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| Unmissable |
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
18 | | Cast
Heather Langenkamp
Robert Englund
Miko Hughes
Wes Craven. | | Directors
Wes Craven. | | Screenwriters
Wes Craven. | | Running Time
112 minutes |
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New Nightmare
Movie with a movie precursor to Scream
Plot
Freddy Kreuger, upset that he was killed off in the last "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, attempts to murder his creators and actors from his previous films. Review
Given the promise of the title of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, you’re entitled to feel a mite cheated by the existence of this follow-up. It should, by all rights, be called A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 7: We Lied. However, with series creator Craven back at the helm, this is a long way from the formula cheap thrills of the last five sequels. And quite how they contrive to bring back the definitively-dead Freddy is radically original, stretching the concept of “sequel” in ways hardly the norm for a multiplex movie.
Set in the “real” world of Hollywood rather than on Craven’s mythical Elm Street, the story follows actress Langenkamp — playing herself — star of the original Elm Street movie a decade ago. Things have become fraught, she is being pestered by a prank caller with Freddy’s voice, troubled by bad dreams about the fiend and worried sick about the strange behaviour of her son (Miko Hughes). Meanwhile, New Line, the film company which actually made this movie, are wooing her to star in a fresh Freddy film, currently being written by Craven.
The play on fantasy and reality is teasingly clever, featuring both Craven, acting his big scene with a wonderfully surpressed chuckle, and a terrific self-parody from Englund, in the double role of himself and a streamlined, nastier Freddy. This new Nightmare is one of the strongest straight horror films of the decade, and even though the dreamworld finale may be a little familiar, the picture has a genuine creepiness that goes deeper than one-off shocks.
Verdict
Genre thrills with a big dose of originality
Reviewed by Kim Newman
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