Wes Craven's New Nightmare

1994 slasher film

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 metafilm about a demonic force that has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal into the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?

Directed and written by Wes Craven.
This time, staying awake won't save you. (taglines)

Freddy Krueger edit

  • Miss me?
  • Hey, Dylan - ever played "skin the cat"?
  • Meet your maker!
  • [shoving Heather's face towards a mass of snakes and eels] Pick a pet for the rugrat, bitch!
  • Come here, my piggy! I've got some gingerbread for you!
  • One, two, Freddy's coming for YOU!

Dialogue edit

Limo Driver: You played that girl...in that movie...with the guy with the [claws his hand; Heather gives an uneasy smile] Yeah, sure, that's you. That's what I love about this job, I get to meet the stars.
Heather Langenkamp: I'm hardly a star.
Limo Driver: What, are you kidding? I love your stuff. The first was the best. Where the girlfriend's cut open and dragged across the ceiling. It was awesome. And when all that blood comes ouf your boyfriend's bed? I thought I'd shit. But they never should've killed off Freddy.

Robert Englund: I think they'd like to see us together again.
Heather Langenkamp: In what, a romantic comedy?
Robert Englund: Just because it's a love story doesn't mean it can't have a decapitation or two.

Robert Shaye: You interested in making the definitive Nightmare with us?
Heather Langenkamp: I thought you'd killed Freddy off.
Robert Shaye: We did. Bad mistake. The fans are clamoring for more. So, "evil never dies," right?

Robert Englund: Heather? You doing okay?
Heather Langenkamp: Holding my own. You know that guy who was calling me all the time? He's started again. He's been putting stuff in my mail.
Robert Englund: Must've read about the funeral. Sick mother. That's the last thing you need right now, I'm sure.
Heather Langenkamp: Actually, it's been giving me Freddy nightmares.
Robert Englund: Wait a second. Now, let me get this straight. You're having nightmares about Freddy? As in me?
Heather Langenkamp: No. It isn't you. He's scarier. He's...
Robert Englund: Darker? More...evil?
Heather Langenkamp: Yeah...how'd you know?
Robert Englund: Call it a guess...

Heather Langenkamp: Well at least tell me what it's about so far.
Wes Craven: I can tell you what the nightmares are about. They're about this...entity. Whatever you want to call it. It's old, very old, and it's taken different forms in different times. The only thing that stays the same about it is what it lives for.
Heather Langenkamp: What's that?
Wes Craven: Killing innocence, one way or the other.
Heather Langenkamp: This is still a script we're talking about, right?
Wes Craven: I think of it as sort of a nightmare in progress.
Heather Langenkamp: Then, in this nightmare in progress, does this thing have any weaknesses?
Wes Craven: It can be captured, sometimes.
Heather Langenkamp: Captured? How?
Wes Craven: By storytellers, of all things. Every so often, they imagine a story good enough to catch its essence. Then it's held prisoner for a while. In the story.
Heather Langenkamp: Like the Genie in the bottle.
Wes Craven: Exactly. [pause] The problem comes when the story dies. It happens a lot of different ways, the story gets too familiar, or too watered down by people trying to make it easier to sell, or it's labeled a threat to society and just plain banned. However it happens, when the story dies, the evil is set free.
Heather Langenkamp: You saying Freddy's this ancient thing?
Wes Craven: Current version. For ten years he's been imprisoned as Freddy by the story of Nightmare on Elm Street. But now that the films have stopped - The genie's out of the bottle, Heather, that's what the nightmares are about. That's what I'm writing.

Heather Langenkamp: If Freddy's loose, I mean, in your script, where's he going to go? Another age? Another form?
Wes Craven: That's not what the dreams say he's doing.
Heather Langenkamp: Then what is he doing?
Wes Craven: Well, see, he's gotten used to being Freddy now. And kinda likes it here in our time and space, too. So...he's trying to cross over, from film into our reality.
Heather Langenkamp: Isn't there anyone that can stop him?
Wes Craven: Interestingly enough, in the dreams there is one person. A gatekeeper, so to speak. Someone Freddy's got to get by before he can enter our world. [looks at her] It's you, Heather.
Heather Langenkamp: Me? Why me?
Wes Craven: Dramatically speaking it makes perfect sense. You played Nancy, after all, the first to humiliate and defeat him.
Heather Langenkamp: That was Nancy, not me!
Wes Craven: But it was you that gave Nancy her strength. So to get out he has to come through you. And it's inevitable that he'll hit you at your most vulnerable points...The way to stop him is to make another movie. And I swear to you I'll stay at my computer and keep writing until I finish the script. But when that time comes...You're gonna have to make a choice.
Heather Langenkamp: Choice? What kind of choice?
Wes Craven: Whether or not you will be willing to play Nancy one last time.

