SCORETOBER!!!! Day 10 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors!!

Day 10 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors

If you have to even ask why this is on my best horror film scores list. I’m gonna cry.

Seriously this movie. The score and soundtrack are great.  I mean c’mon, this gave us Freddy in a music video. Hugging a teddy bear, having a hair metal band nightmare.

This series also, to be fair. Gave us Freddy rapping with the Fat Boys.

There’s also an album out there with Freddy…nevermind.

This is one of the magical third films. Sometimes in a series, the third film ends up being the turning point that changes things around for the better. Some people call it the Khan moment. Referencing the Wrath of Khan and how that turned around and saved the Star Trek films, considering how most people found the first one boring as hell.

Nightmare on Elm Street went through some hell of its own in the early films.

The first film was a big success, it also gave us Johnny Depp and a room full of blood, phone tongue, and taught us the dangers of masturbating in a warm bath tub.

The second film was apparently too gay for straight people of the 80’s to handle as they all felt weird watching someone walk in their pajamas into a leather bar, a P.E. teacher being whipped by towels, and a boy who turned homicidal anytime he was intimate with a girl, and needed to spend the night with his best bro because he couldn’t sleep.

The movie is just fine, its tonally different from the first, but still kept the horror aspect the first one carried. It just had a lot of issues.

Which was not the gay undertones so much as they tried making the film without Robert Englund. They There are still parts of the movie you can tell they used someone else as they honestly felt Robert didn’t make the character. Fans said otherwise.

Interesting enough they also lost the original glove and used a secondary. Which had a broken blade on the index finger and they had to patch up. It’s kinda interesting actually when you look at the gloves throughout. But yes. Even with the problems the second film had. They still wanted to try for a 3rd and change it up.

So this gave us a new Freddy. One that still scary. But also quippy. There are some pretty good kills in this, and they do stand out in comparison to the previous 2, even a bit more from the ones that come after.

The movie gave us some background into Freddy, it brought back the only woman to burn Freddy twice and technically kill him. It introduced a drug that would later come back in the series and amped up a lot of Freddy’s powers and showed us not only his abilities, but a new hero and her own. Which would span through two more films in a big arch.

And still as much as this film did, it began the weirdest debate in fandom.

The fans love this movie. There’s a lot they appreciate. However you have a split in fans after. Where a majority loved funny Freddy and wanted more of it, and other fans couldn’t stand it as Freddy stopped being scary when you made him likable.

But over all the film opened up the franchise to more fans and after it Freddy did become a superstar. Which Jason joined in the ranks of and this popularity, while promising the films would continue pumping out cash did upset those fans who hated the change in Freddy.

BUT.

At least they all agreed this movie was great. So with that said. Let’s get into it and enjoy the ride.

The Film

The beginning of this film began my overwhelming need to buy glue, popsicle sticks and markers. So I could try to build a cool replica of the Freddy House like our new hero in this film does.

It also introduced me to paper machete which my cousins and mom were all too happy helping me make and enjoy. My family on my moms side were super hardcore into crafting.

Speaking of family this film has a place in my heart as the one Nightmare film I got to see in Theaters with my mom and my cousin Wendy. My mom loved some horror films because they were just funny to her, and she knew I loved those films so her and my cousin took me.

I will always remember the film for that first and foremost, and I love my mom for that memory.

So yes. We begin with Patricia Arquette! As Kristen Parker, the films new hero with sleep troubles. The film starts with a rather menacing tone and paced craft project. She’s making something from her dreams that’s been driving her up the wall. The Freddy House. With a hell of a lot of surprising detail that I learned you need to be of a certain age, mindset, and definitely skill set to build on your own.

We also get introduced to the early stages of what plagues parents today with their kids. Kristen is creating the first energy drink. She’s combining a mouthful of instant coffee with diet coke. Never has a statement I’ve made held so much truth as does that.

But it’s not enough. She needs focus! She needs loud music to piss off the neighborhood and establish her teenager status. We need hair metal! SO WE GET IT!

But alas, even the tightest of spandex pants and men in layers of makeup and Aqua net can’t keep her up. Thankfully her mom storms into her room, turning the damn noise off and cussing her brat out for being up this late and blaring music. Kristen is mildly concerned but mostly annoyed. Her mom doesn’t get her and on top of that her mom is a bit of a lush. Who enjoys bringing men home late at night who wish to partake of her bourbon. It’s still one of the funniest things for me, hearing a voice downstairs calling up to his host “Elaine? Where do you keep the bourbon?”

Which as a matter of fact. Yes. This film is bringing back alcohol loving mothers like the first film gave us.

Well whether Kristen wants it or not. She’s going to be getting some sleep. Which helps us to figure out just why she was trying to keep from sleeping. As if seeing Freddy’s home being constructed as a miniature wasn’t clue enough.

Sure enough though as she drifts off, she is brought into his very front lawn. Greeting us with the missing from part two nursery rhyme. Kristen spies something that doesn’t belong here. A young child on a tricycle outside this horrible nightmarishly decaying house.

Knowing that girl shouldn’t be here, Kristen rushes to save her and get the hell out of there. But instead she is pushed into Freddy’s game inside her head. Chasing the little girl through the house until she confronts her and the two find themselves running from Freddy. Which this movie is establishing right up front Freddy is indeed in this, and there is no ‘You’ve got the body, and I’ve got the brain’. This is Freddy in all his dreamland glory and as hetero as he can be. That is until we get a giant freddy penis in the movie later on. More on that later.

For now Kristen is in a horrific game of cat and mouse. Discovering bodies, and unfortunately that the little girl she was trying to rescue is also a decayed corpse. Thankfully it seems her early test on an energy drink saved her as she wakes up from that horrible dream. Letting out terrified farts on her way to the bathroom needing to splash herself with a bit of water. Not cleaning her hands because of swamp rutting in bed.

But all is not as it would appear as the faucet handle grips her hand and holds it. As the other sprouts blades from its handle and extends itself into a pipe arm. Honestly its pretty damn scary when you see it for the first time and it was certainly a shock back in the day. Freddy’s face appears in her mirror over her own reflection, laughing menacingly just before bringing his clawed hand down across her arm. With that Kristen awaken from her dream. With her mother standing in her room having heard her screams, and Kristen finds herself with a razor blade, and a cut open arm. Obviously this is not an ideal situation for her, or one that will garner support for her killer boogeyman theory.

Thankfully parents back then knew how to deal with depression in their teens. Her mother is having her committed to the local mental hospital. I tell ya, the 80’s was a different time.

Well needless to say, as you might imagine, Kristen is not happy with this. In fact she’s irate. But for good reason. The hospital wants to give her something to calm her down but she’s having none of that. Freddy nearly killed her once already, she’s not going to let him get her again. So she squares off with the hospital staff as we are being introduced to some of our key players.

