Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

## Overview

Heather Langenkamp lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband Chase and their young son Dylan. She is recognized for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series before focusing her career on television. One night she has a nightmare that her family is attacked by a set of animated Freddy Krueger claws from an upcoming Nightmare film, where two workers are brutally killed on set. Waking up to an earthquake, she spies a cut on Chase's finger exactly like the one he had received in her dream, but

she quickly dismisses the notion that it was caused by the claws.

Heather receives a call from an obsessed fan who quotes Freddy Krueger's nursery rhyme in an eerie, Freddy-like voice. This coincides with a meeting she has with New Line Cinema where she is pitched the idea to reprise her role as Nancy in a new Nightmare film, which, unbeknownst to her, Chase has been working on. She returns home, and sees Dylan watching her original film. Nancy interrupts him, and Dylan has a severely traumatizing episode where he screams at her. The frequent calls and Dylan's strange behavior cause her to call Chase. He agrees to rush home from his workplace at Palm Springs as the two men from the opening dream did not report in for work. Chase falls asleep while driving and is slashed by Freddy's claw and dies. His death seems to affect Dylan even further, which concerns Heather's long-time friend and former co-star John Saxon. He suggests she seek medical attention for Dylan and herself after she has a nightmare at Chase's funeral in which Freddy tries to take Dylan away.

Dylan's health continues to deteriorate. He becomes increasingly paranoid about going to sleep, and fears Freddy Krueger, even though Heather has never shown Dylan her films. She visits Nightmare creator Wes Craven, who admits to having precognitive nightmares that the films captured an ancient supernatural entity. The entity is freed after the film series ended with the release of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. In the guise of Freddy it now focuses its primary foe on Heather—as Nancy—as killing her will allow it into the real world. Robert Englund, who portrayed Freddy in the films, also has a strange knowledge of it, describing the new Freddy to Heather, then disappearing from all contact shortly thereafter.

Following another earthquake, Heather takes a traumatized Dylan to the hospital, where Dr. Heffner, suspecting abuse, suggests he remain under observation. Heather returns home for Dylan's stuffed dinosaur while his babysitter Julie tries unsuccessfully to keep the nurses from sedating the sleep-deprived boy. Dylan falls asleep from the sedative. Freddy brutally kills Julie in Dylan's dream. Capable of sleepwalking, Dylan leaves the hospital of his own accord while Heather chases him home across the interstate as Freddy taunts and dangles him before traffic. Upon returning home, Heather realizes that reality starts to overlap with Freddy's make-believe realm, with Saxon as Nancy's father Don Thompson, and her street, the exterior of her house, and her clothes have all transformed into Nancy's. When Heather embraces Nancy's role, Freddy emerges completely into reality and abducts Dylan to his world. Heather finds a trail of Dylan's sleeping pills and follows him to a hellish construct of Freddy's boiler room. Freddy fights off Heather and chases Dylan into a furnace. Dylan escapes the furnace, doubles back to Heather, and together they push Freddy into the furnace and light it, destroying both the monster and its reality.

Dylan and Heather emerge from under his blankets, and Heather finds a copy of the film's events in a screenplay at the foot of the bed. Inside is written thanks from Wes for defeating Freddy and playing Nancy one last time. Her victory helps imprison the entity of the film franchise's fictitious world once more. Dylan asks if it is a story, and Heather agrees before opening the script and reading from its pages.

## Cast

* Heather Langenkamp as herself / Nancy Thompson
* Robert Englund as himself / Freddy Krueger
* Miko Hughes as Dylan Porter
* John Saxon as himself/ Lt. Donald Thompson
* Tracy Middendorf as Julie
* David Newsom as Chase Porter
* Fran Bennett as Dr. Christine Heffner
* Wes Craven as himself
* Robert Shaye as himself
* Marianne Maddalena as herself
* Sam Rubin as himself
* Sara Risher as herself
* Claudia Haro as a New Line Cinema receptionist
* Matt Winston and Rob LaBelle as Chuck and Terry, two special effect workers
* W. Earl Brown as Morgue attendant
* Lin Shaye as Nurse with pills
* Nick Corri as himself
* Tuesday Knight as herself