Sleep Tight: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3- Dream Warriors

At last, I cover the Elm Street Film that people actually like.  Am I taking a risk here?  Do I like the Film too much and just be another guy praising it?  Do I attack it and be 'the guy who doesn't like these Films?'  No matter what happens, I'm in.  Today's Film is A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, the 1987 Film usually pointed to as the best Sequel.  Let's talk about that for a second.  Elm Street 2 is the odd, bastard child of the Series.  It did well in Theaters, but was somehow deemed unimportant and pretty much ignored.  In other words Elm Street did their Halloween III as Part 2 and their Halloween II as Part 3.  Confusing?  The Plot involves the allegedly-final Elm Street Children in a Facility that studies Sleep Disorders and being targeted by Freddy.  Fortunately, help arrives in the form of Freddy's lone survivor- Nancy.  Are you going to explain how the Ending of the first Film with her being trapped by Freddy didn't end in her death?  No?  Alright then.  There are quite a few notable names in the Cast, but let's talk about the Director- Chuck Russell.  He made a bunch of hits- The Mask, The Scorpion King and Eraser- and then just kind of vanished for a while.  He's back now, albeit with a Direct-to-Video Action Film with John Travolta.  Oh well.  Will this one be the best of the Series or just a bad dream?  To find out, read on...

A young woman- Patricia Arquette!- is attacked by Freddy, but somehow ends up cutting her wrists.  Given how every other kill/kill attempt works, this is a bit confusing.

She is sent to a Facility by her Mother led by Dr. Gordon (not Flash) and patrolled by...Larry Fishburne!

Right on cue, a new Expert arrives to help- Nancy Thompson.  Despite clearly being in Freddy's clutches at the end of Part 1, she went to College and got a fancy Degree in, what, 3 years?

Seriously, the fact that she has all of this accreditation is the part the I question, yes.

Now that she's there, Freddy decides to resume killing them.

As cool as this is, we don't get an explanation as to how they're survived all this time and are now suddenly easy prey.

Another question- how does the Staff think that this happened purely by accident?  She ran full speed and jumped at it?!?

Nancy and the gang figure out that they can group-dream thanks to Arquette and learn to master their Dream Warrior personas.

While they do that, Freddy confuses the entire teen Demographic by changing from this into his burned face.  How are my nether regions supposed to feel?!? 

In a bizarre Sub-Plot, Gordon keeps seeing this old Nun who FINALLY tell him something useful- Freddy is the child of a massive Gang Rape.

That explains...everything?

The Dream Warriors unite...and promptly get separated.  Hurray for build-up!

It all comes down to Arquette and Nancy in the Dream World & Gordon and her Father in the real world.

They ultimately uncover Freddy's bones and bury them, leading to his demise...but not before Nancy's.

This is surely the end of...naw, they can't even go 2 minutes without telling you that there will be 9 more Sequels.  The End.

Good, but missing something.  This one is a strong Sequel- no question.  You get the Characters, you get the crazy visuals and you get a half-decent Plot.  As I noted throughout, I do take some issues with it at certain points.  I can nitpick anything to death though, to be fair.  I will say that the whole 'Dream Warriors' thing never quite pans out.  They set it up, but then stop the Scene before it pans out.  When they try to do it again, the group gets separated and never quite lives up to its potential.  Why introduce the idea that they can fight Freddy with these powers, but don't do anything with it?  Incidentally, how is Freddy back?  I guess you're just not supposed to think about that and assume he's unkillable from Film to Film.  It kind of takes the conflict away if he can just undo every 'death' he has though, right?  That said, the Film features good Acting overall, a decent Plot and some crazy visuals that take advantage of the formula.  Given that I've only covered Nightmare Part 6 (the one where Freddy apparently killed a whole State) and Freddy vs. Jason, I can safely say that this is the best Sequel so far.  Welcome to Prime Time, Dick!

Next up, the next Sequel in the Nightmare Series.  Will it be big and bad or blow me down?  Stay tuned...