Like our medical doctor in charge, Neil Gordon(Craig Wasson) and a very special friendly employee Hollywood name, Max(Laurence Fishburne)

The doc is just starting to make his rounds and bumps into Taryn(Jennifer Rubin) who will become a big bit of fun later on. As well as talking with Jennifer(Penelope Sudrow) who tells him about her lovely day, and how many times she’s put out cig’s on her arm to keep herself awake. He’s enjoying his day and the few moments of peace, before he hears Kristen and her unholy weapon during her fit of rage, fighting orderlies.

I am not joking, or over exaggerating when I say that Patricia Arquette, in this film and the next, possibly through their whole life. Is a living banshee. I do not mean that negatively what so ever. I mean it in the sense that their scream is so eardrum piercingly high pitched. It should be weaponized.

Seriously send Patricia Arquette to Russia and unleash her screams over speakers. You’ll have things in the Ukraine resolved and a new Russia underway.

Kristen did not come here to play around. As Max reaches for her trying to restrain her. She grabs a scalpel and cuts poor Max’s arm. She is well on her way to a criminal record and that’d make for a super fun Freddy film if he attacked inmates in a prison. You know it’s true.

However she is not going to prison. Not today. She is breaking down losing it as she just wants to be left alone, and normal. She wants people to listen to her and understand why she’s so afraid to sleep. In her breakdown she begins reciting the nursery rhyme from her dream. Puzzling the others in the room. As she struggles to recall the last part, an ally appears. Unpaid Intern Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). Yup, Nancy grew up to become a dream specialist and crusades to help make sure no one ever suffers through what she had to. She enters the room and completes the scarily familiar rhyme.

It's enough of a distraction they are able to get control of Kristen and Neil is able to introduce himself and discuss what just happened with Nancy.  She briefly explains to Neil that the rhyme he heard was something kids used to say to keep the Boogeyman away. She also explains quickly that she has had some history with violent dreams and dream therapy. She’s actually pretty deep into dream lore and world practices in controlling them. Which is also a rather interesting thing all its own.

The most interesting, and oddest thing that occurs from their discussion however. As Nancy takes off, our friend Dr. Neil spots of all things, a Nun staring back at him with a somber expression, But just as suddenly as he spotted her, she just as swiftly vanishes. As all nuns are trained to do.

Well now with that out of the way and Neil having introduced himself properly its time she also meet up with Max. This allows us to introduce all of our new cast joining Kristen on this adventure through Dreamland.

She’s introduced to Phillip(Bradley Gregg), a puppet maker doing awesome things with clay for his puppets and his roommate Kincaid(Ken Sagoes), a troubled teen who is more trouble than he is anything else and proudly admits to it.

We also get a glimpse at Joey(Rodney Eastman) a mute teen having trouble with dreams, and overall fitting in like everyone else.

Thanks to Joey I had a blast and first uncomfortable moment with a parent. Also more on that later.

For now we are settling in with our cast and the good Dr. Neil is looking up on his pc a prescribed medication he discovered Nancy is taking. This is the days before google, and the internet for that matter. So imagine that world if you can. And somehow computers in film were still amazing, far more than they actually were at the time. Also if you want a fun time? Google pc ads from the 80’s and 90’s, look at what you paid and what you got. It’s frightening. Now you feel old. Which is more frightening.

At any rate…

Hypnocil! That is the drug he discovers Nancy is on. It’s an experimental drug used to suppress dreams. It’s a drug that pops up at different points in the franchise and most notably in Freddy VS Jason as it’s named a drug some are made to take as a means to keep Freddy forgotten and powerless. It also in high doses put most the towns kids into comas. Which is fairly scary to think of on its own. Even scarier still? There is an actual drug out that works like Hypnocil so. Think about that.

Well as Neil contemplates this news and wonders why Nancy is on such a dangerous experimental drug. Nancy is having a fun adventure interviewing Kristens mom. Who proves to be an A one class Bitch with a capital C.

The woman feels her daughter is just trying to get attention, and is acting out because she had her credit cards taken away. So her depression, slit wrist, and screaming like a banshee at night carrying on about a murderous figure in her dreams is really more of a downer on mom’s dating game and day to day life, than it is a concern. Nancy decides to spacebar out of the rest of that conversation and goes about exploring Kristens room for clues of any kind. Discovering what she’d fear she’d find. Instant coffee, energy drink prototypes, a coffee maker in her bedroom, and the model Freddy house. Only furthering her concern.

Speaking of Concern. Kristen is pulled back unwittingly into Freddy’s nightmarish home as her dreams take over once more. Finding the house seemingly even worse off and darker. This time there’s a rotting feast of various food set out on the dinner table, with a stuffed pig as the center piece. Which would already be freaking odd in any party setting outside of a Luau. This one is just scarier because the damn pig decides to spit out the apple from its mouth and oink angrily at her. What she did to that pig I do not know, but it is between the two of them.

It doesn’t take long however for Kristy to stumble upon the object of her fears and invading her already difficult teenage life.

No not just freddy. But a giant penis monster Freddy.

Now don’t get me wrong. Dreaming about large beautiful penises is perfectly fine. Dreaming of serpents is scary but still okay.

This is supposed to be a serpent with Freddies face. Which circles Kristen under the floor boards and leaps out under her, swallowing her up to her waist.

This again. Is supposed to be serpent Freddy.

Serpent Freddy went through many, many, many…many revisions. Because it looked too much like a Penis at first. Then the second time, it somehow looked even MORE like a penis. After that it moved from Penis looking, to phallus looking.  Which is saying something. No matter what they did and tried. It still just looked a little too close to being a penis! They already had enough to deal with, having part 2 been labeled the gayest horror film, which it still carries happily the title of, at the time not so much.

They just didn’t want to deal with people and the possible imagery of a girl being attacked and swallowed by a penis.

Now, had they just made a scaley snake body, with color rings that matched Freddy’s sweater? And a burned up scarred snake face? That could’ve worked. But no. They wanted a slick, veiny, wrinkled like Freddy penis snake with a thick crown Freddy head.

Finally they just said screw it. We’ll cut down its screen time and hope for the best.

So take it, and see it as you will.

While Kristen is being attacked, she cries out for help, feeling Freddy may actually get her this time. So she does the only thing she can think to do, and screams out to Nancy. Which introduces us to what makes Kristen special.

Kristen has the ability, to pull others into her dreamworld. All she has to do is think their name, focus and boom, there they are. So unfortunately for Nancy, she’s about to be pulled into a nightmare, and made to face Freddy once more.

