Current Events > A November on Elm Street (SPOILERS and review for all nine movies)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Fred Krueger had it rough. First, the parents of his victims burned him alive. Then the 2019 Halloween season came and went without Skye watching a single one of his movies. He was so outraged by this that he came to me in a dream last night and said he'd kill me if I didn't watch and review all nine of his movies -- including the remake.

Okay, that didn't happen. But I do feel guilty about snubbing Freddy last month and I'm watching all nine films this month. The first film is A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). The review will be in my next post.

I always laugh at the blowup doll of Nancy's mom that is pulled through the window at the ending of elm street 1
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Of the big 3 slashers/franchises, Freddy/NoES is my least favorite.
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First Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

General premise: Filthy child-killer Fred Krueger haunts the dreams of teenagers and seeks revenge against those who burned him alive

Best Character: Nancy Thompson
Worst Character: Nancy's Mom (Marge) "I'm just gonna take this bottle of Schnapps to bed so the audience gets that I'm an alcoholic. Guzzle, guzzle, guzzle!"
Best Kill: Johnny Depp's blood shoots up from the depths.

The good:
- Nancy is a great lead; possibly the best in 80s slasher movies
- the film shows a tremendous amount of restraint with final body count of just five victims (Nancy is dead, right? She's totally not gonna reappear in one of the sequels)
- 90% of the special effects still hold up today and that rotating room is a beauty
- the atmosphere is top notch. watching, you feel like you're in the boiler room
- the characters/victims feel like real people for the most part. (the Jock's a bit of a stereotype, but what do you expect?)
- prime Fred Krueger -- this one kinda goes without saying

The bad:
- "Starring John Saxon"? He wasn't the star of this movie anymore than he was the star of Enter the Dragon.
- Fred Kreuger's arm stretch special effect in his first on-screen appearance really shows its age.

https://i.imgur.com/M1BOAiB.jpg
"WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN!"


Four blades out of four.

Second Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

General premise: Freddy threatens to "come out" of a popular teen as the Elm Street series exploits one of the more common phobias of the 80s: gay panic

Best Character: Coach Hard Gay (I mean Schneider)
Worst Character: Mr. Walsh
Best Kill: the S&M shower scene -- whip that thang!

The good:
- first gay lead in a mainstream horror film
- "I've got the brains" (really cool visual when Freddy rips back his skin to expose his unskulled brain)
- Out of makeup cameo for Robert Englund as the bus driver (Spoilers: He's actually Freddy)

The bad:
- um, can we get some kills in this movie? it takes 40 minutes to get to the first one and another 20 to get to the second. they're not filling that dead time with much either.
- Freddy's up and running around in the real world? doesn't that defeat the purpose of him being a dream killer?
- Mark Patton, the closeted actor who played Jesse, felt that his homosexuality was being exploited. Of the film's director, Patton said the following: "Nobody ever affected my confidencethe boys that threw rocks at me, nobodybut this man did."

The weird:
- human faced dogs (it's based off of a Japanese urban legend, but it just looks weird. and the Rottweiler on Lisa's right really wants to get that mask off)

Random thoughts:
- that box of Fu Man Chews looks tasty. I wanna try it.
- the opening scene with the bus on the ledge feels like something out of a Tim Burton movie. it's more Beetlejuice than Freddy Krueger

https://imgur.com/OKhkOLm

Skye's Rating: Two fingers out of four

The tree certainly fell far from the apple with this sequel. But I know for a fact that things will get better with Dream Warriors.

