Product Details

• Actors: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes, David Newsom, Tracy Middendorf
• Directors: Wes Craven
• Writers: Wes Craven
• Producers: Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Jay Roewe, Jeffrey Fenner, Robert Shaye
• Format: PAL
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (169 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004RT9S

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliantly innovative return to Elm Street, January 25, 2004

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wes Craven's New Nightmare (DVD)

Freddy was always Wes Craven's baby. The Elm Street sequels, without the creator's active involvement, veered increasingly farther away from his original vision, and Freddy Krueger as we knew and loved him did die in the sixth film. Evil never truly dies, though, a fact made clear by this remarkable, visionary film. Only the most ingenious of scripts could bring Freddy back to us in an acceptable way, and Wes Craven was the only man who could do it. Hearkening all the way back to the fairy tales of old, we learn that Freddy was only one incarnation of what could be called the ultimate evil. Stories, so long as they are told, have the power to contain the forces of evil; when Freddy was killed and the Nightmare series ended, that evil was freed from its bonds and thus given the opportunity to cross over to reality. The whole idea behind Wes Craven's New Nightmare is simply brilliant and ingenious, and it works fabulously on more levels than I will have space enough to expound upon here.

Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy in the first and third films, plays herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare. She is joined by a myriad of cast members and contributors to the original Elm Street film, including John Saxon (who played Nancy's father), Robert Englund (whom everyone knows played Freddy), Wes Craven himself, and a number of the men and women who worked with Wes and New Line Cinema to bring Freddy to life in 1984. Craven is working on a new script that will revive Freddy and pit him against his old nemesis Nancy. The only problem is that fantasy is becoming fact for Heather and her family, and the script begins to mirror real life in a frightening way. Heather begins having horrible dreams of Freddy, and her son Dylan (Miko Hughes) begins suffering from his own nightmares. As crazy as it sounds, Heather is forced to conclude that Freddy Krueger is somehow becoming real, and she will eventually have to reassume the role of Nancy in an effort to stop him from passing through the final gate from fantasy to reality.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is to me the greatest Freddy film of them all. The idea of having cast and crew members of the original film serve as Freddy's conduit to true existence works amazingly well. Langenkamp gives a truly amazing performance in the highly personal role of herself, trying to save her son and her very sanity from the evil she once defeated as a character in a movie. Non-actors such as Wes Craven and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye play their parts very effectively, and the images of Robert Englund that we see could not be in greater contrast to those of his character Freddy. There are a number of direct references and haunting similarities between the original film and this fresh and exciting new Freddy classic. Not only should these delight the Freddy aficionado, they serve to make the ultimate ending of this film believable and effective. Heather Langenkamp has to become Nancy once again to stop Freddy, only this time the battle is disturbingly real. Wes Craven's New Nightmare presents itself as real life rather than cinema, making this the most innovative horror sequel I have ever seen.

Some Freddy fans don't care for this film, while others such as myself absolutely love it. For some people, Freddy had become the witty, wise-cracking, over-the-top killer of the later Elm Street sequels, and these fans want this type of film to showcase Freddy doing his thing as many times as possible. To me, that is not the true Freddy. A Nightmare on Elm Street's original power was drawn from an incomprehensible foe that could kill you in your dreams and scare the audience to death in the process. He was evil; he just wanted revenge in the form of blood, guts, and terror, and he didn't need to make a big production out of it. It is that Freddy who now haunts Heather. This dark film may deliver far less of Freddy-ness in terms of body count, dialogue, and on-camera minutes, but that only makes Freddy all the more frightening and effective. Wes Craven's New Nightmare truly morphs the boundary between the real and unreal, delivering a level of suspense and evil that all the earlier Elm Street sequels could never hope to equal.

The DVD features a long-desired extra in the form of commentary by Wes Craven himself. He not only furnishes the reader with all sorts of fascinating trivia about the film, he also captures the true essence of Freddy as a monstrous villain and lends a philosophical appraisal of human nature and the archetype of evil in society. I see this film as a defense of the horror genre itself, one made abundantly clear in Craven's references to a career of anguish with the MPAA and censors in particular. It is the very existence of horror stories that allow evil to be contained in this world, and the eradication of horror films in particular, something a number of people would love to see happen, would truly let the genie out of the bottle and give free rein to evil in the hearts of men. Wes Craven's New Nightmare captures to a significant degree not only the attraction of horror but the absolute necessity of it.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What kind of stupid person spoilers the entire horror movie?, August 18, 2004

By 

E. Oxenberg "Just another stay-at-home comput... (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wes Craven's New Nightmare (DVD)

Hey, I liked this movie a lot...in fact I saw it before it went into wide release at the Toronto Film Festival and Wes got a standing ovation. It's probably better than the original.

But I can't understand why any Amazon reviewer would be dumb enough to spoiler the ENTIRE movie in their review. And they don't even warn you! Hey--It's a horror movie. If we wanted to know what happens beforehand, we'd ask ya. The point of a horror movie is to be surprised.

If you're reading these reviews and haven't seen the movie yet, beware! There's a total spoiler post below, and you should skip it if you want to enjoy the film.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wes Craven, Creator Of The First, Returns, To Make The Last, July 15, 2001

By 

Brett Michael Roberts (Renton, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wes Craven's New Nightmare (DVD)

Heather Langenkamp (played by Heather Langenkamp), the actress who played Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare On Elm Street and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors, is now having terrifying nightmares of the fictional dream murderer, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and dismisses them as memories of working on numbers 1 and 3. After an interview, she visits Robert Shaye (played by himself) who asks if she'd like to star in a new ANOES film, directed by Wes Craven (himself). She declines, fearing for her son, Dylan (Miko Hughes, Pet Sematary) who's been watching the original film on TV. But as it turns out, Freddy is possesing Dylan's litte body, and Heather is scared.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a brilliant film, with much more charecter developement than any other sequels (although I still love most of the sequels) and is more of a fairy tale than a horror film. Other people, suh as Tuesday Knight, Nick Corri, Robert Englund, Marriane Maddelena, John Saxon, ZSA ZSA Gabor, and others play themselves in this one.

This DVD includes both a 1:85:1 widescreen ratio, and a 1:66:1 standard version. There are production notes, "Jump To A Nightmare" scene navigation, and an interesting commentary by director Wes Craven.