Honestly it’s a great moment in the film, and the reaction from both Freddy and nancy is worth it. Nancy see’s Freddy as the serpent and attacks him, immediately recognizing his face she has an oh shit moment realizing who it is. As Freddy recovers from the attack having spit out Kristen he focuses on nancy and glares back in anger, “You…” Oh he is pissed, and rushes the two of them immediately.

Nancy begs Kristen to wake them up and she does so the moment they find a room to escape from. Immediately both women wake up, back in their respective rooms. Kristen thankful she has not only an ally, but one it seems to her Freddy even seems to fear, giving her for the moment some sense of strength over him.

While nancy tries to take in and deal with the thing she was afraid of happening, but had been preparing herself for happening.

The next day its group therapy time! Or as Neil calls it. Real talk.

It allows the group to tell us a bit more about themselves and helps us bond with them. A rarity in most films now as most characters serve is forgettable bodybags. So enjoy this rare moment in a genre that used to make you care and connect with the people you knew would die off later. Or you hope were one of the lucky ones to make it to the end.

What we learn about these kids, is life isn’t easy, especially with someone invading your private dream space, the one place we are use to escape the realities of the world.

Jennifer, our teen who takes to burning herself with cigarettes to keep from falling asleep has aspirations of being a famous actress someday, and is hopeful that all of this will be over with and she will forget about it some day when she’s a star.

Phillip has little to contribute because he doesn’t buy into this group therapy. He’s tired of the fact nothing  comes from it, and every time they meet up, all they do is cover the same ground, same dreams, no one progresses forward, and they still end up feeling helpless and stuck. This kid is going places.

Taryn meanwhile just wants to kick her drug habit, get out of this place and kick the ass of anyone who tells her different or tries controlling her. Which good on her for doing her best to get clean.

But Kincaid has to agree with his roomy and friend Phillip. So he contributes nothing but championing for Phillip, who continues on and tries getting across to Nancy as she listens to them all. That they are being told their dreams are part of a mass group hysteria. That because they share their dreams in this group. They of course will have the same dream as others in the group. That all of it is in their heads. But none of them seem to care about addressing the fact that Each of them, before being brought in together? Were all having dreams about the same guy before this. So how can it all be in their heads from being in this group together.

Well Dr. Elizabeth Simms(Priscilla Pointer) is here to help with that. By telling the group the dreams won’t stop, and they won’t make progress, until they begin to accept that the dreams themselves are the biproduct of guilt. Stemming from remorse, hidden guilt, moral conflicts and overt sexuality.

Prompting Kincaid to use one of my favorite lines, “Great, so now its my dick that’s killing me”

Yes I have used this line, yes its funny. EVERY. TIME!

Well group isn’t going anywhere, and we need to move this movie a bit. Thankfully they do so by bringing on the evening, letting us see one of the best things from the 80’s, Teens playing a Dungeons and Dragons style game, run by Will who serves as Dungeon Master, with Joey and Taryn as the traveling party. But Taryn is only mildly interested. It’s just another distraction to aid keeping her mind busy and off her cravings. Fortunately she succeeds in killing a demon along the road. However she also finds her character without a horse and near death. So she opts to time out and take a pill. Just in time for lights out as Max comes in and helps Will to his bed. Which is needed as Will is in a wheel chair. Which is something not really common still today in most films. Even rarer when its handled with respect and not as a checklist item.

So as max tucks them in and their door is shut. The two must decide on who will take first watch while the other sleeps. It’s that bad for them they need to depend on the other to stay alert and watch them to make sure they don’t die. So Joey agrees to take first watch so Will can get some sleep.

If only the others could work together so well.

Phillip and Kincaid are both asleep in their room. Either having given up hope, or both having fallen asleep during ones watch. Unfortunately, Freddy is going to visit Phillip and bring on one of the more memorable and still absolutely horrifying sequences in the film.

As Phillip has a love for puppets, one of these puppets turns into a cute Claymation Freddy. Who cuts free his strings and makes his way over to Phillips bed. Where he helps stir Phillip out of whatever pleasant dreamscape he was in, and forces him into this nightmare one Freddy controls. As Phillip realizes what’s happening he finds he is unable to move and is forced to watch as Freddy, standing over him and grinning, reaches out to slice at both his wrist, and down both his legs.

To his shock and pain, Phillip sees his arteries pulled out of these cuts and hoisted upward like strings on a puppet. Which Freddy controls as he forces the boy to sleep walk out of bed and out into the hallway. Kincaid sees this. Sees his friend sleep walking, knowing he’s had this trouble before and tries groggily to wake his friend up. But Phillip is too far gone. And Kincaid is too tired to try harder so he falls back asleep. To the outside world, Phillip is walking around stiffly. But for Phillip he sees his bloody arteries being pulled and forcing him to walk further through the halls of the hospital to his final destination.

As Joey reads, watching over his sleeping friend and dungeon master. He looks up and out his window. Just in time to spot Phillip standing at the top of the hospitals tower, balancing himself on the ledge of an open archway. Joey races from his chair and wakes up Will, immediately dragging him over to the window showing him what he see’s as he can’t speak. Joey takes off for the nurses station and tries in frustration to alert the nurse but she doesn’t understand. So he grabs her dinner tray and uses it to smack against everyones door waking them up. Soon the group is gathered at the window with Will, screaming and shouting out for Phillip to wake up. But he can’t hear them from far away.

Instead we see the image of Phillip wavering between safety and doom as Freddy’s left hand plays marionette with his arteries. It’s actually pretty scary seeing a giant size Freddy hovering in the sky like that with a human puppet. As much as Freddy enjoys it, he has to end this game, and with a single clawed finger, he swipes it across the arteries he controlled, and Phillip tumbles down to his death. In front of his friends.

The next day at group, no one wants to deal with this, let alone discuss it. Kincaid especially. He can’t let his feelings be known, so he just tries to bury it and decides Phillip was taken because he wasn’t strong enough. Which Kincaid is. It’s why he focuses on working out, taking out his aggressions, he can’t stand the idea of being seen as weak and pushed around. He lost his friend to something he can’t fight off though, and he knows is going to come for him too. The doctors try to get everyone to talk about what happened, because they want them to deal with the reality that. Either Phillip slept walk and fell to his death, or he killed himself. Will tells the doctors it wasn’t an accident. His nightmare killed him and Phillip was awake for it. That he was too far gone and the man from their dreams had to strong a hold over him and Phillip was aware of it when he was killed. But all this does is confirm for the doctors it had to have been a suicide then if he was awake and alert. So still no one cares to try listening to these kids, even if just for a moment.

That is until Kincaid begins to flip his shit. He doesn’t want to die, and he’s going to do everything he can to fight off Freddy, and fight off sleeping. No one else can deal with this either and they’re all giving in instead of buying into the B.S. they’re being told is the cause.

