A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise Reviews
- Le Gualt
- 7 hours ago
- 22 min read
A Nightmare on Elm Street was created by Wes Craven.
Produced by Robert Shay’s New Line Cinema.
The iconic slasher character Freddy Krueger is played by Robert Englund
Final girls include: Nancy Thompson, Jesse Walsh, Kristin Parker, Alice Johnson. Lori. Nancy Halbrook.
There are nine official films in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Seven that are in the canon narrative, a remake, and I’d consider New Nightmare a spin off.
New Nightmare has a great fan film, Dylan’s New Nightmares.
There was an anthology tv series, Freddy’s Nightmares. It ran for two seasons from 1988-1990 with a total of 44 episodes.
There is a 2003 crossover with Friday the 13th and that spun out into a comic series.
Freddy has appeared in other comics, films, commercials, and been homage in many tv shows such as Rick and Morty. That’s not even getting into merchandising.
All in all Freddy Kruger is a celebrity and this Nightmare franchise is, definitely, financially successful. Though, the films’ ROI certainly began to decrease… pretty significantly over the years.
I want to throw out that at least the first five films had posters painted by Matthew Joseph Peak. They are some of the most beautiful posters out there, really gorgeous.
Today I’m going to go over the films in the franchise. While I’m going to discuss all of them I am paying more attention to the seven connected films. Further, Freddy’s Revenge is my favorite of this franchise by far and today I am here to defend its honor. That’s right, buckle up, the rainbow express has pulled up!
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
IF NANCY DOESN’T WAKE UP SCREAMING, SHE WON’T WAKE UP AT ALL
Written and Directed by: Wes Craven
Composed by: Charles Bernstein
Effects by: David B. Miller
Released: November 16th 1984 by New Line
Budget: 1.8m Gross: 25.8m. 14.3x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio. 1981?. Yup, nothing good ever happens in Ohio.
The events of the film go as follows: high school student Tina is having nightmares. Her parents go out of town and she’s afraid to sleep alone so she asks her friends, Nancy, Glen, and her boyfriend Rod to spend the night. I like the friend group, they feel like they are real friends and it’s sweet that they’d come over to stay with Tina.
That night while sleeping Tina has another nightmare wherein we’re introduced to Robert England as the dream demon himself. We don’t know his name yet. He kills Tina very graphically… her body is being ripped open as she levitates up the walls and to the ceiling as Rod screams helplessly below. Very Poltergeist. This is the killer taking a life in a dream but also in the real, waking world, we can see the impossible happen in real life. So what happens in a dream has real world visible implications.
The police arrive as Rod runs away.
We discover Nancy’s father is Lt. Donald Thompson… and John Saxon the cop from Black Christmas.
Nancy is having nightmares too.
Rod is arrested and killed in prison in his dream - The killer manipulates the sheets to tie around the bars of the cell while Rod is sleeping so it looks like a suicide. Note: Freddy manipulates the real world here while Rod is asleep…
Nancy discovers that the killer is Fred Kruger, a dead child killer…
1968: Sixteen Years Ago: [Nancy is apx 15 years old - it’s 1984, so she was born in 1969]. The townsfolk took justice into their own hands by burning him alive in the boiler room he killed the children in. Which did them a lot of good.
Retcon! 1981-1968 is 13 years ago. So Nancy was about 2y/o.
“You wanna know who Fred Krueger was? He was a filthy child murderer who killed at least 20 kids in the neighborhood... kids we all knew. (...). It drove us crazy when we didn't know who it was, but it was even worse after they caught him. (...). Well, all the lawyers got fat and the judge got famous, but someone forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place and Krueger was free just like that. (...). A bunch of us parents got together and tracked him down. We found him in an old abandoned boiler room, where he used to take his kids. (...). We took gasoline and poured it all around the place and made a trail of it out the door. We lit the whole thing up and watched it burn. He's dead now. He's dead because Mommy killed him. (...).” - Marge.
Sidenote: I’m confused. Those twenty kids he murdered, were they young children? Those girls jumping rope are they his victims? Because going from young children to teenagers is unusual. I want to know more...
The little blonde girls in white rope jumping who sing the rhyme…:
One, two, Freddie's coming for you,
Three, four, better lock your door,
Five, six, grab your crucifix,
Seven, eight gonna stay up late,
Nine ten, never sleep again...
