Summary:
Ten years after the last “Nightmare”, Freddy has killed all but one of the remaining teens in Springwood and now must use the amnestic John Doe to lure more teens to him.
My Thoughts:
I’ve been pretty on board with the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise thus far, but even from the opening credits I could tell this film was going to be a little… off. This is the first Nightmare movie to arrive in the 90s, and in this entry they tried to do some new things to freshen up the series, and in the end, this film felt like the least Nightmarish nightmare we’ve witnessed so far. I wont say the film is a complete wash, because I actually really enjoyed the reveal of Freddy’s supernatural origin story from an outside perspective, but for fans of the franchise, this entry certainly has had the least amount of Nightmary goodness to hold onto. I’d honestly only ever recommend this movie if you’re watching through the series (as I am).
I think the thing that bugged me most about this film is how much they jumped the shark. This film starts with a scroll of text telling us that Freddy has now, somehow, murdered almost all of the kids and teenagers in Springwood, and that there is only one teen left from the town, and whom Freddy is now chasing. Now, the “Nightmare” series has always been more fantastical than not; it’s one of the things that keeps drawing me back to the series. But the thing the other Nightmare movies have done correctly is they’ve kept the fantastical elements grounded, except when they’re inside the dream world. In this movie, we’ve established that Freddy has killed so many people that there are literally no children left in Springwood, and to me, that just seems a bit extreme. Every other Nightmare movie has revolved around five or so children getting killed in weird ways, but ten years after “The Dream Child” you expect me to believe that Freddy has killed almost everyone in Springwood? How is this not a worldwide news story? How has the National Guard not been called to lock down the town?
To make matters worse, the character that we’re first introduced to is named John Doe, and he doesn’t remember anything about himself or how he got there. As the film goes on, were introduced to more characters, and John falls by the wayside without any explanation as to where he came from or who he was (there’s one dream sequence where he comes upon himself locked in a padded room, and the other version of himself tells him he is his memories- that’s the only explanation that ever comes). The other characters in the story, which John meets after getting out of Springwood, are all residents or workers at a shelter for troubled youths, and these characters are more of the dumb jocks that populate the “Nightmare” world; all except for a character named Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane, “The Girl from Nagasaki”), but more on her in a minute.
Freddy’s dream sequences have always been the best parts of the “Nightmare” franchise, and I’ve always found his ability to ride the line of creepy and silly rather entertaining. In this film, however, Freddy’s dream sequences loose all sense of tension. The writers and director of this film seemed to think that fans wanted more humor and less thrills, so there are moments that feel ridiculously out of place. There has always been a kind of cartoonish element to Freddy’s kills, but in this film there’s a moment when boingy cartoon sound effects are used as Freddy forces a dreamer to bounce around a room; I honestly just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In that same sequence, Freddy ends up killing someone in a video game, and while he does he comments on the great graphics and how much fun it is to play. It’s as if we stopped the movie to watch a commercial for the Nightmare on Elm Street Super Nintendo Game. It’s cheap and pathetic and I hate it.
Another issue this film has is the final confrontation goes into “Freddy-vision”, which is just 3D. I’ve never been a fan of 3D movies, but the ones that draw attention the fact that they were filmed, purposefully, to stick out of the screen have even less artistic integrity. There are moments in the movie where three demon creatures (more on those in a minute) swim towards the screen; other moments where Freddy, predictably, shoves his glove towards the screen; other parts where people inspect weapons and point them directly at the screen… and, of course, I was watching all of this in 2D, so it just looks silly.
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW
Now, to this film’s credit, it actually did approach Freddy’s origin story in a unique way. It retold the story, but from the perspective of someone close to Freddy, so that we get a more sympathetic (sort of?) retelling. We see bits of Freddy’s childhood when other kids teased him; we see him enjoying masochism as a teenager; and then we see him as an adult, when he’s married and has a child. Before this entry, we never knew of Freddy’s child, but it is revealed that his daughter is Maggie Burroughs, and that Freddy’s reason for allowing the mysterious John Doe to escape Springwood was that so Doe could bring Maggie back to Freddy. We see that Freddy’s wife discovers the cellar where he keeps trophies from his victims, and shortly after, Freddy kills his wife while Maggie witnesses this. Freddy makes Maggie promise not to say anything, but then she tells someone anyways. Her betrayal is what leads to Freddy getting torched in his house, and that was kind of cool.
We’re also shown the supernatural origins of Freddy, so we finally get a sense of how he continues to resurrect himself in peoples’ dreams. As the house around him burns, Freddy is approached by dream demons, and they offer him eternal life if he lives by their rules. The origin story feels pretty far removed from the original film, but at the same time I’ve been able to suspend my disbelief quite a bit for this series, and accepting that Freddy has the help of Dream Demons is one of the easier things to digest; at least it doesn’t break any pre-established rules.
Verdict:
I wouldn’t recommend this entry, unless you plan to watch every Freddy movie. It’s pretty bad and boring, and if this were anyone’s first taste of Freddy I could see how he or she might write off the “Nightmare” series immediately. I have heard that the next entry in the series, “New Nightmare”, is among the best of the Elm Street sequels, so I am looking forward to that.
Review Written By: