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Halloween H20: 20 Years Later vs Wes Craven's New Nightmare


(This is a continuation of a contest that's started on the pages for the original films of both franchises)

With both franchises considered to be in decline, they both really needed something great to continue on. And so luckily, both became resurrected with franchise alumni intending to bring these two middling franchises to their former glory. Jamie Lee Curtis and Heather Langenkamp once again resume their roles as the leading heroines. While the circumstances of their presences are different (Heather playing a metafictional version of herself) both come to find out that they won't be escaping from their past with Michael and Freddy (in one form or another) that easily, and are forced into final confrontations to save themselves and their sons. (Though losing their respective love interests by the end) They both have fun paying homage to their father films throughout, and do so with great affection. Both were much more well received than most of their preceding sequels by critics and audiences. They didn't come without some backlash, and the group it came from was rather interesting. Many longtime fans not appreciating their apparent disregard for what came before and going in new directions. But whatever the case they are often considered two of the best installments of their respective franchises, and both should've been the fitting finale they deserved. Well this is the last round of this contest (A certain other installment of one of these franchises I, and many others choose, to pretend didn't happen will not be featured here), so which of these films do you prefer and why?

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H20, easily. New Nightmare is so pathetically boring with no Freddy.

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Another Halloween fan who prefers this over H20.

I think H20 would have been great if:

1. Had tied the previous installments together instead of ignored them
2. Didn't focus on the "kids" who made this feel so generic
3. Really ended the series

Of course that basically makes it a different movie.

My problem with New Nightmare is solely the anti-climatic end to the Freddy/Demon character which I always felt was a let down after such a strong movie. Yet that flaw doesn't erase how much better the film was over H20 for me.

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Loved both, but prefer New Nightmare. H20 was awesome, but the running time was a tad too short imo (gave the film a rushed feeling). New Nightmare had room to breathe and expand, and it benefited from it immensely.







"Its time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all outta gum."- Duke Nukem

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I don't hate H20 or anything, but I do think it comes across as a tad bit soulless. For all intents and purposes, it feels like one of any other numerous nineties horror flicks. It's cool that Jamie Lee Curtis came back, but really, without Donald Pleasence it just doesn't cut it. The film doesn't even feel like the Halloween holiday, which is one of the essential elements that make the Halloween films enjoyable (yep, even the bad ones). Rename the characters and change the killers mask and it could easily be anything...I Know What You Did Last Summer Part 3. The only thing it has going for it are the recognizable names. Aside from that, it just lacks that Halloween feel. A pretty fun slasher flick for sure, but soulless when judging it by what it could have been in regards to the Halloween franchise. Wes Craven's Scream was a better celebration of Halloween than H20 was!

New Nightmare is way better, as not only did it manage to make the cornball Freddy Krueger scary again, but it also offered up a great commentary from Wes on the nature of film sequels, as well as interesting and fresh new ideas about demonic forces and what happens when the story dies, as the Nightmare series had done at the time. I love watching Robert Englund in Freddy makeup be a star on a talk show with all of his fans cheering. That perfectly sums up the problem with what the series had become. I understand why some don't love this entry since it treats the other films as just that, films, but I think it was a very clever concept for its day. It was fresh and original and brought something new to the table that actually interested Wes enough to return rather than just repeating himself. That's more than can be said for H20.

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I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.

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New Nightmare is way better.







History is written by the victor. History is full of liars.

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