La nueva pesadilla de Wes Craven

The original 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' is still to me one of the scariest and best horror films there is, as well as a truly great film in its own right and introduced us to one of the genre's most iconic villains in Freddy Krueger. It is always difficult to do a sequel that lives up to a film as good as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' let alone one to be on the same level.

After the 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' series showed signs of severe fatigue, that it was suggestive of the series being completely dead, original director Wes Craven makes a welcome return and brings new, fresh life to the series. 'New Nightmare' may not be as good as the original, none of the follow-ups are (though two of the previous sequels, the third and fourth, were good), but it is the best of the follow-ups since the third and is one of the best in the series.

'New Nightmare' has its faults. Its biggest one is the ending, it is just ridiculous and jars tonally with the rest of the film, which took a darker and more serious direction (perhaps more so than the original). Count me in as another person who didn't care for Freddy's look here, it looks rather goofy and doesn't do Robert Englund's creepy performance and the way Freddy's written justice.

Heather Langenkamp also seemed a bit bland and seemed rather anaemic for a character written more dramatically than previously.

On the other hand, 'New Nightmare' looks very atmosphere and made with a good deal of style and slickness. The production design has a suitably nightmarish look and the special effects are great and perhaps superior to the original's. The music score is haunting.

The writing may lack the one-liners seen before, but the more serious direction the dialogue took was appreciated after the fifth and sixth films did such a poor job with the one-liners and comedy. The dialogue isn't mind-blowing but it flows decently and intrigues at least. The semi-documentary-style adopted for some of the film is very interesting, making for one of the most original ideas of the follow-ups and the series overall too, while still delivering on the shocks, suspense and creepiness.

Despite the goofy look for Freddy, Englund is very creepy and even with not much screen time he burns long in the memory.

In summary, one of the series' better entries and worth staying awake for. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The First Nightmare on Elm Street was scary and original. It had the great idea of a killer killing people in their dreams. All of its sequels (except for part 2, which went in a horrible direction) just built on to that idea, and the idea wasn't scary anymore as the series progressed. Now with New Nightmare, Wes Craven came up with another original idea. It turns out that Freddy is in fact real, some kind of ancient evil that took the form of Freddy Krueger and could only be contained through storytelling, IE: the Nightmare On Elm Street movies. But since the series has ended, the genie is out of the bottle, and this ingenious film unravels.

I wouldn't say this movie is that scary, it's more creepy than it is scary, but I love its imagination. It plays mind little mind games and you wonder what is real and what is not. Freddy Krueger is even credited as "himself". It's a must-see for any Freddy fan and in many ways it stands on its own...but only if you've seen the other movies. If that makes any sense.

This is one of the best sequels in the Nightmare series and it's nothing short of brilliant. It's nice to see that Freddy is back in the bottle where he belongs, and hopefully will be for a long time...

My Rating: 9/10

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.

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")