The majority of the series is pretty terrible. I think it should have ended after the first one.
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The remake went way too far overboard with Freddie being a pedophile and having child porn. Definitely was not needed to make him an effective villain and really contrasts with the tone of that movie.
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The remake is the one I'm least looking forward to. A killer can be a fun and marketable villain. A sexual predator cannot. There's a reason Freddy hasn't made any appearances since that movie.

nightmare on elm street is my favorite movie
but its ending is confusing and makes no sense and is the weakest part of the film

i showed my nephew the movie and during the ending he actually looked up from his phone and said "what the fuck?"

also for all the gay subtext in the second film its kind of offensive that jessie is saved with heterosexuality!
but whats real offensive is how boring the second movie is
its so dull
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As best I can tell, Nancy never actually wakes up in the first movie. The alarm going off and everything across the street is just a part of her dream.

yusiko posted...

but whats real offensive is how boring the second movie is
its so dull

I agree.

lots of people like the 3rd one and i do as well
but it does one thing that upsets me :(
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tag
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Second movie scared the shit out of me as kid

One thing I forgot to mention about the first film...
Actually, it's more of a question.

Did TV channels back in the day actually play an instrumental version of the national anthem before signing off or was that just a reference to Poltergeist?

Skye Reynolds posted...

One thing I forgot to mention about the first film...
Actually, it's more of a question.

Did TV channels back in the day actually play an instrumental version of the national anthem before signing off or was that just a reference to Poltergeist?

Yes as it was a way for the channels to signify the end of the broadcast day. It eventually went away with the creation of the infomercial. From there, channels stayed on for 24 hours....

....also, Freddy's Revenge is awesome. >_<

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Thanks. I thought maybe it was a shout out to Poltergeist since both films deal with angry supernatural spirits. I guess that sign off is one of those things that gets lost in time.

Third Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

General premise: Freddy Krueger is stalking kids at a psychiatric hospital; several of whom band together with newfound dream powers in an effort to fight back against their attacker

Best Character: Nancy Thompson (Yay! Nancy's back!)
Worst Character: Joey (it's not fair to pick on a character who's more of a plot device, but he was the weakest link all things considered)
Best Kill: Freddy the Puppeteer. "Welcome to prime time, bitch!" is the best quote, but the sleepwalker death (that one was legit painful to watch)

The good:
- Nancy is back
- the characters and pacing are good
- the kills are once again fun and imaginative
- the movie does drug PSAs the right way (scary hungry mouths)
- the film avoids the "sole survivor" cliche and allows some of the supporting cast to make it
- the whole prime time scene including the Zsa Zsa Gabor and Dick Cavett cameos ("Who gives a fuck what you think?")

The bad:
- um, continuity? several witnesses survived Freddy's real world rampage from the second movie, yet he's treated like a boogeyman in this one. you might argue that this film ignores the second movie, but then Nancy should be dead. it was the second film which retconned her murder to an institutionalization.
- the nerd stuff with Will is a bit overplayed
- Nancy had to die (again). At least they did it the right way -- her dying heroically in a vicorious effort against Freddy rather than as a punchline

The weird:
- Freddy is a son of a nun
- Harryhausen-esque skeleton scene

Random thoughts:
- if ever you need to open a door, but don't have a key, the proper way to do it is to gently strike the doorknob with a rock

This one I enjoyed just as much as the first film, but in different ways. It has the same relation to the original A Nightmare on Elm Street which Bride of Frankenstein had to Frankenstein. The sequel is lighter and more comical, but solid pacing and fun new characters give it a fighting chance against its predecessor.

https://i.imgur.com/CmlVQjs.jpg

Skye's Rating: Four syringes out of four

I guess that sign off is one of those things that gets lost in time.

It's kind of like how kids growing up in the 50's and 60's talk about how they only had three channels. That local sign off is something that went away by the 90's.

Skye Reynolds posted...

As best I can tell, Nancy never actually wakes up in the first movie. The alarm going off and everything across the street is just a part of her dream.

Pretty much. Nancy does say to Fred "I know the secret now. It's all a dream" before taking away his power. Part of the confusion is Bob Shaye making Craven change the ending from a happy one to a scary ending in case a sequel could be made. Anyway, everything is a dream after Nancy goes to sleep. She eventually wakes from it as is implied from both Freddy's Revenge and Dream Warriors, but fails to stop Krueger.

yusiko posted...

also for all the gay subtext in the second film its kind of offensive that jessie is saved with heterosexuality!

