Survivors of undead serial killer Freddy Krueger – who stalks his victims in their dreams – learn to take control of their own dreams in order to fight back.
So here we are with the third installment of the series, This is usually the stage were things start to go stale and we get more of the same old, same old. Not with this film, yes we still gets kid being attacked in there dreams but we get a decent story to go with it.
I think one of the reasons the story is good is because the studio got Wes Craven to write it, so it has the touch of the creator whilst still moving forward which works so well and credit to director Chuck Russell who made that story come to life so well. Craven was only contacted after A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge was not well received by fans, yes it grossed a-lot of money, A $3 million budget and made $30 million through box office, but critics and fans slammed it.
Freddy is back and stronger than ever and is enjoying his fun of tormenting his victims. We also see the return of Nancy, who is now a research scientist, she’s been brought into a psychiatric hospital to help a bunch of kids who have sleep problems, these kids are known as “The last kids of Elm Street”.
We start to see more of the dark humor that Freddy is well known for and we see him act more comical as-well but it only adds to his creepiness. We also find out more about his past and how he was conceived. We also see the start of him morphing into different objects and creatures which is amazingly done, he made many teens confused when he turned into the topless nurse…….No, just me?!
……..Anyway one thing I have to mention is the casting, it truly is a magnificent cast, we see the young Patricia Arquette in her movie debut and the other kids are well wrote and perfectly executed (pun intended). Also the effects are amazing for their time and also the chemistry amongst the cast is outstanding, especially between Nancy and Freddy. One thing I felt was bad about this film was the fact it completely overlooked Freddy’s Revenge, it’s as if it never happened, which is a shame.
Dream Warriors is a favourite amongst fans of the franchise, personally I’m one of them people and if you don’t like the movie you’ve always got the infamous theme tune from 80’s metal band Dokken ;)
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
- When the clay puppet face turns into Freddy’s, special-effects man Doug Beswick used stop-motion animation. Filming began with a clay Freddy face that was made plainer in each frame. The result was then run backwards, and that is what appears in the final cut of the film.
- For the scene where Freddy kills Jennifer, his line in the script was “This is it Jennifer, your big break on TV!” Robert Englund said this line for the first two takes, but on the third take changed it to “Welcome to Prime Time, bitch!” Director Chuck Russell couldn’t decide which version to use, so he edited the two together.
- The scene in which Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson) is thrown into the grave and partially buried by the skeleton of Freddy is a tribute to Body Double, in which Wasson’s character is similarly buried alive.
- The movie that on TV that Jennifer watches before she dies is Critters, and the very short clip just before she switches to the Dick Cavett show, featuring actor Donald Pleasence is a scene from Alone in the Dark, which was directed by Jack Sholder, who also directed A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge.
- Sally Kellerman was originally in the script, as the guest on the Dick Cavett show scene in which Jennifer dies.
- When Taryn is first seen in the hallway she’s wearing a Dokken shirt. Dokken wrote and performed “Dream Warriors” for this film.
- The original “Freddy Snake” unintentionally came out looking too phallic. The crew only had one hour to film the scene so they didn’t have enough time to paint it. So, it was covered in a green goo substance to overcome the “pinkish hue.” The scene involving the “Freddy Snake” attempting to swallow Kristen was also filmed backwards and then played in reverse due to the gums on the puppet being too flexible and were folding over themselves.
- The bar where Nancy and Dr. Gordon meet Nancy’s Father is called “Little Nemo’s.” “Little Nemo in Slumberland” is the name of a comic strip by Winsor McCay about the adventures of a child in the land of dreams.
- The Freddy glove that was stolen from the set of this film was found in another movie: it was hanging on the wall of the work shed in Evil Dead II, released the same year. It was part of a continued banter between directors Wes Craven and Sam Raimi. See The Hills Have Eyes, The Evil Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Evil Dead II for more.
- Robert Englund wrote a treatment for this movie. It wasn’t used.
- The original premise of the film involved Freddy invading the real world and haunting the actors and crew responsible for the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films. This idea was rejected by the studio, though Wes Craven later used it for New Nightmare.
- Even though the film was rated M15+ in other states of Australia, it was banned in Queensland until the Queensland Film Board of Review was abolished in 1990 by then Premier Wayne Goss.
- The original UK cinema poster for the film was withdrawn due to complaints regarding the image on it, showing the ‘Freddy Snake’ eating a woman. It was replaced with a less ‘offensive’ one.
- Banned on release in a section of Queensland, Australia, by the then Bjelke-Petersen government due to its drug references (when Freddy overdoses a former junkie teen). The ban stood until 1990.
- For one week during filming, Robert Englund was working 24 hours every day. By day, he was wrapping up filming on his TV series Downtown and then would report to the A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors set at nights.
