This Day in Horror History: Wes Craven’s NEW NIGHTMARE Opened in 1994
On this day in horror history, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street 7: New Nightmare) was released back in 1994.
Even though it’s the seventh entry in the Elm Street series, it’s not part of the continuity as other films, instead, Freddy Krueger is a fictional movie villain who invades the real world, stalking the cast and crew who make the films.
The meta slasher film features people involved with the movies playing themselves like Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy Thompson in the first film.
New Nightmare won an International Fantasy Film Award from Fantasporto for Best Screenplay and snagged $19.8M at the box office on a budget of $8M … making it the poorest-performing film in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series.
Written and directed by Wes Craven, the film finds Craven, Langenkamp, and Robert Englund playing themselves. As Langenkamp considers making another film with Craven, her son, Dylan (Miko Hughes), falls under the spell of Freddy Krueger and she must confront Freddy’s demonic spirit to save her son’s soul.
The film sports a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes with a Critics Consensus that reads: Wes Craven’s New Nightmare adds an unexpectedly satisfying – not to mention intelligent – meta layer to a horror franchise that had long since lost its way.
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