Director: Wes Craven
Pigeonhole: Horror / Thriller
Basics: This is the 7th film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. I would not call it a sequel, but more of a creative twist on the whole series, focusing mainly on Heather and Freddy. Now you may be wondering why I wrote 'Heather' the actor's name instead of 'Nancy' the character's name. Good question. This film takes a faux-real-world approach, but that is not to be confused with a mockumentary. Heather, Wes Craven and Robert are portrayed as themselves, but, in turn, there are actors portraying Heather's family.
We see on screen Wes is writing a new horror story and producing another Nightmare movie. He wants Heather to reprise the Nancy character one more time. Strange things start to happen (as well as some murders) and it appears Heather is also be harassed by someone "who sounds a lot like Freddy". Wes concedes that he is dreaming parts of the script then writes them down. He also says that Freddy Krueger is a fictional embodiment of a true evil that exists and that making the fictional Nightmare on Elm Street movies kept the evil held at bay, but now (of course) the evil wants to come into the real world. The evil sees Nancy, the embodiment of Heather's good, powerful, character - and who defeated Freddy once - as its nemesis, so it begins to lash out Heather's weakness, her family.
Confused yet?
Recommendation: This is one of the two best sequels/ follow-ups in the Nightmare franchise, to date, in my opinion. As a stand-alone, you can watch this film without having seen any of the prior films and it will still be entertaining. 'R' rating is for language, violence, and gore.
My Take: Wes Craven comes back to the franchise, full circle if you will, with a great story, excellent visuals, and bringing back the best protagonist of any of the films in Heather Langenkamp. Gone are the stupid one-liners, and sad attempts to bring humor and pop culture references to a thriller/ horror feature. Crossing the lines of supposed reality, fiction, and the dream world seems like it would be a difficult task to put into a script, let alone onto film, but once again Wes Craven pulls it off.
**spoiler alert**
The movie opens with Heather, her husband Chase (David Newsome) and son Dylan (Hughes) wandering around the set of the new Nightmare movie. Chase is working as a make-up artist. We see a prop "Freddy claw" come to life and start maiming the crew, but then Heather wakes up from this nightmare to an earthquake. After the earthquake subsides, Chase discovers his chest has been scratched, as if injured from a Freddy attack. Heather then tells Chase she has been receiving harassing calls from a man who sounds like Freddy. Heather soon does an interview on a morning talk show discussing the original film's 10 year anniversary, and Robert comes out dressed as Freddy. This somewhat disturbs Heather, even though it was supposed to be a fun surprise. Heather later goes to New Line studios where she is asked if she wants to reprise her Nancy role for newest Nightmare film that is in progress - which she refuses because of the recent suspicious incidents.
Chase is soon killed, supposedly falling asleep in the car on the way home. Dylan begins going into a trace-like states where it seems he is being possessed or stuck in between a dream and the waking world. Very concerned about Dylan, Heather takes him to the hospital, but that of course is a huge mistake, because the staff thinks Heather is insane. A friend of Heather's who is watching Dylan is killed by Freddy who enters the real world, and the nurses and doctor realize that Heather was telling the truth. Dylan has gone back home (really taken there by Freddy) for the final standoff in the dream world. Heather and Dylan eventually destroy Freddy by casting him into a furnace. After waking up, Heather sees that Wes has completed the "new script" which has left for her to read.
With many homages interwoven and even bringing John Saxon (Lt. Thompson) back for some screen time, the links to the original are unmistakable, yet this movie creates its own distinct identity without becoming satirical. The film holds a creepy, foreboding feel throughout, and the visuals in the final dream sequence are some of the best of the entire Nightmare series. The movie was tense at the right times and did not bog down with fluff or fall into the trap of using horror movie cliches. Freddy is slightly redesigned for New Nightmare, the claws coming straight out of his burned hand, rather than it being a glove, and he wears a dark trench coat.
Extras:
- Freddy Krueger is credited as "himself"
- Wes Craven had imagined this plot years ago, pitching it to be Nightmare 3, but the studio rejected it at that time.
- This is not the last of Freddy - he comes back in Freddy Vs. Jason (2003), and the Nightmare on Elm St. reboot (2010), with more sequels for the reboot pending.
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