Wes Craven's New NightmareSay what you will about John Carpenter, he really hasn't made very many scary films. Compared to Wes Craven, Carpenter's a kiddie-film maker. Hoping to catch a scary film, I took a trip to the local Blockbuster, only to find a lot of the horror section checked out (it was, after all, the Friday the 13th weekend). Then there I happened upon WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE. I remembered seeing it when I was younger, but for some reason, I couldn't remember what it really was about. I decided to rent it (and The Omen), and stayed up late into the night.
At about midnight, I put the movie in, turned off all the lights in my house, and settled in for a scary time. I mean, this is Wes Craven after all, right? A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the scariest horror films I had ever seen, but here's a film that surpasses the original. It is a true frightfest of immense proportions. As much as I love the original (I still give it a higher rating), this one is much scarier, due mostly to its smart story. The only real problem I had with the film was a slightly preposterous ending that relied too much on cheesy special effects.
WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE begins exactly the same way the 1984 original did. A man's dirty hands work over a cruddy bench inside some mysterious furnace room. We see a glove being formed, with razor-sharp blades--however, this is unlike the glove we remember. It moves before the maker even has his hand in it. He picks up a butcher knife, places one hand down on the bench, and chops it off, blood squirting everywhere. "More blood," yells the director. The special effects technicians pump their hardest to get blood to squirt out further from the prosthetic limb. "Cut!" the director yells, congratulating them. Strangely, the technicians of the glove can't stop it from moving, so they disable it. Heather Langenkamp (playing herself) sits watching the bloody mess. But the director's command doesn't stop the horror. The glove suddenly leaps to life, kills several people in its wake, and injures her husband.
Heather wakes up, screaming, only to realize an earthquake is shaking her house. Her husband, Chase Porter (David Newsom) tries to soothe her, but the sound of her child only scares her more. They both run and protect Dylan (Miko Hughes). After it subsides, Heather notices that Chase has injured his hand, very similar to the cut he got in her dream. Could it be a coincidence? It must be. After receiving a crank call from a Freddie-imitator, she leaves to do an interview on a talk show. Afterwards, New Line Cinema president Robert Shaye asks her for a big favor: star in another Nightmare entry. "Wes is already working on the script, and your husband is creating the prototype for the new glove," he tells her. "Wes must be having nightmares again," Heather realizes.
She arrives home to discover her son hypnotized by her own film, A Nightmare on Elm Street. She turns it off, and Dylan screams and convulses, while the babysitter, Julie (Tracy Middendorf), watches in horror. Heather calls her husband and asks him to come home. He agrees, but says it will take him about four hours to get back. During the night, Heather has another nightmare, this time concerning her husband. Chase drives, nearly falling asleep at the wheel. The glove he was working on bursts out of his seat, and slices his chest. Heather wakes up, realizing exactly what has happened. The police arrive, telling her about her husband's fatal accident. Unsurprisingly, the dead body has four, claw-like cuts on his chest.
NEW NIGHTMARE continues in this direction, closing in on its inevitable conclusion. But unlike other horror films of the 90s, it isn't just a bunch of starts and stops. It has a story that slowly and assuredly builds to a climax. Scream is famous for self-parodying the genre, but NEW NIGHTMARE takes a more serious approach while parodying itself. It's the only film I can recall that actually asks, "What effects do these films have on their stars?" It's a film that explains the surprising number of sequels of the fading series. As explained by Wes Craven (who plays himself in the film), Freddie Krueger is an evil entity. Every decade or century, this evilness takes on another form. But it has come to like the Krueger form, and the only way to stop it from entering the real world is to create another sequel. Not only is this a frightening aspect, but it adds a strange, evil quality to the previous sequels. Now that's scary... a movie that can explain the sequels' purpose for even being.
Despite having this scary story, it's the actual direction that makes it mind-numbingly scary. Wes Craven can do no wrong, in my opinion. His films are almost always scary, but this one is one of his best. Scream is a great horror film, but it's killers are human. The Nightmare series concerns a fictional killer who resides in dreams, something everyone has every night. This grounding into reality makes it all that more frightening. I watched it before I went to bed, and I couldn't sleep for an hour, at least. The thought of having no control over my own dreams made me fear sleeping. I haven't been this affected by a horror film since Event Horizon. The scares aren't of the False Starts that populate films like I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, but more like the scares of The Omen and The Haunting. It's about the thought, the unseen, the unknown that scares us. Frankly, it's one of the scariest films of the 90s.
Wes Craven must be given much credit, as he wrote a film about him writing this film. A spectacular moment occurs during the very final moments, as Langenkamp picks up a script lying on the ground in her dream. She picks it up and starts reading. As confusing as this might sound, the script she reads from is the script for NEW NIGHTMARE in actuality. Is she, in fact, in a movie? Or is it a dream of a movie in a movie? Wes Craven's screenplay is incredibly smart, filled with dialogue that never skimps on intelligence and some surprising plot twists. Can you think of another film that can successfully incorporate the Hansel and Gretel story into it's horrific tale? It's hard to explain a film such as this. My advisement: forget what I have said, and just watch Craven work his twisted mind to scare you. However, turn off all the lights in the house, and be all alone. It's much more intense this way.
Heather Langenkamp has a seemingly simple job of portraying herself. How hard is it to play yourself? But Langenkamp reveals the charisma that made her a hit with audiences back in 1984. Not only does she have to play herself, but she also has to balance a script based completely on the illusion of reality. The fictional life of her Nightmare persona and her real life self begins to blend. People start calling her Nancy again, and her son begins to show signs of being Fred Krueger. As her son, Miko Hughes goes through some very traumatic experiences. In fact, I'd say he gives as frightening a performance as Linda Blair did in the original The Exorcist. Tracy Middendorf creates a very likable character who obviously must die sometime in the film. Wes Craven is effective as himself, and Robert Englund gives a remarkable duel performance, one as himself, and the other as Freddie (though, Fred Krueger is billed as himself in the credits). Lin Shaye makes a brief appearance as a nurse (mostly known for her work in the Farrelly Brothers comedies), as does John Saxon as Nancy's father in the Nightmare series. Overall, a very, very effective cast in a horrific tale of reality vs. fiction.
WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE is rated R for graphic horror violence, terror, and language. Definitely not a film for kids, it's a film directed with panache and proficiency. Stylistically a great achievement, Craven's film is not for the faint of heart either. If you do decide to watch it alone, do so with great care. Every little noise you hear afterwards will have you jumping. The sound of a door squeaking open will make your palms sweat. Oh, and if you hear the sound of knives sliding together, run for your life. And don't fall asleep.