Le cauchemar insolite de Wes Craven

Freddy Krueger began as a very scary character who scared the hell out of everyone. As the movies went on, Freddy lost his edge and looked liked a bad stand up comic with horrible one liners.

Freddy seemed dead with the sixth film of the series, but Wes Craven brought him back from his rut and made him someone to fear again. This of course helps prove my theory that a good Nightmare on Elm Street movie cannot be made without Craven.

Two things make this film so good. One, the story is original. The Nightmare movies just kept repeating themselves, with Freddy coming back and going after the people who stopped him before. This rime around, we see Freddy trying to break into the real world, outside the movies. Very original. Two, the movie is not filled with constant gore. This shows how good the movie because any movie filled with gore obviously has a pathetic story and is not worth watching. This movie is and is one of Freddy's best yet.

The Nightmare on Elm Street series certainly had its ups and downs (mostly downs). The first film was a horror classic but only one of the subsequent five sequels was worth a damn. That one, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, saw the return of Heather Langenkamp to the series as Nancy Thompson and Elm Street creator Wes Craven contributing the screenplay. So it should come as no surprise that the next Elm Street movie that had any value would also involve Craven and Langenkamp. Craven returns here as both writer and director, bringing to life a unique idea that he had actually pitched for part 3 a decade before. The idea is that Freddy Krueger steps into the real world and torments Heather Langenkamp (playing herself). It's all very meta, blending real-life elements of Langenkamp's life with the fictional Freddy nightmare stuff. It's a clever idea and one New Line was never going to take a chance on until they had already destroyed the franchise with all those crappy sequels that turned Freddy into a cartoon character.

For the most part, the cast is good with several of the cast members playing themselves. Heather Langenkamp turns in a solid performance. Robert Englund plays both himself and Freddy, which is fun to watch. In addition to writing and directing, Wes Craven also acts here and does an admirable job, especially when compared to some other directors' embarrassing attempts at acting (John Carpenter and John Landis, for example). The only real negative about the cast is Miko Hughes as Heather's son. Little Miko was pretty cute in movies like Kindergarten Cop and a recurring role on the TV series Full House. But here he's required to do drama and, to be blunt, he sucks.

It's an interesting movie but not a straight slasher flick so it will probably disappoint those who were fans of the cheesy Elm Street sequels. I didn't care for them much so I appreciated this movie for being different. Not everything works (Miko Hughes, the earthquake stuff, the redesigned Freddy) but overall it's a very enjoyable movie that takes a fresh approach to a tired concept. Fans of Wes Craven and the original Elm Street film will probably like it more than those expecting a movie full of Freddy eviscerating teenagers while making bad puns.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare features Heather Lengankamp, who played Nancy in the first and third films, living a normal life with her husband and son. Lately, strange things have been happening, and her son isn't acting like himself. She is called in for an interview with New Line Cinemas, where she finds out that Wes Craven is making a new Nightmare film. The events of this film are beginning to unfold in the real world, because Freddy Krueger is angry at being killed off in the last film, so he steps out of fantasy and into reality to go after the makers of the original film. Now Heather Lengankamp must protect her son and defeat Freddy one last time...Only this time, it's real.

I love this movie. I personally think it's just as good as the first movie. This is one of the most original and ingenious plots for a horror movie I've ever seen. All of the people involved with the original films appear as themselves, including Heather Lengenkamp, John Saxon, Robert Englund, and Wes Craven. Freddy is amazing in this movie. He appears with his trademark brown hat, but now he's in a much darker red and green sweater along with a brown tattered trench coat, and his burns are more severe. Also, his trademark knives are actually coming from his fingers. The best part about it is that in this film, Freddy isn't a wise cracking killer...He's an all business violent and brutal killer.

This movie features the best acting for a slasher movie I've ever seen, but then again, almost every actor in the movie plays themselves, so it would be pretty hard to screw that up.

Overall, this movie is on a par with the original, and I'd recommend it to any horror fan.

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.

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")