What’s up with them? Are they victims of Freddy’s? Are they sirens warning the teens that he’s coming? Or are they planted there by Freddy to mythologize himself and make his victims more afraid? It seems like he likes that? I Got Questions!
Anyway, Nancy’s mom, Marge, does her best to help her while also being a raging alcoholic. Nancy meanwhile is doing her best to stay awake and stay alive. Coffee is her bestie.
Glen is killed across the street from Nancy’s house… he’s swallowed by his bed and I assume juiced. Again though… Freddy is manipulating the real world…? Other people see Glen’s… remains…? What’s left of Glen. His mom clearly sees the blood floating to the ceiling. I know the extended cut has his body return up through the bed but the mom still saw the antithesis of gravity happening before that. She’s wide awake. Freddy is manipulating the real world!
Nancy tries to go into her dream and bring Fred out, like she did his hat in an earlier scene. She is successful and has booby trapped her house like she’s Kevin McAllister. She sets him on fire. Then Fred kills her mom so… I guess he gets the last laugh? RIP Marge. I am baffled by this death logistically… Freddy is in the real world. He runs upstairs and gets on top of Marge in bed while on fire. Lt. Daddy throws a blanket over their flaming bodies and pulls back to reveal the absolutely charred remains of Marge hovering over… I don’t even know… what was her bed and she slowly lowers into the hole as the bed returns to normal. So… is that not Freddy… in the real world… manipulating the real world? Because... How does he kill Marge? Was she dreaming about him? But, he’s in the real world? How did he turn her into a skeleton? Is this Nancy’s dream? Has the entire movie been a dream? Can he kill Marge in Nancy’s dream? Does the end even happen…? Guess we’ll find out in a few years… see you in Dream Warriors.
Fred comes out through the bed again. Then Nancy maybe ‘kills’ Fred by turning her back to him and taking away his power… very IT chapter two. Or rather she makes herself immune to him? I don’t know.
There is one last scene before the end. Nancy goes to school with Tina, Rod, and Glen while her Mom waves goodbye. The convertible’s top of the car raises to reveal it’s red and green stripped like Fred’s sweater and Nancy’s mom, Marge, is pulled through a window in the door.
I don’t know how we’re supposed to interpret the ending. It was very common from the late 70’s and beyond to have a scary scene at the end that doesn’t necessarily make any sense - see Carrie, Halloween, Friday the 13th, ect. We know Nancy survives but we also know Fred did too… and we know Marge did not.
But… it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But also, it totally does because dreams. shrugs
Male | Female | |
Victims: 4+20 | Rod. Glen. | Tina. Marge. |
Survivors: 2 | Lt. Dad | Nancy |
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE
THE MAN OF YOUR DREAMS IS BACK.
Directed by: Jack Sholder
Written by: David Chaskin
Composed by: Christopher Young
Special Effects: Kevin Yagher and Mark Shostrom
Released: November 1st 1985 by New Line
Budget: 3m Gross: 30m. 10x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio. 1986: Five years after the events of the first film
1428 Elm Street, Nancy’s old house, has just been bought by Jesse Walsh’s family. Freddy decides to… possess Jesse? This is pretty similar to the idea of Jason Goes to Hell.
Freddy is only in the film for about 15 minutes and we mostly see Jesse’s story (in fact Jesse is the only one even dreaming about Freddy).
Freddy uses Jesse to kill for him (also very Freddy vs Jason) and eventually comes into the real world. In Dream Child Freddy will try to be reborn. It’s not an uncommon plot: Lo Pan in BTILC, The Mayfair Witches, Voldemort, ect…
Jesse has a lady friend who bears a striking resemblance to Meryl Streep, Lisa, and a guy friend, Ron Grady.
I’ll note this film has a reputation. Honestly, I love this film. It’s my favorite in the franchise, because I love camp. Though I do think it’s a good stand alone film. It really is more of a possession story than a Freddy movie.
However… if you say you don’t like it because it doesn’t follow the rules, get all of the way out. You are repeating ready made criticism. Rules… It's a 80s-horror-movie. It’s a nonsense movie. There is NOTHING more 80s-horror than that. If you don’t like it because of tone shift kool, that I respect. You don’t like the pool scene, same. The first film has a darker tone for sure.
