Written by Wes Craven And Bruce Wagner And Frank Darabont And Chuck Russell
Directed by Chuck Russell
Kristen: "The man in my dreams. He's real, isn't he?"
Nancy: "He's real."
I reviewed the first two movies a long while back and I meant to get back to reviewing the follow ups. Like every horror franchise, this can be something of a mixed bag. There are definitely instalments in this franchise that are dodgy. However this ain't one of them.
In fact I'd go as far as to say this would be one of the best sequels in the franchise and it's not a coincidence that it's success has a lot to do with creator Wes Craven having been involved with the script. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is back and so was Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). Only this time, it was going to end badly for the pair of them.
After terrorising closeted gay guy in the previous movie, this one saw Freddy going after a group of kids all at a local psychiatric hospital. The kids in question being dismissed by the doctors and orderlies and their own parents. Their only ally being of course, Nancy who landed a job as an intern therapy and Dr Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson) who found himself willing to listen to Nancy as well as having a thing for her.
Getting back to the kids in question, there's a bigger selection of characters here. Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) is the closest to a main protagonist and her ability to pull people into her dreams certainly served its purpose. Especially towards the end of the first after the final fight between Nancy and Freddy came to its messy conclusion.
Out of the kids, Kristen was the strongest but the rest of them had their moments. Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow) had aspirations of being a television star while Taryn (Jennifer Rubin) wanted to break out of her drug habit and be a bad ass. Neither of them however survived Freddy as did wannabe puppeteer Phillip (Bradley Gregg).
However Kristen wasn't the only newbie to survive. There was also loudmouth Roland (Ken Sagoes) and shy guy Joey (Rodney Eastman) but just about. It was Freddy's killing of Nancy and her father, Donald (John Saxon) that somewhat proved that previous survivors were now as expendable as anyone else had been.
The mixture of older generation (Nancy and her father) along with the new (Kristen and her friends with Neil) worked rather well and along with Freddy getting nastier than he had been in previous entries, this one threw in a little backstory. Yes, we learned the tragic story of Amanda Krueger, albeit it does get slightly lost in everything else that's going on here.
- Wes Craven co-wrote this one and would later return for Wes Craven's New Nightmare along with Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon.
- This movie was the first to show Freddy's victims souls trapped inside him.
- Standout music: Heavy metal band Dokken's Dream Warriors of course.
- Chronology: Two years since the events of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge though that movie isn't referenced at all.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is definitely close to capturing the essence of the first movie and definitely is a Top 3 in terms of best for the franchise. It served as a tragic but noble ending for Nancy as a protagonist and would've been a strong note for ending Freddy's story too. However there are more sequels to get through.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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