I agree to a point. The filmmakers and much of the crew had no idea about the homosexual subtext while the writer himself flip flops every other year about it being intentional or it being a coincidence. There's way too much to ignore ("he's trying to get inside of me", Jesse ditching Lisa to spend the night with Ron, the S&M bar, the coach being hit in the face with balls, the Probe game, "No Girls Allowed" sign on the door, etc.), but I think for the director and much of the cast / crew, it's supposed to be a story about how the power of love defeats evil.

With the homosexual subtext in mind, it's much more disingenuous than how you put it. Homosexuality is connected with Freddy Krueger and Jesse losing control of himself therefor it's "bad" as far as the message goes.

Something that always me shake my head is that the filmmakers tried to replace Robert Englund as Freddy under the belief that anyone could put on a mask and replicate his performance. If you check the shower sequence (which is on youtube as a 40 sec clip that I can't post on the site), you can glimpse Freddy through the steam. Notice how stiff his walk is, as if he's got a stick up his butt (pun intended). That's the replacement and he only lasted for that one shot before everyone realized Englund was needed.

- um, continuity? several witnesses survived Freddy's real world rampage from the second movie, yet he's treated like a boogeyman in this one. you might argue that this film ignores the second movie, but then Nancy should be dead. it was the second film which retconned her murder to an institutionalization.

It's no different than how Freddy's Revenge continued---by making Nancy survive. She was in the dream world and escaped. Remember that you never saw Nancy die, only get driven off along with her friends in a Freddy car. There was more to the event than what we saw. But yes, Dream Warriors totally ignores Freddy's Revenge as does all the other sequels other than a line of dialogue repeated in A New Nightmare. Honestly, there wasn't much of a reason they had to which is a shame as I find Freddy's Revenge one of the high points of the series due to various interpretations one can pull from it.

- the movie does drug PSAs the right way (scary hungry mouths)

As cool as that was, Tara's "I'm beautiful...and bad!" moment is so cringe. Jennifer Rubin was gorgeous, but that hair did her no favors nor did the line of dialogue.

I dig Dream Warriors and think it's solid, but I find it drags a little in the middle. The ending dream sequences rule and the opening is good stuff (the model house, Dokken blasting on the soundtrack), the return of Nancy. Something about the middle where they do the group hypnosis is where it lulls.

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So_Hajile posted...

I agree to a point. The filmmakers and much of the crew had no idea about the homosexual subtext while the writer himself flip flops every other year about it being intentional or it being a coincidence.

The director had to know. There's a scene where he goes to a leather bar. The room-cleaning scene also has him singing along to a cassette tape of some very girly music while he closes drawers with a butt bounce and then holds a microphone near his crotch like a phallic symbol.

Watching that scene, I can understand how Mark Patton felt exploited.

Remember that you never saw Nancy die, only get driven off along with her friends in a Freddy car.

That's true. There would have been plenty of time for her to wake up before... How was he going to kill her, anyway? Maybe the bus scene from the second movie was their interpretation of what Freddy was doing at the end of the first movie. He was going to take her out to a ledge... and then stab her.

As cool as that was, Tara's "I'm beautiful...and bad!" moment is so cringe. Jennifer Rubin was gorgeous, but that hair did her no favors nor did the line of dialogue.

I agree on the looks and the hair. The line of dialogue is bad, like really bad, but it's totally something I could imagine a teenager saying.

part 4 has my second favorite final girl in the franchise
alice is no nancy but she is a decent second best
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This will be my first time watching Part 4. The trailer looks grea... Is Freddy wearing sunglasses?

yes
he looks oddly hot with sunglasses
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I like the arm stretch effect in the first one. How weird and unnatural it looks makes it more scary.
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AvlButtslam posted...

I like the arm stretch effect in the first one. How weird and unnatural it looks makes it more scary.

