Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Starring:Jeff Davis (VI), Bodhi Elfman, Robert Englund, Cully Fredricksen, Ray Glanzmann, Cindy Guidry, Claudia Haro, Miko Hughes, Rob LaBelle, Heather Langenkamp, Marianne Maddalena, Tracy Middendorf, David Newsom, Gretchen Oehler, Sara Risher, Sam Rubin, John Saxon, Robert Shaye, Matt Winston
Studio: New Line Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
English-professor-turned-horror-auteur Wes Craven brings both careers to play in this ingenious reinterpretation of the Nightmare on Elm Street series as a modern-day fairy tale--a sort of Hansel and Gretel for big kids. Heather Langenkamp, star of the original film, plays Heather Langenkamp, an actress and mother wracked with nightmares as Los Angeles is rocked with unexplained earthquakes. Meanwhile, her son starts sleepwalking and croaking Freddy Krueger threats. Is it a coincidence that Wes Craven (playing himself) is turning his own troubled dreams into a new screenplay, which he calls "a sort of nightmare in progress"? According to his visions, the imaginary Freddy has become the embodiment of ancient evil and is trying to break out of his movie prison and into the physical world. It's a rather literal and glib explanation, but words have never been Craven's strong suit. His central thesis, the cultural importance of stories, is more resonant in the web of imagery arising from dreams, movies, and the subconscious. Robert Englund and John Saxon play themselves and their movie characters (though this Freddy is decidedly less wisecracking and more demonic). It's a thoughtful, imaginative, and often gripping modern horror film that echoes with suggestions of The Exorcist and Poltergeist. Though less of a fun-house thrill ride than previous Nightmares, it's scarier and smarter than any of the other series sequels. --Sean Axmaker
Description
Heather Langenkamp learns the Nightmare movies were protecting the world from a real-life demon. Also starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features

Average customer rating:

The behind the scenes info is well worth the price
Truly one of the best
Whatever you do: Don't fall asleep!
great movie but infifilm dvd version sucks
Nostalgic for Generation-X . . . But Lost on Youngsters . . .

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Starring: John Saxon , Ronee Blakley , Heather Langenkamp , Amanda Wyss , and Jsu Garcia
Director: Wes Craven
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge

ASIN: B00000JQTT
Release Date: 2001-08-21

Amazon.com

Wes Craven's 1984 horror film is a better movie than it is generally credited for being. Forget the tawdry sequels; this highly original, almost surrealist work stars Robert Englund as a mutilated monster who kills teenagers during their dreams. Craven, who only directed one Elm Street sequel (Wes Craven's New Nightmare), takes the Hitchcockian step of layering in psychological explanations for the terror and then proving them all irrelevant in the face of mindless evil. The horror in the film is emotionally raw, in contrast to the overimaginative set pieces of most of the sequels that followed; and the final scene is as deeply unsettling as anything Luis Buñuel ever committed to film. --Tom Keogh

Description

Digitally remastered, this is the original Nightmare film that started it all. Written and directed by Wes Craven and starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street remains an innovative and shocking horror-fantasy.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

The behind the scenes info is well worth the price.......2007-06-07

I won't go too in depth into the story. If you don't know who Freddy Krueger is then you've been out of the pop cultural loop for well over two decades. What I will say is this DVD gives a great deal of info behind one of the classic slashers of the 1980s. Finally seeing the two alternate endings as well as listening to Wes Craven's commentary on his best movie helped to deepen the respect I have for this masterpiece, and yes, this is an excellent film.

Truly one of the best.......2007-05-31

Freddy's debut. This film has it all, scares, gore, blood, thrills, and Freddy in his best scariest movie. This is a Nightmare On Elm Street, pleasent dreams.

Whatever you do: Don't fall asleep!.......2007-04-05

You won't fall asleep during or after you watch these movies.
A revolutionary series of movies that every movie buff should own.

Freddy Kruger is the worst monster that you will ever run into in your dreams. Trust me when I tell you: if you haven't seen these movies you will be frightened for a long time after. Drink lots of coffee ...and what ever you do ...don't fall asleep!

Stephen John Beccia
Author of The Treelanders

great movie but infifilm dvd version sucks.......2007-03-10

the infifilm version sucks (2 disc dvd) it paused alot while the other one disc version worked!

Nostalgic for Generation-X . . . But Lost on Youngsters . . ........2007-02-05

I dig this film . . . BUT . . .

If you can imagine, only four of my twenty-six film-students have seen this work: and this is an advanced horror-film class!! So if you think this is a slasher-staple . . . apparently not with "Generation Y."

I was pretty excited to screen the film. But my students' luke-warm reception of Craven's work was pretty infectious (horror tends to be a communal experience like that!) Their boredom became my boredom...and though the jokes fell-flat with them, they did find the admittedly shaky acting to be humorous. In retrospect, I suppose Freddy works better as the "caricature" he has become than the half-baked (pun-intended) monster from the 1984 original. (I think the horror-enthusiast side of me loves Freddy best in 1987's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" while the scholarly side loves the postmodern Freddy in 1994's "A New Nightmare" . . . yes, I realize I am being very Kellogg's "Frosted Shredded Wheats"!)

