O Novo Pesadelo: O Retorno de Freddy Krueger

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 seventh and last part of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" brings the most original plot twist in the franchise. While its prequels have a dream-like atmosphere, this one is much more realistic. On the tenth anniversary of the first film team responsible for its development begins to suffer from intense nightmares and freak accidents happen, and then they realize that Freddy, because he was terminated in the film franchise, has decided to switch to the real world. The credibility of the story is intensified by the fact that the original crew actually appears in the movie, so we have Heather Langenkamp in the role of Heather Langenkamp, Wes Craven in the role of Wes Craven, and so on. An interesting detail is that end credits list Freddy Krueger in the role of Freddy Krueger. I think the effect would be even stronger if the film was made in the form of a fake documentary, but this would prevent many of the things fans expect from a Freddy Krueger film. Although not the best movie in the franchise, it certainly is scariest, because it quite convincingly shifts its horrifying premise into "our" reality. If I saw it as a child I would probably be traumatized.

7,5/10

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.

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.

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