Long Week On Elm St: Part 7: Wes Craven's New Nightmare

After the terrible stain that is Freddy’s Dead, one almost wants to weep when beholding A New Nightmare. Like The Dream Warriors (and to be honest I’m a bit dissatisfied for the review I did of that title. Not that its not an accurate representation of how I feel. Its just that I did a better job articulating what annoyed me about that title then what I liked about it. As penance I’m trying to be more even handed here), I liked this one a lot better this time out. And like The Dream Warriors, I have no doubt that it has something to do with the fact that it directly follows the worst two entries in the series. I mean come on, anything looks good after watching Freddy’s Revenge/Dead. You don't want to praise one for simply not being the other.

New Nightmare is greatly aided by the fact that its purpose couldn’t be clearer. Its Wes Craven’s mission to restore dignity to his greatest creation. His mission is so simple, that its kind of genius. To make Freddy scary again. But No matter how noble the movie’s intentions are they can’t fully absorb the silliness of Wes Craven solemnly explaining that his film was so awesome that it enslaved a demon.

Perhaps some explaining is in order. For those of you not in the know, New Nightmare takes place in the “real world”. New Line has scuttled the Nightmare series with dead, but Craven has a mysterious idea to bring it back, and he wants Heather Langenkamp for it. Langenkamp is initially reluctant to take the part, but when people start dying, and by all appearances Krueger has appeared in the real world and is apparently fixated with her troubled son (some truly dire child acting) . She realizes she might not have a choice. She’ll have to act out her role as Freddy’s adversary, either onscreen, or in her real world.

Now this is pretty potent stuff. Like Bret Eaton Ellis’s criminally underrated Lunar Park, it’s a portrait of an artist many believe to be amoral grappling with the responsibility an artist has when he brings, both figuratively and literally, something into the world. The problem, and if I may use another Literary allusion it would be Under The Dome, is that if Craven had left the reason for Freddy's return unexplained, the piece would be infinitely more effective. But Craven is a man who likes to explain things. And his explanation for this event is that the story for A Nightmare On Elm Street was so awesome that it imprisoned a demon, and now that the demon is free its going to kill off everyone whose involved in the movies (guess it didn’t foresee remakes) so the story can never be told… And he’s causing earthquakes…

And I’m sorry, but that never gets any less stupid, no matter how many times I hear it. If I can be inelegant for a moment, A New Nightmare is like receiving a meal from a five star restaurant that someone has taken a dump on. The Asparagus may be braised just so, the potatoes rich and creamy, and the Steak juicy and cooked to perfection, but you simply cannot ignore the steaming pile of shit that is at its center.

Which is a shame because there is a lot of great stuff in New Nightmare, the metaphorical meal is pretty great. Englund embraces the chance to make Freddy scary again and he plays it with his old unrelenting viciousness and a sense of humor appropriately pitch black. (He even gets to do a pretty damning criticism of the unscary Freddy, when he hams it up on a talk show with Langenkamp, dancing to his theme song and high fiving to his adoring fans.) Craven Keeps the “real” Freddy off screen for over half the movie, it’s a great slow burn technique building some genuine dread. Langenkamp and Saxon make the most out of their chance to be on the big screen again. Craven shoots what’s arguably the greatest looking film of his career. The effects work is phenomenal (Some of it doesn't hold up but a lot of it does. The matte work in Freddy's lair is pretty great). The set where the film has its suitably apocalyptic ending Nightmarish. The scare scenes scare (One of the film’s most brutal scares is one of it’s a most simple. A scene where one of the first films most famous scares is coupled with the chilling line “I touched him.” It blows away ten years of not taking Freddy seriously in an instant). The proto Scream commentary on horror films is insightful. The commentary on Freddy interesting (“Every kid knows Freddy…”)

It has more ideas in any given five minute stretch then the entire rest of the series has in total. I mean fuck Freddy's Dead could you not even realize that Freddy has to meet his final end in a boiler! That's the base line of- Oh shit my blood pressure is going up again. My Doctor tells me I need to avoid sodium and all mentions of Freddy's Dead.

But that oh so important suspension of Disbelief never clicks. And the movie gets crushed under its weight… and the weight of said dreadful child acting (I mean the kid is BAD, single handedly killing some potentially effective moments) and the dubious decision to put Freddy in Leather pants like he’s Chris Cornell.

At the end of the day New Nightmare is a worthy effort from everyone involved. And I really can’t fault it for that. I just can’t help but wish it had been an entirely successful one.