A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

This is certainly one of the better "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels. For the most part the dream sequences strike the perfect balance of silly and spooky, this film expands upon the world of the original film, it stars young Patricia Arquette ("Boyhood") and Lawrence Fishburne ("The Matrix"), and best of all Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp, "New Nightmare") makes her triumphant return to the franchise. I won't say this is a great movie, but if you enjoy the franchise, then it's certainly worth a watch.

When a terrified teen named Kristen (Patricia Arquette) is been stalked by a killer in her dreams by the name of Freddy (Robert Englund). When she wakes up, without knowing that she slits her wrist. She been sent to a mental hospital for troubled teens. When a new young psychiatrist specializing in Dream Thearpy is by the name of Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). When Nancy finds out that Freddy stills haunt the frighten teens and knowing what Kristen is talking about. Most of the teens are now dreaming about the killer in their sleep. Nancy and Dr. Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson) are helping the teens to fight Freddy back with their dream powers and their help.

Directed by Chuck Russell (The Blob-1988, Eraser, The Mask) made an excellent scary sequel, which is closer to the spirit of the original Nightmare. This film has excellent visual effects are the highlight of this one, which is done by Oscar-Winning effects house "Dream Quest Images" (The Abyss, The Crow, Total Recall). This movie has good clever plot twists and it has the best cast from the series, including:Jennifer Rubin (Screamers), Bradley Gregg (Fire in the Sky), Rodney Eastman (The Caveman's Valentine), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix Trilogy), John Saxon (Enter the Dragon) and Priscilla Pointer (Carrie).

DVD has an strong anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer (also in Pan & Scan) and an excellent digitally remastered-Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD also has the original theatrical trailer, Jump to a Nightmare Opinion and Cast & Crew information. On the "Elm Street" Series Box Set in the eighth disc. The DVD has interviews with the Cast & Crew, a Music Video and Bits moments from MTV with Englund's appearance as Freddy.

This was a much bigger hit than the previous two "Elm Street" films. This film has amusing cameos by Dick Cavett and Sza Sza Gabor, who play themselves on Television in a memorable scene. Englund as Freddy has some amusing memorable one-liners. Written by Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, Shocker), Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Majestic, The Shawshank Redemption), director:Russell and Bruce Wagner (I'm Losing You). From a Story by Craven and Wagner. Do not miss this imaginatively directed flick. (****/*****).

Dream Warriors is without a doubt the best Elm Street sequel. The first 2 dealt with just one main character against Freddy and everyone else thinking they're crazy. But of course, after a while people start realizing they're all dreaming about Freddy. And If he can use their dreams against them, they can also use their dreams against him. Brilliant!

This is where the deaths became more elaborate and Freddy started to spout out catchy one-liners. A lot of people resent this film for starting the whole 'joker Freddy' trend, but this has just the right amount of Freddy wit to still have him be scary and threatening, which really he is.

This is the most exciting, thrilling, imaginative Freddy movie of the bunch. You have to see it to believe it.

My Rating: 6.5/10

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is the third installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It's actually one of the better sequels that I enjoyed. I was lucky enough to get the Nightmare on Elm Street series boxed DVD set for my birthday. So I've now seen all the sequels and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a decent sequel. Not to mention it was pretty cool to see Patricia Arquette's first big role, I can't believe a lot of these movies how many stars started out in this series. It was also a nice touch that they had Nancy back for this film. The deaths are gory and Freddy is back and meaner than ever! This time he's after the kids in the mental institution and he's not going to go easy on them at all.

Nancy has now grown up and she's become a therapist for dreams, she starts her work at the mental institution where she meets Kirsten, a girl who has the power to pull other people into her dreams. Kirsten is a bit scared of her powers though and knows that Freddy wants to use her so he could pretty much squish several bugs with one stomp. But Nancy knows that Freddy is up to his old ways and wants to help Kirsten along with the other teenagers at the hospital that Freddy is after, but hopefully she can do it before it's too late.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors has one of my favorite nightmare sequences. I loved the puppet on the strings, only, well, I won't spoil it, you're going to have to trust me when I say that this was a very cool death scene. This is a must see for the Nightmare on Elm Street fans of course, but even you're just looking for a good scare, I promise you that you'll get a few chills from watching this nightmare. Freddy isn't going light when it comes to scaring these kids... to death.

7/10

I've been a fan of Chuck Russell's films ever since his 1994 classic THE MASK. Each one of his movies have a strong amount of slickness and energy, especially A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS. It's one of the better 'ELM STREET' films in the series and was one of the cinematic highlights of 1987. Like THE LOST BOYS, which was also released in 1987, it has style, imagination, a good premise, and gore. It does have a few faults though. Some of the special effects are dated and look quite cheesy and the flick seems to rely more on blood than genuine scares at times. Also, while by no means terrible, Heather Langenkamp's performance is not quite up to par with her performance in the first 'ELM STREET' and NEW NIGHTMARE. Occasionally it feels like she's phoning it in. These faults don't hurt the movie too much. It's still a enjoyable horror picture that holds up relatively well today. It may not be as good as the first A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, but it's much better than most third installments are. I give it 7/10.