Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

"Are you ready to become Nancy once again?" - Wes Craven

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) is about the semi-real life of Heather Langencamp. It takes elements from her real life like she's married to a special effects artist, and they have a son. Everything is quiet for while until a nightmare about a new Freddy movie starts to change her world upside down. Her son, Dylan (Miko Hughes), started to hallucinate about Freddy, shortly after her husband, Chase (David Newsom), is killed in a car crash after falling asleep at the wheel. According to Wes Craven, Freddy is an entity that is trying to force it's way out of dreams and in reality. So they have to make another movie and Heather has to make a choice to play Nancy one final time. She eventually enters the dream world and defeats Freddy once and for all.

This movie is an interesting concept as it puts an emphasis on the horror genre and the role that it plays on society.  For instance, throughout the movie, much like real life, Heather was being stalked by a mysterious super fan who constantly called her. He was obsessed and mad at the fact that the movies had ended. This is a real life horror story that happen to Heather, which caused her to move to England for about 5 months just to get away from it all.

New Nightmare is sort of different, especially of 1994 standards. It was interesting to see a change from reality into fiction. It defiantly blurs that line between reality and fiction. It makes you feel like you're watching a Twilight Zone episode. This makes you wonder, is it all in her head or is it really happening? Once she has the sit down with Wes, you really see reality and fiction slowly merging together. For instance, when Wes is talking about the script, he had written that Heather's husband would die in a horrible car crash. So it's almost like he's writing the reality. Weird.

Speaking of, I think the most tragic part of this movie is that it centers around Heather's son, who is being haunted by Freddy. He is slowly being taken over in a possessed sort of way. I'd have to say that Miko Hughes did a fantastic job portraying Dylan. He has a very expressive face and he had to do a lot of acting with his face. Another sad element is that Dylan loses his father and everything begins to fall apart. There is a feel throughout the film of a sudo-reality, and it makes you wonder if this is really happening or a dream. I honestly believe this is where they got the idea for inception, just saying, because it has that sort of feel to it.

I felt there was a great balance between the non fiction to the fiction aspects throughout the film. I mean there is literal scene where Wes and Heather are having a conversation, then it pans to the computer where the exact words they spoken were displayed before it faded to black.

Also Wes used a lot of elements happening in LA at the time. For instance, after the beginning sequence with the earthquake, the following day there was the 7.0 NorthRidge Quake that destroyed most of the buildings in downtown LA. Craven had a second crew go around and film all the destruction, just so he could add it into the movie; which I thought was a fantastic touch.

There are a lot of child-like elements in this movie, such as Rex, Dylan's Dinosaur. This animal is supposed to protect him from Freddy, who keeps coming up from another dimension, aka "Hell." Also there is the creepy retelling for the Grim Fairytale, Hansel and Gretel. It appears to be Dylan's favorite story; which is weird because of the scary elements. They use the idea of breadcrumbs for Heather to join him in the Dream World, and even the element of burning Freddy in an oven-type fire.

I love Freddy's make-up in this film. It looks more defined than the previous films. The skin is torn away in some sorts showing the muscle underneath. Also I love the fact that the glove is apart of his hand rather than a piece he made himself. This made him look really devilish. Robert Englund did a fantastic job portraying the legend. He also played himself in the film, so for him to split between the two personalities so flawless was absolutely perfect.

The special effects in general were really good in this movie. There were the cracks that began in the wall of Heather's bedroom, sort of depicting her ascent into madness. The glove coming up out of the seat as Chase drove home, which clawed him in the stomach. They recycled the rotating room for Julie's, Dylan's babysitter, death. I would have to say that my favorite set/scene is the ending. It is so detailed. One thing I found interesting was the 7 deadly sins that were carved on the wall. It made you feel like you were really in Freddy's Hell.

Another thing I liked about this film is that Freddy is treated like an Urban Legend like Bloody Mary, or even Candyman. So, he is darker, scarier and, I don't know if it was possible, but he's more evil. He is hellbent on becoming a real entity and escape this fictional world; where he lived for ten years. As the movie depicts, it is more fitting to create a brand new narrative for Freddy in order to keep him in the fictional "Dream World." Basically it is like putting the gene back in the bottle and doing a reset. However, it was something that stay dormant until 2010 when they had to do a remake; but we will take about that another time.

Anyway, this movie was interesting in the sense that we never see this type of sudo-reality in movies like Friday the 13th, or Halloween. (Oh man imagine, Jason crossing over from fiction to reality.) This is what makes the Nightmare on Elm Street Series different from the rest. Wes Craven took a huge risk with this movie and I feel it paid off. It made 19.7 million in the box office on a 8 million dollar budget. The movie appeared to be the poorest of the franchise, but you have to understand, this movie was released the same day as Pulp Fiction; which was a financial success.

I felt this movie was a fitting end to the franchise. It started with Nancy and it ended with Nancy; which I thought was perfect symmetry. Many people may have felt that the franchise was tired at this point when it was first released, however it has been made certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes; so there's that. This movie I feel is hard to review, because I don't want to talk about every key scene in the movie. It's been out for over 10 years, so I feel many people have already seen it. I just wanted to talk a little bit about my thoughts on the movie and the reasons I love it so much. So if you haven't checked it out, I would recommend it.

IMDB: 6.4/10 || Rotten Tomatoes: 80%

Coming soon: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 

Sleep Tight,

A Nightmare on Movie Night