I think a lot of people don’t like the mood and tone of the movie because it’s specifically queer and that makes them uncomfortable so they fall back on ready made criticism because it’s easier and other people have said it so they feel like they can get a pass on their homophobia. Nope. I’m calling you out. Do better. Or at very least think for yourself. At bare minimum you’re lazy.
One thing you can’t argue is the effects were still good. I’d argue Freddy even looks better with those freaky eyes. And, Robert Englund’s performance was consistent from film to film.
Another thing about the rules… dreams don’t operate with a lot of rules; how one person dreams isn’t necessarily how another person does, even the same person’s dreams might not operate similarly from night to night. So maybe this movie is different because Jesse’s dreams are different from Nancy’s.
I’ve heard people critique the opening because Jesse looks worse than he does in the rest of the movie. Are you joking. It’s literally a dream. Maybe he’s insecure! Go watch Buffy. Damn. And that the bus drives off the road into the desert. It. Is. A. Dream! Once I had a dream the sky was a lava lamp. Do you have no creativity? Ugh.
Now are there inconsistencies that don’t make sense? Yeah! Why is Jesse the only person having dreams? Why did he have dreams before he knew about Freddy? Does Freddy love 1428 Elm Street? Is he attached to that house because Nancy dragged him into reality there so the line between the real world/dream world is blurred like Stranger Things? The blurred line between dreams and reality are more confusing in this film for sure. Also, how long has he lived there? If he’s new, why is he already friends with Lisa? Like, how did they meet?
The film has room for improvements. Such as that pool scene. I go back and forth on it. But I think it would be improved if the scene with the blue shirt guy who tried to talk Freddy down, when it cut back we didn’t see Freddy but rather Jesse.
One thing I hope we all agree on is that Jesse’s parents suck.
Anyway! As noted in my commentary on the first film… Freddy is 100% affecting the real world in that film. And a lot of things people are saying ‘break the rules’ aren’t actually established as cannon rules - they just don’t happen in the first film. Maybe Nancy bringing Freddy out of her dreams and into the real world changed the rules! This film doesn’t break any canon logic from the first film. And if it does… so what!?!
Do you like Friday the 13th part 2… well news flash that movie doesn’t make any sense when looked at the canon, explicit, textual history from the first film. You don’t care about the rules. You don’t. So stop using that as a complaint and really think about why you don’t like this film.
Mark Patton has one of the best screams in horror. I’ll stand by that. But the idea that he made the film queer - which the writer of the film accused - is ridiculous. Films have a language. In the language of cinema we accept the lead of a slasher film as a feminine role. By positioning a teen male in that role, he is almost automatically made effeminate.
Look at Child’s Play and Friday the 13th part 4 - they had to age the male lead down to pre-pubescence. Sure we follow Tommy Jarvis and Andy Barkley but Andy remains young and while Tommy is aged up he is also unhinged mentally…. Lastly, The Burning and the teen male lead is depicted as a scrawny nerdy type, less physically likely to be able to defend himself.
Then the Coach Snider of it all. The leather bar. And the prop department. It clearly would have overt queer text regardless of the Jesse of it all. Oh and on that, queer coded? Coach Snider is textually, in-world, clearly a gay man. But, that does bring up the homophobia of the film. Snider is, not predatory, he’s a sadist? Freddy is giving predatory… but we’re not ready for the ‘Freddy is bi’ conversation.
Here is where it gets complicated. Because once again I’m left to ask… how are we meant to interpret the ending scare? Freddy seems to have fully taken over Jesse, but Lisa with the power of love (or friendship) is able to bring Jesse back. Woohoo. But, we get a final stinger where we find Jesse back on the bus like in the opening scene with Robert Englund as the bus driver. Jesse is still haunted by Freddy. Jesse wasn’t saved.
Like the first film the ending to this one is ambiguous and it’s uncertain if anyone survives or not but Jesse is never mentioned again in the franchise.
Male | Female | |
Victims: 5+ | Coach Snider. Ron. 3 at pool party? | (Lisa's friend on bus in dream?) |
Survivors: 2? | Jesse | Lisa |
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS
IF YOU THINK YOU’LL GET OUT ALIVE, YOU MUST BE DREAMING
Directed by: Chuck Russell
Written by: Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont, ^
Composed by: Angelo Badalamenti
Shout out to Dokken for the song Dream Warriors. It goes hard!!!
