These next few years promises to be a very big year for the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise as each of the films celebrates a bi birthday. While this year it's the turn of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge it's the film that came out after it that i'm going to be talking to you all about today as it's genuinely the best Nightmare sequel that the franchise has in it's original timeline as Wes Craven's New Nightmare doesn't take place in the world of the films and so then join me as I review the film that introduced the world to the band Dokken with the film in question being called simply just "A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" enjoy.
The plot of this film is a group of young teens in a psychiatric hospital are all being stalked by the same man in there dreams and when one of his previous survivors comes to work at the hospital it's up to the teens to defeat him once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films plot pretty much just ignoring the whole of the second film as Jesse and Lisa don't get mentioned at all in this movie with the films plot instead returning to the somewhat more grounded route of the first film which is something that does work for this film as it allows for this films plot to be more of a direct continuation of the first films plot and while granted this films plot isn't as good as the plot of the original film it is something that does have the same tone of that film and is easily better then the plots of any of the rest of the Nightmare sequels barring Freddy's Revenge with the film moving on the story of the franchise in a way that feels natural to this films plot like having all of the kids in the hospital be the kids of some of the parents that killed Freddy that is a great idea and while the film can't really explore that idea to it's fullest as outside of Kristen we don't really get to see any of the kids parents or home lives it is something that does add to the plot of the film as it shows us the audience that the people who made this film really do care about the franchise and aren't just willing to give it any old plot in favor of making some easy money with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson , Craig Wasson as Dr. Neil Gordon and Patricia Arquette as Kristen Parker. Also starring in this film is Rodney Eastman as Joey Crusel , Jennifer Rubin as Taryn White , Bradley Gregg as Phillip Anderson , Ira Heiden as Will Stanton , Larry Fishburne as Max Daniels , Penelope Sudrow as Jennifer Caulfield , John Saxon as Donald Thompson , Priscilla Pointer as Dr. Elizabeth Simms , Clayton Landey as Lorenzo , Brooke Bundy as Elaine Parker , Nan Martin as Sister Mary Helena / Amanda Krueger , Stacey Alden as Nurse Marcie , Dick Cavett as Himself , Zsa Zsa Gabor as Herself and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films actors turning in some really good performances in this film as while all of the returning actors in this film are just as good as they were in the other Nightmare movies it's the films newer actors where the acting begins to shine with it being painfully obvious right from there first scenes that both Patricia Arquette and Larry Fishburne are not only a pair of really good actors who are still acting to this very day but have what it takes to become major names in hollywood something that they both did achieve with even the films more lesser known actors turning in some really good performances with Ira Heiden being really good as the typical nerdy character that he seemed to always play and both Penelope Sudrow and Jennifer Rubin being really good as well with the films best actors in this film being Rodney Eastman , Heather Langenkamp and of course Robert Englund as even tho the character of Joey gets next to no lines all throughout the film you still know what this character is saying and feeling thanks to Rodney Eastman's acting and both Heather and Robert of course know there characters so well thanks to both of them reprising their truly iconic roles as such they know what kind of performance would work for there characters and deliver some truly fitting performances in this film and while John Saxon is great in this film he just doesn't compare to Rodney , Heather and Robert when it comes to acting in this film with the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
While Heather Langenkamp would of course go on to appear in Wes Craven's New Nightmare this is the final film to feature the character of Nancy Thompson. With the character getting killed of at the end of the film by Freddy Krueger himself which is oddly enough a great way for the character to go as it does now mean that any one of the new characters from this point moving forward can now die with this being helped by the fact that her death is something that you don't really see coming due to how well edited that final third act is as it doesn't make it clear if Neil and Don succeeded in their goal of burying Freddy's remains and therefor when we see Don appear in the dream world whilst it is now a big red flag it does also make us the audience feel the exact same way that Nancy herself feels and because of that we do lower down our guard because for all we know he could be the real deal and the two of them could have succeeded in their goal and therefor when it turns out to be Freddy and he kills Nancy it does feel like a truly shocking ending to her story and while horror films do typically kill off returning characters in the sequel so that they can make way for the newer characters here it was something that catches you off guard due to the fact that both Freddy and Nancy are each other mortal enemies and with Nancy basically being a legacy character seeing her die is something that does work as even tho it comes to late in the film for it to have any impact on the film itself it still does have an impact on the franchise as a whole as now any character including can now die as Nancy herself was meant to be the ultimate good guy character.
This is a film that really does push what they could do effects wise back in the late eighties with such a small budget. As they mix up all kinds of various effects techniques from using stop motion animation to what might be some very early either blue or green screen to however they did the melting bike with all of them looking really good and heck even the makeup effects look really good as well with Freddy looking just as good as he did in the second film with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film really did want to up the dream sequences from the previous two movies and what better way to do that then to show off all of these new effects and do them in a way where they still hold up all of these later as by all accounts the shot of Freddy standing tall above the hospital should look really dated and yet it's because of the fact that it was in such a cheap way that oddly enough adds charm to the effect and while stop motion animation will always look good seeing things like Freddy slicing a message into Joey in the real world or even a puppet Freddy coming to life will always so cool not because they were new but rather because of the fact that they added something to the overall plot of the film be it showing Freddy basically coming back to life in this film or in the case of the message scene just outright taunting our heroes and letting them no where they can find his soul if they want to come and find and rescue Joey and while granted this films effects won't look good when compared to the actually good MCU movies but for the time that they were made in the films effects do hold up really well with the same thing even being true for the make up effects with Freddy himself now sporting burn marks all over his body instead of just his face like he was in the first film.
