Freddy Goes Post Modern

After the clustercuss that was Freddy's Dead, New Line Cinema were wise enough to listen to Freddy Kruger creator Wes Craven when he came knocking at their doors a couple of years later. Mr Craven saw that the only way to continue the horror film franchise was to make an actual horror film (not some misguided fantasy comedy) in which to make Kruger relevant once more. And Craven's idea was inspired...

Predating Scream's self referential post-modernism by a few years, Wes Craven's New Nightmare has Craven, original Nightmare actors Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon and Robert England and a host of New Line executives play themselves. In the story, Craven and New Line approach Langenkamp to play herself in a new addition of the Elm Street franchise; effectively mirroring their efforts to get this particular film made. Where it deviates is Freddy Kruger himself. Not simply a character performed by Robert England, Freddy is revealed to be an malevolant ancient supernatural force that adopts the appearance of evil icons throughout history...Freddy being it's chosen form in modern times. It seems the only way to contain the evil is to trap it within a story...like a movie, for example!

The other inspired element is the reference to fairy tales, suggesting that this method of storytelling has also been used to record tales of this immortal, evil force. Langenkamp has a young child who likes the Hansel & Gretal fairy tale, of which there are repeated references throughout, with Freddy now represented as the boogieman who lurks under the sheets at the bottom of the bed.

On the plus side the film returns to a more serious style; less campy and fun...more thriller and scary in tone. Freddy himself has been redesigned into something more demonic, with England cutting back with the majority of the wisecracks. There's plenty of references to Elm Street 1 (the rotating phone/the tongue telephone) suggesting this is the film bringing the franchise full circle, and there's some inventive deaths, as you'd expect.

Of course the film is not without it's faults. The reliance on Langenkamp (at a career best here...so that's not saying much) and a group of non-actors means the performances are seriously lacking a lot of the time. Craven, while an improvement over most of the directors in this franchise, still isn't the scariest helmer in the world and the ending, which takes place in a hellish dreamscape, is cheap, and clashes with the 'grounded' reality of the rest of the film.

But it is smart. It is compelling in a serious way (as a proper horror film should be) and it is entertaining. One of the best of the franchise, this ended the Elm Street series on a high note (and yes, I'm not counting Freddy Vs Jason.)