Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Encyclopedia
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror
metafilm
written and directed by Wes Craven
. Although it is the seventh installment
of the Nightmare on Elm Street series
, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger
as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew responsible for his films. In this film, Freddy is depicted as closer to what Craven originally intended, being more menacing and less comical, with a greatly updated attire and appearance.
The film features various people involved in the motion picture industry
playing themselves, including actress Heather Langenkamp
who is compelled by events in the narrative to reprise her role as Nancy Thompson. New Nightmare features several homage
s to the original film.
, and the people watching wince, and the director
, Wes Craven
, encourages the effects specialists to pump more blood. Heather Langenkamp
, her make up artist husband, Chase, and their son, Dylan, are wandering around the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street
movie.
Presently the claw, which was only a prop a minute ago, comes to life and starts maiming and killing the special effects crew. As the claw advances to attack Chase, Heather screams waking up in her bed with Chase, during an earthquake in Los Angeles. After the earthquake dies down, Chase has a couple of scratches, which are the very same as he had received in the dream. This causes Heather to wonder if they were sustained in the earthquake or during the dream. Heather reveals she has been receiving harassing phone calls from "someone who sounds an awful lot like Freddy".
Heather is a guest on a morning talk show the very same day, where they discuss the 10th anniversary of the "Nightmare" films. Also, as part of the talk show line-up, Robert Englund as himself tears through a screen dressed up as Freddy Krueger to surprise Heather, Heather is slightly disturbed by this. Producer Bob Shaye asks Heather to visit his office at New Line Cinema, and explains that Wes Craven is working on a script for the new and final "Nightmare" film. Heather is asked to reprise her role as main character "Nancy", but decides against it with her own recent nightmares and disturbing phone calls. Bob explains that her husband, Chase is also working on the film and he is creating a scary new glove for Freddy.
When she gets home, her son has an episode during which he warns her in a voice not of his own, "Never sleep again!" Worried, Heather asks Chase to come home, however Chase falls asleep at the wheel on the way and dies supposedly in a car crash. When Heather goes to identify the body, it seems to her that there may have been more than meets the eye to the "crash", as was made apparent by the claw-like marks on his chest.
She enlists Wes Craven's help for making sense of what's happening. Craven explains that he does not know much more than she does. He dreams a scene each night and wakes up and writes them down. Craven goes on to tell her that in the script he's writing, pure evil can be defeated if its essence is captured in a work of art that is able to allow evil to express itself. Craven explains that the evil has taken the form of Freddy Krueger because it is a familiar one. Freddy sees her as the gatekeeper who holds Freddy at bay, since Heather's character Nancy defeated Freddy in the first movie who in turn eliminated Nancy in the third, but still couldn't be released. To Freddy it is Heather that gave the character of Nancy her strength. Freddy is attacking her at her weakest points, trying to break her down before confronting her, prompting her to leave just as confused as when she arrived.
After a short sleep in Dylan's room, Heather wakes to discover Dylan is gone, she goes downstairs and finds Dylan in another episode. Heather takes Dylan to the hospital, there a doctor asks if Dylan said anything during his trance, Heather says "No" but the doctor later gets it out of her that Dylan has been doing Freddy-like actions and singing Freddy's theme. Later, Julie (Dylan's babysitter) shows up at the hospital and tells Heather she had a nightmare about him. Soon, two nurses want to sedate Dylan, but Julie had instructed by Heather to not let Dylan fall asleep while she goes home to get Rex. Julie punches the nurse and threatening another with a needle (cameo appearance by Wes Craven's daughter), and locks the door. Meanwhile, Heather tried to leave but been stopped by security to be questioned by the doctor, the doctor suspects Heather is insane, and tries to agree to foster care. Next, Dylan drifts to sleep, Freddy appears in the locked hospital room and brutally slays Julie (in the same fate as Tina Gray in the first film). The nurses unlock the doors, and discover the murder. They run, but Heather is concerned where Dylan went, the doctor realizes Heather is right. Heather soon remembers home, (previously she comforted Dylan by telling him their home is right across the freeway from the hospital). She discovers a giant Freddy dangling Dylan from above traffic. She arrives home and finds Dylan, but Freddy begins to manipulate the world, causing her to become Nancy. By forcing Heather to accept the role he wants her to play, Freddy rises out from Dylan's bed and is fully in the real world. Heather runs inside and into Dylan's room only to find him gone, and the toy dinosaur Dylan believed was protecting him totally eviscerated by Freddy.
