Wes Craven's New Nightmare - Review

It’s no secret that an overabundance of sequels tends to ruin a franchise. It’s a curse that plagued Friday the 13^th, 007 (on and off), and every cringe-worthy Scary Movie spin-off. It is also no secret that A Nightmare on Elm Street is a staple of pop-culture and the character of Freddy Krueger is a widely known horror icon. I was around nine or ten years old when I stayed over at my aunt’s house, and had spent the day with my favorite cousin, and during the day I had noticed a box set collection of the Nightmare series from the original to Freddy’s Dead. I stood up the entire night watching every film in the series other than New Nightmare as it wasn’t a part of the collection. I thought it was great entertainment, though I was never scared, not even in the slightest. Being a child who was raised on more mature films at an early age, I was considerably desensitized throughout my childhood, at least in terms of movies. The only “scary movies” that were able to frighten me were Child’s Play and later the original Halloween. A Nightmare on Elm Street was entertainment for me, and has been to this day, back then I watched it for the special effects and the treat of seeing such a wicked and likeable antagonist, now that I’ve gotten older I truly appreciate its craft, though I will never say it frightened me, because it never has.

As with many franchises gone awry, there were just too many installments in the Nightmare series, each one becoming more comic and more cartoonish than the last, albeit gore and self-relishing profanity. Sure, Krueger became downright hilarious by the time of Freddy’s Dead, but he had still become a joke, a slasher comedian nine years prior to American Psycho. Wes Craven, the man who introduced the masses to the mythos in the first place, knew it too. I was young when I had first seen New Nightmare, possibly a year or two after I had seen the films before it, and I wasn’t impressed at all. The film-within-a-film premise [insert Inception joke here] did not appeal to me, the lack of screen time for Krueger felt stagnant, and when the redesigned Freddy did appear, I felt it was too little, too late.

Well, years have passed, and I have watched New Nightmare once again. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare follows Heather Langenkamp (Nancy from the first installment) playing herself and dealing with Freddy coming into our world, she’s been having dreams about it, so has Craven, and so has Robert Englund. This is the real world, the Nightmare films are known to the public and the fans hunger for yet another installment despite Freddy being killed off in the previous installment. Apparently Freddy Krueger is a demon who has been contained within the films, and now that they’re concluded, he wants to enter reality. I find this plot a lot more enthralling then I did when I was younger, and Craven’s writing is clever, played serious, and meta, years before the term was used far too often by drones on the Internet.

The film does what modern horror films lack; it takes its time, and instills a sense of dread and anticipation. Krueger’s presence is felt throughout the majority of the film, and the self-aware plotline makes the inevitable confrontation all the more foreboding. The film also includes subtext about the impact of the horror genre and the questionable romanticizing of characters like Freddy Krueger, who are loved and adored for being murderers. New Nightmare was that treat for horror fanatics before Craven had directed Scream two years later. You get the most out of a movie like this when you’re an avid fan of the genre and/or the franchise, especially with the homages to previous installments.

That being said, with credit where credit is due, the film is still flat in some areas, and it does get a little dull in certain areas despite the adjustment to steady pacing. In many ways New Nightmare is akin to Rocky Balboa in terms of its nostalgia-driven narrative and bookend finality, but I wouldn’t call it perfect. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is still a superior follow-up which holds up as a film in its own right, whereas if New Nightmare was seen in that same light it doesn’t do very well. Not to mention, there are certain ideas I wished the film explored or displayed, like a meeting of Robert Englund and the new Freddy as Welshy of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses mentioned in his own review. However, this is as good a closure as you’re going to get, so give it a chance if you hated Freddy’s Dead. 7.5 out of 10.