Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 41-44 Reviews

And now the final batch of episodes. Sadly, it's mostly an underwhelming serving of affairs, experiments and prison time.

Episode 41: A Family Affair

Oh this was a truly dull episode. A family man had an affair with his mistress while also being at odds with the son. At some point in the episode, following the deaths of the wife and mistress, the family man ended up needing home care. Not that it mattered because he still didn't make it out of the episode alive. 4/10

Episode 42: Dust To Dust 

I didn't particularly care for the cannibal story a few episodes back but here we are with a sequel. The three cannibals from that episode were part of a support group to not eat people. Of course they ended up eating a runaway experiment and found themselves to have consumed some kind of alien organism. It got worse because each one of them ended up reduced to dust as did the scientists who kept pushing their luck. 5/10

Episode 43: Prisoner Of Love 

It's interesting that the final two episodes of this show were prison themed episodes. This one focused on two women - Violet and Brenda on death row and with a deep seated hatred of one another. Then there was Father Jarvis, who fell in love with Violet and was planning to help her escape, only for Brenda to botch things. Brenda didn't get the last laugh as she ended up suffering a similar fate to Violet and things didn't exactly go well for Father Jarvis either. 6/10

Episode 44: Life Sentence 

The last episode of the show and it's another prison episode. This time, the focus was on robber and killer, Andy and the fact that he had a lot of money stashed away. Add a corrupt warden and unwilling doctor and Andy was subjected to a lot of drugs until his mind broke and the warden got what he wanted. It's not an awful episode but it's a shame that the show ended on an average note when we could've had something that expanded upon Freddy's lore. 6/10

And that's a wrap on this show. Mostly a mixed bag with some good episodes, a few outright stinkers and a lot of mediocre ones to boot.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 37-40 Reviews

In these batch of episodes, there's more sequel visiting to be had along with vampires, erotic phone numbers and psychological warfare.

Episode 36: Easy Come, Easy Go

Greta from earlier in the season got herself a sequel episode. Last time we left off, she had been blackmailed into a third marriage by a man who actually liked her as a person. By the time Greta grew to like him, he was dead. As was the twin brother of her second husband, whom she was also sleeping. As Greta sealed up the dead bodies, her sister came to see her. The sister married Greta's ex-boyfriend and Greta killed him when he tried to blackmail. Then Greta got herself killed by her sister. A lot really happened in that episode. 7/10

Episode 37: Prime Cut

While I'm all for the supernatural side of things to emerge in this world, I genuinely thought this was an absolutely awful way to introduce vampires. That's what we were getting with the female tracker who was terrorising the men in this episode. Or was it a cannibalism episode? All I know was that I found the episode absolutely excruciating to watch. 2/10

Episode 38: Interior Loft

One thing I've noticed about this second season was the switch in focusing on adults mostly being terrorised over teenagers by Freddy and other fucked up shit in Springwood. This episode had a former teacher live out her rage through an erotic but violent book she was writing after a recording on an 976 number went horribly wrong. If you were a man, you definitely weren't making it out of this one alive. 6/10

Episode 39: Interior Loft - Later

A sequel to the previous episode with a sleazy hunk named Art causing problems for two groups of characters at separate times in the loft apartment. The first was a sculpted and his girlfriend where faking a death went horribly wrong and the latter had Art playing two women off each other. With the latter story, it ended rather badly for Art. 6/10

Episode 40: Funhouse

Let's go back to much earlier in the season and bring back another doomed home in Springwood. Then let's throw in hunky moving man Turk into the mix and have him get caught up in the antics of two different couples. Then have the second part of the story reveal that the main players were screwing with him before killing him off for no reason, other than pure malice. It's actually a pretty good episode but Turk wasn't the brightest. 7/10

For my final blog for this show I will tackle A Family Affair, Dust To Dust, Prisoner Of Love and Life Sentence.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 31-35 Reviews

For this batch of episodes, there's a few sequels, a change in opening introduction and another look into Freddy's past.

Episode 31: Monkey Dreams 

As usual, a story of two halves. The first part focused on a gambling addict lab researcher. He needed to finish his work before his debt called in and kept having nightmares about his sister being killed. The second half focused on his co-worker wanting to save a chimpanzee from another researcher's treatment of the primate. Loses points for that ending. 6/10.

