Wes Craven returned to the franchise he created for its seventh (!) sequel, and one of the finest metatextual horror films ever made (at least until he made Scream two years later). By directly examining the power of horror sequels to diminish the original story's ability to frighten audiences, Craven briefly revitalized his greatest creation, Freddy Krueger, but his greatest accomplishment was taking a franchise geared towards teenagers and forcing it to grow up... and still be scary. By taking Nancy Thompson, aka Heather Langenkamp, and placing her in the role of the willfully ignorant mother she was forced to rebel against in the first film, Craven brings his story full circle and forces us to rethink the original movie from the parents' perspective, and realize that it's almost freakier the other way around.
Wes Craven returned to the franchise he created for its seventh (!) sequel, and one of the finest metatextual horror films ever made (at least until he made Scream two years later). By directly examining the power of horror sequels to diminish the original story's ability to frighten audiences, Craven briefly revitalized his greatest creation, Freddy Krueger, but his greatest accomplishment was taking a franchise geared towards teenagers and forcing it to grow up... and still be scary. By taking Nancy Thompson, aka Heather Langenkamp, and placing her in the role of the willfully ignorant mother she was forced to rebel against in the first film, Craven brings his story full circle and forces us to rethink the original movie from the parents' perspective, and realize that it's almost freakier the other way around.