Heather takes sleeping pills to join in on a dream
, final showdown with Freddy to save an already captured Dylan. It occurs in a hot, steamy and water-logged dreamscape ruin, apparently Freddy's home turf. Dylan finds Heather, only for them both to be attacked by Freddy, Heather is knocked out, Dylan is left defenseless.
Freddy successfully lures Dylan into a trap and tries to attack him vigorously, Heather discovers the battle and fights off Freddy, but Freddy makes his tongue
extend and wrap around her face. Dylan gets out of the trap to save Heather by taking a large kitchen knife that she brought in with her, stabbing Freddy's tongue and making it go back to its previous size. The two succeed in killing Freddy, by locking him in a lit furnace where upon catching on fire, (in a Hansel and Gretel
- ending) his true visage is shown amidst a fiery blast, all the while Dylan & Heather flee, escaping back to reality, where they find the script of the film Craven has been working on, waiting for them. Dylan asks his mother to read, which she does: "We open on an old wooden bench. There's fire and tools, and a man's grimy hands building what's soon revealed as a gleaming set of claws. And the claws are moving now as if awakening from a long and unwanted sleep...."
Written under the working title of A Nightmare on Elm Street 7: The Ascension, Wes Craven set out to make a deliberately more cerebral film than recent entries to the franchise - which he regarded as cartoonish and not faithful to his original themes. The basic premise of this film originated when Craven first signed on to co-write A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
, but New Line Cinema
rejected it then.
In New Nightmare, Freddy Krueger
was portrayed closer to what Craven had imagined; darker and less comical
. To correspond with this, the make-up and outfit of the character was different, with one of the most prominent differences being that he now wears a long, black trenchcoat. In addition, the signature glove was redesigned for a more organic
look, with the fingers resembling bones and having muscle textures in between. While Robert Englund
again plays the character, "Freddy Krueger" is credited as "Himself" in the end credits
.
Craven had intended to ask Johnny Depp
, whose feature film debut was in A Nightmare on Elm Street
, to make an appearance as himself. But Craven was too timid to ask him. Upon running into each other after the film's release, Depp said he would have been happy to do it.
Nick Corri
and Tuesday Knight
, who co-starred in the original and 4th Nightmare movies respectively, can be briefly seen in the funeral scene. They have no speaking parts.
All of the earthquake sequences in New Nightmare were filmed a month prior to the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. The real quake struck only weeks before film was completed. Subsequently, a team was sent out to film footage of the actual quake damaged areas of the city. The cast and crew thought that the scenes that were filmed before the real quake struck were a bit overdone, but when viewed after the real quake hit, they were horrified by the realism of it.
series—both sets of films deal with the idea of bringing horror movies to "real life." While the Scream films appealed to huge audiences, New Nightmare has gathered a smaller, fan-led cult following.
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
gave Wes Craven's New Nightmare three stars out of four and said "I haven't been exactly a fan of the Nightmare series, but I found this movie, with its unsettling questions about the effect of horror on those who create it, strangely intriguing". Kevin Sommerfield from the horror website Slasher Studios gave it four out of four stars and said "“New Nightmare” is that rare horror film in which everything works. The performances are pitch perfect, lead by a tour-de-force performance by the amazing Langenkamp. The script is full of twists and turns and the movie is quite possibly the best looking of the entire series."
