A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriorshttps://imgur.com/gallery/j8lCMBVWhat a confluence of events that led to this delightful movie. ANOES 2 being a hit (financially at least, it literally kept New Line open for business) and the Rocky treatment of a hit rock band writing a song for the soundtrack led to heavy promotion on MTV, the return of Wes Craven and the storyline from the original movie that was abandoned in 2, an increased budget for effects, and excellent timing/pacing/editing all bring us this treat. It's really the pacing that I think helps propel this to the top of the heap, and I'll go into more detail on that in a bit. I'm really unsure exactly what Wes Craven brought to this movie, while he's credited as a writer his script was actually rewritten pretty heavily, and his original concept was Freddy invading the real world to haunt the makers of the ANOES series aka New Nightmare. I think he had the basic idea of a group of teens instead of one central teen, and the return of Nancy, but other than that I don't know. The script is available online but I haven't read it.
Anyway, the movie starts with a cold opening dream sequence that introduces the new lead, with call backs to the first movie, and establishes 1428 Elm Street as Freddy's home base. This lasts about 9 minutes and shows off the increased budget. Freddy is teased, but not fully shown. You see his shadow and in darkness, but never full on view of him.
This actually goes into TWO dream sequences, with a false awakening fake out. A scene like Kristen vs Freddy in the bathroom is so impressive because every fucking shot is a new set up and gag. And they're all awesome.
Right at the 10 minute mark, they introduce Westin Hills and basically the entire cast of the movie, most in one single shot, and establishing a little bit of personality for all of them. You get Dr. Neil Gordon as the affable doctor trying to help his kids, Max the cool orderly, some world building with a radio report on a rash of recent teen suicides in the area, Dr. Simms as the more straight laced hard ass doctor, Kincaid with his attitude problem, Jennifer's fixation on cigarettes, Phillip "the runner", and Taryn seeming like she's fiending. All of this is done in one tracking shot except for Kincaid, which is an insert. It also features the return of Charles Bernstein's leitmotif that was entirely absent from 2. The follow up scene in the next minute has Nancy's return, the debut of Hypnocil, and Amanda Krueger.
Right around the 20 minute mark is the scene with the Freddy Snake, establishing Kristen's true dream power of being able to pull people into her dreams, as well as glorious animatronic work.
30 minutes in you get the Phillip/puppet scene, which is probably the most gruesome in the entire series and really pretty fucked up. Like stand out fucked up for how gory it is.
40 minutes in, Jennifer gets her big break in TV.
50 minutes in has the introduction of the remaining crew's dream powers and Joey getting kidnapped by the nurse/Freddy, and Freddy attacking group
60 minutes in they hit you with Freddy carving into Joey's chest and the return of Nancy's dad
70 minutes gets the remaining group going into Kristen's dream and Freddy destroying the quiet room, then personalized deaths of Will and Taryn, a reprise of the cold opening with Freddy in a tux
80 minutes: Lt. Thompson and Neil fight with Freddy's bones
90 minutes: The final battle and Freddy's apparent demise, along with death of Nancy
Unless you're a moron like assimilate, you may notice a pretty strict 10 minute pattern of hitting you with a big effects scene or revelation every 10 minutes the entire movie. And it's not like the in between parts are filler, each gap between scenes has more characterization or pushes the plot, usually both. What's really amazing to me is that Chuck Russel was a first time director and writer, having previously worked as a producer, and this was the first editing job for Terry Stokes and second for Chuck Weiss (his first being a low budget comedy the year before). It's so well crafted from every level. Everything gets a set up and pay off, all of the characters are fleshed out just enough, backstory is added to the mythology, the effects are tremendous. It's pretty easy to see why this one is usually held up as the best of the bunch. There's some really dark shit in this, like Freddy picking on already suicidal and mental kids, the kids making suicide jokes and staff laughing, self harming, the cruelty of Freddy's Will/Taryn deaths, the background on Freddy's birth, and so on.
It's weird that Gordon didn't pop back up in the next movies as something of a Loomis like character, instead he's never mentioned again until the utterly awful 2nd Freddy vs Jason vs Ash comic series. Speaking of Loomis, Donald Pleasance actually appears briefly on the screen when Jennifer is watching TV. Also still hot that the scumbag nurse dude didn't get any comeuppance whatsoever, but that rarely ever happened in ANOES movies so it is what it is. Also, fuck Simms.
5 stars.
