Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Wes Craven
MUSIC BY: J. Peter Robinson
DISTRIBUTOR: New Line Cinema
STARRING: Robert Englund; Heather Langenkamp; Miko Hughes; David Newsom; Fran Bennett; introducing Tracy Middendorf; and John Saxon
RUNNING TIME: 112 Minutes
PLOT
The film opens with Heather Langenkamp, the actress who played Nancy Thompson in Nightmares 1 and 3, having nightmares about Freddy Kruger. She presumes that it is just coincidence but more things keep happening to convince her that Freddy is somehow after her. She finds out that Wes Craven, Freddy's creator, has been writing a new script. He tells her that everything in his script was something that he has been having nightmares about. They realize that everything in this script is really happening to them. It is not really Freddy who is terrorizing them; it is an ancient demon who can be captured by story tellers; but only if the story is frightening enough. For the past ten years he has been held prisoner in the Nightmare on Elm Street saga. When they killed Freddy, and the Nightmare franchise, they set the demon free. The only way to recapture the demon is to make Wes's script into a movie, thereby trapping him back in the movies.
TRIVIA
Does not officially count as being part of the Nightmare on Elm Street saga because it does not take place in the same universe as the Nightmare movies. It takes place in what one could call the 'real world'. 'Real world' meaning that in this place Freddy Krueger is a fictional character, not a child killer; and that A Nightmare on Elm Street was a movie that Wes Craven wrote and directed. In fact the Freddy Krueger that they fight is not Freddy Krueger at all. It is a demon who has taken on the persona and appearance of the immensely popular horror film icon.
The following people portrayed themselves in this movie: Heather Langenkamp; Wes Craven; Marianne Maddalena; Sam Rubin; Robert Englund; Sara Risher; Robert Shaye; Nick Corri; Tuesday Knight; John Saxon
Wes Craven felt that Freddy had become too cheesy, and could not frighten people the way that he once did. He wanted to take Freddy back to his roots, make him darker and more sinister. He gave Freddy a dark trench coat to cover his trademark striped sweeter. And also gave him much less dialogue than the later Nightmare films did.
In the hospital Heather is told that she can not be in a certain area without a pass; she replies "Screw your pass!" The very same line was spoken, by her character Nancy in Nightmare 1, to a hall monitor in a dream.
In the film's opening sequence there is an effect where the freddy claw goes haywire and attacks the film crew. The claw's seeming to fly through the air on it's own was achieved by having it on the end of a control rod that was being operated by a man. Both the rod and the man were digitally removed from the shots in post-production.
The final credits list Freddy Krueger as having portrayed himself.
Near the end of the credits the usually dry disclaimers were mortified from their usual legalize. The first reads "Some parts of this motion picture were inspired by actual events. Others may be attributed to the overactive imagination of a five-year-old boy." Another one reads "The names of certain characters portrayed have been changed to protect the innocent. Certain incidents portrayed have been dramatized. With the exclusion of those courageous individuals who portrayed themselves, any similarity to the name, character or history of any person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintentional."
Grossed $18.09 million domestically
DEATHS
Chuck (Matt Winston): Claw to the neck in Heather's dream; later reported to have been found savagely murdered in a field.
Terry (Rob LaBelle): Claw to the chest in Heather's dream; later reported to have been found savagely murdered in a field.
Chase Porter (David Newsom): Freddy's claw comes out of the seat of his car gashes him in the chest
Julie (Tracy Middendorf): Freddy claws her and drags her up the wall and across the ceiling