Episode 32: Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?

Remember the evil girl from two episodes ago? Well, she's become a teenager, her father's remarried and had a child and they've locked her in the basement. Of course the evil girl managed to get out of the basement and take over the life of the babysitter she put in the basement in place of her. It's actually a pretty decent episode where evil won out as our villain protagonist decided to get back at her family. 7/10

Episode 33: Dreams That Kill

Keeping with sequels, anyone fancy another round of Springwood Confidential? New host Charlie Nichells isn't the nicest of men and he wanted to kill the "Dreams That Kill" segment when Freddy threatened him in his dreams. Then he actually died and an experimental brain matter transplantation surgery on a young man ended up being a disaster for everyone, including the surgeon. I liked this one. 7/10

Episode 34: It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To

The title alone might be my favourite for an episode of this show yet. Anyways you've got that Oliver guy from earlier in the season factoring into both stories and not dying. The first half focused on a fake psychic being possessed by Freddy and going on a killing spree. The second half focused on a twenty year high school reunion, which also introduced a woman who spurned Freddy for the Prom. Needless to say, Freddy's reunion with the woman didn't end well for her. 8/10

Episode 35: What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Something of a weak episode, more in execution than premise. A pervy psychiatrist was using hypnotherapy to sexually assault his female clients, only for one of them to remember what he had done along with a co-worker willing to turn him in. The psychiatrist hypnotized a man who wanted to quit smoking in order to silence them. The man was dyslexic and that ended up being a problem for the psychiatrist. The second half then focused on the man having his face surgically altered, only for his new look to resemble a snitching mobster. Again, the ideas were great but the execution didn't land. 6/10

Next blog I'll tackle Easy Come, Easy Go, Prime Cut, Interior Loft, Interior Loft - Later and Funhouse.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 26-30 Reviews

Settling into the second season, we've got photo sessions from hell, the misfortune of winning the lottery and a very bad child.

Episode 26: Photo Finish

In this episode, you had a photographer played by Patty McCormack. She was in a stagnated part of her career until she got an offer from a provocative magazine to take more risque photos. Any career satisfaction she might have gotten from that went out the window when Freddy started killing her subjects. The second story involved three FBI agents coming afoul of Freddy while investigating a family homicide in Springwood. 6/10

Episode 27: Memory Overload 

In an early role for Kyle Chandler, he popped up as a student named Chuck. The character was fearful of his military father and sought protection from his alcoholic professor named Windom. There's a nice twist in relation to Chuck and Windom's real connection. The second story had a woman named Barbara being hoisted by her own petard for tax evasion, not to mention a talking computer. 6/10

Episode 28: Lucky Stiff

This episode really was just one long story with various twists and turns. Lenny and Greta Nordhoff were an unhappy couple but when the former won the lottery, the latter was pleased and schemed with her lover. Lenny died and Greta had to dig his corpse to get the winnings. Greta also killed her lover but then found herself blackmailed into marrying a gravedigger. It's a decently executed episode. 6/10

Episode 29: Silence Is Golden

Easily the best episode of the bunch. The first half focused on a shock jock named Rick Rake who incurred the wrath of a mime. By the end of the part, Rick lost both his wife and his job/voice. The second half focused on the mime, who was a jewel thief that tried not to kill anyone. Unfortunately for him, both his girlfriend and his fence had different ideas. There's a commentary from Freddy about bad women that's repetitive of the previous episode. 7/10

Episode 30: Bloodlines

Another episode where the stories were better connected to one another. The first half focused on escaped convict Woody Burton (Marc Alaimo) terrorising his estranged wife, Joyce (Sheree North) and son, Jack (Chris Nash), resulting in death. The second half then focused on Jack as a family man with a demonic daughter (Irina Cashen). The daughter in question was definitely evil and there's shades of The Omen in this episode. 7/10

Next blog I'll tackle Monkey Dreams, Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?, Dreams That Kill, It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To and What You Don't Know Can Kill You.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 21-25 Reviews

I've finished off the first season and I'm working my way through the second season, so this blog will give a little of both.