There was one thing that came to mind when watching this film for the purposes of this review and that's the fact that all of the adults in this franchise really do treat there kids horribly when it comes to them being having these actually deadly nightmares. As Marge in the first film just gets as drunk as a skunk and puts bars all over the house so that Nancy can't escape Freddy in the dreamworld while Jesse's parents do at the very least try to believe him but because of the fact that they also have another kind to think about as well they really can't believe him fully less it also frighten her as well and Kirsten's mom will literally take her to see a doctor just to get her out of her hair all the while she's trying to sleep with anything with a pulse with her even refusing to comfort her daughter at the start of the movie when Kirsten outwardly says that she's still having these nightmares again and yet she puts herself first for no good reason which does make this franchise come across as being more like the parents paying for there sins then Freddy getting revenge on the parents as this is something that is present all throughout the films as in The Dream Master and to a much more lesser extent The Dream Child Alice and Rick's father is drinking himself into an early grave and outright hurls abuse at Alice at every chance that he gets , Lori's dad is trying to give her drugs which OK isn't a bad thing as there designed to help her but it's how he goes about it that's off and while there are no parents to the kids in Freddy's Dead the townsfolk act just as weird as all of the other adults in this franchise and while what all of the adults do in this film and in the other films does come from a place of love it's also something that we see have a very negative effect on their kids as there actions leads to them being attacked more by Krueger which leads to a good chunk of them dying.
This film does have a few negative things going against it like the fact that alot of the teens aren't that well developed as characters with alot of them just being there so that Freddy can have some victims and really nothing more then that. With the other thing being the fact that the character of Dr. Elizabeth Simms is a pretty pointless character as she's there to basically serve as a secondary villain to the characters only we never see them get any form of revenge on her and alot of what she says and does in the movie whilst yes it could be seen as her actively not helping her patients but it could also be seen as coming from a place of her just not understanding the situation as well with her not even having that big of a role in the films third act as the last tine we really see her character is her firing Neil and Nancy and that's it as she puts Kirsten in the "quiet room" off screen and she never shows up again in the film which makes you wonder why the makers of this film bothered to include her character in the film at all as you very easily could have had be apart of the Amanda Krueger subplot and it would work just as well but for whatever reason the makers of this film chose to have her in a role that makes her the secondary villain to our bunch of heroes and then for whatever reason they don't show the characters getting even the smallest amount of revenge on her which does make her seem like a pointless character and one that actively takes away from screen time that could have been spent in developing characters like Jennifer , Taryn or even Phillip all of whom don't really get that much of a chance to show us what there personality is in the first place.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty six minuets and thirty one seconds. Which to be fair to this film is a perfectly solid amount of running time for this film to have as this film really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time but at the same time tho this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as neither it's main plot of the Amanda Kreger subplot are that well developed as both of them feel like that there fighting each other for screen time and while of course the main plot of this film will always win nine time out of ten it still does mean that the we get two plots that aren't as well developed as they really could have been as you very easily could have had the Amanda Krueger subplot be apart of the main plot for the next film as here it just feels like padding when this film really didn't need it's running time padded out as the main plot is still strong enough to carry the entire film on it's own but because of the fact that the makers of this film felt like that this film needed padding we are stuck with a pointless subplot that does nothing but prevent the films main plot from the getting the development that it really did need with even the films main characters not really getting that much development of course characters like Don , Nancy and Freddy aren't really effected by this due to them being in the other Nightmare movies but this is something that still effect the films newer characters as alot of them do come across as being quite bland and one dimensional with Will being the typical nerdy character and Kinkaid being the typical character who always thinks with his muscles and not his brains and that's it while characters like Joey and even Kirsten to some extent do have more going on for them and get some character development the rest of them including Neil and Max sadly really don't get any of that love and attention but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a slasher film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that re actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With alot of this films kills being not only truly iconic kills in their right but are some of the best kills in the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise not because all of them are really gory as oddly enough not all of them are but it's due to how creative and how shocking alot of this films kills are and with Freddy still being the scary Freddy that alot of people still love to this very day and not the MTV loving , more jokey and pop culture loving Freddy that he would become in the later films which is something that does make the kills all the more frightening then what they had any right to be despite the fact that alot of this films kills feature next to gore in them with the films best kill of course going to the death of Jennifer as it's such an iconic kill that to say that any other kill in this film is the best kill would be a huge let down as Jennifer's kill not only featured a unique weapon being used in this case as TV set but it also has a darkly funny joke in it with the kill itself really being something that does come out of nowhere with the build to it being nice and slow so us the audience are now left wondering just how she's going to die with her kill making it painfully clear that the makers of this film put alot of thought and effort into giving us some really creative kills alot of which we really hadn't seen before in any other horror film and it's something that really does shine throughout in the final film as we get alot of the franchises best kills because of it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall it's not hard to see why this film is as beloved by the fans of this franchise as it is as it's still a really good film in it's own and while the franchise would start to very slowly go down hill after this film it doesn't change the fact that this film was and still is the best Nightmare sequel out there in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that ser in this very film in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official A Nightmare On Elm Street fandom wiki page , Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on the official I Know What You Did Last Summer fandom wiki page and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
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