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

 

A few years ago, I included the original Nightmare on Elm Street film in The Countdown to Halloween and I’ve been meaning to include another of the films in the series, so I watched part two a couple of days ago but wasn’t so moved to include it.  It’s not bad and I know it has it’s issues along with some controversy, but I did see Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street which is a documentary not just about the film but also about the actor who played the “Final Guy” role, Mark Patton.  That was better than the second film, but it is interesting to maybe see those two together as complimentary pieces.  Watching Elm Street 2 made the documentary better though for me, not the other way around.  But what do I know, watch what you want.  Now, here we go with the third film in the franchise Dream Warriors from ’87 which means one thing: it has a kick ass 80’s hair metal theme song Dream Warriors by Dokken.  What else do I remember about the film without even having to watch it?  It has some of the more creative kills in the entire franchise and Freddy is making with the one liners every chance he gets. 

 

 

Directing for the first time in his career is Chuck Russell who would go from this to The Mask, The Blob, and The Scorpion King just to name a few.  Starring as Kristen is Patricia Arquette (Lost Highway and True Romance), a young girl who has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital by her mother who is played by Brooke Bundy who I remember as Diana Taylor from General Hospital.  If you’re under 50 you will have no idea who she is, but she was the main adversary of Susan Moore who would eventually become the mother of Jason Morgan who is one of the more beloved characters of General Hospital in the past twenty years or so.  There, that’s something you know now.  Where was I?  Kristen is in a psychiatric ward with other teenagers that include a sleepwalker, a recovering addict, and one who has previously attempted suicide and is now in a wheelchair.  Kristen is attacked in her sleep by Freddy.  Kirsten has the ability to bring people into her dreams with her where she pulls new hospital therapist Nancy Thompson from the first film.  Heather Langenkamp once again plays Nancy. 

 

 

Nancy tells the remaining kids that they are the last of the Elm Street kids whose parents were responsible for killing Freddy originally.  Nancy and the teens along with psychiatrist Neil Gordon each come up with their own plans to kill Freddy for good.  The teens decide to all go into Kristen’s dream and fight Freddy together with their own “dream powers” that they only have when in the dreamworld.  Gordon, played by Craig Wasson (Body Double and Ghost Story) finds Nancy’s father after a nun tells him the story of how Freddy Kreuger (once again played by Robert Englund) was conceived.  John Saxon reprises his role of Nancy’s father Don, who was a detective in the first film but is just a security guard now.  Dr. Gordon wants to find the remains of Freddy and finally put them to rest in the ground thinking that will end his supernatural life.  This one is very interesting to me.  While not being better than the original (and let’s be honest what could be?) it does have an interesting story while also giving us some good info on just who and what Freddy Kreuger is/was.  

 

Also starring is a young Lawrence Fishburne (The Matrix film series and Boyz in the Hood) as hospital orderly Max.  In Dream Warriors all of the actors fall into one of two categories (and you can probably figure out who is in each category); either those who can act or those that cannot.  That brings an uneven feeling to the movie but hey, we’re talking about a third film of a series of horror films, so a few bad actors here and there isn’t spoiling much.  So, I recommend the third Nightmare on Elm Street film but before I grade it, I wanted to bring you Story Time With Uncle Cheeks.  That sounds weirder than I thought it was going to but let’s ignore it and move on.  Around 15 years ago my friend Cerpts over at The Land of Cerptsand Honey blog and Cerpts on Letterboxd took me to my first ever Monster Mania convention.  This is way back when I was still a smoker and after a while I wanted to go outside for a smoke.  I went to this small outdoor courtyard that was a designated smoking area.  This was early March, and we had just had a major snow storm a few days prior and it was friggin’ cold out.

 

 I’m talking like maybe 18 degrees with an even colder wind chill.  Needless to say, I wasn’t going to be out there for long.  After a couple of drags a woman opened the door and looked at me and went inside for a second and said to someone: “You can go right here.”.  She stepped aside and out into the courtyard strolled Freddy Kreuger himself, the great Robert Englund.  He was a smoker too and needed a smoke break.  As I was the only other person out there, I was in a state of shock.  Here I was outside smoking a cigarette with a horror legend, and I said nothing!  Looking back on it, that is probably exactly what Robert wanted: a moment away from the autograph table just to take a quick break and smoke a cigarette.  Which we both did as I said in silence.  He smoked his quickly taking three or four quick drags on it all at once.  He shivered a bit, rubbed his arms (he was wearing a sweater, but it was blue and white not red and green), and stubbed out his cigarette.  Now if this is where the story ended it would be a good story to tell but Mr. Englund was about to make it a memorable moment.  For me at least.

 

 

Before walking back inside he nodded to me and looked out over the frozen landscape and said in his best Freddy Kreuger voice (does he always sound like the character just a bit?) and I quote:  “Colder than a witches’ tit out here.”, this part he said as he looked at piles of snow in the parking lot and then he locked eyes with me and followed it up with: “And I would know!”.  He gave me a sly half smile and back inside he went.  Well, I couldn’t believe that had just happened and it’s something that will always make my heart skip a beat and make me smile when I reflect back on it.  Funny thing is I’ve never met him to get an autograph during an actual meet and greet, but I’ll always have that memory of my few short minutes where it was just Robert Englund and me having a smoke break.  With that in mind I will gladly give Dream Warriors three and a half cold witches’ tits out of five.