2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Two Best., May 2, 2004
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Nightmare Elm Street & Wes Craven's New Nightmare (DVD)
If you're like me, you found the annoying, over-publicized, wisecracking Freddy Krueger of the "Nightmare" sequels truly embarassing, Apparantly so did Wes Craven. After directing the absoloutly brilliant original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), he finally eturned to the series ten years later to right what was wrong and give Freddy a proper burial in the ingenius "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" (1994). After the completely pitiful, direct-to-video 'quality' of "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" (1991), Craven proved that horror can be artistic and scary, as well as pack a major punch. Both the original and "New Nightmare" stand as a testament to this. Craven changed the face of horror with the original by introducing a villian you couldn't escape from. Fred Krueger haunted your subconcious mind, stalking you through dark dreams until you were dead in real life. None of the subsequent sequels recognized the genius of the film, and assumed that all the audience wanted to see was bloody murder and cheesy jokes. then came "New Nightmare" to get the series back on track. Smart and scary, the movie reunited most of the cast of the original "Nightmare" as well as the producers and makers of the whole series ina wacky and twisted plotline in which Freddy is a real force kept quiet by capture in the films, but now that the films have ended, he's back. Both of these films are smart and scary, and get 100% recommendation from me, unlike the tawdry sequels.
As usual for New Line Cinema, the quality of these DVDs is very, very high. The grain that inhabited all previous version of part 1 is totally absent now, and the darkness of the dream sequences can be realized like never before. "New Nightmare," being the most recent, of course looks great, and also features one of the most heartpounding 5.1 soundtracks ever. Both films contain excellent, in-depth commentaries from Craven and the crew. These both shed a lot of light on the making-of and intentions of both films. Press biographies for the cast and crew is also available on both of these discs. Also, don't miss the fun theatrical trailers, especially "New Nightmare," which continues the 'film-within-a-film' idea of the movie.
This set gets my highest recommendation. You get both of the best "Nightmare" films without being attacked by the horrible sequels. *****
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Nightmare comes to Life, January 4, 2004
This review is from: Nightmare Elm Street & Wes Craven's New Nightmare (DVD)
New Line Cinema took a new direction from the old Nightmare series by literally bringing Freddy out of the screen. Krueger comes to life to stalk actress Heather Langenkamp having been laid dormant in the unproductive Nightmare Series for too long.
Wes makes a daring and successful attempt to resurrect Freddy. He returns the demon to his dark and humourless self giving him a terrifying new "shadowy" look. He furthermore blurs the line between reality and fiction bringing the slasher into the very world that is suppose to be our sanctuary.
With a palette of special effects, Freddy returns to the claw abandoning his creative murders in exchange for the "catch and slash" Nightmare was originally famous for. Fans of the saga must be willing to accept this long-winded, stand-alone film at its newest angle and embrace the post-modernism. For those looking for another addition to the series, I'd recommend Freddy vs Jason.
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