Yeah, I like the arm stretch too. It makes it more scary and dream like.

The director had to know. There's a scene where he goes to a leather bar. The room-cleaning scene also has him singing along to a cassette tape of some very girly music while he closes drawers with a butt bounce and then holds a microphone near his crotch like a phallic symbol.

Jack Sholder is as square as they come so him not knowing, let alone even questioning it, doesn't come as a surprise. All we have to go on is his word although it makes him totally oblivious to the most obvious of things.

That's true. There would have been plenty of time for her to wake up before... How was he going to kill her, anyway? Maybe the bus scene from the second movie was their interpretation of what Freddy was doing at the end of the first movie. He was going to take her out to a ledge... and then stab her.

I've often wondered the same thing. How was he going to finally take her out? He did bring back her friends....or did he? Were they concoctions of Nancy's mind? In either case, would he torment them in front of her? If Nancy took back her power, could she summon her friends and have them help her in the dream world? Or, yeah, would Fred be all stabby-stabby and be done with it?

I'm loving the viewing of the series you do and look forward to the next installment. Are you going to include the documentary Never Sleep Again? If you haven't seen it, please do. It sets the benchmark for franchise documentaries.

part 4 has my second favorite final girl in the franchise
alice is no nancy but she is a decent second best

Love Alice despite being in one good movie. :p Too bad the idea (one of many) to have her return for Freddy's Dead fell through. I got to meet Lisa Wilcox at convention once and was surprised to see she's tiny. Like, 5'3 or so tiny. I'm not a tall at 5'11 but I felt like I dwarfed her. Super sweet though. Same goes to Patricia Tallman who helped take the photo of us.

This will be my first time watching Part 4. The trailer looks grea... Is Freddy wearing sunglasses?

As Robert Englund put it, The Dream Master is "the MTV Nightmare movie" with its fast pace and style. It's fun stuff.

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Fourth Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

General premise: Freddy seeks new targets after a fire-pissing dog revives him from his slumber

Best Character: Alice Johnson
Worst Character: Alice's Dad
Best Kill: Kincaid -- in a movie with only one visually memorable kill, I'll rule in favor of the emotional death of a dog mourning his human

The good:
- Alice is a solid protagonist; a natural successor to Nancy
- Screaming Mad George gets to show off his grotesque transformation skills (he sure loves the bug transformations)
- Robert Englund appears in drag as the nurse who happens to be Freddy in disguise -- between this and the bus driver cameo from the second movie, I guess this more or less canonizes it that Freddy looked like Robert before he got burned
- the theater scene (I'm a sucker for black and white cinema)
- In a movie starring Freddy, Jason is the first one to draw blood

The bad:
- killing the survivors from the last movie (NEVER do this if you can avoid it) and replacing them with a collectively less interesting cast
- Freddy Krueger is in full parody mode
- Freddy is driven back by his reflection? So now he's like Mum-Ra from ThunderCats?
- THEY KILLED THE INTERESTING CAST TO REPLACE THEM WITH A DULL ONE!!

The weird:
- Freddy parodies Jaws. I wanna put this in the "bad" category, but it's handled so well in context that I just can't. It's weird.
- Freddy Krueger is Shang Tsung now

https://i.imgur.com/jwocpDC.png
OUTSTANDING!!
YOU HAVE DEFEATED FREDDY!!
YOU ARE THE SUPREME MORTAL KOMBAT WARRIOR!

Skye's Rating:
One blade out of four.

Sorry to be so negative on the last film, but it really should have started with Alice and just let the survivors of the previous film be.

So_Hajile posted...

I'm loving the viewing of the series you do and look forward to the next installment. Are you going to include the documentary Never Sleep Again? If you haven't seen it, please do. It sets the benchmark for franchise documentaries.

