Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by original creator Wes Craven who wrote and directed the original Nightmare On Elm Street film. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew responsible for his films. In this film, Freddy is depicted as closer to what Craven originally intended, being more menacing and less comical, with a greatly updated attire and appearance.

The film features various people involved in the motion picture industry playing themselves, including actress Heather Langenkamp who is compelled by events in the narrative to reprise her role as Nancy Thompson. New Nightmare features several homages to the original film.

A dirty, work-worn pair of hands is creating a sleek, fully metal bladed glove in a boiler room. As the maker of the claws appears to chop off his own hand in preparation for attaching the claws to his own wrist, it is revealed to be a film set, and the people watching wince, and the director, Wes Craven, encourages the effects specialists to pump more blood. Heather Langenkamp, her make up artist husband, Chase, and their son, Dylan, are wandering around the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie.

Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (born August 2, 1939) is an American film director, writer, producer, actor, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and he also co-wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors with Bruce Wagner, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character and has directed the entire Scream series, featuring Ghostface. Some of his other films include, The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn, Red Eye, and My Soul to Take.

Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Caroline (née Miller) and Paul Craven. He had a strict Baptist upbringing. Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois, and a masters degree in Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to landing his first job in the film industry as a sound editor for a post-production company in New York City, Craven briefly taught English at Westminster College and was a humanities professor at Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University) in Potsdam, New York. He left the academic world for the more lucrative role of pornographic film director. In the documentary Inside Deep Throat, Craven says on camera he made "many X-rated films" under pseudonyms, learning his directing craft. While his role in Deep Throat is undisclosed, most of his early known work involved writing, film editing or both. In 1972 Wes Craven directed his first feature film The Last House on the Left.

Craven is in recent times the name of a local government district in North Yorkshire, England that came into being in 1974, centred on the market town of Skipton. In the changes to British local government of that year this district was formed as the merger of Skipton urban district, Settle Rural District and most of Skipton Rural District, all in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It comprises the upper reaches of Airedale, Wharfedale, Ribblesdale, and includes most of the Aire Gap and Craven Basin.

Additionally, the name Craven is much older than the modern district, and once encompassed a larger area. This history is also still reflected in the way the term is still commonly used, for example by the Church of England.

Craven has been the name of this district throughout recorded history but it was never defined until 1974; its boundaries differed according to whether considering administration, taxation or religion.

The name Craven may be derived from the pre-Celtic cravona, meaning stony region. Or from the Celtic (Cumbric), related to the Welsh word craf meaning garlic. In the Middle Ages, the area was known for its wild garlic.^{[citation needed]}

Heather Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films. She served as executive producer and narrator to the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.

She also played Marie Lubbock on the sitcom Just the Ten of Us and has had numerous television guest appearances.

Langenkamp was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her mother, Mary Alice (née Myers), is an artist, and her father, Robert Dobie Langenkamp, is a petroleum attorney who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy in both the Carter Administration (where he was largely responsible for realizing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) and the Clinton Administration (where he was largely responsible for privatizing Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1), and as Director of the National Energy & Environmental Law & Policy Institute of the University of Tulsa College of Law. Langenkamp attended Holland Hall School in Tulsa. She graduated from The National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington, D.C.

Miko John Hughes (born February 22, 1986) is an American actor best known for his film roles as a child actor as Gage Creed in Pet Sematary (1989), as an autistic boy opposite Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising (1998) and as Dylan, Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994).

Hughes started his acting career in a public service announcement when he was 22 months old, and followed that up by appearing in his first feature film five months later. From his years as a child actor, Hughes was consistently one of the busiest young actors in Hollywood.

Hughes played Aaron Bailey on Full House from 1990 to 1995. One of his first films was Jack the Bear, opposite Danny DeVito; in addition, he has starred on film in Spawn (1997), Zeus and Roxanne (1997), Apollo 13 (1995), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Mercury Rising (1998) alongside Bruce Willis and Pet Sematary (1989). Hughes has also appeared in numerous television movies. He has been a series regular, recurring character or guest star on many television series including Baywatch (1989), Sister Kate (1989-1990), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1991) Full House (1992), Melrose Place (1992), Touched by an Angel (1994) and The Nanny (1994).