Dr. Christine Heffner: Your son, apparently, is terrified of a man. Someone he thinks is going to come out of his bed. One of the nurses heard him talking in his sleep. You have any idea who that man might be, Mrs. Langenkamp?
Heather Langenkamp: I meant to bring him his dinosaur, Rex. Rex keeps Freddy from...
Dr. Christine Heffner: The man from your films? Freddy Krueger with the claws? Is that who he's afraid of? You have let your child see your films, haven't you?
Heather Langenkamp: Every kid knows about Freddy. He's like Santa Claus or King Kong.
Dr. Christine Heffner: I see. Well. Interesting talking to you, Ms. Langenkamp. I hope you understand, my concerns are simply for the welfare of your son.

Dr. Christine Heffner: Get the full anesthetic, stat.
ICU Nurse: We don't have that here, doctor.
Dr. Christine Heffner: No anesthetic, you say? Screw it, then. I'm going in. Little booger's full of something I don't like. Let's get him open, good and proper. Cut this evil out of him.
[She pulls out Freddy's glove]

Dr. Christine Heffner: Ms. Langenkamp, has...there been any use of recreational drugs in your family? Or any history of mental disturbance?
Heather Langenkamp: What the hell are you asking?
Dr. Christine Heffner: Please don't take this wrong. But if there was, there's a good chance Dylan could be suffering from something passed down to him. Have you been suffering from any delusional events, Ms. Langenkamp? This man from your films...Freddy Krueger... Have you been seeing him?
Heather Langenkamp: No!
Dr. Christine Heffner: There are drugs and treatments, Ms. Langenkamp. We could place Dylan in foster care for a short while. Run some tests on you...
Heather Langenkamp: I want my kid out of here now!
Dr. Christine Heffner: Very well. As soon as we gather the appropriate papers...
Heather Langenkamp: You don't understand. If Dylan falls asleep, then...

John Saxon: Jesus, what the hell's going on, Nancy?
Heather Langenkamp: John, why are you calling me Nancy?
John Saxon: Why are you calling me John? Nancy, you gotta get hold of yourself before you make both yourself and that kid nuts.
Heather Langenkamp: John! Would you call Robert?
John Saxon: Robert?
Heather Langenkamp: Robert Englund. You know. The actor who plays Freddy?
John Saxon: Freddy who?
Heather Langenkamp: You know who. Freddy Krueger.
John Saxon: Freddy's dead, Nancy. Now don't lose it like your mother. I love you, sweetheart. Don't forget that.
Heather Langenkamp: I love you, too... Daddy.

Dylan: Never sleep... AGAIN!! [Dylan his frustrated angrily knife finger attacks Heather]

Taglines edit

  • This time, staying awake won't save you.
  • This time, the terror doesn't stop at the screen.
  • From the creator of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • Miss Me?
  • He's Back, And He's Scarier Than Any Witch!
  • [from theatrical trailer] It's seven films later. The actors are assembled. The effects artists are hard at work. Wes Craven is making a new Nightmare on Elm Street. But this time, the world he's creating seems to be coming true.
  • [from theatrical trailer] Freddy Krueger returns, and he wants more than revenge - he wants life.
  • [from theatrical trailer] Is it a movie? Is it a dream? Or is it real?
  • [from theatrical trailer] For everyone who ever believed "Freddy's Dead" - prepare yourselves for the real story.
  • [from theatrical trailer] In a town where movies go overschedule and directors go overbudget, something far more evil is out of control.
  • [from TV spot] The horror they could only imagine has become very real.
  • [from TV spot] They told you he was dead. And now he's got the last laugh.
  • [from TV spot] Wes Craven, the master of horror, returns at last with a frightening new twist on terror.

Cast edit

External links edit

  Encyclopedic article on Wes Craven's New Nightmare on Wikipedia


A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise
  Films     A Nightmare on Elm Street  (1984) · Freddy's Revenge  (1985) · Dream Warriors  (1987) · The Dream Master  (1988) · The Dream Child  (1989) · Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare  
  (1991) · Wes Craven's New Nightmare  (1994) · Freddy vs. Jason  (2003) · A Nightmare on Elm Street  (2010)  
  Television     Freddy's Nightmares  (1988–1990)  
  Comics     Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street  (1989) · Nightmares on Elm Street  (1991–1992) · Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare  (1991) · A Nightmare on Elm Street: The
  Beginning
 (1992) · A Nightmare On Elm Street Special  (2005) · A Nightmare On Elm Street: Paranoid  (2005–2006) · Fearbook  (2006) · A Nightmare on Elm Street  (2006–2007) ·
  New Line Cinema's Tales of Horrors  (2007) · Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash  (2007–2008) · Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors  (2009)  
  Documentaries     Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy  (2010) · I Am Nancy  (2011)  
  Related     Last words in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise · Friday the 13th franchise