Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Here's a New Nightmare

Ok, so here I am, realizing that the last blog of new content came out about a month and a half ago and I'm thinking to myself, I really need to get something new out. I've had plenty of things getting in the way the past month and half, two months that they just threw me off my writing track.

But to get back into the swing of things, I'm going to bring you a New Nightmare, which I promise, is not meant as a bad pun. I'm actually going to review Wes Cravin's New Nightmare, an interesting film featuring Freddy Krueger, and the next to last featuring Robert Englund.


Personally, I find this to be the last official Nightmare film, simply because I felt that Freddy vs Jason was just a cheap cash in and kicked off what I thought was going to be an endless series of lame "versus" films (it came out only a year before Alien vs Predator. Thankfully, that trend quickly faded, I almost thought we were going to get a film version of this), and while I didn't necessarily dislike the re-boot of the A Nightmare series, I didn't necessarily think it was awesome, either. And I'll admit right now, even though I own Freddy vs. Jason, I haven't been able to force myself to view it, simply because it was a "Versus" film.



Released in 1994, New Nightmare was written and directed by series creator Wes Craven (which is possibly why the official title of the film is Wes Craven's New Nightmare, but you'll just see me referring to it as simply New Nightmare). This film tries to add something new, by setting the film in the "real world" where all of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films were nothing more than a successful horror film franchise. Heather Langenkamp, Wes Craven, Robert Shaye (the producer of the series, hell I think he's the producer of ALL of the movies New Line Cinema put out) and Robert Englund all play themselves, albeit fictionalized versions.

I know this is from part 1,
but it's the best I could find

The plot centers around a demon, taking the form of Mr. Krueger, haunting the people responsible in making the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, specifically Heather Langenkamp. This demon is attracted to her specifically because it sees her as it's "arch nemesis," as she not only helped in defeating Freddy more than once, but she was also the first teenager to do so. It's later revealed in the film that the reason there have been numerous sequels in the franchise is because the demon has been locked away in the films as a form of purgatory, and as long as the films get made, no real people have to die, therefore the Freddy we see in the films is really this demon.



Honestly, I can say I enjoyed New Nightmare. I almost expected this one to be the "series killer" for me (come on, I actually liked Nightmare 5: The Dream Child, and even enjoyed Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and people hated those). Before viewing the film, I expected the move to the "real world" was just going to have an all around negative effect on me and taint my views on the series as a whole, and take away my suspension of belief while viewing the earlier entries in the series.


But really, if anything, this film really celebrates the series. To me, it doesn't feel forced and it's purely meant to be a fun experience, all the while giving you some scares while doing so. Now saying that, does that mean I should actually go and watch Freddy vs. Jason, especially since it's been sitting in my collection literally unwatched and untouched for the past number of years? Pfft, please, I'd rather sit and watch Freddy's Dead with a bowl of popcorn laughing at the powerglove cameo.

So if you're in the mode as I was in regarding this film, curious but not wanting to taint your vision of the series, just watch it. It's interesting and a fun film, especially for fans of the series. And therein I think is the key of this movie. You need to be, without a shadow of a doubt, a fan of the series, and with that, I think you'd enjoy this one.