Episode 21: Identity Crisis

Well, the title certainly lived up it's name. The first half of the episode focused on Buddy Powers. He was a man that was struggling for relevancy to the point where even his teenage son John mocked him for being out of touch. The second part focused on John's friend, Christina wanting to learn about her birth mother. Needless to say, it wasn't her best course of action. 6/10

Episode 22: Safe Sex

The first season finale and it's more of an after-school special about sex. The first half of the episode focused on a nerdy guy in love with an aloof goth girl. The goth girl in question was something of a Freddy Krueger fangirl. She was desperate to understand him but as the episode progressed, she realised that her ideas of Freddy were way off. It's a fairly weak finale choice to be honest. Would've maybe worked better as a mid season episode. 5/10

Episode 23: Dreams Come True

If the first season often kept Freddy sidelined at times, this opening episode had him more front and centre and it's all the better for it. The first half of the episode focused on another teenage boy being tormented by Freddy before the latter moved in on his therapist. The second part was similarly good with a cameraman trying to expose Freddy with fatal consequences for him. 7/10

Episode 24: Heartbreak Hotel 

Another strong offering, the first half proved that you needed to be specific about pronouns or it'll get you killed. A journalist investigated a strange hotel, helped a staff member to go to the hospital to give birth to a stillborn baby but could make events happen. Except he wasn't good at his pronouns and ended up dooming himself. The second part with a vengeful woman and her daughter reclaiming their husband/father's killer and killing him the same way also made for a good story. 7/10

Episode 25: Welcome To Springwood 

Another dull episode for me. The first part focused on a couple named Dog and Roxanne who moved to Springwood. Actually the focus was more on Roxanne getting on the wrong side of the neighborhood serial killer. The second part was a bit better with some time travel as a woman named Emily discovered love letters between two writers in the nineteenth century. Of course, it resulted in a rather deadly love triangle as well. 6/10

Next blog I'll focus on Photo Finish, Memory Overload, Lucky Stiff, Silence Is Golden and Bloodlines.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 16-20 Reviews

I know it's been a few months since I've done this but hopefully I can finish this series before the year is out. Let's look into these batch of episodes.

Episode 16: Cabin Fever 

Brett Cullen's one of those actors I occasionally seeing things and I think "I know that guy". In one of his earliest acting roles, he popped up here as an airline heir enduring the worst flight of his life. It's also a flight that landed him straight into Hell with the build up to that realisation being handled particularly well. The second half then focused on a lovlorn hostess trying to find love in all the wrong places. Needless to say, her quest for romance ended up seriously dooming her. Robert Englund directed this episode. 7/10

Episode 17: Love Stinks

Well, the first story had it's male protagonist, Adam cheat on his girlfriend with another girl and then spent most of the first half of the episode realising what a big mistake that was. The second story involved Max getting to work at a pizza place (formerly Beefy Boy) with his obnoxious uncle trying to undermine him. There's a familiar element to this story but it's handled recently enough. 6/10

Episode 18: The Art Of Death

What if you had the power to draw things into life? That was the first half of this episode. Awkward guy was able to bring things to life through his comics. This also meant putting the girl he had a crush on in danger. The second half dealt with the trauma the girl went through. The episode could've allowed her to heal but instead, it amplified her trauma and then ended things for her on a horrible note. 5/10

Episode 19: Missing Persons 

One of my favourite episodes so far. You've got a babysitter named Gina (Eva LaRue). She have to look after two bratty kids but her issues with food and her looks reared their head and she turned into a monster, who then exploded. Then it turned out that Gina was a young girl with weight issues and then her babysitter looked very familiar. The second half focused on Gina's father making a life trade that he ended up regretting. Oh and his mistress looked incredibly familiar. 8/10

Episode 20: The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

This one just bored me. There was a guy trying to conquer his fear of the dark by working in a sewer. Then there was a plot with a pornographer being trapped in his nightmares. Honestly, I just didn't care about either story. 4/10

Next blog I'll cover Identity Crisis, Safe Sex, Dreams Come True, Heartbreak Hotel and Welcome To Springwood.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 11-15 Reviews

In this batch of episodes we've got world ending events, more serial killers and the perils of the SATs.

Episode 11: Do Dreams Bleed?

