Few directors can legitimately lay claim to one major horror franchise. Wes Craven is the rare mastermind behind two. The genre icon not only envisioned one of the most imaginative slasher entries of all time with 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, he reinvented the genre once again in 1996 with Scream. Both films birthed franchises that remain tentpoles of the genre, making household names out of beloved final girls and frightening onscreen killers alike. And between them lies Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, a curious 1994 slasher sequel that not only takes place in our world, but offers a faux glimpse behind the scenes of horrific storytelling. Arguably a prototype for the meta-slasher craze, New Nightmare blurs the line between fantasy and reality while questioning the power of horror in a rapidly changing world.
I was thirteen when the film hit theaters and absolutely terrified of slashers. Though already a Fear Street devotee and one of Stephen King’s Constant Readers, the masked and stoic killers of this violent subgenre filled me with an icy dread I still can’t describe. I took a chance on New Nightmare and found a young heroine struggling with her own fear of horror movies. The story’s bold construction allowed me to distance myself from the onscreen terror by providing names and faces to the many wizards working in tandem behind the curtain. Seeing star Robert Englund appear both in and out of his Freddy Kruger makeup provided distance between the man and the monster while helping me keep “it’s only a movie” firmly in mind. After surviving my first foray into this frightening subgenre, I dove headfirst into the pool. I would go on to learn about the final girl archetype and meet several incredible female characters – including Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) – who would help me find my own empowerment and wind up changing the course of my life.
Of course it’s in this perception of safety that the horror lies. With no title cards to ground us, we open on a new variation of a familiar scene. In a fiery boiler room workshop, mysterious hands emerge from the sleeves of a red and green sweater and prepare a mechanical glove with knives for fingers. As the blades sever a human hand, we hear a director’s voice enter the fray. Wes Craven glides into the frame and we realize we’re on a movie set. The murderous glove is operated by a remote control device and Heather herself watches from the wings while her young son Dylan (Miko Hughes) sits on her lap. We take a breath and let the artificial nature of this frightening scene wash over us before Craven hits us with a surprise left hook. The glove begins to move on its own and impales the special effects team with its razor-sharp claws. Heather screams herself awake in the midst of a frightening earthquake and we realize we have just witnessed her latest nightmare. No longer on Elm Street, we now find ourselves caught in a Hollywood system intent on reviving Freddy (Englund) for a new generation.
Premiering ten years after the original film, New Nightmare serves as a sequel/reboot of sorts long before the term became industry slang. The film feels simultaneously fresh and reverent, nodding to Craven’s original story with new and unique set pieces and kills. Freddy’s tongue reaches Heather (Langenkamp) from a phone receiver and she chides a nurse to “screw your pass!” in a hospital hall. Along with boiler room imagery and a Hansel and Gretel motif, Dylan waves to us through the clear plastic of an oxygen tent, mirroring the iconic body bag dragged through the hallway of Nancy’s school. When babysitter Julie (Tracy Middendorf) meets her grisly end, she writhes across the walls and ceiling just like Tina (Amanda Wyss) in the franchise’s first – and arguably best – death. This iteration of the iconic scene takes on new horror as Craven alternates between reality – in which Julie dies by unseen hands – and Dylan’s dream world that sees the frightened young woman dragged across the ceiling by the sadistic killer.
New Nightmare is perhaps most fascinating due to its verisimilitude. In addition to Langenkamp, several members of the cast, crew, and production team of A Nightmare on Elm Street appear as themselves, implying a sort of chosen family that has carried on long after the first film wrapped. Much of the plot was based on real details from Langenkamp’s life including her marriage to a special effects man – David LeRoy Anderson declined an invitation to appear as himself – and the couple’s young son, a boy several years younger than Heather’s onscreen child. Unfortunately another aspect of the film is also true to life. Langenkamp reportedly did have a stalker who caused her to briefly relocate to London. Craven asked for her blessing before including this harrowing plot development in the film’s narrative, fearing some scenes might trigger painful memories of that horrific time. The film concludes with Craven writing a note thanking Heather for playing Nancy one last time and we marvel at the sheer bravery it must have taken to reveal so much of her personal life to the world. New Nightmare feels like a special collaboration between director and star, bringing deeper understanding to an inspirational character. Like Nancy, we watch as Langenkamp takes back power over her own life and directly confronts what must be some of her darkest fears.
Also making appearances are New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye and veteran actress Lin Shaye, now a horror icon in her own right. John Saxon also appears as himself, offering fatherly support to Heather in the wake of her husband’s death. This warm relationship sets the stage for a gut punch as John begins to revert to the dismissive condescension of his Lt. Thompson persona. The sudden appearance of a police badge on his hip tells us in no uncertain terms that we have crept out of the waking world and into Freddy’s nightmare. But of all the cameos and easter eggs, it’s a scene between Heather and Wes that pulls at our heartstrings. Nine years after the beloved director’s passing, this conversation about the precarious nature of genre storytelling feels like uncovering a treasured memory.