Thanks. I haven't seen that documentary. I'm not sure if I have access to it.

i also recommend the documentary i am nancy which is heather langenkemp talking about her experiences after the movies

we even got to see a fan convention where freddy, nancy and alice sign autographs
nancy has a longer autograph line than alice but freddy's is like ten times as big as both ladies lines combined
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Fifth Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)

General premise: the tender subjects of rape, suicide, abortion, single parenting, and religion are handled with all the sensitivity of a severely burned serial killer

Best Character: Alice Johnson (yay, Alice returns!)
Worst Character: Racine Gibson (Greta's Mother)
Best Kill: Dan's fuel injected sendoff

The good:
- Alice returns (and isn't immediately killed off in favor of a new replacement)
- there are some impressive visuals; especially in the motorcycle scene
- we get to see Freddy afraid for once as the tables are turned in a reverse-nightmare sequence near the end
- Robert Englund receives another cameo -- this time as Freddy's maniac father
- the fake jump scare with the truck driver wearing a red shirt and fedora was pretty effective

The bad:
- the film features the lowest body count yet (three in total -- four if you count Amanda Krueger)
- much like the second film in the series, the movie drags a little at times
- the Nightmare on Elm Street mythology is becoming more convoluted than the Star Wars Extended Universe

The weird:
- I get the feeling that force-feeding a model (Greta) was somebody's kink
- Freddy Krueger uses an unborn baby's dreams to invade the real world because... that's how things operate
- the entirety of the comic book sequence was just off-the-wall weirdness -- I do like the use of color scheme though with Mary's loud color scheme contrasting the muted background visuals

Random thoughts:

I can see this one being very divisive with the lack of kills and the presence of weird concepts like the demon baby and the soul of the unborn Jacob being represented as a fully developed child. I'm guessing this one didn't do as well at the box office as the filmmakers decided to wrap up the series with the next movie.

Skye's Rating:
Two blades out of four.

On a side note, this was the last film in the series, prior to the remake, to use the full "A Nightmare on Elm Street" title. It's also the first sequel to drop numericals from the title.

i like freddy's dead the final nightmare in a so bad its good kind of way
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Dream Master feels like an adrenaline-fueled version of three at the expense of better defined characters. The killing of the Elm Street children is lame, especially with Joey yet again falling victim to the blonde-headed trap. The new characters are fun, but have little screen time before dying off other than Alice.

I remember re-watching this years after having seen it because I had read Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, Savage Streets, countless other horror / exploitation films) was in it but couldn't remember where. When the souls start ripping Freddy apart at the end, there's one that sticks her chest out. From those fake tits alone, I knew that was her. >_< I think she was married to Steve Johnson at the time (one of the special effects artists).

Speaking of, the kills and the visuals are the real treat. There are so many cool set-pieces happening that really make use of the "it's a nightmare so anything goes!" logic. The reflection ending is dumb as rocks, but hey, it's a Renny Harlen movie. The guy made Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger after all.

Dream Child is a bore. The most interesting aspect of it is the discussion about abortion, but it's over within seconds. A script based around that, although incredibly heavy for the fifth entry in what's become a series known for humorous antagonist, would feel out of place much like Freddy's Revenge does after viewing the franchise. Still, it would have been better than what there is. The characters are better defined than Dream Master, but they're also boring. The death scenes were neutered by the MPAA so that doesn't help with a low body count. The visuals take a Gothic style, but it isn't enough for me. It's often rated in the bottom three of the series.

There's a funny story about the stuntman who plays Super Freddy in Never Sleep Again. They liked his work as Super Freddy and asked him to play the role of Dan in the sex sequence that's shot through the shower mirror door. His reaction? "Uh, you want me to do the shower scene....as Super Freddy?" In any other movie, that would be stupid but considering nightmare logic---hey, you never know.

I also recommend I Am Nancy even if it's very bare. Heather Lagnenkamp tries to uncover what made her character so beloved to fans as well as understand why the villain is so much more popular than Nancy. Her findings are rather obvious, but Langenkamp is so charming that it's a fine way to kill 70 minutes.