After a few more adult focused ones, this one took focus on high school football named John Warring (Damon Martin). He was having dreams of a serial killer named The Springwood Chopper and generally stressing out his girlfriend, Roni (Sarah Buxton) and coach (Jeff McCarthy). Eventually it turned out that John was actually the killer himself and he was sectioned privately. Or was he really the killer? Maybe it was the suspicious acting coach who did the killinfs and framed poor John. That's certainly one possibility with this episode. 6/10

Episode 12: The End Of The World

Oh god, this episode was an absolute borefest. Veering closer to science fiction than horror, I just didn't care for this one at all. To it's credit, it did keep it's focus purely on guest character Amy (Mary Kohnert) as she realised that she was able to use her dreams to manipulate her past. This brought her to the attention of the CIA who wanted to use her talents to prevent the end of the world. George Lazenby guest starred in this deathly dull one. 3/10

Episode 13: Deadline

After two somewhat dire episodes, this was a bit of an improvement. Mostly the first half where obituary writer, Peter (Aaron Harnick) got a more in depth experience into how certain people died. It was enough to make him want to stop writing for his father's paper but not enough to prevent his own death. The second half then focused on his girlfriend, Emily (Page Hannah), which was less interesting. There's a look into her dead friends tormenting her but I feel they should have kept the focus more on Peter with this one. He had the better plot. 7/10

Episode 14: Black Tickets

Before he became one of the most famous movie stars on the planet, Brad Pitt guest starred in this show. In another universe, he could've been Jesse Walsh had Mark Patton not gotten the role. With this episode, Brad Pitt played Rick and along with Miranda (Kerry Wall), the two attempted to elope. Throughout this episode, they got mugged by an elderly couple, had snakes in their bed, one of them got trapped in a steam room and the other killed two couples. Then their domestic life wasn't much better with motherhood having Miranda lose her mind to throw point where she regressed by the end. It's also possible some of this stuff didn't happen either. 7/10

Episode 15: School Daze

High school can be tough and here you've got two different guys dealing with different but relatable problems. First up, there's Steve (Andrew Kraus). His story had to do with his individuality and how everyone wanted to stamp it out. This included nightmares of the principal turning his students into mindless robots, which was enough to make Steve conform. Then there was Matt (Billy Morrissette). He aspired to be a musician. Everyone else wanted him to be a banker and ace his SATs. Matt has anxiety over that and appeared to fail in one dream and never do them in another. In a strange twist of events, it appeared that everything he really wanted ended up happening for him. 7/10

Next blog I'll tackle Cabin Fever, Love Stinks, The Art Of Death, Missing Persons and The Light At The End Of The Tunnel.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 6-10 Reviews

For this second batch of episodes, there's a sequel, focus on adult characters and serious daddy issues at play.

Episode 6: Saturday Night Special 

The second episode this season to have an adult cast, this one had unlucky in love Gordon (Scott Burkholder) fantasise about getting together with the hard to get, Lana (Shari Shattuck). Of course he mostly told harmless white lies to impress her but those lies came back to haunt him when a romantic date in an ice rink ended in a bloody mess. Then the second half focused on Lana manipulating her co-worker and housemate, Mary into getting a makeover. The end result of that being a rather grim ending for poor Mary. 6/10

Episode 7: Sister's Keeper 

And here's a sequel to the opening episode. I'm surprised they didn't save this for the finale as a bookend to the season. Twin sisters, Lisa and Merritt are trying to cope with the loss of their father with one of them being more attuned to Freddy's malevolence than the other. Of course as the episode and both were done pretending to be the other, there was an attempt by the twins to get rid of Freddy for good. It very nearly worked but at the last minute, Freddy regained the upper hand and one of the twins died. Oh and Zod himself, Michael Shannon popped up as a boyfriend to one of the twins. 7/10

Episode 8: Mother's Day 

Okay, this one certainly lived up to its titles with two teen protagonists having very different but equally toxic relationships with their mothers. First of all, there was Billy (Byron Thames) who seemed very jealous of his mother remarrying while his new neighbour Barbara (Jill Whitlow) had her own issues with her radio psychologist mother (Elizabeth Savage). Billy's story really came second place with him being an early death. The back and forth between Barbara (under the pseudonym of Weeping Wendy) and her mother made for a stronger story as the latter's spate of bad advice caused all sorts of problems for her. 8/10

