A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987 film)

Copyright New Line Cinema.  Ever notice Freddy's eye always bulges out on these posters?

Before we get into today's article, a bit of an announcement.  My originally schedules Week 4 event (1981 Week: Revisited) is going to be postponed until a later date due to schedule slip.  I am way behind on posting several of my other articles, as well, so I decided to just shift my focus to the month's end.  And so, we go from one slipped schedule over to rectify one from last year!

When I was working out last year's October, I had rewatched this and Friday the 13th 3D in anticipation, but never got around to rewatching the third Halloween.  Even worse, I never posted my reviews of the two films I had watched, which just isn't right.  I reviewed the Elm Street series documentary, at least, but I should have been more on the ball there.  I always pride myself on, if nothing else, keeping my Big Three reviews consistently posted, and I flubbed the ball there last year.  So, time to correct that!

Nightmare 3 follows the story of Kristen who, after a seeming suicide attempt after a Freddy nightmare is locked away at the Westin Hospital.  She's put together with other similar cases, all teenagers having problems with nightmares and seemingly suicidal.  Supposedly safe within the facility's walls, Freddy starts focusing in on the small group, picking them off in ways that look like suicides.  It's up to newly hired therapist Nancy Thompson, a survivor of Freddy Krueger's night time attacks, to help them harness their dreamland abilities and take the fight to Freddy himself as the Dream Warriors.

Returning as Nancy Thompson from the first film is Heather Langenkamp.  She also plays herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and is appearing in an upcoming Hellraiser film, Hellraiser: Judgment.  Patricia Arquette made her film debut as Kristen Parker.  She wouldn't return for the fourth film, but she did go on to star in a lot of other films, including True Romance, Ed Wood, Stigmata and the television series Medium.  Laurence Fishburne plays Max, an orderly at the Westin Hospital.  He's made a lot of movies, including Event Horizon, The Matrix series, Predators, and the television series Hannibal.

This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first time Freddy lets his sense of humor out.  It's sadistic humor, of course, but it helps!  You also get a bit more creativity in the kills.  In the original films, he more or less relied mostly on his glove to kill off someone (outside of the sheet hanging and blood fountain in the first film, of course).  Here, you get puppeteer Freddy, faucet handle Freddy, TV Freddy and the ever-popular Freddy Snake.

This film starts the Dream Trilogy, as I call it.  Three films with an ongoing storyline and characters to tie them together.  After the slight "oddball" that was Freddy's Revenge, it's nice to see Freddy get back to doing what he does best: invading dreams and causing carnage.  I give this film a 5 out of 5.  Next up, we'll be checking out A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!