Entertainment Weekly
s Owen Gleiberman
however gave Wes Craven's New Nightmare a negative review, stating "After a good, gory opening, in which Freddy's glove—newly designed with sinews and muscles—slashes the throat of the special-effects guy who's been working on it, the movie succumbs to a kind of sterile inertia. Wes Craven's New Nightmare isn't about Freddy haunting a film set, which actually might have been fun. It's about Heather Langenkamp, star of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, being menaced for two long, slow hours by earthquakes, cracks in the wall, and other weary portents of doom." Gleiberman described the film as "just an empty hall of mirrors" that "lacks the trancelike dread of the original" and the "ingeniously demented special effects" of Dream Warriors
.
The film currently stands at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
metafilm
Metafilm
Similar to metafiction in technique, metafilm is a style of film-making which presents the film as a story about film production.Examples of films of this type include:* 8½ * Adaptation....
written and directed by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
. Although it is the seventh installment
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
of the Nightmare on Elm Street series
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew responsible for his films. In this film, Freddy is depicted as closer to what Craven originally intended, being more menacing and less comical, with a greatly updated attire and appearance.
The film features various people involved in the motion picture industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
playing themselves, including actress Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films...
who is compelled by events in the narrative to reprise her role as Nancy Thompson. New Nightmare features several homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
s to the original film.
Plot
A dirty, work-worn pair of hands is creating a sleek, fully metal bladed glove in a boiler room. As the maker of the claws appears to chop off his own hand in preparation for attaching the claws to his own wrist, it is revealed to be a film setSet construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
, and the people watching wince, and the director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
, encourages the effects specialists to pump more blood. Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films...
, her make up artist husband, Chase, and their son, Dylan, are wandering around the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
movie.
Presently the claw, which was only a prop a minute ago, comes to life and starts maiming and killing the special effects crew. As the claw advances to attack Chase, Heather screams waking up in her bed with Chase, during an earthquake in Los Angeles. After the earthquake dies down, Chase has a couple of scratches, which are the very same as he had received in the dream. This causes Heather to wonder if they were sustained in the earthquake or during the dream. Heather reveals she has been receiving harassing phone calls from "someone who sounds an awful lot like Freddy".
Heather is a guest on a morning talk show the very same day, where they discuss the 10th anniversary of the "Nightmare" films. Also, as part of the talk show line-up, Robert Englund as himself tears through a screen dressed up as Freddy Krueger to surprise Heather, Heather is slightly disturbed by this. Producer Bob Shaye asks Heather to visit his office at New Line Cinema, and explains that Wes Craven is working on a script for the new and final "Nightmare" film. Heather is asked to reprise her role as main character "Nancy", but decides against it with her own recent nightmares and disturbing phone calls. Bob explains that her husband, Chase is also working on the film and he is creating a scary new glove for Freddy.
When she gets home, her son has an episode during which he warns her in a voice not of his own, "Never sleep again!" Worried, Heather asks Chase to come home, however Chase falls asleep at the wheel on the way and dies supposedly in a car crash. When Heather goes to identify the body, it seems to her that there may have been more than meets the eye to the "crash", as was made apparent by the claw-like marks on his chest.
She enlists Wes Craven's help for making sense of what's happening. Craven explains that he does not know much more than she does. He dreams a scene each night and wakes up and writes them down. Craven goes on to tell her that in the script he's writing, pure evil can be defeated if its essence is captured in a work of art that is able to allow evil to express itself. Craven explains that the evil has taken the form of Freddy Krueger because it is a familiar one. Freddy sees her as the gatekeeper who holds Freddy at bay, since Heather's character Nancy defeated Freddy in the first movie who in turn eliminated Nancy in the third, but still couldn't be released. To Freddy it is Heather that gave the character of Nancy her strength. Freddy is attacking her at her weakest points, trying to break her down before confronting her, prompting her to leave just as confused as when she arrived.