Prompting Dr. Neil to go against his better judgement and follow a suggestion made by Nancy. During a lunch together with her. Nancy recommended to the doctor that they try the group out on Hypnocil. Yes it’s a drug still in early development. But it could help them. Especially if they are so willing to believe their dreams are killing them, that they’ll do anything to avoid sleeping. So perhaps giving them something to suppress their dreams might help aid them, in possibly discovering the real cause behind it, or it will at the very least offer them solid sleep instead of living on the verge of breaking down.

So Dr. Neil makes the recommendation. Which Dr. Elizabeth Simms immediately protest. But she’s not the head dick in charge. Neil is. So all she can do is leave a strongly worded letter of protest. And so she will. But as for now. Neil will look for approval to give the kids the medication and hope for the best.

Well, if last nights events were any indication. Tonight is going to be an interesting night. Kincaid finds himself locked away in an isolation cell for his outburst. Left with no one to protect him. Jennifer is keeping herself away watching late night TV for what she calls ‘research’ to help her when she becomes a famous actress. And Taryn is roaming the halls to take her mind off things. Which doesn’t help when you have a sleazy orderly offering to take her to the contraband cabinet and give her some meth, if she’d sleep with him. She ain’t having it and storms off. In tent on wondering aimlessly to keep herself from sleep, and this guy may have just given her something to focus on even harder to keep herself going.

Unfortunately one of them has to die, and fortunately for us. And the new Freddy. It’s a memorable sequence. In fact it’s one of the most quoted ones of the franchise.

Jennifer begins feeling the pull of sleep growing heavier, so she digs into an ancient relic that you can rarely find any more in any store. An ashtray. She finds a suitable not badly snubbed out cig butt and lights it up, Taking a drag off it, enough to get it glowing before digging it into her arm hoping the jolt of pain will wake her up more. Returning to settling in watching her late night talk show. Where a man is interviewing Zsa Zsa Gabor. A rather famous lady whom…I recommend you look up for your own interesting read. Really it will be.

As Jennifer watches the interview, Zsa Zsa goes on about how wonderful it is to be amazing and talented. Telling any young aspiring actor or actress to practice, practice, practice, and work, work, work. The show’s host who turns out to be the one and only Dick Cavett ask:

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Why Certainly.”

And in that moment Dick Cavett unleashes the best question any host I am sure is dying to ask of their guest. Only he does so now appearing as Freddy who ask her “Who gives a FUCK what you think?” Freddy stands up and takes a clawed swipe at her just as the tv blips out.

Well, it appears Jennifer zoned out for just a second, and that was all Freddy needed to invade her mind and start a nightmare. Which is appreciated as the TV static Jennifer stares at and tries slapping away, actually forms the red and green stripes of Freddy’s sweater. She begins slapping at the TV, as many of us did back in the day, knowing it was the only way sometimes to do the job rabbit ears couldn’t and clear the signal.

If you are asking yourself what are rabbit ears on a tv? It’s called being old, and you should also google it. Not being old but, nevermind. Moving right along.

As Jennifer slaps the tv in an attempt to repair it. The tv suddenly grows arms from its electrical guts and lifts her up, screaming. Soon the two antenna on top of the tv find themselves growing on top of Freddie’s head as it grows out from the top of the television set.

YES ANTENNA ON TOP OF A TV WERE RABBIT EARS AND IT’S HOW WE GOT SIGNAL!!!

More importantly. Freddy now has a hold of Jennifer and lays out the now legendary quote from this great and all too short scene.

“This is it Jennifer, your big break in TV!, Welcome to prime time bitch!”

And with that, Freddy rams the girls head into the screen of the television set that spawned him Electrocuting her to death, just in time for Max to rush toward the room and find the girl. Somehow 2 feet off the ground and able to commit suicide, by headbanging into the television set.

An obvious suicide, due to the grief of their recently lost friend Phillip.

It’s like the joke of finding the man with 36 stab wounds to his chest and the cop says “yep, another tragic suicide.”

Well on the pluss side, these recent deaths are giving these kids some much needed fresh air as we’re now at another funeral service.

Which brings Dr. Neil to a conversation with a surprise figure. The nun he spotted earlier, whom we learn the name of. Sister Mary Helena. Whom he believes he recognizes as doing work around the hospital, which she nods and affirms she does work for the hospital from time to time, when she is needed.

She tries to comfort him and tell him, as subtly as she can. That those kids will only find piece when the unquiet spirit is laid properly to rest. Going a step further to make her point by not naming them out right, but simply saying this spirit is, an abomination to God and to man. Raising even more question from Neil, wondering if this is connected to what the kids had been seeing in their dreams. But before he can ask a follow up. Nancy appears and ask him to dinner at her place, to chat about what’s happened and try to know one another somewhat more.

Neil accepts the offer of course and when asked by Nancy what he was doing, he tells her he was talking to…someone who is now no longer there. I told you. Nuns are trained like Batman. You turn your back on one and whamo. They’re gone. Like the holy spirit.

We are reaching that magical point in film time where things are getting good. Neil tells Nancy how he’s at his wits end. He used to believe he could help these kids, but now he’s just letting them down and its taring him up inside. He doesn’t know what to do, and he can’t help but have this feeling like somehow she does.

So Nancy decides he’s finally ready. She ask him if he really wants to know what is going on, of course he says yes, I mean shit why not. But she has some stipulations. He must believe her, listen, and give over to her logic and reasoning. He has to forget everything he learned in university and what helped him become a Doctor. He also must give up his assigned parking spot to her, so she can park away from the cherry blossom tree that keeps shitting out its blossoms all over every inch of her car and annoys her to no end. He also has to promise to let her use his lunch card at the cafeteria. He also must promise to leave samples of his hair and nail clippings at her front door. He must never knock, but just leave them there every Friday of the first of the month. He also must do her filing work and give her a strongly worded recommendation. He also has to supply her with coupons for mani pedi Tuesdays and offer to pay but never attend girls night margarita mixer at El Sombrero.

Some of that is true, the rest of it is just loosely implied. Trust me, I’m a doctor.

So with nancy at the wheel, we have a special group meeting, Straight talk only people. And not the Dolly Parton movie, sadly. The kids are done with this and don’t care what anyone has to talk about with them. So Nancy cuts to the chase and tells them all the truth. She begins describing the man in their dreams. Neil watches as each member of the group stops their protest and for once takes an adult seriously. They know she’s not full of it. She informs them all that his name, is Freddy Krueger. That he was a child murderer and a group of parents hunted him down and burned him alive for his crimes. So the kids naturally ask why the hell is he after all of them then? They didn’t do this.

Well, that’s when Nancy blows off everyones collective asses and lets the cat out of the bag. Based on her research that lead her to this institute, and made her want to intern specifically here? All of these kids, are the very last of the Elm Street Kids from the parents responsible.

