REVIEW: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (NO SPOILERS)

NO SPOILERS

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) Directed by Chuck Russell Starring Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Robert Englund & Laurence Fishburne (!)

I offer no explanation of the following phenomenon, but A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 sends me to sleep. I've tried to watch it three times and every time I end up zonked out by the thirty-minute mark. This time I only reached the end by resuming where I left off the next morning. Normally this would be a bad sign, but I actually quite enjoyed this movie.

The first thing I noticed wasn't in the movie at all, but grabbed from it for the DVD's menu screen. It's Harry Potter! Admittedly this film came out a decade before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published and he's not being played by Daniel Radcliffe, but he's still a young dark-haired wizard with glasses. True, he's only a magician in his dreams and he calls himself the Wizard Master, but that was a laugh. Mind you, 'twas only fun because 'twas an unintentional reference. If any modern non-Potter movie included such a Potter-a-like, I'd be the first in line with rotten cabbages.

The story's thin, but you don't watch stuff like this for the plot. The characters are fun (look out for Laurence Fishburne) and the script adds some daft but enjoyable backstory. It's just a shame that its suggested method of killing Freddy obviously isn't going to work, since this is only the third film in the series. Though having said that, perhaps it might have worked had that damn fool psychologist actually followed orders. Since when is a junkyard 'hallowed ground'? A little pilfered holy water won't make it so, mate. Oh, and the final revelation about Sister Mary Helena is obvious so far in advance that waiting for the film to deliver it is almost half the fun.

The nightmare stuff is the best so far, with lots of surreal touches. I particularly liked the child's tricycle. There's also lots of stop-motion animation which today would be CGI and is thus lots of fun for precisely that reason. I loved the little Freddy puppet, though it could be argued *that* was the point where the Nightmare on Elm Street films stopped trying to make Freddy scary.

For the first time in the series, there's even nudity! She's good looking too, though she's apparently wearing a bra in the TV version. Heather Langenkamp returns from the original, for what would be her last Freddy movie until #7: New Nightmare. This is the only Nightmare on Elm Street film to star Zsa Zsa Gabor, who only seems to play herself these days. (Though having said that, the poor dear is well into her eighties and it looks like she retired around 1996.)

Good unpretentious fun. I liked the child therapy setting and I liked the kids who were trapped there, who had convincing troubles without being so dysfunctional that you stopped caring about them. Heather Langenkamp improves on her original performance as Nancy Thompson (though she's still not great) and the continuity is nice to see. A nice little movie.

Finn Clark.

i wouldn't go that far -although i guess if it's something you saw when young it kind of sticks with you.

3,4 rub it over your mouth and blow bubbles.

sorry that doesn't rhyme.

Weren't you listening? It was a 'god damned cherry bomb'.

Of all the things that pissed me off in that film, the dedication that the protagonist's father invested in blaming everything on his son was just too much. One budgie kills another, then escapes its cage and explodes. Oh, of course, your son stuck a firecracker up its arse.

You said it. Best rack in a Freddy movie ever.

I can't believe they stopped making my horror hero, Freddy, Scary! Have they no shame?! I didn't belive it when my buddy , Annabel, said "Nightmare on Elm street 3 sucked! Freddy's not scary any more!!" then, I watched for myself, and at the end I was in TEARS!!! Wes Craven (I think that was who directed it) ruined Freddy's reputation!!! I'm SO mad at him!!!

REVENGE!!!

Wait a minute, what am I saying? Now I'm getting confuesed with those Jason movies! Freddy is still awesome !!! he's still a badass! /takes knive-gloves off/ In your face, Wes Craven!

I was kinda sad that they made my sexy Freddy Krueger kill Nancy... She's my 2nd Favorite char in the whole movie series! Poor
Nancy.