Thursday, October 1, 2015

Scary Movie Month 2015 Day 1: Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Happy Scary Movie Month everybody! As always, I'm gonna try to stick mostly to movies I either haven't seen or haven't seen in a long enough time that they might as well be new to me, but I had to start with this one despite having seen it a whole bunch of times because it would have felt wrong not to start with Wes. 

Regarding that whole bunch of times, this is a movie that I always admired more than loved. I thought it was clever and fun, but there was something that always kept me at a distance, unable to fully embrace it. 

Until now.

Maybe it's because I was paying more attention to the structure this time, or that somehow missing Wes has helped me to get attuned to the wavelength he was on when he wrote and directed this one, but whatever it was it completely worked for me this time, I absolutely loved it. 

For those unfamiliar with the story, New Line Cinema was finished with Freddy Krueger, having milked their cash cow dry by the fifth sequel to Craven's masterpiece A Nightmare on Elm Street, the appropriately titled Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Freddy had become a goofy joke, no longer scary and therefore no longer profitable. Business as usual in Hollywood except for one problem: the Freddy of the movies was keeping a real evil force at bay, and without that outlet the evil was set free to wreak havoc on the real world, starting with the people who made the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. 

Craven plays himself, along with Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, Robert Shaye, and various other Nightmare series alumni (from both in front of and behind the camera) all playing themselves. There's even a bizarrely shoehorned-in, blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameo from Tuesday Knight and Jsu Garcia. Langenkamp is the lead, playing a fictionalized version of herself being courted by Wes to play series heroine Nancy Thompson one last time. Englund plays both himself and the newly-designed Freddy, who is darker and more frightening than the pizza-faced trickster we've gotten to know over the years.

The performances are solid, grounded in a reality that horror movies (particularly franchise horror movies) don't often explore. Miko Hughes (Pet Sematary) is effective as Heather's son Dylan, the seeming target of Freddy's latest rampage, but there are a few moments where he's clearly acting which breaks the movie's spell a bit. 

It's truly astounding that this movie even got made. To take a franchise as popular and lucrative as the Nightmare pictures and completely turn it on its head is unheard of and a hell of a risk (also, sadly, the gamble didn't really pay off, the movie was not a hit, taking in about $18 million total, about half of what Freddy's Dead made three years earlier). Watching it now it's staggering to see just how ahead of its time it really is, between the documentary-like style in which it's shot and the dizzying blend of fiction and "reality" at the story's core. It's not a perfect movie and the final act is still a bit weak in comparison to what came before it, but it's a bold, ballsy movie that couldn't have come from anyone but Craven himself. 

3 comments:

Jason R. Wells, Esquire said...

There are two things is particular that I love about New Nightmare.

1) Robert Englund essentially plays three roles in the film, and each one of them is unique. He plays himself, Old Freddy, and New Freddy, and each one of them is distinguishable. I love the sinisterness that he brings to new Freddy especially.

2) One of my favorite parts of the film is when Heather finally realizes she must embrace the role of Nancy one last time and her world becomes the original NoES world, with John Saxon showing up as Don Thompson.

JP said...

Totally agree on both counts! The whole new-look Freddy thing really grew on me this time around, it's a legitimately frightening redesign. Love that they redesigned the claw based on the original poster art.

Gabby Ferro said...

I can't wait to get to this point in the series! I only just watched the 3rd one so I dtill have a few to go. But hopefully will power through this month :)