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

“Welcome to prime time bitch”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When people don’t believe your truth, you have to fight for it.


PLOT


A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors takes place only a year after the events of the second film. The evil spirit of Freddy Krueger now targets teenager Kristen Parker to the point where her mother commits her to the psychiatric hospital of Westin Hills for her protection. The place is ran by Doctor Neil Gordon and while she struggles settling in, she ends up befriending intern therapist Nancy Thompson who picks up on her reciting Freddy’s nursery rhyme. She’s later assigned to other patients that have various issues as followed: sleepwalker Philip Anderson, recovering drug addict Taryn White, wheelchair bound Will Stanton, aspiring actress Jennifer Caulfield, mute Joey Crusel and tough as nails Roland Kincaid. Eventually, Kristen starts dreaming again and has another encounter with Krueger, but is able to get Nancy’s help in saving her by pulling her into her dream, revealing she’s been capable of doing so since she was a kid. However, that doesn’t stop the slasher from starting a new killing spree as days progress: He kills Philip by puppeteering him out the window and smashes Jennifer into a television set mounted on a wall. As Nancy realizes they’re all the remaining children of those that burned him, she arranges a group hypnosis where they develop dream powers of their own. That still doesn’t stop Krueger from putting Joey in comatose. With so much going out of control, both Nancy and Neil get relieved of their duties. They then meet a nun, Sister Mary Helena (Nan Martin), who tells them Fred is a product of rape due to her mother Amanda, who used to work at the hospital, was trapped and attacked by hundreds of mental patients. Off of this, they believe the best way to defeat him is lay his bones to rest. Nancy then goes to her dad, Officer Donald (John Saxon), to ask where his bones are hidden. Before he can tell her, she finds out Nancy got sedated which makes her vulnerable to the villain. Needing to give her a fighting chance, she gets the others together for another group hypnosis to save her and Joey. Freddy is able to fatally stab Will & Taryn in the dream world, which gives Nancy & Kincaid time to reach Kristen. Krueger then transitions to kill Don in the junkyard where his remains were hidden, having him impaled by a shard of a car. He does incapacitate Neil, but then shifts his focus to fatally stab Nancy as well. Neil is able to recover to purify the bones and defeat Krueger, but Nancy would still die in Kristen’s arms. The day of her funeral, Neil realizes he had been speaking to the ghost of Amanda when spotting her grave. Shortly after, the film ends in a cliffhanger revealing the slasher’s spirit to still be alive as a light emerges from Kristen’s papier-mâché house.


THOUGHTS


I once said it's hard to repeat the magic when the make ain't there, which is why it was a great feeling for Wes Craven to return as a cowriter alongside Frank Darabont, Bruce Wagner and director Chuck Russell to get the franchise to be at its most creative until New Nightmare. With Kevin Yagher working with Mark Shostrom, they go all in making Freddy all the more frightening with the way he manipulates dreams. Seeing him puppeteer someone with veins, have a giant head of a worm, a clawed tv set or a chest of souls. Either way, Robert Englund surpasses past quality in order to make his charisma part of the creep factor. From here on, you know you're screwed if he's calling you a bitch. Apart from these factors, the main reason this sequels works better than the other entries in between because it proudly teaches viewers best on the gift of overcoming trauma. Freddy is the bad side of the coin who was basically broken mentally knowing what happened to his mother, which doesn't condone his actions when alive and dead. The other side that we root for are those who want that part behind him, no matter how scared they are. Having Heather Langenkamp return as Nancy was the big win because she gets to be the proper parental figure everyone was missing in their lives. After what Freddy had done to her, the best she can do is save others the way she wasn't able to save her friends. She comes off far more resilient than the last time we saw her because as she's gotten older, she isn't gonna stand by and let people succumb to a monster knowing she can intervene. If she already knew where the bones were, she would've not had to reach her dad for help and would've just get going sooner. Luckily, she got to help who had the greater power within to share such strength. Enter breakout Patricia Arquette who was a delight as Kristen as not only do you relate to her fear, but you connect to all the empathy she's all about, which made it easy for her to have a bond with Nancy so strong that she learned to connect colorful people with infinite imagination. Even though Joey was a mute, Rodney Eastman made him easygoing within and had a dope dream power to have supersonic screams. As for Kincaid, Ken Sagoes shows him to be a guy who lets his actions do the talking because he has the courage to look out for others and chooses to come off defiant about it. That makes his dream power of super strength fitting for him. We never got to know what powers Philip and Jennifer could've had, but Bradley Gregg & Penelope Sudrow succeed in making them likable due to having the same trait of going from artistic to optimistic. Next, Jennifer Rubin made Taryn likable as well due to believing she is strong despite acting repulsive due to her past, hence her dream power being a punk rocker. And as for Will, Ira Heiden made him easily adorable because he's an instant introvert willing to bond with whoever, shameless with his personal interests which explains having the dream power being a wizard master. Although these dream powers didn't work the way they could've for everyone, their deaths weren't in vein because it halted Krueger's actions for the very least since money doesn't sleep for a profitable franchise. Apart from Nancy, there were still other characters that expressed sympathy in the line of work. Laurence Fishburne is a laidback yet strict kind of orderly as Max who is far from lenient you wish for and Priscilla Pointer portrayed Doctor Elisabeth Simms as way too simple minded of a nurse, so there is a fair amount of credit to give Neil. Portrayed by Craig Wasson, this is a guy who may not be good with words, since assuming aloud that Philip gave up was poor taste, but he still proved to care for everyone when getting experimental with Nancy in terms of a solution because Hypnocil should've been a perfect macguffin for the following sequels, but it being non approved by the FDA made sense for the following protagonists to not access it. If he was around after, that could've been a possibility for sure. Having said what makes this movie special, there were still some things I scratched my head about. For instance, why weren't there any cameras in the bedrooms or tv room? If the hospital doesn't trust patients, this is one way to build it. Choosing not to is kinda odder than having the group huddled in the same tv room Jennifer died in before the climax. Also, how has Neil not heard the nursery rhyme before? If these patients have been sharing a similar dream, he should've picked up on it before Nancy gets re introduced. And if someone did die before Philip, there should've been a curfew to lock bedroom doors way beforehand. It's definitely one thing for nobody in the dream world to follow Joey during the group hypnosis, but it's odd there wasn't security when he was in comatose because it feels all the deaths should've made a bigger investigation. Lastly, when was Jennifer allowed cigarettes when she previously wasn't? After Philip died, it definitely doesn't add up for Max to not think twice upon seeing her with one. Ignore these things however, then you as a horror fan will still dig Dream Warriors as the franchise's most creative sequel to date.