished all the sequels. I would say that without a doubt that this was the best sequel in the series. I was amazed at how clever the story was and I think the reason why is because of the fact that Wes Craven is back with this story. I was a little depressed that at least Johnny Depp wasn't really in it, that would've been a cool experience, but that doesn't kill the story. Instead the film has taken on a new and hip twist onto the series. Wes has taken the story and turned it around on the characters, instead of having Heather as Nancy, she's playing herself, just as is the rest of the cast, only now they're in trouble with Freddy.

Heather Langenkamp is a huge star in the horror movie world, but she's now a happily married woman with her son, Dillain. But she's receiving death threats from a fan who strangely sounds a lot like Freddy. Soon strange things start happening, her husband is killed tragically in a car accident that seems like the act of Freddy, and her son is now not sleeping. She wonders if it's because of her movies or is it possible that Freddy is real and he wants her? She may have to go back to her roots to save her son.

New Nightmare is incredibly clever and was just all in all a great idea. I really enjoyed this sequel, it's a definite keeper and a watch for the Nightmare on Elm Street fans. Freddy is back and he's more mean than ever; it was so cool that the took Heather Langenkamp and put her in the same situation as her character, Nancy. It just shows that Wes hasn't lost his touch with the Nightmare on Elm Street series. If you love horror films in general, I highly recommend New Nightmare, this is an awesome film.

8/10

Long before the critics started wetting themselves at post-modern, self-referential (and self-indulgent) shows like Extras and Arrested Development, Wes Craven beat them to it. His New Nightmare stars Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund playing themselves in a movie within a movie written by Wes Craven playing himself writing the script as it unfolds. How Charlie Kaufman is that?

It is a terrific idea, and has Heather discovering that she, Englund and Craven have accidentally provided an ancient evil with a portal into the real world in the fictional creation of Freddy Krueger. Now that the series of movies has ended, this entity has started invading her dreams as Freddy - and it thinks if it kills "Nancy" it will be unleashed for real.

So that's the good news. The bad news is that once this premise has been laid out for the viewer, it's all downhill from there. Heather Langenkamp's acting hasn't improved with age, Wes Craven spends his time being "mysterious" (i.e. vague and annoying) and it's left to Robert Englund to save the day. Sadly, he's not in the movie as either himself or Freddy nearly enough.

It gets worse. "Real Freddy" looks even more fake and rubbery than the 80's version, if that were possible, plus the main focus of the dreamtime incursions this time is Langenkamp's young son. Now I am against child actors at the best of times, but when this bug-eyed little squirt starts screaming and yelling about Freddy, you'll just want to give him a kick.

The climax to the movie is pretty similar to every other film in the Nightmare series, which is somewhat disappointing. However, this film is almost worth it - almost - for the creepy sequence where Heather realises she's back in Elm Street for real.

Still, New Nightmare is easily the best follow-up of the series, and way more imaginative than any slasher sequel has the right to be.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Intense, smart and still underrated seventh film in the series delivers exactly what the title says and that's something new. This time out the people involved with the making of the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET are starting to experience strange dreams. Wes Craven appears ready to join the series again and has started writing a script but star Heather Langenkamp begins to fear that some type of Freddy is actually after all of them. This isn't the first film to deal with a horror director being haunted by his creation as Lucio Fulci did this type of thing with CAT IN THE BRAIN but there's world of difference between the two films. This one here is an incredibly smart and extremely intense venture into ones fears and how like can sometimes imitate art. It's sad to think that this film will soon be twenty years old and yet it's still never gotten the credit that it deserves. As a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood the film works extremely well but it also works as a straight horror film. I think Craven's screenplay is so well written that we never have trouble believing what's going on. It's a pretty interesting idea to have those making movies become haunting by the fake thing they created. Not only do we get Craven and Langenkamp but we also have New Line head-man Robert Shaye and Freddy himself Robert Englund being haunted by the fake monster. Everyone acts themselves very well with Langenkamp turning in her third venture in the series and without question her best performance. She handles everything extremely well and comes off very good as the concerned mother who must eventually take on Freddy to protect her son. Englund has a lot of fun in the parts of himself but he really goes all out when it's time to play Freddy. A few other cast members from the first film make brief appearances here but John Saxon gets a very good role and does a great job with it. It's always great seeing him in anything. I think the greatest thing the movie does is get Freddy away from the one-liners and jokes and returns him to the scares of the original film. The entire look of Freddy's face, glove and clothes were changed here and I think they were all done for the better. The bulked up creation is a lot creepier here and he's able to be that menace of terror once again. Craven's direction is top-notch from start to finish with some of his best work appearing in some very disturbing scenes. One involves a freeway sequence and another is a re-enactment of one of the death scenes from the original movie. The film depends a lot on "real life" emotions and these work extremely well and add to the drama of what the characters are going through. It's a real shame that this film isn't given more credit as it did come before SCREAM and really was the first of the decade to go for that "smart" horror film.