Hi again! Welcome back to the theater.
As I said, for this segment, I will be looking at the best sequel to 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'; imo, that would be the third film in the series, 'Dream Warriors.'
As a little add- on, for each of the sequels I'll be doing in which I skip over a previous sequel that wasn't as good (There'll be one other like that, in 2 days), I'll briefly mention any relevant details from the skipped sequels that may carry over to this one. In this case, the only relevant detail from the horrendous (Not to mention one of the most unintentionally gay movies in the history of horror films) "NOES 2: Freddy's Revenge" that could possibly factor in here is mentioning that shortly after the events of the first film, the heroine Nancy spent some time in a mental hospital.
This movie was made in 1987 and directed by Chuck Russell (Who would go on to produce slightly tamer fare about 8 years or so later when he directed 'The Mask'). Robert Englund of course returns as Freddy Krueger, and Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon reprise their roles as Nancy and her father. As for interesting new actors that pop up, while not as interesting as Johnny Depp making his big screen debut in the first 'Nightmare,' this does have appearances by two actors who would go on to be quite well- known later on: Patricia Arquette, who here plays the rather important role of Kristen, and Laurence (Though the credits list him as "Larry") Fishburne as an orderly in the hospital named Max.
The film takes place about six years after the events of the first 'Nightmare on Elm Street.' Nancy is now out of the mental hospital, apparently did a great job in medical school with her study of dreams, and now has taken a position helping the kids in part of the psych ward of a hospital. The seven kids that are patients there all suffer from sleep- related problems, and all have recurring nightmares of the same boogeyman figure (Guess who?). One of them is a girl named Kristen (Arquette), who was confined to that particular psych ward after one of Freddy's nightmare attacks in the beginning of the film made it seem that she had attempted suicide.
Nancy discovers that Kristen has the ability to draw other people into her dreams, which factors heavily into not just this movie, but many of the sequels that would follow it. Around this point, Freddy slowly gains power and begins killing the kids in there. Nancy learns that this is because those seven kids were the last of the Elm Street children whose parents burned Krueger alive. She also helps the kids develop "Dream Powers," special abilities they possess in their dreams (i.e. One boy becomes really strong, another who was in a wheelchair is able to walk again and turn into his favorite character from a 'Dungeons & Dragons'- esque game he plays).
While this is going on, another doctor there named Neil who gradually starts to trust Nancy more learns from a mysterious nun a bit more about Krueger's birth/ backstory. It all ultimately leads to an epic faceoff against Krueger in the dream world.
There is only one problem/ complaint I can think of with 'NOES: Dream Warriors.' While the kids are all cool characters (More on that below), a couple of the adults are real jerks, and yet nothing happens to them. Particularly the hospital's rather cruel head psychiatrist you want to see get gutted by Freddy, but that never happens, she survives.
Now, for what I liked about it, and why I consider it the best of the 'Elm Street' sequels: First, as I said, the kids were all great characters. usually in a horror movie with a group of teens, there's at least one teen who's really obnoxious and whom the audiences hope will die. That is not the case with the seven psych ward kids from 'Dream Warriors'; They're all interesting, likable characters who you want to see survive and destroy Freddy for good. That, in turn, makes it that much sadder when some of them do die. Speaking of which, the death scenes in this were all great and very creative, especially the first one which is scary and quite disturbing yet fascinating to watch (Let's just say it's one which involves puppets). Third, the set designs(Especially for scenes in an abandoned heat and special effects are all awesome.
As far as performances go, they're all very good for a horror sequel. Robert Englund plays Freddy as well as he always has. 'Dream Warriors' provided a nice balance between the terrifying, psychotic killer that we see in part 1, and the increasingly funny, almost cartoonish figure seen in the final sequels. Heather Langenkamp once again does a wonderful job with Nancy, who now appears to have more inner strength than before, and it's cool to see her reaching out to these kids who are going through pretty much the same thing she went through in the first film. As far as the actors playing the kids go, one particular standout for my was Rodney Eastman as Joey, a semi- mute boy. Even though he only has a couple spoken lines in the movie, Eastman's facial expressions and body language are more than enough to convey whatever emotions he's supposed to be showing. Lastly, the ending was great. Krueger's death had more of a sense of permanence/ finality to it than it did in any of the other sequels, and if the series had ended there, 'Dream Warriors' would have made a great final chapter to the series.
And, so, that's 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3; Dream Warriors.' Most definitely worth a look. See you tomorrow!
