- Every long running horror franchise has that one entry.
The one that was so weird.
So diferent or so darn awful that it
that it nearly sinks the entire series.
(screams and explosions)
- That's a wrap.
- But some of these so called franchise killers deserve
a second opinion.
So today we're gonna reevaluate one
of the strangest slasher movies we've ever seen.
To see whether it's a mess or simply misunderstood.
I'm Andrew
and today we're talking about 'Wes Craven's New Nightmare.'
(upbeat music)
(audience cheering)
[Freddy] (laughs)
- Even though it was critical darling, the dismal failure
of the metafictional film put Freddy Kruger to sleep
for a whole other nine years.
But was it the movies fault?
Or was 1994 simply just too soon
for a post modern deconstruction of the slasher genre?
- This is still a script we're talking about right Wes?
- We'll get to that in a second,
but first let's take a look at the state of the series.
(laughing)
- Crap.
- 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' set a new bar
for slashers when it premiered all the way back in 1984,
breathing life into the then stale genre
and bringing in $25 million against
its paltry super small $1.8 million budget.
'Nightmare' saved its failing studio New Line Cinema.
Ever heard of it?
Leading to its reputation as "The House that Freddy Built."
Which means thanks to the transitive property
you can thank Freddy Krueger
for Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy.
Wow!
Mr. Freddy, Mr. Freddy!
(laughing)
(beep)
New Line wanted to keep the gravy train rolling.
The wanted more of those (beep) sweet Freddy bucks.
But like so many horror actors creator
Wes Craven had no intention
of making his one film into an entire series.
The famous ending, you know,
the one with all of Nancy's murdered friends just show up on
a bright sunny day
and Freddy reverse defenestrates her mother.
Was a last minute edition to set up a sequel.
Craven sat out for 'Freddy's Revenge.'
A really bad 'Nightmare' movie,
but a masterfully coded queer coming
of age tale in an era when films couldn't
really tackle the subject openly.
1987's 'The Dream Warriors' earned $45 million off
of a $5 million budget.
With Craven returning to write
and stared Heather Langenkamp reprising her role as Nancy.
It was arguably the quality and commercial peak
of the franchise.
(screaming)
- Welcome to prime time!
- And certainly the only entry with it's own NES game.
And hair metal bop curtesy of Dokken.
♪ We're the Dream Warriors ♪
♪ Don't wanna dream no more ♪
- Freddy mania, it was sweeping the nation.
Leading to 'Freddy's Nightmares,'
a spinoff T.V. show that ran for two seasons.
And of course, more movie sequels.
Part four and five saw bigger budgets
but diminishing Box Office returns.
The Springwood Slasher had been Flanderized
from a terrifying demon into
a wise cracking killer cartoon character.
- Bon appetite!
- And while the dream sequences still pretty much slap.
By the time 'Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare' rolled around
the series was starting to get a bit stale.
As you can probably gather from the title, 'Freddy's Dead'
was supposed to kill Freddy off for good.
But with a $35 million box office haul,
there was still plenty of life left in the series.
- The fans, you know, the fans god bless them
they're clamoring for more.
- It just needed a fresh coat of paint
and Wes Craven was the man to do the job.
Unfortunately that's where things went wrong.
- Run!
- 'New Nightmare' is in kinda a weird spot
because not only did Freddy die for good in part six,
this movie is about how Freddy died for good in part six.
- I thought you killed Freddy off.
- Well we did,
but the fans.
- It stars Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund,
and Wes Craven as fictionalized versions
of themselves in a world where Freddy
was apparently more popular than Marvel movies.
Could you imagine?
- No
- Craven, in an acting tour de force,
explains that a demonic presence is haunting
his nightmares breaking through to our reality
and the only way to contain it
is to make a new Freddy movie.
- Exactly, exactly.
- He's not doing a bad job.
Yeah, this is bad, yeah.
Wow
Does it fade to black?
Yeah it does.
That's hot.
(beep)
It's kinda like season seven of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' only
with less hilarious faux pas and more bloodshed.
Although not that much more.
There are only four, count 'em,
four kills in the entire movie.
And two of them happen off screen.
What the heck?
That's kinda the films biggest problem.
It's a clever look at myth making and movie magic
but as a 'Nightmare' movie it just kinda just falls flat.
It's just not all that scary,
unless you find earthquakes
and really big 90's cellphones utterly terrifying.
Like me.
- Hello
- Ha!
(beep)
Freddy himself, Freddy proper is kinda a non-factor.
But if you like little kid actors trying way to hard
to be creepy then buddy you are in the right place.
(yelling)
- Honey?
What?
What's wrong?
What's gotten into you?
- Much like 'The Phantom Menace,' 'The Predator,'
and so many other movies,
'New Nightmare' relies way
to much on a child actor who's just not up to the task.
He just doesn't have the chops anymore.
He's just, he's wasting all of our time.