Effects by: team led by Peter Chesney and included Kevin Yagher and Mark Shostrom.
Released: February 27th 1987 by New Line
Budget: apx 4.5m Gross: 44.8m. 9.95x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio: Westin Hills. 1987: One year after Freddy’s Revenge
Nancy Thompson, the survivor from the first film is back! In the last film it was said her mother took her own life and she was institutionalized. I guess that was a rumor? In this film they say her mom died in the living room. No really, what happened to Marge!?! ???
In the past six years Nancy earned a psychology degree. She’s recently gotten a job at Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital in Springwood, where Freddy is terrorizing teens.
We learn Nancy is taking a dream preventative drug, Hypnocil… and I’m sure that’s totally good to use long term. Ok… so are we supposed to infer from this, that if she didn’t take Hypnocil that she’d still be haunted by Freddy in her dreams?
Our new main character is Kristen - played by Patrcia Arquette, who can pull people into her dreams. The cast is rounded out by Dr. Gordon, Philip (sleepwalking punk), Kincaid (a tough guy), Jennifer (wannabe actress), Will (nerdy DND wizard boy), Taryn (drug addict, and in her dreams, she’s Baaad), Joey (non-verbal sweet boy).
Nancy empowers the children to take charge of their dreams. That’s a very kool idea and the effects in this movie are phenomenal. It’s a creative story.
This film explains Freddy’s back story. He was the son of a Nun (Amanda Kruger) who was accidentally locked into a room in an asylum where she was assaulted. This led to Freddy being called “the bastard son of 100 maniacs.”
Her tomb reads: 1907-1968. She died the same year as Freddy… huh.
1942?: Frederick Kruger was born (more on that later). (1942-1968… 26 years old?)
I hate this. So much. It falls back on rather cruel and lazy ideas that some people have a genetic predisposition to violence and that’s not founded in evidence. Further the idea that the child of a sexual assault would go on to also do that is… disgusting. Hate it.
So… apparently the characters are the last kids of Elm Street… what? No. I know. I’m sorry. But, what? I am so confused by his backstory. Were the only kids Freddy killed confined to a single street? How big is that street? Or, were all the people who killed him residents of Elm Street? For that matter! We know Nancy’s parents Don and Marge specifically were involved in Freddy’s death. But, Nancy was 15, and he was killed 16 years prior. They weren’t even parents then! [Retcon]. Were Tina, Rod, and Glen’s parents also involved? He was killed apx 19 years ago at this point. These kids are even younger… why would their parents have been involved? Why don’t we ever see the parents of the twenty kids Freddy killed! That would be SO interesting!!!
Does Freddy just have an obsession with this specific street? Have all the teens from Elm Street been institutionalized by the third film? Was the CDC not called, because at this point Dr. Gorden should be considering an environmental factor.
This is a good movie, with fantastic effects and creativity off the wall… but the logic is just not mathing. I’m sorry it’s not.
A lot of my issues with this backstory would be alleviated if his death was moved up from 1968 to like 1975 (this should have happened when Nancy was school aged). Further, adding more involvement of the parent’s backstories, beyond only Nancy’s. The writers got a little too focused on the Elm Street part of the title.
Anyway Nancy’s Dad, Officer Daddy, and Dr. Gordon pull a Supernatural and dig up Freddy’s bones, pour holy water on them, toss in a crucifix, and burn them.
In the junkyard the cars begin to start and Freddy’s skeleton raises in what I assume is a homage to Ray Harryhausen. It looks spectacular. I love this scene. However. How? No. Nooooo. Think about it. How? How is Freddy doing this? Who’s dream is he in? It’s almost like… Freddy can affect the real world and this totally tracks with what we see in Freddy’s Revenge!
To back it up. Dr. Gordon is haunted by Amanda Kruger’s ghost. What’s up with that? Why is that a thing? How is that a thing? Is she a dream angel? I’m kool with it but I’m not sure the logic. It's a bit of a hat on a hat. It seems the more I break it down that there are solid rules. Like an 80s horror movie they just did stuff that looked kool, and for that they get an A+.
