Product Details

• Actors: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, David Newsom, John Saxon
• Directors: Wes Craven
• Writers: Wes Craven
• Producers: Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Robert Shaye
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• DVD Release Date: August 22, 2000
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (175 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780630904
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,453 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

English-professor-turned-horror-auteur Wes Craven brings both careers to play in this ingenious reinterpretation of the Nightmare on Elm Street series as a modern-day fairy tale--a sort of Hansel and Gretel for big kids. Heather Langenkamp, star of the original film, plays Heather Langenkamp, an actress and mother wracked with nightmares as Los Angeles is rocked with unexplained earthquakes. Meanwhile, her son starts sleepwalking and croaking Freddy Krueger threats. Is it a coincidence that Wes Craven (playing himself) is turning his own troubled dreams into a new screenplay, which he calls "a sort of nightmare in progress"? According to his visions, the imaginary Freddy has become the embodiment of ancient evil and is trying to break out of his movie prison and into the physical world. It's a rather literal and glib explanation, but words have never been Craven's strong suit. His central thesis, the cultural importance of stories, is more resonant in the web of imagery arising from dreams, movies, and the subconscious. Robert Englund and John Saxon play themselves and their movie characters (though this Freddy is decidedly less wisecracking and more demonic). It's a thoughtful, imaginative, and often gripping modern horror film that echoes with suggestions of The Exorcist and Poltergeist. Though less of a fun-house thrill ride than previous Nightmares, it's scarier and smarter than any of the other series sequels. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

Heather Langenkamp learns the Nightmare movies were protecting the world from a real-life demon. Also starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 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 HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format: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. Read more ›

10 of 12 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 VINE™ VOICE

Format: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

Format: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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to the original mould and melting master February 14, 2007

By Jacques COULARDEAU

Format:DVD

It's not enough to bring Freddy Krueger back to life one more time after his official death. But Wes Craven has to come back too with the original characters, Nancy and her stubborn cop of a father. But we cannot really revive characters in a film so many years after their first appearance. So Wes Craven pushes what he calls « only make believe » one iota further and farther. Freddy was only a disguise for a real bad spirit in the world (Anne Rice has done that with her vampires and the Queen of the Damned, or Stephen King has also used this formula with his Dark Man in quite a few novels, liek The Stand, and short stories) and this really bad spirit has decided to come back to the real world once and for all and under his own identity if possible, or under that of Freddy Krueger if the minds of people are obsessed by his existence. This evil spirit is of course the devil himself and it will be revealed in the very last scene. So the actors are playing their real parts and Freddy is invading their real world. It is then « make believe power two ». And it is all the more efficacious and effective because the actors are themselves and no fake identities. Wes Craven brings along his particularly caustic mind and spirit and really gets the mickey out of medical authorities, doctors, women and blacks alike, and all the fake myth about the protection of kids first and for all against their own parents. Wes Craven definitely seems to accuse society to be the real culprit, the real cause of all problems with kids, and grown-ups too. This society that classifies everyone in one little box and that can put a six year old boy in the schizophrenia box without realizing that it is going to make him schizophrenic. The classification creates the items that are classified in it.... Any taxonomy is our own creation, our own delusion and we must get rid of all these taxonomies to maybe recapture some sanity and balance. But since Wes Craven is back do not be surprised if you recognize some tricks like the crazy phone calls borrowed from Scream and so many other films (it always works anyway). That's part of the game. Wes Craven borrows from everyone, himself included, and just shakes the cocktail differently and changes dressings. The sauce always becomes slightly more piquante when it is served a second time by our waiter Wes Craven. He even visualizes the first destruction of Freddy, the lynching of this child molester who attacks males first to kill them, and women second to enjoy their slow suffering and their yelling. So Freddy Krueger is roasted to death a second time, and it is when his face becomes the horny - ah ah funny ! - head of the devil. Can we hope the saga is really finished now ? Probably not. There must be some forgotten sequel somewhere, though seven is a magical number and the point has been made that it is not movies that make children epileptic but all the Freddy Kruegers, Tommyknockers, Candymen, and other boogy boogy bogeymen overfed on beetle juice instead of milk, kept in the cupboards of our minds.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne Read more ›