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of the real world gets implemented into a dream, for example the buzzer being transformed into a distant
telephone that is not being picked up, or vice versa: When the dream reaches into reality it leaves a strong
impression on the dreamer even after he or she has woken up. In any case, the bed is where the border
between dream and reality becomes permeable, causing a profound Cartesian metaphysical problem. Finally,
the concept of a hole in the bed acting as the gate to Freddy’s world that is elaborated in New Nightmare is
established here.
‘9, 10, never sleep again’: Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Ten years and five sequels (which were produced without Craven’s participation except for Nightmare 3 –
Dream Warriors, 16 which he co-scripted) after Nightmare 1, Wes Craven sets off to write another Nightmare and
to add a final feature to the franchise. It turns out to be as much a remake of Nightmare 1 as it is – or at least
appears to be in hindsight – in many ways a preliminary study to the Scream series, which started two years
later. Many of the iconic scenes from Nightmare 1, such as, among others, Freddy’s tongue emerging out of
Nancy’s/Heather Langenkamp’s telephone and licking her mouth, or her blonde friend/babysitter being
dragged up along the wall and to the ceiling recur in this film along with various quotes from Nightmare 1.
Moreover, the original Nightmare is often referred to as members of the original cast and crew now play
themselves: for instance, Heather Langenkamp appearing as herself, a now mature actress who starred in a
scary movie as a teenager, ten years earlier. Nightmare 1 haunts the actress who does not want to have
anything to do with the horror genre anymore and tries to keep her son Dylan (Miko Hughes) from watching
her movie. Wes Craven plays the director of this horror film, who is now turning a series of nightmares he had
into a movie script for a definitive film in the Nightmare series. Thus, the distinctive self-reflexivity later
elaborated in the Scream series is anticipated as New Nightmare proves to be a scary movie about making scary
movies (it also features telephone calls from a stalker with a Krueger-like voice who pretends to be – or
perhaps really is – Freddy). In many ways, restaging the plot of the Nightmare 1, it is now Heather Langenkamp
who has to face a Freddy-turned-real, striving to leave the realm of film and fantasy and to enter the real world.
Self-reflexively, New Nightmare foregrounds nightmares as a recurring motif: Dylan and Heather Langenkamp
have them; Dylan’s babysitter has nightmares about Freddy Krueger as well. While Heather turns her
nightmares into fears that plague her everyday existence, Robert Englund expresses his nightmares in his oil
paintings, one of which represents a ‘darker, scarier’ Fred Krueger than he himself was (00:46-00:48), and Wes
Craven writes another horror script. In contrast to the other Nightmare films, which are mostly comprised of
the characters’ nightmares, New Nightmare shows us only several of the nightmares mentioned throughout the
film (and only Heather’s). Yet, the feature implies that they all dream about Freddy trying to get into the real
world – a collective nightmare catalysed and written down by Wes, who thus fulfils Robin Wood’s dictum about
horror films being ‘our collective nightmares’ (Wood, p. 117). The bed is thus not only the place where
nightmares are experienced but also where the stuff that horror films are made of originates. Eventually, that
script turns into reality as John Saxon suddenly assumes the role of Nancy’s father, which he played in the
Nightmare 1, and leaves Heather Langenkamp no other choice than to play her own role, that of Nancy, and to
face Freddy once again (01:23).
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