No Elm Street film would be complete without a matchup between Heather/Nancy and Freddy Kruger. In a duel role, England once again slips into the deadly glove while also playing himself as a genial friend who dabbles in painting. After six films buried under gruesome makeup, it’s nice to see the handsome actor step out of Freddy’s shadow. His relationship with his co-stars adds a layer of warmth to an upsetting story and causes us to question the cost of playing such a despicable villain. We’re introduced to the cartoonish version of Freddy early on as he slices through a talk show set, jokes with Heather, then waves to an audience of kids cheering his name. Though his energy pervades Heather’s California home, we don’t see the monster until much later. With an updated creature design and subdued malevolence, Craven and Englund deliver a much more sinister version of the legendary killer. Gone is the wise-cracking prankster of later sequels and MTV fame. This Freddy feels more like the sadistic murderer who once inspired a bloodthirsty mob of frightened parents to burn him alive.
It’s this fascinating design that gives the film not only its teeth, but its narrative power. The seventh franchise entry, New Nightmare falls after Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare , a horror comedy responsible for killing off the evil dream-lurker. Combined with merchandise, television appearances, and a horror hosting gig on the series Freddy’s Nightmares, the cinematic child-killer had crossed the rubicon and was drifting closer to playground ubiquity and anti-hero status. Heather voices this concern when she remarks that, “Every kid knows who Freddy is. He’s like Santa Claus… or King Kong …” Craven’s own musings on the subject deal more with classic narrative structure. He theorizes that by creating Freddy, he was able to capture an ancient evil within a digestible form. But now that the monster has been defeated, the malicious entity has been set free and plans to break through the barrier between fiction and reality. As the first person to take away the demon’s power, Nancy has become the gatekeeper – the only one able to hold him in the dream world and defend us against a real life nightmare.
Though Freddy is admittedly terrifying, New Nightmare posits that the horror genre itself has become a sort of boogeyman. Multiple characters rail about the dangers posed by scary movies and a disapproving doctor outright blames the ANOES franchise for Dylan’s mysterious illness. The film follows a decade of self-righteous parents and politicians blaming explicit music, movies, and TV for societal woes. Heather seems to have fallen for this moral panic as well and discourages Dylan from reading or watching anything violent. Though understandable, her concern parallels the first film’s catalytic violence. Freddy gained his power when a group of parents murdered a man suspected of killing neighborhood children then buried the evidence to avoid any consequences. Years after taking the law into their own hands, they watch as their kids succumb to the results of their own misguided efforts at protection. Similarly, Heather tries to shield Dylan from the idea of Freddy, but her attempts to repress this part of her past only causes the supernatural killer to push back harder. She’s repeating the sins of her own cinematic mother by sheltering her child and denying the fact that monsters exist.
Two years later, Craven would explore this idea in Scream, a slasher following teens who have grown up in Freddy’s shadow. These savvy horror fans discuss the rules of slasher lore and believe that pop culture knowledge will make them impervious to the killer’s tricks. A Freddy facsimile does appear, but the Ghostface killer is made of flesh and bone. They are kids not much older than Dylan himself who use genre knowledge to butcher their friends. Yet even then, Craven pushes back against the idea that horror is responsible. After describing his motive, the killer says, “Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!” In the third franchise installment, final girl Sidney (Neve Campbell) goes a step further, insisting that the killers commit their crimes because they “choose to,” not because of any outside force. The Scream franchise is built on the confluence of horror in fiction and reality, the seeds which can be felt in Heather’s parental dilemma. The well-meaning mother must reckon with the effect horror has had on her own life and how it will shape the life of her child, ultimately realizing that it’s in allowing ourselves to be afraid that we’re able to finally find our strength.
The film concludes with a meta moment in which Heather reads the script of New Nightmare to her son, finally shepherding him through narrative horror. She has once again reclaimed her power and pushed Freddy back onto the screen. Ten years ago, a generation of children were inspired by watching this brave teen take back any power she gave to a monster. Ignored by her parents, she was forced to take matters into her own hands and battle a deadly beast all on her own. But now, she will use what she’s learned to guide her own son through the experience of fear, teaching him to face the monster and find empowerment. Thirty years after Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, early Freddy fans are raising kids of their own. Hopefully they will once again follow Heather’s example and remember that it’s only in allowing our children to explore and overcome their fears that we can raise them to be heroes who are “into survival.”
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