Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1994

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
Wes Craven
USA, 1994
105 minutes
Colour/35mm
Production Company: New Line Cinema
Executive Producer: Robert Shaye, Wes Craven
Producer: Marianne Maddalena
Screenplay: Wes Craven
Cinematography: Mark Irwin
Editor: Patrick Lussier
Production Design: Cynthia Charette
Music: J. Peter Robinson
Principal Cast: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, John Saxon

Wes Craven is a singular talent. His films, beginning with Last House on the Left in 1973, have transcended the gloss and cheap gore of contemporary horror, seeking instead the core mythologies which inform our worst fears. He has also consistently used cinema as a site to explore socio-political concerns in America and abroad, in ways usually more profound than his contemporaries making “respectable” Hollywood films. It is no surprise, then, that Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a beautifully constructed exploration of myth-making and madness that demands serious thought while providing satisfying entertainment.

Its intricate plot intertwines scenes from the Hollywood filmmaking process with a re-thought version of Craven's most successful villain, Freddy, from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Craven sees Freddy’s attraction to a huge public in philosophical terms. Freddy is the embodiment (in one storyteller’s universe) of an ancient demon that feeds off the innocent and is found in every culture. Craven then asks what happens if this ancient demon decides he likes the role of Freddy and wants to be him in reality. He invades the consciousness and physical realities of the people who initially created and killed him: Craven; Robert Englund, who portrayed him; and Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy, his “jailer.” Portraying themselves, Craven, Englund and Langenkamp grapple with the creation of a new “Freddy” sequel—with hilarious cameos from New Line head Robert Shaye, among others—while facing the increasingly apparent presence of a new sinister force in their lives. The film centres especially on Langenkamp, whose subtle performance belies the bizarre happenings around her and her family. This new, exceedingly evil Freddy-like figure kills her husband and invades her schizophrenic child’s mind. As the evil spirit gradually takes over, Heather/Nancy is forced into a chilling and soul-destroying journey to save her son and herself.

Although this is a completely new take on Freddy, there is one feature here consistent with the preceding Nightmare films: breathtaking production design and effects (some of which expand on Tsui Hark’s marvellous Chinese Ghost Story creatures), which add another dimension both for Craven’s many fans and those unfamiliar with this important filmmaker’s work.
—Noah Cowan