Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Genre

Fantasy | Horror

Director

Wes Craven

Country

USA

Cast

Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes, John Saxon, Tracy Middendorf, David Newsom, Fran Bennett, Wes Craven, Robert Shaye, Marianne Maddalena, Sam Rubin, Sara Risher, Claudia Haro, Matt Winston, W. Earl Brown, Lin Shaye, Nick Corri, Tuesday Knight

Storyline

It's nearing the 10th Anniversary of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and while Heather Langenkamp (Heather Langenkamp) is trying to put her nerves back together after a stalker disrupted her life, a demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) as its portal to the real world.

Opinion

Just like me (and many others), Wes Craven as well regarded the sequels to "A Nightmare on Elm Street" to be weak compared to his masterpiece. Unlike me though, he actually had the opportunity to remedy, and that's exactly what he did with "Wes Craven's New Nightmare". Maybe it is not as good as the original, but this film is a dream come true. Please forgive the pun.

Once again making the different is the story. The brilliant idea Wes Craven had, actually. Having Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund playing themselves in a film within a film written by Craven who also is playing himself and that is writing the script at it unfolds is pure (Charlie Kaufman) genius.

I know it sounds complicated, and horrors are not supposed to have complicated storylines, but this actually works, and even though it is not the most frightening story ever, it still manages to be creepy and quite scary.

The other great thing about this film is Freddy Krueger. The previous entries had slowly transformed him into a pathetic joker that wasn't able to make you laugh even under torture, but Craven was able to give him his dignity back. Not only this Freddy is threatening but possibly he looks even more scary than he looked in the original film.

It still does have its flaws, for example the ending could have been delivered better, and the acting leaves a bit to be desired - maybe a bigger involvement of Robert Englund would have helped -, but overall this still ranks as best sequel.