20 Awesome 90s Movies The World Forgot

Wes Craven's New Nightmare was well-ahead of its time. A couple of years before Craven's later work Scream brought meta-horror into the mainstream, Craven did something that was even more ambitious. He made his last instalment in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise one where Freddy Krueger invades the real world and begins stalking the cast and crew of the franchise, all of whom are playing themselves. Mad. 

New Nightmare gets little attention compared to other 90s slashers and that can't be seen as anything other than a crying shame. At the time, perhaps viewers weren't quite ready for something like this but in an era where meta cinema is all the rage, New Nightmare has aged exceptionally well, especially as it does meta far better than many later examples. Rather than being all flip and nudge-nudge, wink-wink, it's a sincere and straight-faced work that uses its unique story to provide plenty of thought-provoking commentary on franchise filmmaking and the art of storytelling itself. 

Alongside this, it's got stellar thrills, surreal scares and a fabulous lead performance from Heather Lagenkamp, who plays herself with aplomb. Wes Craven himself also has one of the best director's cameos of ever, and Freddy Krueger hadn't been this scary since his debut ten years earlier. As far as your writer's concerned, this is the best Nightmare on Elm Street movie of them all, with apologies to the 1984 original.