A Nightmare on 7th Street

Is this a sequel? A reboot? All of these and neither!

In the world of the world that made Freddy movies, we catch up with the actors from the first movie who have moved on, although are constantly reminded of their horror past. In particular, we follow Heather Langenkamp and her family. There is news that a few movie is in the works, with her involved, and at the same time a stalker is after her pretending to be Freddy. Or is it only pretense? And then quickly we have Freddy is real and after the kid and it’s all a big fight in the dreams.

Aside from the ending, this is what Wes Craven wanted Fred to be, more about the impact Fred has on people rather than just cool dream death sequences, so that part works really well. It’s a creeping atmosphere, and we get the breakdown of Heather to mirror what she did in the first movie. But then the ending is a big dream battle, and given the set up previously, it’s obvious how it’s going to go, and it’s just a sense of marking time until we hit the end credits.

Heather gives a good performance, and Robert Englund nearly gets to do something interesting, but is devolved into Fred quickly. The kid isn’t that annoying, just a low level annoying that’s just on the side of acceptable.

Wes intended this to get back to the roots of his vision, and in that it works well. But then it has to fit into the Freddy series, and just goes lame.

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