Circa: 1987
Runtime: 96 mins
Ok.. If you've been keeping track of my series of "Nightmare on Elm Street" reviews, You'll notice that I wasn't too impressed with the first two efforts. I mean they were OK.. But Like I have said in the past, I like the later incarnations of Freddy rather than the Dark "Be scared, not entertained" Freddy.
Although "Dream Warriors" isn't my favorite of the series, this is where the series really picks up. This is where we begin to see Freddy as a character mature. He turns into a wise cracking, potty mouth, who loves to crack one-liners just before he takes his victim. That's the Freddy I like. In this movie, we begin to see that, not a whole lot, but it's a start. Some may disagree with me about my views of him but hey, I have a site and you don't *sticks his tongue out* Just kidding folks.. ( ^__^ )
On to the review.
This one starts off with the new lead character Kristen (played by Patricia Arquette) building a model of a house, which she keeps seeing in her dreams. The house turns out to be, Yup.. you guessed it folks. The elm street house. Well, her mom ends up sending her to a mental hospital when she finds her daughter in the bathroom, with her wrists slit, and a razor in her hand. (fact is, she was dreaming about Freddy slashing her, and that's exactly what happened) It turns out, that all the surviving Elm street kids are at the SAME mental hospital. They all see Freddy, but none of them know until later, that they are all seeing the same person. In the meantime, Nancy reappears in the cast.. She comes on to help treat the kids, but is not well accepted by the other nurses. Nancy teaches the kids that they can control their dreams and who Freddy is, and what's his deal. As you can probally guess, this is where everyone starts dying. Good stuff.
The deaths in this one really stand out. The special FX and gore are turned up this time around, along with a higher bodycount (of the main characters) than both part one and two combined. Thes include: A boy's veins being ripped out, and used as strings so Freddy can walk him around like a puppet. He then walks him to the top of a belltower, then he jumps *splat* Another has to do with a girl who dreams of being a movie star.. Freddy appears on the TV, she walks closer.. Big metal arms come from the sides of the TV, grab her, and smash her head through the TV. (the doctors end up calling this one a suicide........ ... .. .) A few more include the demise of Nancy, her dad (from part one),a Bill Mauer(sp) lookalike, a punk girl with a mohawk, and a geeky sorcerer kid. All of them had pretty entertaining deaths. Some way more elaborate than others though, that's expected.
As you can guess, they "kill" Freddy, and everyone lives happily ever after. Well at least the few remaining people. And until part four..
Overall, I liked this one alot. The deaths were really well done, and the story was a little more entertaining that the previous in the series. Stay tuned for my review of Part four.
Don't forget about the music video from the one hit wonder, hair band, Dokken at the end of the movie.. Very funny
Lupin-III
1 Human puppet
1 TV suicide?
1 Dead nerd
1 Drugged up punker
4 really cool FX sequences
1 Dead dad
2 Dead bill Mauer Impersonator
Funny Things I Noticed
The Dokken music video takes the cake in this area..
The fact that Nancy's grey streak was on the wrong side was kinda funny too.