New Nightmare (1994)

Posted: by Sean Gonzalez

New Nightmare (1994): Directed by Wes Craven

In One Sentence: Wes Craven makes a Freddy Krueger inception styled slasher horror film featuring the real life counterparts to the beloved characters of the first film.

Why You Should Watch: Holy shit this is the seventh Freddy Krueger film but a definite revamp to a close to dead series. The beauty of this horror flick is the way the story is told. It is not the usual “oh my gosh dreams are killing me” basic shit, instead bringing the story more into the real world. You remember Nancy from the first Nightmare On Elm’s Street? Well that was just a movie. No I am being serious, in New Nightmare the entire story has shifted to the idea that “Nancy” was just a movie character, nothing else. So now we see Heather Langenkamp (played by Heather Langenkamp) living a life of fame and torture from having created those earlier films.

The late Wes Craven really took his original idea of dreams vs. reality and embedded them into a whole new twisted world. He took over and made one of the more menacing Freddy’s to date, depicting the villain in a more frightening and vicious way. Krueger looks great too, with his hand getting an update to look more fluid in comparison to the way his body twists, as well as making his face more disfigured and less symmetrical. Let’s be honest, the pink brain face thing was getting a little old.

Craven’s great directing and J. Peter Robinson’s score work together to let the viewer try and decipher if what is happening is real or not; per usual with the series. The atmosphere of not exactly knowing which reality we are in is probably best done in this entry because the scenes are bone chilling. The use of Langenkamp’s son Dylan (NOT her real life son, shit this is confusing) really added to the terror. He delivers lines reminiscent of the line “red rum” in The Shining, grotesque and absolutely wretched. His creepy antics bring out even more reason not to fall asleep, because Krueger is stalking people through film and real life. The ending battle shows a whole new level of how powerful Freddy can be, really giving viewers of small glimpse of his hellish abilities and home.

Craven wanted to make this a true homage to the original, and did so by reenacting certain scenes and using familiar lines. This does include a ceiling slashing scene, which Craven’s writing even makes fun of earlier on. It’s this unique aspect of the film that makes this New Nightmare a true new nightmare, especially since we get to see Wes himself play himself as a director writing a new movie about a movie that is already being made (what?)

Favorite Line: Just because it’s a love story doesn’t mean it can’t have a decapitation or two.