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

Director: Chuck Russell

Cast: Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Larry Fishburne, Robert Englund

Have I Seen it Before: Yes? As the Nightmare movies are not really my go-to slasher series, I get a little bit fuzzy outside of <the original>, <Freddy’s Revenge (1985)>, and <Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)>.

Did I Like It: My uncertainty only grows when I realize that this film certainly does distinguish itself in the series. The effects work is sufficiently gross (and I mean that in the best way) with the the worm creature Freddy takes the form of early in the film is easily memorable.

I’m always a little bit suspicious of long-running horror series becoming transfixed on their own mythologies as a replacement for building actual tension. It had frequently threatened to kill the Halloween series, it essentially did slowly eradicate Hellraiser, and for my money, Jason Voorhees never had anything to lose under the weight of too much backstory. Here, there was always a mythic quality to Freddy, and while New Nightmare may have tapped into that quality with more confidence and resonance, the little bit of additional backstory we get about Freddy here manages to not be too much. And, besides, “the bastard son of 100 maniacs” is the kind of pulpy fun that makes one glad they are alive to take in such fluff.

Most importantly, though, this film exists ahead of its time. Almost every recent new entry in long-running horror series has an underlying theme of protagonists taking power back from their tormentors, but the story of the titular dream warriors here is a precursor to that trend, made all the more strange by the fact that it exists at a time where the slasher genre was content to be nothing more artistic than the local butcher, forming their cuts out of the caucuses of people in their mid-twenties desperate to pretend they are teenagers.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Director: Wes Craven*

Cast: John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund

Have I Seen it Before: Oh yes. This was the last movie I joined Beyond the Cabin in the Woods before they asked me to join the show permanently. It seems like a couple of lifetimes ago. That’s probably because it sort of was…

Did I Like It: In the past I’ve always been sort of ambivalent about this movie. It’s never felt as relentlessly terrifying as Halloween (1978), or as trashy as Friday the 13th (1980), or as insidious unnerving as Hellraiser (1987). Where does it really fit in to the horror pantheon, especially when I would point to Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) as the best edition in the franchise.

This time, however I found more to like about it than I had ever before. I must becoming soft in my increasing age. The surreal, almost cubist images in character’s dreams always feel like a more realistic depiction of the ephemeral nature of dreams, far more than what most might find in cinema.

That manages to paper over some of the flaws I still can’t quite get over. The teenagers are relatively well cast, but a bit too earnest for their own good. I also can’t help but laugh a little bit when adolescents in movies are having astonishingly good sex, when anyone over the age of 25 is pretty certain that no adolescent has ever had any good sex since time began.

Ultimately, though, when the characters start talking about the nature of dreams, the film becomes less of a cinematic experience and more a videotaped podcast on the subject of dreams. To be fair, Craven has that problem in his films. New Nightmare had the same problem occasionally, although those instances felt more natural in light of that film’s more mythological undertones.

* I may have said this before, but it bears mentioning again. The man had the best name of a horror director ever. It was like if James Whale had been nicknamed John Spookyfuntime, or if John Carpenter had been name John Relentless-Suspense-And-Never-Being-Bogged-Down-By-Excessive-Backstory.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Director: Wes Craven

Cast: Heather Lagenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes, John Saxon

Have I Seen it Before: I’ve probably seen this entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street series more than any other.

Did I Like It: And that’s probably because ultimately, I’ve never never loved this series all that much. Even the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) always struck me as just a little too fashionable. Aside from a clever enough hook that might just barely burrow its way into your unconscious and bother you long after the credits rolled, it always seemed like just another 80s horror movie.

Here, though things are pretty thoroughly ahead of their time. Wes Craven’s meta instincts wouldn’t reach full acceptance for another two years with Scream (1996), but here it’s less of a joke.

In fact, it’s only intermittently interested in being a horror movie, mostly in the scenes leading up to the climax, and any moments where Langenkamp’s son (Hughes) is possessed of a mind to do Spooky Things. The rest of the film is more interested in the mythic, all the way to the point that when it does reach its climax, we have departed New Line’s effort to jump-start their moribund horror franchise, and is instead the most expensive R-rated Fairy Tale ever committed to film.

No wonder the co-creator of The Fourth Wall likes it so much.

It’s a bold move on Craven’s part and certainly worth a watch by anyone who might have an affinity for the genre, but might otherwise be turned off by the seventh movie in a series, which eschews the continuity of the previous entries in the series. I’m also happy to report it is only occasionally marred by some inherent design flaws. Scares are low, which could turn off some. Also, having non-performers like mega-producer Robert Shaye and Craven himself play themselves in key supporting roles illuminates why neither man had ever gravitated towards performance before. Even England and Langenkamp appear as if fitted not-quite-correctly for a suit of clothes when playing themselves. I can’t imagine an actor who made their bones in the occasionally absurd world of horror movies is very comfortable being themselves for long stretches of time, to say nothing of having to do so on camera.