C.C. : Dream Warriors

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On
October 27, 2011

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

Directed By: Chuck Russell

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, Jennifer Rubin, Bradley Gregg, Penelope Sudrow, John Saxon, Laurence Fishburne

and
Robert Englund
as Freddy Krueger


Looks like Krueger needs an eye exam.

Let's say that you haven't seen this "three-quel" to the popular horror movie franchise it was destined to be. Let's also say that you're interested in watching it. But like always, you need to see the trailer to see what you're getting into. And what do you know? A trailer is up on Youtube! Give it a watch....


(Broken YouTube Link Removed)


Crap your pants yet? Well, you should. A very effective trailer for a pretty damn good "three-quel".


After the release of what was destined to become the black sheep of the franchise, the first film's director and main creator Wes Craven figured that one sequel was enough and decided to go to New Line Cinema to do something about it. What did he do to stop the sequels a-flowing?


He....signed up to co-write another sequel. Uhhh....that's telling them?


Anyways, while the movie didn't fulfill the task of stopping the sequels, it did eventually become what is considered is to be the best of the Elm Street sequels. But is that true? Well, didn't you just watch the trailer above? Well, OK, it's not incredibly scary as the trailer, but I guess it is pretty good.

But you know it's gotta be good when it has a quote from Edgar Allen Poe!



Ah, Edgar Allan Poe. Your twisted tongue should serve as the opening quote to EVERY movie ever made. Though I'm not sure how the critics would react to Howard The Duck if it had a Poe quote.



Looks like she's getting "glued" to the tube!


Freddy Kruger envisoned by Fritz the Cat.


WHAT'S THE FILM ABOUT?

Picking up where the first film left off, Nancy (Langenkamp) has grown up and become a psychiatrist specializing in dream therapy. She meets a group of children at a local hospital facing scarred child-murderer Freddy Krueger (Englund).
One of the victims is Kristen (Arquette), who has the power to draw other people into her dreams. Working with a male doctor assigned to the case, Nancy helps the kids realize their special abilities within the nightmare world and helps them try to destroy the evil Krueger once and for all.


It's E.T.'s grandmother! RUN!

WHAT'S BAD ABOUT IT?

This movie marks the point when Freddy Krueger, a bad-ass killer who slices people in their dreams, starts to have...too much fun with his work. This is obviously the sequel that got Krueger to start cracking one-liners to his victims. There are some OK jokes here and there ("welcome to prime-time, bitch!"), there are ones that are pretty cringe-worthy ("Feeling tongue-tied?").


WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT?

Everything else.

Like the previous films, the two main things that make this series tolerable (so far) are the performances and the special effects. The performances are pretty believable here. Langenkamp is just as good as she was in the first film (though her backstory on what happened to her after the first film isn't explained), and the actual Dream Warriors aren't as wooden or annoying as I thought they were. The special effects are just top-notch and actually steal the show unlike the second one. Some of the best scenes include Freddy as a giant snake or when Freddy uses one of the kids as a puppet on strings to jump from a tall building.

The mythology of Freddy is given more explanation, but not in the way that it just repeats the same legend we hear in the last movie. In this movie, we hear that Freddy's mother was a nurse in a mental institute and was accidently locked in the loony bin with a hundred patients during the holidays. You can pretty much guess what happens after that. A little creepy, yes, but actually pretty creative.


She looks happy to be in a DARK WAREHOUSE.


I also liked the idea of the teens in this movie actually having dreams. In the last movies, we always see the victims in the same creepy warehouse, which was getting pretty old at this point. Here, we see their dreams and what they desire in the real world. Even if Freddy takes over their dream, they try to keep the dream under control by using it to their advantage to beat Freddy.


Finally, you can't beat the alighty power of Dokken's theme song of the movie:


(Broken YouTube Link Removed)


"Warming up by the fire of a thousand scream souls? That's good."


Coming soon to theatres, Freddy Vs. Dracula!


The special effects team for this movie at work.


BOTTOM LINE:

While it didn't end the series like Craven wanted it to, this movie did go on to become easily one of the best Nightmare movies (I'll get to the absolute BEST one later). Everything you loved about the first one is here and is made even better. Good performances, GREAT special effects, and kudos to the writers giving Krueger more of a backstory. If you plan to watch the whole series and are disappointed by the second one, you'll be in for a surprise.


OVERALL SCORE:

4.5/5


As we all know from this movie, Freddy gets killed by a cross AND friggin' holy water! You can't get any deader than that. So how does Freddy come back in The Dream Master and will it even be any good now that Craven is out of the picture until New Nightmare? Well, stay tuned for my next article and find out!
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