30 years ago today, »New Nightmare« hit American cinemas. With the seventh installment in the »A Nightmare on Elm Street« series, Freddy creator Wes Craven returned to the franchise and took the director's chair again.
But let's first take a look back at film history. With the huge success of »Halloween« in 1978 and »Friday the 13th« in 1980, the slasher film became the hottest shit in the horror genre of those days. Not only did »Halloween« and »Friday the 13th« receive a number of sequels - Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees became the blueprints for numerous good and less good imitators, films like »The Burning« or »Sleepaway Camp« reused the summer camp scenario and, like Michael and Jason, the mostly silent killers had a penchant for masks. Be it a rather unimaginative balaclava like in »Prom Night«, a funny Groucho Marx mask in »Terror Train« or the helmet and gas mask in »My Bloody Valentine«.
In 1984, the slasher genre was already showing clear signs of wear and tear. And just at the right time, a new, somewhat different slasher entered the scene with Freddy Krueger.
His burned face may still take on the role of the mask, but unlike his mute colleagues, Freddy is extremely communicative and has plenty of sarcastic, nasty things to say. Above all, »A Nightmare on Elm Street« introduced a supernatural element, because Freddy murders the victims in their dreams. In the dream world, pretty much anything is possible, but whoever dies in a dream also dies in reality. To survive, you have to stay awake.
This concept is just wonderfully perfidious, because who hasn't experienced nightmares from a scary horror film in childhood (and maybe after as well) and the fear of these dreams preventing us from sleeping. It's bad when the danger lurks in these dreams!
Freddy hit like a bomb and was a breath of fresh air for the ailing genre. Following Hollywood's rules, the Nightmare film was quickly turned into a franchise, with Freddy increasingly degenerating into a wisecracker who was certainly entertaining with his one-liners, but also lost more and more of his scare factor.
In »New Nightmare« the franchise then takes a brave new path, entering the meta level and addressing filmmaking itself. Actors such as Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon and Robert Englund play themselves and Wes Craven also plays the director Wes Craven. The protagonists are now confronted with the fact that Freddy exists and they have to prevent him from coming into the real world.
30 years ago, some viewers may have been a little confused. Craven was way ahead of his time. The play with the meta level reached its perfection with the »Scream« series but the beginnings can be located here. To us, this film was a lot of fun. As a little reminder and to whet your appetite, here is the trailer:
https://youtu.be/aQw9sjwf0O8