A Nightmare On Elm St. 3: Dream Warriors

CAST

Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson
Craig Wasson as Neil Gordon
Patricia Arquette as Kristen Parker
Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
Ken Sagoes as Kincaid
Rodney Eastman as Joey
Jennifer Rubin as Taryn
Bradley Gregg as Phillip
Ira Heiden as Will
Laurence Fishburne as Max
Penelope Sudrow as Jennifer
John Saxon as Donald Thompson

Plot

Kristen Parker is plagued by nightmares. She has an usual
gift, the ability to bring other people into her dreams. Kristen
is later taken to an institution for her eratic behavior. Here is
where she meets other teens experiencing the same disturbing
nightmares as she does. She also meets a new staff member
who turns out to be Nancy Thompson. Nancy is the survivor of
the first Nightmare on Elm St. Nancy comes to learn that these
kids are all being tormented by Freddy Krueger in their dreams.
She now realizes that she herself may have to once again
battle the badly burned man in a dirty red and green sweater
all over again. But this time she has help...can they save
themselves from nightmare hell?

Review

A Nightmare on Elm St: 3 Dream Warriors was released on February 27, 1987. Directed by Chuck Russell, Produced by Robert Shaye. Was written by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner. Also back for Nightmare on Elm St. 3 was Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon. Wes always loved Heather and wanted her back for the 3rd installment. Which this made many fans happy to have her return as many was expecting to see her in Nightmare on Elm St. 2: Freddys Revenge. Had Wes Craven been involved with Freddys Revenge things may have been different. Apparently, Wes Craven never intended on the Nightmare on Elm St. series becoming a francise. And his full intention here was to put an end to the Elm Street series. But as we can see, that never happened. Wes Craven never wanted Heather's Character killed off either. Neither did the majority of the fans. I was one of those fans. I was quite disappointed when i seen Nancy getting killed off in part 3. Well, actually i was pissed. More so at the way they made it happen. It was such an easy kill for Freddy and i felt that if they were going to kill her off, why not make it at least a good fight. I felt Heathers character Nancy deserved so much more then to be tricked and a razor glove to the gut. Nancy was considered the iconic heroine of Elm St. She was labled Freddys ultimate nemesis. So she should have never went out so easily like that. I myself never forgave the francise for that mistake. And what a mistake it turned out to be. Realizing this, the makers tried to create a new female hero for the series. Kristen Parker. But she never really was accepted amongst the more hardcore fans. So they tried again, with Alice. Alice was much more accepted then Kristen. I personally didnt care much for the Kristen Parker role. I found Patricia Arquettes performance to be very irritating really. Her voice in this movie could crack and break glass. But thats just my opinion. Wes Craven originally used the idea to have Freddy come into the real world and terrorize the cast and crew trying to film a sequel for Nightmare on Elm St., but New Line Cinema said no to that idea. But years later they accepted it and it was called Wes Cravens New Nightmare! Actually Wes Craven didnt get a whole lot his way with his involvment with part 3. Cravens first draft of Dream Warriors had the characters completely different from what we originally saw in the finished product. And the story was slightly different as well. There was no Sister Mary Helena/Amanda Krueger. Taryns character was originally going to be African-American. John Saxon's character always knew from the get go that Freddy was real and lurking around somewhere. Joey and Kincaids characters were to be killed off in part 3. The deaths in Wes Cravens original draft were supposed to be much more extreme and grusome. And Freddy wasnt supposed to be as talkative. Part 3 is where they started to gradually make Freddy humorous. In my opinion, i always felt making Freddy funny was their second mistake with the francise. I dont feel Freddy should have ever been made into a funny persona. Or ever talk as much as he ended up talking in the movies period. But thats just me. I loved the first movie and the concept. I originally found Freddy then to be so frightful and scary that even i didnt want to sleep. But i felt that was gradually demenishing with the start of Dream Warriors and on from there. It just seemed to get kinda ridiculous after a while. I never could understand why they ruined the "creepy/scary" factor with Freddy. There was so much more potential there. But nontheless i loved the Nightmare on Elm St. movies and Freddy despite the directions they ended up taking it in. But in the end after watching A Nightmare on Elm St. 3 despite some of paths the makers took the film in, i did enjoy it. I loved the part where Freddy comes out of the T.V. and grabs one of the girls and says "Welcome to primetime, bitch!". That line was actually improvised by Robert Englund. And even though i didnt care to much for the Kristen Parker character or Patricia's portrayal of it, i did like the dream ability she had. I felt that could have been used just a bit more creatively. Most of the cast is very likable, and the kids in this movie all seem to grow on you fairly quickly and you hate to see anything happen to them. They all have very unique dream abilities. I also liked Wills ability, the wizard master! I always thought he had the strongest ability, to bad he rushed up to close to Freddy. He could have used that ability for a more teamly advantage. Im still not sure how i feel about the ending of part 3. It seemed to easily predicted once you knew what Gordon had to do. Although the fight between the two with Freddys skeleton coming to life was pretty cool. The ending just seem to be missing something in my opinion. Dream Warriors did help put the francise back on its feet and got quite a bit of positive feedback. So you know what that means! Another sequel. The soundtrack featured a band called Dokken, Dokken provided the theme song for Nightmare on Elm St. 3, Dream Warriors was the title of the song. The single was actually quite successful. Check it out!

Rating: 4/5

Clip