Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
“Miss me?” – Freddy Krueger
Freddy was dead. Of that there was no doubt. There had even been a film dedicated to killing off Freddy once and for all. They had even titled it Freddy’s Dead.
But during his run, as we’ve seen, Freddy seemed to lose a lot of his menace, becoming instead a quipping wiseguy rather than the dream infesting murderer he had started out as. Steadily, the ongoing films had diluted the formula, to the point that New Line thought it best just to finish the series and give him a final send off. Writer director Wes Craven had long since distanced himself from the franchise, contributing only to the story of Pt 3, The Dream Warriors. The franchise itself had ended – that much was true.
But Craven had one more trick up his sleeve.
Not a reboot, not a sequel, not a remake – something remarkably different. And it was loosely based on fact. Freddy was born out of a nightmare Craven had experienced years previously about a man in a hat. Actress Heather Langenkamp who had played Nancy Thompson in the original film and the third had suffered the unwelcome attentions of a stalker. These events coalesced in Craven’s imagination to create an entirely new film, outside the already established continuity. A standalone movie, that paid homage to what had gone before while going in its own direction. A meta movie that preceded Craven’s next few films, the Scream series.
New Nightmare begins exactly as the original Nightmare did with the construction of the bladed glove. Only this time, it’s a film prop being built by the special effects team who appear to be filming a Nightmare film. Heather Langenkamp, playing herself, is on set. Wes Craven is directing and Langenkamp’s fictional husband Chase (David Newsome) is heading the team building the glove. Well, the radio-controlled glove goes berserk causing carnage and Langenkamp’s young son Dylan (Miko Hughes) goes missing. All this is a nightmare Heather wakes up from in the midst of an earthquake. But the feelings of foreboding remain. Especially as she’s being harassed by mysterious crank calls.
She has an interview on a TV talk show this morning, and naturally, the questions are all about her appearances in the Freddy films, with a surprise appearance by Robert Englund in his Freddy costume. He tells her that the fans want to see them back together. The Nightmare producers at New Line also surprise her with a meeting, where they offer her the chance to star in the definitive Nightmare, because Wes Craven is writing a script, which means he’s having nightmares again. Heather is reluctant to commit – she has her own problems.
Despite never having seen the films, Dylan is quoting Freddy’s lines and exhibiting some disturbing behaviour including sleepwalking and claims there’s a man waiting for him at the bottom of his bed, Chase is killed in a car crash but has Freddy’s trademark slasher marks on his body - her life’s falling apart. An accomplished artist, even Englund himself is having visions of a more powerful, more evil Freddy and this is reflected in his latest canvas painting.
Visiting Wes, Heather reads the script and realises that what he’s writing is actually what’s happening to her. He’s writing her life.
Freddy himself doesn’t exist, but there is an evil dream entity who manifests itself as Freddy – a slightly different, more organic and demonic version, who’s just as deadly as the version seen on screen and he’s controlling Dylan, by now in hospital under observation. He refuses to sleep, traumatised by his visions of “Freddy” but he’s given a tranquiliser against Heather’s wishes which gives the powerful Freddy/Entity free rein.
Ultimately, it’s Dylan who’s instrumental in vanquishing the entity by remembering the end of the Hansel and Gretel story his mother had read to him, luring Freddy into his own furnace where he’s burnt to oblivion. The film ends with heather reading Wes’s script to Dylan – as a bed time story.
Personally, I’ve always thought this film was the second best of the entire series, next to the first. It made effective use of actors, producers and the director all playing themselves, albeit fictionalised versions of themselves and there were plenty of return cameos from the first and third films to keep fans happy. As I mentioned, this film gave rise to Craven’s self-aware Scream films, paving the way for that franchise.
Those of us who like to see the film credits at the end (I do it out of respect to everyone involved in the making of the film, and in the hope of some additional footage) get a reward on this one. Not only are the main cast credited as themselves, but Freddy Krueger is also credited as playing himself. But better even than that is the following;
"The names of certain of the characters portrayed have been changed to protect the innocent. Certain incidents portrayed have been dramatized. With the exclusion of those courageous individuals who portrayed themselves, any similarity to the name, character or history of any person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintentional."