Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

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Elm Street Reviews

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This is where it all started for me, at the tender age of 9. While my peers were already knee-deep into the horror genre, I was still pretty freaked out by this Krueger character and the overall concept. I knew enough about Freddy back then to be able to tell you that he was a creepy, ugly dude with claws on his hand he liked to use to kill people while they were dreaming. I'm not sure what scared me worse, his looks or the concept of being helpless against him while dreaming.

One of my most nostalgic horror memories begins one day after, of all things, church, back when we were giving it a shot. Afterwards, some friends we attended church with, my brother and I sat down to check this out, and it would be the first real R-rated horror movie I ever saw. I made it through, but I must admit that the concept of getting viciously slaughtered in my dreams while being tortured by some creep got deep inside my head that night, and I had a hell of a time trying to sleep. And that is just part of why to this day, Freddy is my favourite horror icon. He represents my first real scare.

This one picks up ten years down the line from 'Dream Child', and the Elm Street children have either left town or have been killed by Freddy's constant returns. The last youth of the town, known throughout the movie as a John Doe (Shon Greenblatt), is manipulated by Freddy and led past the borders of Springwood. Freddy's intention is unknown at this point, but is eventually revealed in the film. Eventually John is found wandering around with severe amnesia and taken to a youth centre, where he is put under the care of psychologist Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane).

When John tells Maggie about a dream he has involving Springwood, it coincides with dreams she's been having, so she takes him back to Springwood find some answers as to who he is, as he can't remember. Stowing away in the van, however, are tough girl Tracy (Lezlie Deane), stoner Spencer (Breckin Meyer) and smartass Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan); other kids from the youth center.  While Maggie sends the stowaways back with the van, she and John take a look around town for answers to what their dreams are telling them. All the while, the town is nothing but lonely and crazy adults, taking heavy inspiration from 'Twin Peaks' and featuring celebrity cameos like Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold.

Eventually, Maggie and Johns search leads them to Freddy Krueger and a mildly interesting if somewhat predictable plot twist. Meanwhile, Tracy, Spencer and Carlos find themselves at 1428 Elm Street so that we can get some proper Freddy nightmare hunting in the movie. To the film's credit, the nightmares this group has tend to be pretty cool, putting in some effort to make things somewhat otherworldly. The whole film has an eerily creepy but often funny tone to it, sticks to some old traditions like group dreaming, and gets pretty creative in trying out new things for the era, like Freddy's "Power Glove".

Aside from just looking cool, it offers up several fitting celebrity cameos, some familiar (like Johnny Depp) and some just because they feel right (like Alice Cooper playing Freddy's father). Iggy Pop closes the film with his song "Why Was I Born?" complete with a cool music video loaded with classic 'Elm Street' clips, which is a cool way to cap things off, and if I'm brutally honest, I still have fun with this movie. But make no mistake! Despite my praise, I do mean it when I say this is a guilty pleasure of mine at this point. It's not at all what I'd call a good movie, or even one of the better 'Elm Street' titles.

If I'm going to criticize it, things like bad writing, bad acting, plot holes and closing the franchise with one of the weakest of the 'Elm Street' titles are things that cannot go overlooked. I hold it close to my heart because it was my first horror movie, Freddy became my favourite horror villain, and it's a lot of fun to go back and enjoy wondering how it could have possibly freaked me out as much as it once did. So my praise for it is very personal. But I can still say that this is one of the more easily skippable titles for the average fan. This is one that I'd consider "so bad, it's good", but one will have to judge for themselves. The most important thing to keep in mind while watching is just to try to have a good time with it.

2/5

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