Episode 9: Rebel Without A Car 

I got a strong sense of deja vu watching this episode. Yet again, we had a young man, this one named Alex (Craig Hurley) wanting to get out from working in Beefy Burger to leave Springwood, only to be killed within the first half of the episode. We already covered that in the second episode and the second half focused on his grieving girlfriend, Connie (Katie Barberi). Only here, we had Connie jumping through hoops during Hell Week by a Sorority that had no intention of accepting her in the first place. Connie managed to get her own back with a little murder spree that she ended up getting away with. 8/10

Episode 10: The Bride Wore Red 

Getting back to the adults, we got a wedding here between Jessica (Diane Franklin) and Gavin (Eddie Driscoll) and it's a good case for why some people shouldn't marry. They're horribly mismatched and both with their own issues. By comparison, Gavin's issues aren't as bad. Jessica's on the other hand are a severe case of daddy issues as flashbacks showed her skewered views on men stemming from her father's (Arthur Roberts) inability to stay faithful while exposing a lawyer's (Gary Wood) infidelity would come back to get her in the worst way. Oh and there's Freddy's bondage punsas well. 7/10

Next blog I'll look into Do Dreams Bleed?, The End Of The World, Deadline, Black Tickets and School Daze.

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 1-5 Reviews

I meant to do this last year but things got away from me. Anyways for the next nine blogs, I'll briefly break down each episode of this TV spin off.

Episode : No More Mr Nice Guy

First and foremost and for obvious reason, Robert Englund is the only actor to appear in every episode of this show. This first episode served as a prequel for A Nightmare On Elm Street and it certainly set the tone for the show. Freddy being on trial for killing kids in Springwood but getting off because his rights were never read. The parents of course took it upon themselves to enact their own justice on Freddy and that should've been the end of that. Of course, it wasn't and Freddy soon started taking a few out a few adults himself. The events of this opening episode would result in a sequel a few episodes. Interesting side note would be that Tobe Hopper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) directed this episode. 7/10

Episode 2: It's A Miserable Life

The format from this episode onwards for the majority of the series would be a story pivoting from one character to another with Freddy as the antagonist. The first half of this episode had dissatisfied would be college kid, Bryan (John Cameron Mitchell) wanting to get out of the drudgery of his father's fast food restaurant. Bryan's desperation for escape had some unsettling dream sequences before he became a victim of a drive by shooting, witnessed by his girlfriend, Karyn (Lar Park Lincoln). Karyn became the focus of the second half, stuck in hospital and generally being terrorised by the staff as Freddy closed in on her. Fans of the Friday The 13th franchise should recognise a certain actor in this one. 7/10

Episode 3: Killer Instinct

Who fancies a bit of non friendly competition? That's pretty much the premise of this episode. Chris (Lori Petty) and Nickie (Yvette Nipar) are running rivals and the first half of the episode was focused on Chris's mommy issues, her need to win and a magical charm that gave her the edge. Then on one run, Chris lost the charm and her life, only for it to turn out that Nickie took the charm. The change of viewpoint to Nickie almost made her a sympathetic character but not quite. Her competitive drive was certainly given more context in light of her parents but it wasn't enough to make me care when she eventually got her comeuppance. 6/10

Episode 4: Freddy's Tricks And Treats 

I always wanted a Halloween scenario for this franchise and the fourth episode being a Halloween one was a nice treat. Not so much for our bookish protagonist Marsha Wildmon (Mariska Hargitay). She couldn't study in a party house, her boyfriend was a distraction, her grandmother a sexually repressed control freak and her cynicism about Freddy Krueger being real didn't end well for her. Then the episode flipped things where it turned out that her dreams were being studied while Freddy continued to terrorise Marsha. It's the strongest episode of this bunch and yes, there's another Friday The 13th reference to look out for. 8/10

Episode 5: Judy Miller, Come On Down 

Breaking the pattern a little here, this episode focus on an adult couple - Judy (Siobhan E. McCafferty) and Tom Miller (John DeMita). Granted they're living with Tom's parents and Judy's obsession with game shows has become something that Tom ridicules her for. However Judy ended winning big on a gameshow and Tom suddenly changed his tune. Judy's life should d been great but then an older version of herself (Susan Oliver) warned Judy about Tom's infidelity and money control. This was one of those episodes that almost could've done without Freddy as his role felt more like an observer. I did like the focus on older characters here. 6/10

Next blog I'll cover Saturday Night Special, Sister's Keeper, Mother's Day, Rebel Without A Car and The Bride Wore Red.