Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Pretty cool to see the critical reception of this movie get larger over the years. Making it the second highest rated Freddy Krueger film. I always thought this was the scariest one but whatever it is you think. You can't doubt the fact that the story is so good. It was definitely a breath of fresh air in a dying universe!

This was a very fun and smart movie that I definitely recommend, the closest to the original in terms of how great it is, and is a must watch for anybody, one of the best slasher movies out there

The best A Nighmare On Elm Street sequel. Best since the first movie. And maybe the scariest movie in this franchise.

Wes Craven establishes a New Nightmare for his suffering franchise, introducing a unique original storyline that ventures beyond the Freddy universe featuring the original cast and crew members playing themselves, though the concept won’t appeal to all Freddy fans, it was Wes Craven’s way of delivering a fitting one-last scare for Freddy and concluding his standalone franchise he created. Grading: B

Good Movie Better Than All Crap I’ve Been Watching This Movie is Great 9/10

I’ll start with a warning, I have more to say about films I hate! On the positive side it was good to see Heather Langenkamp return. And the final twenty minutes was entertaining. That’s it, now for what I didn’t like, quickfire. It feels like a bad soap. It’s boring and hard to watch due to the flawed concept, it’s fiction but it’s pretending to be real but we know it’s fiction. They aren’t asleep during the nightmares. It doesn’t make sense most of the time. I could not at any point get over the concept, was this meant to be real life? It really bothered me to the point I didn’t want to watch it anymore. Freddy was Robert. The nightmares were phycological. The imagery was imaginary. The fun was gone. I don’t think I've hated a sequel as much as this since the first time I watched Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) or Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985). Some of the acting is not good, the child and Wes specifically. Sorry, at least he wasn’t as bad as M. Night Shyamalan in Signs (2002). It’s hard to relate to the characters. There are sSo many eye roll moments like ripping off The Exorcist (1973) and Hellraiser (1987). Things that were subtly left for the viewer to notice in the original like the grey hair felt like painful fan service here. Even the lore doesn’t make sense anymore, people that weren’t asleep were dying. Some of the effects were dire like the whole highway clouds disaster and the climax transformation. Freddy’s mask looks very dry again. The final 20 minutes where they final accept that they are making an Elm Street movie actually gets entertaining and this gets it an extra point but not enough to make up for the nearly 90 minutes of rubbish before it. It’s the worst of the Friday the Elm Street marathon I’m running through. Fundamentally it’s well made but conceptually I hated it. Does it achieve the minimum expectation of a film, is it entertaining? No. Not in my opinion.

A very creative retrospective on the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise that feels ahead of its time with its unique metacontextual commentary on the franchise fatigue and finally laying things to rest by having the high demand for more Freddy manifesting in a literal demon that takes his form to torment the cast and crew playing themselves. The execution has some admittedly mixed results, as some of the scenes are brilliantly creepy and grounded, while others get too silly (especially the annoying screaming child acting) and rule-breaking vague happenings for the sake of spooks even when nothing makes sense. I kind of wish we had more scenes with Wes Craven and Robert Englund playing themselves since they had predictably great chemistry with their old co-star Heather. The climax is great with its nightmarish dreamworld imagery and serves as a great payoff, but I wish Heather had slightly more agency in defeating Freddy and that it didn’t end on such a goofy note like him trying to tongue-grope her until she gets rescued by a 5 year-old stabbing his tongue. That being said, the ending is sweet and measure with a good sense of closure as Heather gets to read a sweet meta letter from Wes Craven thanking her for both starting and ending the franchise on a good note.

There's one final script for Freddy - and it's bringing him back into existence. Dylan (Kindergarten Cop Kid) screams entirely too much.

What a smart story.

New Nightmare finally gets the Elm Street franchise back on track with a great script and brilliant writing from Wes Craven. Heather Langenkamp gives her best performance in the franchise, and all the other characters are very enjoyable and well-acted. The creative kills take a back seat, and while this isn't officially Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund brings terror to the demonic entity in the film.