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I saw Freddy's Dead as a kid and enjoyed it. I'll soon see if it still holds up.

On the subject of Heather Langenkamp, I'm curious as to her involvement in the sequels and whose decision it was to kill off Nancy in the third movie. It appears that Heather Langenkamp didn't receive too many roles before or after A Nightmare on Elm Street. She had a cameo as a victim in Wes Craven's Shocker (1990) and a three season stint on a TV series called Just the Ten of Us (1988 - 1990). That's about it.

I wonder if a third film appearance would have solidified her as the Lori Strode to Freddy's Michael Myers. Even if she didn't enjoy being in horror movies, I'm sure a trifecta of film appearances would have helped her gain greater recognition. Of course, that TV series came after her second appearance as Nancy Thompson. Maybe she was banking on that being her big break. It's a shame. She did a really good job in the first movie. Honestly, I liked her better as Nancy than I did Jamie Lee Curtis as Lori Strode.

Skye Reynolds posted...

I wonder if a third film appearance would have solidified her as the Lori Strode to Freddy's Michael Myers. Even if she didn't enjoy being in horror movies, I'm sure a trifecta of film appearances would have helped her gain greater recognition. Of course, that TV series came after her second appearance as Nancy Thompson. Maybe she was banking on that being her big break. It's a shame. She did a really good job in the first movie. Honestly, I liked her better as Nancy than I did Jamie Lee Curtis as Lori Strode.

new nightmare cemented her as the laurie strode to freddy
its a really good movie
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nancys actress still works in hollywood just behind the scenes
her and her husband have a special effects company now and have one work on cabin in the woods and i think the avengers movies as well
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Interesting. Thanks.

I love that scene in the remake where they replicate Freddy pushing through the wall, except its a CGI monstrosity that isnt scary at all.

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Skye Reynolds posted...

On the subject of Heather Langenkamp, I'm curious as to her involvement in the sequels and whose decision it was to kill off Nancy in the third movie. It appears that Heather Langenkamp didn't receive too many roles before or after A Nightmare on Elm Street. She had a cameo as a victim in Wes Craven's Shocker (1990) and a three season stint on a TV series called Just the Ten of Us (1988 - 1990). That's about it.

I wonder if a third film appearance would have solidified her as the Lori Strode to Freddy's Michael Myers. Even if she didn't enjoy being in horror movies, I'm sure a trifecta of film appearances would have helped her gain greater recognition. Of course, that TV series came after her second appearance as Nancy Thompson. Maybe she was banking on that being her big break. It's a shame. She did a really good job in the first movie. Honestly, I liked her better as Nancy than I did Jamie Lee Curtis as Lori Strode.

She does play Nancy for a third time, but you'll discover that soon enough. She also remarried in 1989 to special effects artist David LeRoy Anderson and they had a child in 1991. Basically, she took time off to be a mom.

You've been keeping up with Robert Englund's appearances really well. Next up is for you to go back and catch all of Robert Shaye's cameos. Founder of New Line Pictures and producer of the series, he appears as the bartender at the S&M bar in Freddy's Revenge and as the teacher talking about the Dream Master in, well, Dream Master. I think he was the news announcer in the first film also and appears in each sequel from here on out (reboot doesn't count).

You may have noticed Wes Craven had a writing credit on Dream Warriors. He was first attached to the film along with Bruce Wagner and much of it remained in the next duo of writers, Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont (both would go on to create The Blob remake along with Darabont making a name for himself with The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and The Walking Dead). It was in the Craven / Wagner script in which Nancy returns along with the institution and the group of teens.