So they are forced to pay for the sins of their parents.

Which rightfully sucks!

However what doesn’t suck. Are dream powers.

Which we are about to learn about. Nancy informs the group they have a weapon. Themselves. Each other. But how can they fight the same person at the same time? Well leave that up to Kristen!

As she holds the power to draw people into dreams. She in fact could be, can be. SHALL BE the key to getting them all together to fight Freddy! So the group is going to attempt to enter the dream realm. Which is cool as hell, and still one of my favorite scene setups.

They begin a group hypnosis to attempt drawing everyone into the same dream space, and even use their power of dream creatin.

As we hold the power in our mind to construct complex scenes and background drawn from memories. We also have the ability to generate magic like, well hell you know. You wanna fly? Believe you can and boom in your dreams you are flyin, and doing a lot of questionably weird shit with people you wonder how you even know, let alone met and why they’re asking weird things in your dreams. ANYWAY

The group is willing to try this, for the sake of. An intense countdown begins and as we reach the end. Nothing. Well talk about all that build up for a lackluster finish.

So the group sits around and thinks about life and their pending doom. All except Joe.

Joe is thinking with his dick, which sees a hot blonde nurse he’s been pinning after. She smiles seeing him and motions with her head for him to come over to her, away from the group. Not at all concerning and totally within the realm of reality.

Well Nancy is the super sads. She doesn’t understand why the hypnosis trick didn’t work, and why Kristen couldn’t pull them all into a shared dream space. So she thinks hey, why not try it again. Only they discover they’ve been inside the dream space for a while now. It worked! Great Ceasers toast! Everyone begins to notice they are dreaming. Will is able to walk without his wheelchair. Kristen can do amazing gymnastic feats. Kincaid is strong enough to bend metal and Taryn is one beautiful badass punk rock girl with a mohawk and switchblades.

Everyone is enjoying themselves and getting down with their new found powers. All except for Joe. Joe left the group dream chain, so he could follow the blonde P train. Which puts him and myself in an awkward position.

Imagine if you will, an 8 year old me, in the theater. Seeing this movie for the first time. You have a beautiful blonde nurse getting close and intimate with a mute who’s had crazy infatuation for her since minute one of the film. The nurse ask Joe to help unzip her uniform and just like that, we have beautiful huge breast, legs that don’t know where to stop, and a shapely backside anyone deserves congratulations for having.

Not imagine, and remember, being 8 year old me seeing this, in the theater. With your mother and cousin.

Yeah.

Yeah.

SO!

As the group enjoys exploring their cool dream powers. Joe is sucking face with a hot 98% naked nurse. Which would be amazing. If not for the fact it’s very obviously Freddy, as we learn once the erotic tongue kissing turns into a literal tongue fight and the wicked naked nurse begins, spitting out tongues to restrain poor Joe to a metal bed frame. Which now is the only thing keeping him suspended above a put to hell, complete with skeleton lined walls and hell fire.

Well Freddy has things well in hand with Joe. But now he needs to scare the rest of the group, he needs to remind them that the dream realm, is his world. If they’re entering his world, they have to bend to his rules too. Which is pretty scary. As short as the moment was for these terrified teens to discover they have strength, they can fight in their dreams. They’re immediately put into place by Freddy, who doesn’t even have to show up. He just begins reshaping their safe group room, into a boiler room with no escape and closing in walls.

It's only a gentle reminder from Freddy that, as powerful as they feel now, he’s even more powerful and he’s been doing this a long, long time. Just like that, he’s able to overwhelm the group in near moments. Showing them very quickly they’re still not ready for him. But he doesn’t attack.

He got what he wanted already, and they got the message.

As the group becomes more frightened they finally find an escape. In the form of Dr. Elaine, who unlocks the group therapy room. Discovering everyone passed out in their chairs. All except for Joe, who finds himself on the ground unresponsive. As the intrusion begins to startle and wake the rest of the group back up. Immediately Neil rushes over to assist Elaine. But its too late. As Freddy keeps him prisoner in the dreamscape, it puts Joe into a coma. Which if we recall the possible bad side effects from Hypnocil. Yep, Comas. So with this screw up, on top of two ‘suicides’, its enough for Elain to have Neil removed as head of the facility, and herself put in charge.

So Neil packs up and grumbles about the system and the man keeping him down, while also being thankful in the dreamscape that he had his pants on and the others couldn’t witness his massive manhood which only exist in his dream world. But before he can begin making his plans on drinking and new opportunities for employment elsewhere, He spots a familiar nun in the tall tower Phillip had thrown himself from.

Or you know, fell from.

Well Neil can’t help stay away from vanishing nuns, so he takes off and we are given more backstore. THEE backstory of backstory.

The sister tells us about the tower she’s chilling out in a former unit reserved for the worst of the worst insane lunatics of the mental asylum. How one day, over the holidays a young girl was accidentally locked in with those inmates over the holidays. For days she was kept hidden among the lunatics and repeatedly raped. She was barely alive when the orderlies found her, She was also preggo. The girl was Sister Amanda Krueger, making Freddy, the bastard son of a thousand maniacs.

It still remains one of the most messed up, and best villain backstories. Honestly it’s just so damn good.

She did her job. She gave him the backstory on Freddy and begins to depart. This time without suddenly vanishing. As she does though she tells him what must be done to lay Freddy to rest and stop him for good. He must be given a proper Christian Burial. Or at the very least have his remains moved to consecrated ground and buried with respect. You know, simple stuff.

Well back at the hospital things are going to hell in a hand backset. It seems Dr. Elain has gone MAD with power, which is the whole reason you go for power in the first place I thought. She’s decided to remove Nancy the unpaid intern from her post there. She believes Nancy is a negative influence on the kids. She was the one who introduced the idea of the kids all taking Hypnocil, so I mean. It makes sense.

So much to the displeasure of the group that only that morning discovered their dream powers, their torch bearer who gave them confidence they weren’t insane is now being taken from them. Kristen is not handling this well at all, and is back to her Banshee routine of piercing eardrums. She’s also going to be sedated and locked up in a padded room. Leaving her vulnerable to Freddy. Leaving all of them vulnerable.

Well now that she finds herself with a good deal of free time, Nancy decides to visit her father, and Neil, himself also having no plans for the future. Tails along with Nancy who visits her father at his home. The local bar.

Where he is no longer serving as town Sheriff of Springwood. But is now head of security, and drinking. Well he’s happy to see his girl Nancy, until she begins bringing up Freddy Krueger again, and telling him he’s alive. Add on top of that Neil trying to convince Nancy’s dad that they need to find Freddy’s remains to give him a proper burial. Well it becomes understandable why her father is not all that excited to hear that name from two people, let alone being told he needs to help them.

