A genre of horror film I never really got into was the slasher film centered around some strange implacable killer whose preferred weapons of death are sharp or pointy, perfect for stabbing, hacking, slashing. No quick death from a quick bullet to the heart for these hapless murder victims. No, these villains are all about inflicting the most damage and the most pain and the most horror before their victims gasp their last painful breath.
One of the most popular films of this genre was A Nightmare on Elm Street from the mind of Wes Craven who knew a thing or ten about making scary movies. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven created a force of evil that struck when his victims were at their most vulnerable: when they were asleep.
Freddy Kreuger lived in dreams. Freddy Kreuger killed in dreams. And he did this through a number of sequels until Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
Wes Craven was done with Freddy Kreuger and kills off his creation.
But what happens if Freddy Kreuger is not done with Wes Craven?
And that brings us to the topic of today's post.
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You presents a look back to 1994 and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, starring
Heather Langenkamp who was Nancy Thompson in a Nightmare on Elm Street.
In New Nightmare, Heather Langenkamp plays Heather Langenkamp, an actress who was Nancy Thompson in a Nightmare on Elm Street.
What.....?
Let's get down to business.
Heather Langenkamp takes a pitch meeting with New Line Cinema to return as Nancy Thompson for a new Nightmare on Elm Street movie.
But is the horror fantasy of Nightmare on Elm Street intruding in the real world? Has Freddy Kreuger turned his sights from Nancy Thompson to Heather Langenkamp?
Because some weird shit is happening.
Heather has a nightmare about her family being attacked by an animated set of Kreuger's claws. In the dream, Heather's husband Chase gets a cut on his finger. When she wakes up, Chase has a cut on his finger.
By the way, husband Chase is a special effects guy working on the new Freddy Kreuger movie, building a new claw glove for our villain.
Heather receives a call from an obsessed fan who quotes Freddy Krueger's nursery rhyme in an eerie, Freddy-like voice.
Heather finds her young son Dylan watching her original film. When she interrupts him (he is way too young for that shit), he has a severely traumatizing episode where he screams at her.
Then Chase dies in a car accident after he falls asleep at the wheel. At the funeral, Heather has a dream about Freddy taking Dylan away.
Dylan's health deteriorates as he becomes increasingly paranoid about going to sleep.
Actor Robert Englund who played Freddy Kreuger in Nightmare on Elm Street is experiencing weird shit and leaves the movie.
Actor John Saxon who was Don Thompson in Nightmare on Elm Street is creeped out by weird shit going down and is worried about Heather.
Heather figures this is all Wes Craven's fault.
Heather thinks Freddy is a real supernatural entity drawn to Wes Craven's films but then Wes wrote Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Killed off in that fantasy world freed Freddy Krueger to escape into the real world. Because Nancy Thompson was his primary foe in the movies, Freddy is focusing on the actress who portrayed Nancy, our own Heather Langenkamp.
Heather realizes that John Saxon has established his persona as Don Thompson. When Heather embraces being Nancy Thompson again, Freddy emerges completely into reality and takes Dylan to his realm, a dark underworld, hell, if you will.
Heather follows them into hell where Freddy fights off Heather and chases Dylan into an oven. Dylan escapes the oven, doubles back to Heather, and together they push Freddy into the oven and light it. This destroys both the monster and his reality.
Back at home in the real world, Dylan and Heather emerge from under his blankets, and Heather finds at the foot of the bed a copy of copy of the screenplay for New Nightmare with a note of thanks from Wes Craven to Heather for playing Nancy one last time and finally defeating Freddy Krueger once and for all.
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| Heather Langenkamp as "Heather Langenkamp" |
OK, that was weird.
So Freddy Krueger is real?
There are some differences between New Nightmare and the rest of the Nightmare On Elm Street series. Freddy's glove has a more organic look with the fingers resembling bones. This Freddy also adds a long dark trenchcoat to his wardrobe.
While Robert Englund plays Freddy once more, in the end credits, "Freddy Krueger" is credited as "Himself".
While there is some graphic violence and gore as one might expect from a slasher horror movie, there is a lot more psychological horror at work as Heather deals with the slow drip of horror into her life from the horror fantasy associated with her work as an actress. There are long stretches of Heather dealing the deteriorating health of her son, the death of her husband. It's like Wes Craven was told by his producer, "Great news, Wes! We have the budget to fund a new Freddy Kreuger movie. But there's a catch. The money's coming from Lifetime, the Television Network For Women."
You may be relieved to hear that Heather Langenkamp's husband is not a man named Chase who works as a special effects guy. She's been married David LeRoy Anderson since 1989 and has two children with him, neither of whom is named Dylan.
On the other hand, there are a couple of scenes in the movie where earthquakes occur that coincide with Freddy Kreuger's entry into reality. During the making of New Nightmare, production was interrupted by actual earthquakes.
Ooh boy!
OK, coming up next on the blog on Monday, we have two posts...
Halloween 2 as we continue our Halloween Countdown of Weird Shit.
And then we'll have a second post Monday afternoon of Doctor Who Is NEW! Arachnids in the UK .
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and thanks for reading I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.
ZOINKS! I'm outta here!
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