Freddy was more perverted. The snake scene originated with it along with the line about giving "Freddy a little head" and Freddy licking one of the kid's faces by saying "he likes him" when asked why Freddy is trying to kill him. His child molester side was brought out and into the open in this draft. Freddy's house acts as a gateway to the dream world so it's used in place of falling asleep. Freddy doesn't have the one liners like what's used which is a catch 22---without the humor he displayed in Dream Warriors, he may not have caught on. It's crazy to imagine, but Freddy mania after Dream Warriors was huge. Merchandise in Toys R' Us and Walmart for example. Lines went around the block for the opening of the films starring a child killer. The more dark and sinister dialogue in the Craven / Wagner script likely would have changed the direction of the series and the longevity of the character. To answer your question, Nancy died in the Craven / Wagner script as well but she turns Freddy's glove back onto him to deal the killing blow to him rather than a death by holy water.

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Thanks for the info on Nancy. I didn't know that the producer also made cameos throughout. I was aware that Dream Warriors was Frank Darabont's first writing credit, but I didn't know that the remake of The Blob was another collaboration with Chuck Russell.

Sixth Movie: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

General premise: an amnesiac from the future (a world in which Freddy has successfully killed ALL the children in the United States) is the key to finding Fred Kruger's estranged daughter.

Best Character: Tracy
Worst Character: Tracy's Father
Best Kill: Playing With Power

The good:
- continuity (Freddy lists the ways he's been killed thus far)
- the fateful scene in which Freddy is burned alive is finally shown
- Robert Englund is Fred in the flashbacks (and the younger versions actually look a lot like him)
- "The map says we're fucked!"

The bad:
- the alternate future / alternate dimension in which all children have been wiped out
- the townsfolk of Springwood
- the Twilight Zone-esque inability to simply drive out of the town of Springwood
- if you don't have the budget for original music, just use a really creepy song from the public domain (Night on Bald Mountain by by Modest Mussorgsky)

The weird:
- when the parents of Springwood cornered Freddy and burned him alive, a trio of dream demons came to him and propositioned him to become... a ghost? a demon? er, whatever he is in the dream world. just what we all expected.
- 3D glasses give you dream world protection against mind tricks (and they allowed you to see the dream demons in 3D if you saw this in the theater)
- the Looney Tunes-esque murder sequences

This film is an absolute mess. It's enjoyable, but in the same way as something like The Killer Shrews or Robot Monster. Get some friends together, grab some popcorn, and have yourselves a laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW8DgKm-7vs

Skye's Rating:
Two blades out of four.

Well, seeing as that was The Final Nightmare, I think that about wraps up my reviews. It's been fun. I enjoyed seeing some of these films for the first time and others...

Wait, I have more films to review? How can that be? This one literally called itself, The Final Nightmare. Oh, I guess this series plays by the same rules as Friday the 13th. You can make a sequel to the "Final" movie if the next film in the series has "New" in the title. One of these days, they're going to end the Final Fantasy series and Hironobu Sakaguchi's New Fantasy will come out the following year.

Okay. Tomorrow I'm reviewing Wes Craven's New Nightmare. For now, pleasant dreams.

Not a huge fan of Freddy's Dead, but it's grown on me over the years. Director Rachel Talalay worked with John Waters a couple of years before this and you can see his influence as well as the Twin Peaks influence in the Springwood sections. You may have noticed her name in the credits going back to the first film as she's been part of the crew since the beginning. It's cool to see her work her way up the ladder to help kill off Freddy.

There's been so many different scripts over the years including one from Peter Jackson which involved Freddy being considered a joke by the kids of Springwood. So much so that they would purposely enter the dream world just to kick him around. Yeah, weird stuff. In earlier versions, John Doe is supposed to be Jacob who finds help by the "dream police" consisting of Taryn, Kincaid, and Joey. All of this was dropped in the final version written with the amount of time passing since five making it impossible for John to be Jacob. I always thought that part was a shame as I like the prior protagonist moving into the sequel.

Remember that power glove line? Nintendo said "no" to authorizing its use. Producer Robert Shaye responded with how he didn't give a damn and used it anyway.


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Wish they would release this and Friday The 13th uncensored one day.

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next is new nightmare which i love
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Do Freddy vs. Jason too
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Seventh Movie: Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

General premise: Freddy Krueger has actually been a demon's role-playing persona all this time. Now that the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise has run its course, the demon targets the cast and crew over not getting to be Freddy anymore.

(What?)

Best Character: Heather Langenkamp
Worst Character: Limo Driver
Best Kill: Julie

The good:
- Heather Langenkamp and the (sorta) return of Nancy
- "behind the scenes" look at the Hollywood system
- pretty dang decent child actor in Miko Hughes
- callback to the most famous kill of the first film
- Wes Craven's open commentary on the Nightmare series and where it has gone

The bad:
- Freddy Krueger's design is a bit overdone.
- if you have a problem with hospital staff, just punch them. they won't call security or the police or anything like that. they'll just get out of your way because you mean business.

The weird:
- THE FILM'S CONCEPT

Random thoughts:

This was Wes Craven's original plan for a director sequel to the first movie, but the timing wasn't right yet. Freddy Krueger had to run its course before they could make a movie about an entity attacking the set of a horror movie. It's so surreal to see nearly every prominent actor from the series return both in and out of character. Without Heather Langenkamp, this one could not have worked. And work it did.

Skye's Rating:
Three blades out of four.

So_Hajile posted...

Not a huge fan of Freddy's Dead, but it's grown on me over the years. Director Rachel Talalay worked with John Waters a couple of years before this and you can see his influence as well as the Twin Peaks influence in the Springwood sections. You may have noticed her name in the credits going back to the first film as she's been part of the crew since the beginning. It's cool to see her work her way up the ladder to help kill off Freddy.

There's been so many different scripts over the years including one from Peter Jackson which involved Freddy being considered a joke by the kids of Springwood. So much so that they would purposely enter the dream world just to kick him around. Yeah, weird stuff. In earlier versions, John Doe is supposed to be Jacob who finds help by the "dream police" consisting of Taryn, Kincaid, and Joey. All of this was dropped in the final version written with the amount of time passing since five making it impossible for John to be Jacob. I always thought that part was a shame as I like the prior protagonist moving into the sequel.

Remember that power glove line? Nintendo said "no" to authorizing its use. Producer Robert Shaye responded with how he didn't give a damn and used it anyway.

If I'd have been the creator of Freddy Krueger, I would not have been pleased with a movie like Freddy's Dead. I wonder if the idea of having an alternate dimension or future timeline in which Freddy has wiped out all children was in response to Peter Jackson's original idea. "He's lost power and is beaten up by kids? No. In fact, he's wiped them all out!"

I wouldn't be surprised if the opening title card was something left in from a rejected screenplay. They tell us that all of the kids and teens in the US have been mysteriously wiped out 10 years into the future, but then it never factors into the plot aside from two passing lines about teenager John Doe being "the last." And he's knocked from his dimension (the future?) to ours at the beginning. There are clearly still kids in the time and space where he spends the rest of the movie.

I thought it was fun, in an enjoyably bad way, but the franchise had clearly run its course by that point. A New Nightmare was a nice eulogy.

(But even then, as I'm about to find out, Freddy would not remain dead.)

AvlButtslam posted...

Do Freddy vs. Jason too

That one is next.

They tell us that all of the kids and teens in the US have been mysteriously wiped out 10 years into the future, but then it never factors into the plot aside from two passing lines about teenager John Doe being "the last." And he's knocked from his dimension (the future?) to ours at the beginning. There are clearly still kids in the time and space where he spends the rest of the movie.

It's a little confusing, but that's in regards to Springwood, Ohio. It states "Springwood, Ohio --- Ten Years From Now" at the top of the map while the information is being fed on the middle of the screen about how it's changed. It isn't that all teenagers everywhere are dead, but only in Springwood. That is, except for John Doe. He's the last which is why Freddy wants to use him to escape from Springwood and infiltrate the world. Why is he locked away in Springwood when, as he says, every town has an Elm St.? I dunno, because reasons. >_<

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yikes
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whats the boob situation on elm street my man

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