10 Horror Movies Which Broke The Fourth Wall To Scare You

2. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

Some horror films are happy with just a mere moment or two of fourth-wall breaking, but 1994's New Nightmare had bigger, and stranger, ideas in mind.

This nineties meta horror sees the demonic, dream-invading villain of Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street series horrified to see his once-ferocious onscreen image ruined by a string of stale, un-scary instalments.

What's a slasher to do?

Well, in the case of Freddy Krueger, the answer was attacking his creator, the actor who plays him, and the stars of his earlier onscreen efforts in this strange, self-referential film. Robert Englund plays both himself and Krueger, whilst actors John Saxon and Heather Langenkamp play fictionalized versions of their real-life selves plagued by their onscreen nemesis.

Trippy, funny, and damn scary, this surreal hit provided a blueprint for the later Scream series. However, none of Craven's later films broke the fourth wall as explicitly as the sight of Freddy Krueger attacking his own creator.