Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

The final instalment in the Nightmare on Elm Street from Wes Craven, that takes a different angle completely to the previous films. This is based in the real Life and follows Helen Langenkamp playing herself with her husband and son and other stars from the previous films popping up including Robert Englund and Wes Craven himself. The idea is that a demon has taken the form of Freddy Kreuger and is coming through in to the real world.


An interesting idea however it does not really work for me, firstly Helen Langenkamp is a horrible actress, I am sure that she is a wonderful person but it really brings in how bad she is in the first Nightmare film and the other sequels she is in. Overall I as not pulled in though the idea seems to make logical sense but even though it was supposed to be real life it felt very scripted and it may actually have been better to go with the haunting of a new sequel, done before but would work.

I was not that impressed with the film, Robert Englund came across really well but then I think he is actually a very good actor and have been impressed every time I have seen him. Wes Craven looked like a Director reading lines and I have said enough about Helen. Not a great film and not worth seeing only 3 out of 10 for me on this one.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Film of 2012 #65


I think I had heard of this film and this is why when I saw it on the TV I decided it would be worth a watch, but I think all I had heard was the name and a very basic premise, this made it so much better. Leslie Vernon invites a university film crew to document him, as he tries to become the next supernatural serial killer. The film starts with a brief history of Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger and it sets the tone for the whole film. 

It starts as a documentary with your female lead interviewing Leslie and trying to find out what he is trying to achieve and he takes them on a tour and shows them his plans. This film is an excellent idea and take on the slasher film, it is from the point of view of the killer and what he is hoping that his antics will achieve and how he thinks out everything, so that what you see in the slasher film from him knowing where people will go, to weapons not working. It really is well executed. There are some flaws especially with the acting but there is a couple of really nice touches that appealed to me as a fan of the slasher genre. 

Overall this is a fantastic new take on the slasher film genre, I highly recommend it to you if you have any love for the slashers and the horror genre, not perfect but still a solid 4 star recommend.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

This is the 2010 Platinum Dunes remake of the Wes Craven classic from 1984 starring Robert Englund and Helen Langenkamp. Now the remake was highly talked about and there was a lot of discussion around whether they would get Robert Englund back to play the role that made him famous. And they went with an interesting decision, they chose Jackie Earle Haley who came to prominence to me as Rorschach in the 2009 Watchmen. Now I am not a fan of remakes and the original version of this film that launched Freddy Kreuger into our world is one of my all time favorite films. So I was not very hopeful but excited to see how they would re imagine this classic and restart the franchise.

Well what a disaster this turned out to be, you have a Freddy Krueger that is not Robert Englund and while Jackie Earle Haley was adequate in the role he was not the wise cracking child killer we knew in the 80's. They missed the point of the film to me, now they attempt to tell a slightly different story which is good, put your own mark on it. But they missed the point, the characters were totally unbelievable and you did not care and while they made the story their own they kept putting in scenes from the original, the wall scene and the claw in the bath. The biggest let down for me though was the special effects, the scene where Freddy comes out of the wall over Nancy is pitiful CGI, they would have been better with a rubber sheet and somebody putting their head into it. And the final scene of the film was laughable based purely on the quality of the CGI, this in today's age where they can convince you that there is an alien who does not exist is talking to live action actors it is disappointing.

Overall I was disappointed even though I had low expectations, it has to be 1 star not worth seeing. There will be people that will watch it as a completest but please avoid it other than for this reason.