A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3:
DREAM WARRIORS
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Years after the tragic virtual bloodbath in Springwood, the
children of Elm Street are beginning to have nightmares again. The final descendants of
the townspeople who took matters into their own hands and lynched local child murderer
Fred Krueger now find themselves locked away in a mental hospital, paying for their
parents mistakes. Young Kristen (Patricia Arquette) joins the "dream warriors" after what had appeared to be a suicide attempt. Diagnosed as sufferers of "pattern nightmares", the children fear falling asleep, somehow knowing that what they will dream of may not entirely be figments of their imaginations. Unimpressed by the fact that all of the children reported encountering a man in their dreams with a terribly burned face, dirty red and green sweater, and a deadly glove with razor sharp knives protruding from the fingers, the doctors only make matters worse in sedating the kids, telling them all they need is a good night's sleep. When no real progress with the dreams is evident, hospital officials make the decision to call in an expert on the subject, to see if there was anything that could be done to ease the groups fears of falling asleep. |
| The "specialist" soon learns, after spending some
time with the kids, that their problems are not unlike the one's she had encountered
herself years ago. Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), who had been forced from her home
after the tragic death of her mother, knew what the children were afraid of. The children
were afraid Freddy Krueger would come to them in their sleep, and they would die in their
dreams. But more importantly, the children were afraid that they would never wake up to
tell the story. Nancy's plan of action against Krueger was to prescribe an experimental medication which was supposed to suppress dream sequences. A group hypnosis was planned, |
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| in which each of them would use the powers they had fantasized about having in their most wonderful, fantastic dreams. Through this, Nancy hoped the group could find the strength within itself to conquer the dream demon once and for all. However, the session went horribly wrong, and after one boy was left in a coma, the hospital revoked Nancy's privileges with the children, forbidding any further contact between them. Without Nancy, the only person in the world outside their own group who truly believed their story, the kids are left defenseless against Krueger, and worse yet, plans for regular evening sedation were in the works. After all, what they really needed was a good night's sleep, right? |
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Left with no other options, Nancy is forced to take the
advice of an old, mysterious nun who seemingly had great knowledge of Krueger; how he came
to be, what he was, and what could stop him for good. This leads Nancy to enlist the help
of her father, who she had grown away from after leaving their house on Elm Street, as he
was the only living man who possessed the "key" that may finally be able to stop
Krueger. The plot then leads to an old wrecking yard, where the remains of Krueger lay hidden away in an abandoned car. According to the nun, the remains had to be placed in hallowed, holy ground in order to put forever to rest the "unquiet spirit". However, perhaps the powers possessed by the tormentor of dreams was being |
| grossly underestimated. After all, the target was a man who hadn't ceased to exist, even in death. |
| This movie is by far one of the better ones in the series. It seemed that
after this one, the overall integrity of the Nightmare series seemed to go downhill, which
was really unfortunate. Such a terrifying basis for a story to go to waste! Don't get me
wrong, Freddy is always a good time, but speaking in terms of scare-factor, the
following sequels seemed to rely more on enhanced special effects to scare people, which
as we see more and more, doesn't really work. It may look a hundred times better, and more
realistic, but I feel that when too much importance is placed on such things, the
"heart" of the film often suffers. Heavy Metal fans should (err, might) appreciate the extended opening in this movie. Metal band Dokken, for our listening and viewing pleasure, are featured in a video (based on the film's plot) which runs over 5 minutes. Sure, it's cheesy as Hell, but it was the 80's, what was to be expected? |
D R E A M W A R R I O R S I M A G E G A L L E R Y