After a short sleep in Dylan's room, Heather wakes to discover Dylan is gone, she goes downstairs and finds Dylan in another episode. Heather takes Dylan to the hospital, there a doctor asks if Dylan said anything during his trance, Heather says "No" but the doctor later gets it out of her that Dylan has been doing Freddy-like actions and singing Freddy's theme. Later, Julie (Dylan's babysitter) shows up at the hospital and tells Heather she had a nightmare about him. Soon, two nurses want to sedate Dylan, but Julie had instructed by Heather to not let Dylan fall asleep while she goes home to get Rex. Julie punches the nurse and threatening another with a needle (cameo appearance by Wes Craven's daughter), and locks the door. Meanwhile, Heather tried to leave but been stopped by security to be questioned by the doctor, the doctor suspects Heather is insane, and tries to agree to foster care. Next, Dylan drifts to sleep, Freddy appears in the locked hospital room and brutally slays Julie (in the same fate as Tina Gray in the first film). The nurses unlock the doors, and discover the murder. They run, but Heather is concerned where Dylan went, the doctor realizes Heather is right. Heather soon remembers home, (previously she comforted Dylan by telling him their home is right across the freeway from the hospital). She discovers a giant Freddy dangling Dylan from above traffic. She arrives home and finds Dylan, but Freddy begins to manipulate the world, causing her to become Nancy. By forcing Heather to accept the role he wants her to play, Freddy rises out from Dylan's bed and is fully in the real world. Heather runs inside and into Dylan's room only to find him gone, and the toy dinosaur Dylan believed was protecting him totally eviscerated by Freddy.
Heather takes sleeping pills to join in on a dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
, final showdown with Freddy to save an already captured Dylan. It occurs in a hot, steamy and water-logged dreamscape ruin, apparently Freddy's home turf. Dylan finds Heather, only for them both to be attacked by Freddy, Heather is knocked out, Dylan is left defenseless.
Freddy successfully lures Dylan into a trap and tries to attack him vigorously, Heather discovers the battle and fights off Freddy, but Freddy makes his tongue
Tongue
The tongue is a muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication. It is the primary organ of taste , as much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, and is richly...
extend and wrap around her face. Dylan gets out of the trap to save Heather by taking a large kitchen knife that she brought in with her, stabbing Freddy's tongue and making it go back to its previous size. The two succeed in killing Freddy, by locking him in a lit furnace where upon catching on fire, (in a Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic hag living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children...
- ending) his true visage is shown amidst a fiery blast, all the while Dylan & Heather flee, escaping back to reality, where they find the script of the film Craven has been working on, waiting for them. Dylan asks his mother to read, which she does: "We open on an old wooden bench. There's fire and tools, and a man's grimy hands building what's soon revealed as a gleaming set of claws. And the claws are moving now as if awakening from a long and unwanted sleep...."
Cast
- Heather LangenkampHeather LangenkampHeather Langenkamp is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films...
as Herself/Nancy Thompson - Robert EnglundRobert EnglundRobert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...
as Himself/Freddy KruegerFreddy KruegerFrederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,... - Miko HughesMiko HughesMiko John Hughes is an American actor best known for his film roles as a child actor as Gage Creed in Pet Sematary , as an autistic boy opposite Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising and as Dylan, Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare .-Career:Hughes started his acting career in a...
as Dylan Porter - Tracy MiddendorfTracy MiddendorfTracy Lynn Middendorf is an American television, movie, and stage actress.-Personal life:Middendorf was born in Miami Beach, Florida. She attended Pickens High School in Jasper, Georgia. In 1987, during her senior year, she left Jasper to take drama classes in Miami, and later attended SUNY Purchase...
as Julie - David NewsomDavid NewsomDavid Newsom is an American actor and fine-arts photographer. He is best known for his various critically acclaimed US television appearances, and for his work in 2005 and 2006 with Viggo Mortensen and Perceval Press.-Photography:...
as Chase Porter - Fran BennettFran BennettFran Bennett is an American actress born in Malvern, Arkansas. From 1996 to 2003, she was head of the performance program in the School of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts...
as Dr. Christine Heffner - John SaxonJohn Saxon (actor)John Saxon is an American actor who has worked on over 200 projects during the span of sixty years. Saxon is most known for his work in horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Black Christmas, both of which feature Saxon as a policeman in search of the killer...
as Himself / Lt. Donald Thompson - Wes CravenWes CravenWesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
as Himself
Production
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.- Plot :Six years after the events...
