Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
This was really what the series needed, a new refreshing unique angle. Clearly the right way to do meta-narrative. Not by piling up on the references or self-parody, but instead taking the material seriously and blend fiction and reality so neither we or the characters can tell it apart anymore. This came to be the only movie in the franchise that I found genuinely scary and uncomfortable at times, as it somehow feels more real. At least for the first two thirds, where the ambiguity and uncertainty is kept. Where it ends up is not bad, it works and gives proper resolution, but still somewhat conventional. The real psychological horror of the first half of the movie was taken over by the usual spectacle. It starts as a very different movie, but ends as the rest of the franchise.
Rating: 3.5