Delayed Reaction: Wes Craven's New Nightmare

The Pitch: A Nightmare on Elm Street movie about the Nightmare on Elm Street movie.

It's rare that a movie bridges a gap between two generations of a genre like New Nightmare does. It's a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. It's more on the serious side, like the 1984 original than the more comical sequels. It definitely feels left over from the 80s. It's so meta though, that it's a natural progression to Scream, two years later, also directed by Wes Craven. It's not as good as the 1984 original or 1996's Scream, but it clearly links them.

I enjoyed the movie much more than I expected. The longer the Nightmare series went on, the less I liked it. New Nightmare shakes up the formula with so much meta-commentary that it feels original and formulaic. Scream does a far better job commenting on the genre, but New Nightmare is comfortably doing something different. Heather Langenkamp sells a lot of what is happening. There's a tough tone she has to pull off, heightened yet authentic. It's not perfect, but it's better than I should've expected. Essentially, this is Wes Craven cashing in on his clout to make Nightmare on Elm Street in his original image before moving on to a new chapter in his career.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend