Blyss's Movie Review for:

Main Cast of Characters:

Robert Englund.........Freddy Krueger

Lisa Zane..........Dr. Maggie Burroughs

Breckin Meyer...........Spencer

Lezlie Dean.........Tracy

Ricky Dean Logan..........Carlos

Shon Greenblatt...........John Doe

Yaphet Kotto...........Doc

Roseanne...........Childless Woman

Tom Arnold...........Childless Man

Elinor Donahue...........Orphanage Director

Johnny Depp...........Say no to drugs Kid

1991. Rated: R. Genre: Horror; 96 minutes

Can Freddy ever really be dead?

The movie begins by bringing us up to date. Springwood, Ohio has been wiped out of the child population by strange murders and suicides. All that is left are adults that seem to have a mass psychosis. However, then they find out that there may be one surviving teen and he does not know why he was spared, but he doesn't want to wait around to find out. He tries to leave and Freddy traps him and causes him to have amnesia so that he may bring Freddy more fresh meat since all of the original children of Elm Street are now dead. After all, as Freddy says, "Every town has an Elm Street". John leads Freddy to a group of troubled teens living in a shelter in town. Spencer is obsessed with drugs and video games. His dad sent him to the shelter because he kept setting things on fire. Spencer hates him because he feels like he wants him to be just like him. Carlos was abused by his mother which caused him to be deaf. Tracy is a tough girl who does not like anyone to touch her in any kind of way. Later, we find out exactly why Tracy does not like to be touched. The teens are first exposed to Freddy when they stow away on the shelter van when Dr. Maggie takes John Doe out to try to help him remember who he was. The kids begin dying one by one and no one seems to remember that they even existed. Also, John and Maggie learn that Freddy has a child, an heir to the Krueger throne, so to speak. But who was it? Why did Freddy let his own child live and the other ones die?

Many of the questions that we always wondered about are answered in this movie. One such question is: Was Freddy always psycho even as a child or did society make him that way? What drove Freddy to get ultimate revenge on the town of Springfield besides the fact that they killed him? All of those wonderful wonderings are answered for us!

I think my favorite character in the movie was Maggie. We learned so much about her character from the beginning, and yet we find out that there is still so much that we do not know. She is great with the kids, much like Nancy was in the third Nightmare. However, she is the only one that can hold onto her memories after they start disappearing and Freddy has attacked.

I have two favorite scenes in this movie. One is at the very beginning when John Doe falls asleep while trying to get away from Freddy. He is blasted out of an airplane and sent down into his house, then his house begins to drop much like the one in the Wizard of Oz. It starts to spiral down and he opens his window and realizes he is falling. Then Freddy shows up outside wearing a witch costume, riding a broomstick. "I'll get you and your little soul too!" he cackles before the house lands. Funny but a bit horrifying at the same time! The second favorite scene of mine is when Freddy gets into Spencer's dreams and he cannot wake up because he is so stoned. He puts Spencer into a Nintendo-like video game (which was all-the-rage at the time) and kills him while in the video game. It is most likely the best scene in the entire film!

Overall, I think that this was probably the best Nightmare of the whole series. Many critics do not agree, but guess what, I don't care!! The only thing I really did not like is that there were no survivors from the previous films. That was one thing I really enjoyed from the other films because the characters could relate to new characters through their experiences with Freddy. That is probably the only thing I would have changed, one previous character should have been included. For instance, what ever happened to Alice and Jacob from the previous film? Did they leave? Was Jacob one of the kids that died? Was John Doe Jacob? I definitely would have explored that issue more carefully.

I rate this film: 8

Blyss