Her father, in fairness. Is still dealing with the thankfully not retconned end of the first film. Which saw his estranged wife set on fire, choked to death as she burned by Freddy.

But with some convincing, and the destruction of his booze. Her dad agrees to go along and help Neil.

What of Nancy? Well Neil gets a call from the hospital from Taryn telling them what’s going on over there, and how Kristen is being locked away and sedated. So the plan is Nancy will go to the hospital to help the kids, and Neil will get to know Nancy’s father as the two head out to dig up a child murderers bones from a hidden spot, and give him a proper burial.

As Nancy makes her way to the hospital she’s met with resistance from freeing Kristen, as Max informs her no one, especially her is allowed anywhere near the girl. So Nancy decides to opt for plan B. Meet up with the rest of the group, and put them all under once more into group hypnosis.They will enter the dream world, and fight together to rescue their friends Joe and Kristen, and together with the power of friendship, defeat Freddy.

It's a pretty tense hair raising on your arms scene as Nancy makes sure they all weigh in exactly what could and will be waiting for them. The grim reality once they enter the dreamworld, Freddy will be waiting and ready for them. But the group doesn’t care. If the options are dying for something, or dying for nothing. They’d rather die for something.

With that, the group is entering group hypnosis and on their way for the final fight of the film.

Meanwhile Paul Blart and Neil are headed for the last known location of Freddy’s remains. A car junkyard. You’d think this spot could be consecrated ground for a Christian burial. But alas it is not.

So these two wonder into the large auto yard and begin their search through a literal maze of cars for a bag of bones.

As for Nancy and the dream warriors, they have made it into their dreamworld and must now work to find one another as Freddy has separated them all from…each other. Anywho.

Kristen finds herself, and us as well. Teleported to the beginning of the film, she’s reliving the night her mom came home and found her building a stick house blaring her radio. Another fun scene as we again hear her mom’s date downstairs asking where she keeps the bourbon, only this time Kristen tries opening to her mother instead of complaining as she did before, only to have Freddy pull her mom out into the hallway and deliver “I said, where’s the FUCKING bourbon!” It gets me every damn time.

Kristen screams in terror and watches as Freddy holds out her mothers angry now severed head, terrifying her once more. Freddy turns to attack Kristen but she escapes her bedroom. Only to find herself now, in Freddy’s home, still alone.

Unfortunately for the others things are not going well. Taryn is up next and she is in full on punk mode. Ready for Freddy. She finds herself in a disgusting back alley behind a dive bar. She whips out two switchblades and proceeds with caution, It doesn’t take long for Freddy to announce himself and the two begin a switchblade versus knife hand battle. Which to be fair, Taryn does pretty well in. She manages to stab Freddy in a seriously painful spot under his arm. Trust me it is not a friendly happy stabby location.

Hell ANYWHERE isn’t a friendly stabby location.

Well Freddy has enough of this shit, He’s not going to try for a physical fight with a girl who dreams herself being intimidatingly flexible and bad ass. So he pulls out his dream powers and relies on her weakness. Her former addiction. He softens his approach, begging the question, why should they fight. The two of them were old friends, meaning the drugs. With that a confused Taryn watches as Freddy lifts his hands and his fingers on both have been replaced with syringes. Giving the best anti-drug PSA from the 80’s, “Lets get high”, Taryn immediately is consumed with fear and looks down at her arms. Tiny little sockets pucker and blink on both her arms, old track marks of her former life, and with that, Freddy has all the power he needs. He drives the syringe fingers into her arms and Taryn is sadly gone from this world, Taken too soon in all her badassness.

It’s also fun to note however. In this scene, that you can see The syringe fingers have no needles and Freddy has to reposition his hands when he attacks her. So that all his fingers press into her arms. It’s funny once you notice it, and a wonder it made it through the editing room. But I’m glad for it.

As we move on to Will and his dreamworld, I discover something I hadn’t known for years, and infinitely makes things even creepier. As Will explores a long dark corridor straight out of one of his dungeon games. You can hear through the walls Taryn screaming as she’s killed. Knowing it came from the room they all hid themselves in before entering the dreamworld. With that Freddy appears ready for the next challenge. Sending an automated death chair after Will. Because of course why not torture the handicapped kid with a spiked wheelchair of doom!

But Will is able to just barely escape the initial attack. Reminding himself this is his dream world, he summons fourth the nerdiest of nerd powers. He skips the sorting hat and years of bullshit training and presto, You’re a wizard Harry! Will is now in grand wizard robes and ready to roll some natural 20’s on Freddy! He starts out with bolts of green lightning and destroys the evil chair happily. Giving Freddy a moment of ‘oh shit, this nerds for real’,

Will feels rather empowered now as a wizard. So he charges at Freddy, firing off more and more green lightning, annoying Freddy, and annoying the rest of us. Because if there’s one thing you don’t do in Dungeons and Dragons, it’s charge in screaming and hope for the best. It’s not who strikes first, but who strikes last. Remember that next turn in your game.

Well Will gets a rude awakening as Freddy lifts him up and slams him into a wall, “Sorry kid, I don’t believe in Fairy tales” with that, an annoyed Freddy doesn’t even get creative, just pissed, and stabs his gauntlet knife fingers through Wills belly.

Which again as Will dies, His screams carry over to nancy’s room, thankfully she’s able to find Kristen however, and the two group up instantly. Our besties are back together. No sooner are these two united, do we get a third surprise. Kincaid, the man playing by his own rules, which are FUCK THE RULES!. This man is using his dream strength and straight up busting through walls. He did NOT come here to play games. He reunites with the two ladies and they all celebrate. Nancy suggest a stealth approach to finding Freddy and Joey. Kincaid ops for the Leeroy Jenkins plan, and immediately shouts out calling Freddy out. He also calls him a burnt face pussy, which is never a good thing for anyone to be called. Freddy himself agrees and gives the group a door straight to where he waits for them.

Meanwhile back at the junkyard of broken dreams and stashed bodies. Paul Blart and Neil are going car by car, opening trunks and looking for Freddy’s burnt remains. Disregarding any other bodies they come across. Which lets be honest there has to be a few bodies they find and just have to quietly ignore.

I guess I should also note for everyone, that Nancy’s dad is indeed played once more by the always welcome John Saxon of the first Nightmare film. Well their search has paid off as Lt. Thompson, aka Paul Blart remembers the vehicle he hid the remains in the trunk of. Which honestly would’ve been super awkward for the owner of that car should the place keep proper business records.

Back in the dreamland however The group has decided to take Freddy’s offer of the door leading directly to him. Which they immediately find to be a new more hellscaped boiler room looking area. With their friend Joey suspended over the hellpit still.

It’ a fun quick moment as the film decides now is the best time to reuse the original classic sound effect of Freddy’s knifes scrapping across steel pipes. It’s all done for the benefit of Nancy, knowing she would remember it well, and gives Freddy a proper introduction to the kids, who now all know his name.

