Freddy sort de la nuit

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

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 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