Product: New Nightmare [VHS] (1994)
Rating: 5.0
Postmodern masterpiece 2 years before Scream
I was very pleasantly surprised by the intelligence of this film. Horror movies have a tendency to rely on cliches and the same old scare tactics, but this is one case where I wasn't really sure which way the movie was going. By placing the Freddy Kruger mythology within our reality (and not that of the film itself), Craven achieves a sardonic, cynical level of intertextuality. People point to Scream (also by Craven) as the father of the new horror genre, the realistic, self-aware and ultimately very postmodern type of film, but New Nightmare does it all --and in many ways better-- some 2 years earlier. It opened to critical raves but didn't do so well at the box office, no doubt being ahead of its time.If you are one of those people who goes to see cliched horror films and are expecting nudity and other staples of the genre, you'll be disappointed (see reviewers below), but if you'd like a new take on an old classic, this is a great opportunity.