If this is to be their final battle, Freddy is ready and rings the bell first, by beginning to unravel one tongue after the other securing Joey over the hellpit. Nancy takes off to race down and rescue Joey. Exactly what Freddy hopes for. Nancy dives to the ground and grabs onto Joey’s hand just as the final tongue lets go and soon finds herself slipping as well while trying to hold onto Joey’s hand. Freddy waited for this moment and now he has it. With Nancy occupied trying to save Joey, Freddy walks over behind her ready to attack as she can’t defend herself. But Nancy has Kristen as her tag team partner! Kristen uses her gymnastic powers to fly down and kick Freddy to the ground. Forcing the two to square off. Which rattles Freddy as he soon realizes that this girl unlike her friends, actually has powers that can get to him. Kristen is avoiding his attacks and readies to deliver her own.

But.

BUT!!

Freddy is distracted. His bones are being moved elsewhere and he’s now aware what’s going on. Knowing the danger he’s in. So he leaves the dreamworld in what has to be the oddest scene for the franchise. With his absence the group is able to rescue each other and once again regroup to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, Neil and Paul Blart have grabbed the bag of bones known as the remains of Freddy, and have begun digging a grave….in the auto yard.

Begun digging a consecrated grave in the holy land that is the auto yard.

Well Freddy can’t have that, and so he breaks new ground, while creating new powers for himself. Which people still debate, and find reasons it works, and reasons its bullshit.

See with horror villains and monsters, you have and set up clear rules for them. It helps establish their grounds, and powers over others. It helps make them scary and sets up how they can get you, where, and where you are and aren’t safe.

But the film needs things to happen. So Freddy, the dream master, who attacks in your dreams, unless pulled out of your dreams into the real world. Is now back in our reality, as a stop motion animated burnt Skeleton with a knife hand. Fighting off our burial services group of Neil and Lt Thompson.

Which goes about how you’d expect for a fight between a pacifist doctor and a drunk Paul Blart versus a murderous reanimated Skeleton of a child murderer.

If you still aren’t sure how that’d go. It goes well for the only person there who’s a reanimated corpse that isn’t afraid of murder.

Poor Paul Blart decides to grow a pair and drunkenly rush after Freddy, deciding now is the time to avenge his dead drunk estranged wife. Only Freddy stops him easily and stabs him with skeleton knife hand. Lifting him up off the ground impaled on his fingers. Before tossing him into the tail light of a nearby car, REALLY impaling him in a super absolutely more painful way. And with that Paul Blart is dead.

Making Neil shit himself as he tries to think how to best handle a reanimated murderous skeleton, He tries the calm group therapy approach. But Murderous Jack Skelington is not having it. Freddy swipes his ass and takes the doctors shovel away and proceeds to slap him silly with it until the doctor is knocked out. Feeling proud of his work, Freddy leaves our realm and returns to the dream realm.

How he is able to at will enter our world and exit it. No idea. No explanation is ever given. It just sort of happens and that’s it.

Well our group of dream warriors are patting each other on the backs still for their heroic actions and wondering around Freddy’s playland catching up with one another, until Freddy returns and introduces them to a hall of mirrors. Which is already creepy as hell for some of us. But made more so, when suddenly those mirrors all begin reflecting various different shapes of Freddy.

All of which can break through and drag your ass into a gloopy animated mirrorverse. Which he does! One by one Joey watches as his friends are grabbed, struggling for their lives and sucked into the mirrorverses. Forcing Joey to at long last break through his silence, and finds his voice. Literally. He unleashes his dream power and shouts out. Immediately destroying every mirror in the room and freeing his buddies. Much to their joy of not being killed by mirror Freddy’s.

The group not hearing Freddy anymore, nor seeing him anywhere. Immediately begin celebrating his death and their victory over the master of dreams. The slayer of children is dead. Break out the champagne.

As everyone begins cheering and jerking each other off. Nancy hears her father call out to her. She’s rightfully confused by this. He tells her he’s crossed over. And came to say his final goodbyes. Father and daughter hug once more and tell each other they love one another in a true moment of bonding and forgiveness.

Only to discover all to late, that her father is actually Freddy, and Nancy suffers Freddy’s Revenge, “Die!” he growls out to her as he kills the woman who killed him in their first encounter. It’s honestly a pretty heavy scene, and as a kid back then seeing this for the first time? I bought into it completely. I legit thought it was her father and we got our ending, even without a final freddy fight. But now if course I know better! But its still a pretty powerful scene given the animosity between these two and the fact Freddy actually does get his revenge. Which is also funny saying because Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was called Freddy’s Revenge! Yet here he actually gets it.

No they can’t, won’t, nor should they attempt to escape that beautiful movie!

Well Kristen is shook to her core once again as her bestie and hero is killed in front of her. Freddy flicks his wrist and seals a door behind her. Leaving just him and the dream master Kristen to fight it out. Only Nancy isn’t down for the count just yet. She’s going to help Kristen as much as she can before dying. Managing to grab hold of Freddy’s gloved hand and thrust it into his own guts.

While this dreamscape fight is taking place, in our world Neil is waking up from his dirt nap and decides why not finish what I started. So he dumps Freddy’s bones into the hole they dug up, and begins sprinkling holy water on the body and grave. Consecrating it and making it holy. Which really would work better if he were a priest. But movie logic dictates that anything blessed by a priest, is good enough to do the job without being a priest. I learned that from my 20 bucks online to become a priest.

As the water splashes Freddy, we see it scar him in the dreamworld, sending him flailing in pain. Nancy holds onto him for dear life, keeping that gloved hand firmly buried knuckle deep in his guts as Neil works his magic as a gravedigger.

Neil takes a stolen cross he ‘borrowed’ but totally stole from a church and places it over Freddy’s skull, blessing him one final time before kicking dirt over the body.

With that Freddy howls out in pain as a crucifix burns into his forehead and he flings himself free of Nancy, spinning wildly as light rays begin shooting off from his body, and he finally explodes into light, vanishing for good. He is vanquished, and Nancy is at peace, having helped with her last breath to defeat Freddy. Taking the W from Neil, who’s just thankful he can rest and crawl out of the junkyard before any dogs come for his nuts.

With that our ending is now rushed. We are now at Nancy’s funeral, and Neil can’t even sit still for that. As he spots the familiar helpful Nun roaming the cemetery again. He tries to hunt her down so he can tell her about his victory in hopes someone will high five him or at the very least give him a thumbs up for his efforts. But the nun is privy to his games, and won’t take the win away from Nancy. So she vanishes. But ONLY after neil discovers her point of vanishing, right at what is….dun dun DUN, her grave marker! Yes the nun was a ghost, and what’s more? She was the ghost of Amanda Krueger! Earth shattering I know.

