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

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

Written by Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont & Chuck Russell
Directed by Chuck Russell

Wes Craven returned to pen this third installment in the franchise, although the final thing is radically different from his original script. That's a good thing, by the way - the original script sucked. This is the first truly EPIC Nightmare movie - it picks up where the original (the events of Part 2 are ignored) and really begins to play with the concept of the Dream Scape and just what is possible there.

I think this film is where Nightmare On Elm Street changed into a more po-pculture friendly series. It entered the main stream here. This is most apparent in the opening credits - gone is the atmospheric opening of the original - we don't even get a surreal dream sequence opening. We get a rock song blaring at full volume whilst some chick makes a paper mache house. The song itself it from that particular brand of disturbingly catchy 80's rock (and without looking I can tell you every guy in that band had massive, unruly hair.)

This is also the first movie where we begin to see Freddy the joker. Whilst he has not yet reached the Comedian Freddy level of later flicks he does throw out a few more sarcastic and cheesy lines and cross-dresses for the first time (I think). This movie contains one of the most famous Freddy-lines of all time: "Welcome To Prime Time, Bitch!" roared as he shoves a troubled teens head through a TV. Much of Freddy's dialogue feels like it was written solely so that kids can quote it immediately upon leaving the cinema - but here it works. The thing is that later installments would take this on board and push it to new levels - even though the film makers responsible did not necessarily have the talent to pull it off.

Nancy from the original returns to help a group of troubled young sleepers in a mental facility (Westin Hills) - and we once again meet a group of quite likable characters. They're more varied character-wise this time, as the idea is that these are people thrown together by their nightmares rather than actual friends (as in the original). They're not necessarily the kind of people who would be friends otherwise - but they range from the stereotypical (but not unlikable) angry-black man to the white, pale and pasty dungeons and dragons geek. If the original had 'all American' kids this group are American Misfits.

The plot is much more convoluted than either of the previous installments - involving dream supressant pills, mental hospitals, reanimated skeletons, nuns, rape and awesome dream powers. Yet the script manages to keep it all together and produces something that stands up to the first two movies. Presumably the sheer number of writers and a bigger budget helped keep this thing on track. The Nightmares take a turn here too, they are now on a much grander scale - Freddy using a kids veins as puppet strings has always stood out to me.

Whilst the kills in ANOES were always inventive the film makers used their success to push the effects here... and it works for the wow factor. However I feel it's detrimental to the actual horror of the kill - in the original when I see Tina die, it's awful. I hate it, it's ugly... which is what it should be. Here, Freddy's kills become a cheer moment. That doesn't work as much for me.

Freddy is still creepy at this point though, there's still that freaky element to him. He's not yet the hero of these films and this installment is probably the last great Nightmare film for some time.