, but New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
rejected it then.
In New Nightmare, Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
was portrayed closer to what Craven had imagined; darker and less comical
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
. To correspond with this, the make-up and outfit of the character was different, with one of the most prominent differences being that he now wears a long, black trenchcoat. In addition, the signature glove was redesigned for a more organic
Organic matter
Organic matter is matter that has come from a once-living organism; is capable of decay, or the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds...
look, with the fingers resembling bones and having muscle textures in between. While Robert Englund
Robert Englund
Robert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...
again plays the character, "Freddy Krueger" is credited as "Himself" in the end credits
End Credits
"End Credits" is the first single from Drum and Bass duo Chase & Status' second studio album No More Idols. The single was co-written, co-produced and features vocals from Plan B and was released on 29 October 2009, reaching a peak position of No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart...
.
Craven had intended to ask Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
, whose feature film debut was in A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
, to make an appearance as himself. But Craven was too timid to ask him. Upon running into each other after the film's release, Depp said he would have been happy to do it.
Nick Corri
Jsu Garcia
Jsu Garcia is an American film and television actor, and film producer. In his earlier years, he was credited under the name Nick Corri. Together with author John-Roger, he runs the production company Scott J-R Productions....
and Tuesday Knight
Tuesday Knight
Tuesday Lynn Knight is an American actress. The daughter of composer Baker Knight, she is perhaps best remembered for her role as Kristen Parker in the 1988 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Also an accomplished musician, Tuesday recorded the song "Nightmare," used during...
, who co-starred in the original and 4th Nightmare movies respectively, can be briefly seen in the funeral scene. They have no speaking parts.
All of the earthquake sequences in New Nightmare were filmed a month prior to the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. The real quake struck only weeks before film was completed. Subsequently, a team was sent out to film footage of the actual quake damaged areas of the city. The cast and crew thought that the scenes that were filmed before the real quake struck were a bit overdone, but when viewed after the real quake hit, they were horrified by the realism of it.
Reception
New Nightmare had largely positive reviews, particularly for a slasher film, but failed to make as big an impression at the box office as any of the previous six films—the United States take was $18 million, which still was over 2 times the budget. However, it became the number 1 at the United Kingdom box office in early 1995. Several critics have subsequently said that New Nightmare could be regarded as a prelude to the ScreamScream (film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette...
series—both sets of films deal with the idea of bringing horror movies to "real life." While the Scream films appealed to huge audiences, New Nightmare has gathered a smaller, fan-led cult following.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave Wes Craven's New Nightmare three stars out of four and said "I haven't been exactly a fan of the Nightmare series, but I found this movie, with its unsettling questions about the effect of horror on those who create it, strangely intriguing". Kevin Sommerfield from the horror website Slasher Studios gave it four out of four stars and said "“New Nightmare” is that rare horror film in which everything works. The performances are pitch perfect, lead by a tour-de-force performance by the amazing Langenkamp. The script is full of twists and turns and the movie is quite possibly the best looking of the entire series."
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
however gave Wes Craven's New Nightmare a negative review, stating "After a good, gory opening, in which Freddy's glove—newly designed with sinews and muscles—slashes the throat of the special-effects guy who's been working on it, the movie succumbs to a kind of sterile inertia. Wes Craven's New Nightmare isn't about Freddy haunting a film set, which actually might have been fun. It's about Heather Langenkamp, star of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, being menaced for two long, slow hours by earthquakes, cracks in the wall, and other weary portents of doom." Gleiberman described the film as "just an empty hall of mirrors" that "lacks the trancelike dread of the original" and the "ingeniously demented special effects" of Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.- Plot :Six years after the events...
.
The film currently stands at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
External links
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare at A Nightmare on Elm Street Companion