And with that realization, our movie comes to a rushed end. Why it was rushed toward the end I have no idea. I just wish it really wasn’t and that things had been given time to really sink in and breath a bit. But maybe they had a tight budget, or decided well that’s it we got nothing else, so they called it a day. Actually that’s not fair. We do get to see Neil getting some much needed sleep in his comfy bed, having stolen Nancy’s Malaysian dream statue, and Kristens Freddy house model for some reason. And as he drifts off to dreamland. We see a light flick on inside the Freddy model house.

The End.

It forever remains a classic, and as I said earlier a film fans agree to love, but also hate for the new Freddy It delivers us. As the next film in the series goes off in a wildly weird adventure, while continuing with the survivors and the idea that Kristen really does have powers that frighten Freddy. Because they somehow equal his own. And those powers get their own story arch over the next two films, After that arch though, much like Jason. The series took a very drastic turn into pure parody and while fun. It certainly did lose the scary factor.

But part three will always remain a high watermark in the series, rightfully so too.

And speaking of high watermarks. The ending of this film is a great segway into the music discussion, for damn good reason too.

The Music

DREEEEEAAAAM WAAAARRIOORRRSS! AIN’T GONNA DREAM NO MOOOOORE!

Seriously what better ending can you ask for than to have Dokken just ripping rock ass across your speakers.

You just need to appreciate the amazing music as it plays over the credits before ending. THEN WE CAN TALK!!

Because seriously, I gotta rock out with this. And you should be too damnit!

It was always a beautiful time when you had horror teaming up with metal artist and making a music video, and making songs for the movie. Alice Cooper gave us Man Behind the Mask, which is righteously awesome. But nothing compares to the magic that is Dream Warriors. It was right at the beginning of Freddy’s Superstar rise as a fan favorite and media darling. The song took off and was a hit on MTV. The movie was a raging success and saved the franchise.

Now one song alone I know can’t save a series. No. But it sure as hell helps when it rocks your socks off.

The movie needed to upgrade its story and main protagonist, it also needed to amp up the score and breath new life into it.

The original had a sort of quick, innocence to it and an almost comic like tone to its scary notes. But it still produced a very real, very threatening monster theme for its beginning theme when Freddy was constructing his glove and we get our first glimpse into Tina’s nightmare. The second films score was a bit more sinister overall and seemed almost detached from the first film in a lot of ways.

So when the third came along. It was a return to form with some hints of the familiar, mixed in with a new heavier malice, while drawing in a very ethereal dream like quality to the music.

As Kristen is readying her supplies to begin building Freddy’s home, the track “Dream House” plays out much like the first film. Making her slow deliberate actions seem to carry a dark intent with them. Which really does translate the films beginning well. In the original we had Freddy building his famous murder weapon, we knew we were watching something dangerous being made and with its creation, birthed a legacy of fear. So the music reflected that.

Here in part 3, we have Kristen deciding to make something from her dreams, to give reality to something she saw to help her make sense of it. You realize how bad this actually is though in her mind it’s a simple project to help understand her dreams. But for us what we are seeing is the resurrection of Freddy through her construction of his home. The music reflects that and even though its unspoken entirely in the film. The subtext is there and the music plays off that.

Up until the moment the score stops and the soundtrack kicks in with “into the fire”.

The score brings throughout familiar notes from the first film, it gives Freddy his theme, that would carry through the rest of the films. It gave character to our new faces and Nancy.

The dream like notes are throughout each track and serve as a definite upgrade from the originals almost cartoonish like terror notes. Which sounds like a knock at the first but honestly that music worked well for it and added to the film. It still sounds a bit silly at times, but the first remains one of the scarier still.

This one it works in that we have a good balanced mix of serious and comical. Which what comedy there is, is still pretty well controlled and held back. It felt a lot more like the first film, and the score reflects that by hitting a lot of similar notes. It was another example for me of a score perfectly fitting the film. Reminding me instantly of what scared me and what I loved with the original, while sounding completely new and fun.

The track Puppet Walk is a sped up synth track that’s both scary and menacingly fun. You accelerating patterns of notes on top of choir like chords and chimes creating an ethereal dread. You even get the added screwing with the listener addition of wind snaps simulating the exact moments Freddy’s blades cut across Phillips arteries.

It’s a great track to listen to as it works from a quick building beat to something that genuinely grabs on and takes off with you like a screaming maniac until the track ends with an actual shout from said screaming maniac.

It’s really a cool design and something I wasn’t at all used to with music back then, and didn’t really get a familiar sense for until Insidious came out and began the unholy trend of “instead of music, lets just bang on our instruments really loudly for a scare” which at first was effective and new. But goddamn did it wear out quickly.

This score was a bit more restrained in its experimenting, and it paid off in the end.

Another fun if not entirely odd track is Taryn’s Deepest Fear. Which comes off like a live track played at a dingy bar and stage litered with broken bottles. It even has audience cheers and applause mixed in with it. It’s odd and something very different. Which just makes it stand out all the more. It makes her dream sequence all the more designed for her. Its unfortunate during the movie some of it ends up hidden behind sound effects, but listening to the score you really get an appreciation for it, and it’s nice having a bit of music build more for the character that otherwise doesn’t get much time. Just enough to get them and care, but not so much they take away from the main characters.

Its honestly a beautiful score and near perfect. It accomplishes the task given to Angelo Badalamenti when writing the films score. I own the entire nightmare on elm street vinyl set which……….is not something anyone should really task themselves with hunting down and finding. Unless you really really REALLY need that in your life. Which I did. Because I love Freddy, and the Nightmare films were my childhood. As much as I love Jason and Leatherface. Freddy was the main man I followed and yes I’ll go cheesy for you. The man of my dreams. Well, nightmares.

I built my own Freddy glove, I may have also attempted building his home as well. Twice. I spent an amount I will not share with anyone for the soundtrack collection on vinyl, and I still want to review the entire series and deep dive into the character.

Of all these things. The 3rd is, was, and remains the big one for me. It’s a fun return to form. It gave birth to a new Freddy that was scary and fun, and it began a character arch that really made the next two films a lot of fun to get into.

I sincerely hope you all give the soundtrack AND the score a listen. They’re both a lot of fun and both designed for the film. So with that said. Until tomorrow. Just remember this.

If it looks like a snake, and you make it out of green clay. It’s a snake.

If it looks like a snake, and you make it out of green clay, then paint it flesh tone, it’s a penis.

If it looks like a snake that now looks like a pink penis and you add green slime to it. It’s a penis that needs to see a doctor.

If it looks like a snake that’s now a green slime pink skinned penis with a monstrous face at its head. You need to have a talk with your therapist.

Also its still a penis.