Film Review: NEW NIGHTMARE (1994, Wes Craven)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 112 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: John Saxon (TENEBRE, ENTER THE DRAGON), Heather Langenkamp (GROWING PAINS, SHOCKER, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), Robert Englund (EATEN ALIVE, DANCE OF THE DEAD, ST. IVES), Miko Hughes (MERCURY RISING, APOLLO 13), David Newsom (KISS KISS BANG BANG, 24), W. Earl Brown ("Dan Dority" on DEADWOOD, SCREAM, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH). Shot by Mark Irwin (VIDEODROME, THE FLY, THE BLOB, SCREAM). Music by J. Peter Robinson (THE WRAITH, THE GATE, THE BELIEVERS, COCKTAIL).
Tag-line: "On October 14th, terror no longer stops at the screen..."
Best one-liner: "Every kid knows who Freddy is. He's like Santa Claus... or King Kong or..."

I mean, clearly Wes was more than a little pissed that he created an epochal, child-murdering burn victim (who played our subconscious phobias like a piano) that was subsequently hijacked and transformed into a one-liner machine, corporate huckster, and frequent occupant of board games, pinball machines, yo-yos, and the like.

Wes Craven: disdainful toward what they did to his Freddy.

Personally, I'm cool with a Freddy who scares the shit outta me as well as one who rides skateboards and says things like, "Bon Appétit...BITCH!," but then again, Freddy wasn't my brainchild and magnum opus, so I guess I don't get to say boo. Regardless, NEW NIGHTMARE is a pretty ingenious way to reboot the series after Freddy's much publicized 1991 'death.'

I suppose this sort of thing had been done before (Lucio Fulci claimed that it ripped off CAT IN THE BRAIN), but never on quite such a scale. (Unfortunately, Craven's subsequent meta-effort SCREAM ensured that lower quality, postmodern, wink n' nod horror would stick around for some time.) The self-reflexivity goes nutballs, and in the best possible ways- Wes types his own script as it plays out on our screen:

Robert Englund appears as himself and makes nearly Fosse-esque jazz hands as mesmerized fans chant 'Fred-dy, Fred-dy':

FRED-DY, FRED-DY

and Heather Langenkamp tries to keep her son from seeing the first NIGHTMARE on TV. I love that in this alternate reality, ten years after the fact, all the original NIGHTMARE cast members still hang out on a regular basis. And you have to delight in the fact that the real Krueger (credited as 'himself') is supposed to be an eons-old demon kept at bay by the sequels! (So A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD served some important existential purpose after all!) There's a certain loopy brilliance to the proceedings, and a few actual scares, but there's something about it that never quite blossoms into the masterpiece it might have been (maybe it's Miko Hughes- John's son and the epitome of 'corporate child actor').

Still, there's a genuine power to certain scenes, like when reality fleetingly bleeds away and John Saxon and Heather become father and daughter once more...

Four stars.

Side note: The film also receives bonus points for using music from Wim Wenders' WINGS OF DESIRE in its trailer!

-Sean Gill

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Film Review: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984, Wes Craven)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 91 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: John Saxon (TENEBRE, ENTER THE DRAGON), Ronee Blakley (NASHVILLE, THE DRIVER), Heather Langenkamp (GROWING PAINS, SHOCKER, NEW NIGHTMARE), Johnny Depp (CRY-BABY, DEAD MAN), Charles Fleischer (DEADLY FRIEND, ZODIAC), Robert Englund (ST. IVES, EATEN ALIVE, DEAD & BURIED), Amanda Wyss (BETTER OFF DEAD, POWWOW HIGHWAY), Jsu Garcia (GOTCHA!, WE WERE SOLDIERS). Cinematography by Jacques Haitkin (THE HIDDEN, CHERRY 2000). Head makeup effects by David B. Miller (THE BEASTMASTER, COCOON, WILD AT HEART). Music by Charles Bernstein (MR. MAJESTYK, DEADLY FRIEND).
Tag-line: "If Nancy Doesn't Wake Up Screaming She Won't Wake Up At All..."
Best one-liner: "Okay Krueger, we play in your court!"

There was a time when Freddy wasn't plastered on squirt guns, board games, nite lights, novelty albums, squish-'ems, pinball machines, and yo-yos.
There was a time when Freddy was scary as shit.

He wasn't a one-liner dropping contrivance- he was a terrifying burn victim and possible-pedophile who had the confounding power to haunt kids' dreams from beyond the grave. He wasn't all powerful, not by a long shot: in a toe-to-toe wrestling match between him and a high school girl (which actually happens several times in this film), the girl has a pretty good chance of kicking Freddy's raggedy ass. The existentially frustrating thing here is that Freddy cheats.

Even as the hall monitor.

He gets you when you're at your most vulnerable, your least aware- in the sweet ark of slumber. And more often than not, Craven shows Freddy's attacks from the outside- the sleeping victim thrashing about, slashed and beaten- we can only imagine what's happening in their world, and that's truly frightening. The cast is solid- Heather Langenkamp is our heroine (and a far cry from the CW douches on summer hiatus who star in today's horror), John Saxon (a Bava/Argento alum) is the no-nonsense cop dad, Ronee Blakley is the habitually loaded alky mom (watch for her hidden booze stashes), Johnny Depp is the boyfriend (even at this young age making some impressively bizarre acting choices), and, of course, Robert Englund is Krueger- a sheer force of malicious exuberance.

The visuals are startlingly potent- Freddy's arms extending to an impossible length:

a bed swallowing a victim and spewing a sanguinary geyser, a spectral form emerging from a rubbery wall:

a Cronenbergian face-lickin' phone:

or a girl chased up the steps as the carpet transforms into bemiring white goop. All of this is pre-CGI, and, in fact, is frequently visualized by extremely primitive means- its effectiveness remains a credit to the conceptual hotbed of primal fears and visceral anxieties that (ex-Humanities professor) Craven dips into. This is focused, forceful storytelling at its best. Five stars.

-Sean Gill

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