And even a horror veteran like Miko Hughes AKA Gage
from 'Pet Semetary' can't make staring at a T.V.
and singing a nursery rhyme scary.
- One, two, Freddy's coming for you.
- Where'd you hear that?
- When we do see Freddy,
or the ancient demon masquerading as him,
well it's a far cry from paranormal pizzas and power gloves.
Instead of elaborate prosthetics
and unnerving dream scapes we get this T-1000 ass,
Wolverine Origins ass claw.
Kills straight up copied
from the original only way less cooler
and a Freddy who shares a skin care routine with Ivan Ooze.
(yelling)
Look, I understand that Craven was trying
to return Freddy to his more frightening roots
and bring him closer to his original horrifying vision.
But by 1994 Freddy had evolved
and the wise cracking potty mouthed murderer we'd come
to love is a completely diferent character
than the more reserved original.
I'd be like doing a sequel to 'Evil Dead' where Ash is back
to the generic final dude from the original movie.
Craven is clearly trying
to make an important statement on the traumatic power
of story telling.
And I can totally understand if you love this movie.
For a lot of fans it's up there with parts one and three
and it absolutely deserves credit
for at least trying to shake things up.
It just never really sticks the landing
and for me there's just not enough 'Nightmare.'
But hey what do I know?
Let's go to the post mortem.
'New Nightmare' was shockingly well received by critics.
It's 78% on the old Tomatometer only beneath the original
with a well deserved 94.
Even Roger Ebert who notoriously despises everything
to do with the slasher genre was a fan
of Craven's clever spin on the formula
- It's a look behind the scenes of Hollywood.
It's smart.
It's scary.
And it's curiously thought provoking.
- It didn't provoke a single thought in my head.
- Oh come, come, come.
- No, no, no.
- But sadly the fans didn't share the love.
'New Nightmare' cost $8 million to make
and it only grossed $19 million,
the lowest in the entire franchise.
Was it because horror in general was having a bad time?
- Welcome to hell.
(explosion)
- [Narrator] Chuck Norris
'Hellbound'
- Was the new movie just too different
for die hard Freddy fans?
Could it be that the forth wall smashing story
was too similar to 'Last Action Hero?'
Or was it simply ahead of it's time?
Two years later Craven would get one more chance
to deconstruct the slasher genre he helped create.
'New Nightmare' was basically a beta test for 'Scream,'
with one crucial difference.
Instead of focusing on a rich Hollywood types
and their tastefully decorated L.A. offices,
Craven and screen writer Keven Williamson used 'Scream'
to shine the light on horror fans.
Instantly making it more relatable, frightening,
and most importantly, fun.
- Movies don't create psychos,
movies make psychos more creative.
- I'm feeling whoosy here.
- Freddy is hands down the funniest slasher.
But 'New Nightmare' is kinda a joyless slog.
'Scream' has the same self awareness
but it's not so dang serious about it
and it became a phenomenon that revolutionized
and revitalized the entire genre.
Freddy had to die so that 'Scream' could live.
A trade I would make any day.
But was 'New Nightmare' what really killed Freddy?
You can argue that 'Freddy's Dead' is the true end
of the franchise.
But I don't buy it.
Need I remind you that Jason returned a mere two years after
his so called 'Final Chapter.'
And he also had a weird gaiden movie in the middle of that.
(intense music)
Same with Michael Myers.
'Halloween' bounced back from it's weird experimental entry
but Freddy never recovered from 'New Nightmare.'
It would be another nine years before
we saw him tear it up again in 'Freddy vs. Jason.'
The highest grossing entry for both franchises.
But instead of maintaining the momentum.
New line decided it was the perfect time for,
you guessed it, a reboot.
(screaming)
(explosion)
Jackie Earle Haley was a great choice
to step into his sweater
but turning Freddy into an actual child molester made
it a lot harder to watch.
It still did pretty decently at the Box Office
but it was kinda lost among
the million other Michael Bay produced remakes of that era.
And it was never followed with a sequel.
- I'm just glad you're safe.
(screams)
(glass breaking)
- Will we ever see Freddy again?
Stupid question of course we will.
There's already another reboot in the works.
But it's on pause while New Line focuses on
the 'Conjuring' universe instead.
Pro tip, just make a shameless rip off of 'It: Chapter One.'
Pennywise and Freddy have pretty much the same MO anyway
and I could easily see Freddy popping out of a projector
or bringing Paul Bunyan to life.
Today we look back at 'New Nightmare' as a flawed
but forward thinking film.
It had a lot to say about the slasher genre.
But at the end of the day it was simply too much
of a departure.
Did 'New Nightmare' kill the Freddy franchise?
Yes
But out of it's bones came a new wave
of slasher cinema would rise and bring the genre
to new heights that we could only dream of.
- There's nothing left of Robert England.
It's just this cantankerous cuss named Fred Kruger.