Many people post about the "killings" being spectacular. This is not entirely true. The first death is awesome -- no doubt! But Depp's death is beyond uneventful -- it is as though Craven drained his reservoir of ideas and decided that Depp's bed should consume him - it's pretty unforgivable as horror, but at least it's funny.

What is valuable about this film is that we have a "Final Girl" (see Carol Clover's "Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film") that not only fights for survival but plots the death of the film's monster. Nancy becomes fearless . . . and a master-tactician. This progressive thinking is pretty impressive if we consider the conservative Reagan-years (1981-1989).

While Craven has developed his craft and produced more technically sophisticated films like "Scream" and "Red-Eye" (note that I did not say 'better"), "Nightmare on Elm Street" was a HUGE phenomenon in its time (and I think that says something about its horror legacy).

So though this isn't comparable to "serious" slasher-films like Carpenter's "Halloween" or Hooper's "Chainsaw," (but, seriously, was it ever trying to be?!) it is critical to the genre. So, prepare to be underwhelmed by the special-effects (if you are young and somewhat impatient) . . . but, like I tell my students . . . watch it so you can understand the genre as a whole:)

Suggested Reading: Markovitz, Jonathan. "Female Paranoia as Survival Skill: Reason or Pathology in A Nightmare on Elm Street?" Quarterly Review of Film and Video 17, no. 3 (2000 Oct): 211-20.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Infinifilm Edition)

Average customer rating:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Infinifilm Edition)
Starring: John Saxon , Ronee Blakley , Heather Langenkamp , Amanda Wyss , and Jsu Garcia
Director: Wes Craven
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GETUDI
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Amazon.com

Average customer rating:

Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Starring: Jeff Davis (VI) , Bodhi Elfman , Robert Englund , Cully Fredricksen , and Ray Glanzmann
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

Slasher Flicks | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Horror | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Science Fiction & Fantasy | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

( W ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Freddy's Dead - The Final Nightmare
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 - The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 - The Dream Child
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 - Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge

ASIN: 0780630904
Release Date: 2000-08-22

Amazon.com

English-professor-turned-horror-auteur Wes Craven brings both careers to play in this ingenious reinterpretation of the Nightmare on Elm Street series as a modern-day fairy tale--a sort of Hansel and Gretel for big kids. Heather Langenkamp, star of the original film, plays Heather Langenkamp, an actress and mother wracked with nightmares as Los Angeles is rocked with unexplained earthquakes. Meanwhile, her son starts sleepwalking and croaking Freddy Krueger threats. Is it a coincidence that Wes Craven (playing himself) is turning his own troubled dreams into a new screenplay, which he calls "a sort of nightmare in progress"? According to his visions, the imaginary Freddy has become the embodiment of ancient evil and is trying to break out of his movie prison and into the physical world. It's a rather literal and glib explanation, but words have never been Craven's strong suit. His central thesis, the cultural importance of stories, is more resonant in the web of imagery arising from dreams, movies, and the subconscious. Robert Englund and John Saxon play themselves and their movie characters (though this Freddy is decidedly less wisecracking and more demonic). It's a thoughtful, imaginative, and often gripping modern horror film that echoes with suggestions of The Exorcist and Poltergeist. Though less of a fun-house thrill ride than previous Nightmares, it's scarier and smarter than any of the other series sequels. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Heather Langenkamp learns the Nightmare movies were protecting the world from a real-life demon. Also starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features

The American Nightmare - A Celebration of Films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Fright

Average customer rating:

The American Nightmare - A Celebration of Films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Fright
Starring: David Cronenberg , Tom Savini , John Landis , John Carpenter , and Tobe Hooper
Director: Adam Simon
Manufacturer: New Video Group
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00018YCJQ
Release Date: 2004-03-30

Amazon.com

The explosion of gruesome horror cinema in the wake of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is explored in this serious documentary, which has a welcome respect for an easily derided genre. A few academics make piquant observations (no film critics, although Robin Wood pioneered this line of thinking years ago), but mostly we hear from the filmmakers themselves: Romero, John Carpenter (on Halloween), Wes Craven (Last House on the Left), Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and David Cronenberg (Shivers). The directors focus on those films, not their entire careers, which limits the scope of the movie. Juxtapositioning newsreel horrors with movie scenes introduces provocative ideas about where horror comes from, but also feels a little facile. Unexpected bonus: the enthusiasm of John Landis, in describing the out-of-kilter experience of watching these affronts to good taste, and suggesting why they thrill as well as scare us. --Robert Horton

Description

Disfigured knife-wielding murderers. Buxom teens fleeing for their lives through dark woods. Hordes of the undead limping along deserted streets. These images, now synonymous with horror movies, were born in the groundbreaking films of horror masters su

Nightmare on Elm Street/Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Average customer rating:

Nightmare on Elm Street/Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Starring: David Andrews , Ronee Blakley , Ed Call , Mimi Craven , and Johnny Depp
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( N ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0000E6FQF
Release Date: 2003-11-18

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