Ok, so this is more for thematics. I do comprehend that. But, a ghost and a dream demon is a bit much. Can Freddy also be a ghost? Is that how his skeleton fought at the junk yard? Is Freedy simultaneously a dream demon AND a ghost?
I feel like if we got a novelization they’d need to color code it dream world v real world like The NeverEnding Story.
Anyway! Back at the plot. Freddy kills Officer Daddy, Nancy, some of the teens, and is ultimately defeated but we’re left with a scene implying Freddy still isn’t dead… again…
Male | Female | |
Victims: 6 | Lt Dad, Will, Taryn, Philip | Nancy, Jennifer |
Survivors: 4 | Dr Gordon, Kincaid, Joey | Kristin |
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: DREAM MASTER
TERROR BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Written by: Brian Helgeland, + 2 others.
Composed by: Craig Safan
Effects by: Howard Berger, John Carl Buechler, Screaming Mad George, ect
Released: August 19th 1988 by New Line
Budget: 6.5m Gross: 49.4m. 7.6x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio. 1988: A year after the events of Dream Warriors.
*this was filmed during a WGA strike
The surviving Dream Warriors, Kristen, Joey, and Kincaid return! Then they all die. So that happened. This franchise really is pretty uninterested in having survivors. 80s’ horror movies hadn’t really developed the cinematic language of franchises yet. It was still very fast and loose from one installment to the next.
Oh note on Kincaid’s death. Firstly, the black guy dies first… come on man. Secondly, why is he dreaming about Freddy’s gravesite at the junkyard from the last movie? Why do we need to be there for Freddy to be back? Why is the dog in the dream? Can’t Freddy just be back? Kincaid didn’t actually dig him up? Like it’s all in the dream! What’s the point? And there are no rules. STFU about ‘the rules’.
Oh and I’m just going to throw out, it’s interesting to me how many boys Freddy kills in bed. I will not say anything else about it.
Anyway we do see that Kristen has made some friends in high school and the perspective shifts to focus on them, most of whom also die. Specifically we focus on Alice Johnson who Kristen transfers her powers to.
Other friends include: Alice’s brother Rick, Shelia, Debbie, and Dan
Alice is a shy daydreaming with a crappy 80s dad. Alice ‘inherits’ her friend’s talents as they’re killed. This actually does make sense in the context of the film. However, in Dream Warriors the characters are empowered in their dreams, whereas in this movie people had real life practical abilities like Ricky does Martial Arts, Shelia is inventive, Debbie works out, and Jock Dan is a himbo. Why the change up? I don’t know, but the characters are killed by their hobbies, which is inventive and I liked that.
Alice and Freddy battle in the dream world over Dream Gates…. Freddy is the guardian of the gate of bad dreams and Alice releases all the souls he trapped into the gate of good dreams, by forcing him to face his reflection or something. I don’t know. It looked SO cool and creepy though. Linea Quiggly is in it.
This movie definitely gets an A+ for effects.
As standard our last scene shows Freddy is still around…
I liked how Alice got emboldened as the movie went on, kind of a major bummer that her friends had to die for her to grow a backbone. I also really enjoyed the dreams in this movie. Alice’s nightmare that she spends the rest of her life working in a crappy diner is so relatable!
Male | Female | |
Victims: 6 | Kincaid. Joey. Rick. | Kristen. Shelia. Debbie |
Survivors: 2 | Dan | Alice |
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: DREAM CHILD
FREDDY DELIVERS
Directed by: Stephen Hopkins
Written by: Leslie Bohem (story by 2 others)
Composed by: Jay Ferguson
Effects by: KNB - Howard Berger (David B Miller?)
Released: August 11th 1989 by New Line
Budget: 8m Gross: 22.1m. 2.76x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio. 1989: a year after the events of Dream Master
We see the two survivors, Dan and Alice, from Dream Master return.
They are graduating high school.
So Freddy’s back again. The Freddy-baby puppet was an entire choice, and a hard no for me. I detest gyno horror. Sigh. The music slaps though.
We get more on Freddy’s origins as Amanda Kruger’s ghost is helping Alice… both affect her while she’s awake I think? Is that right? I’m not confident that’s right. I didn’t mention it but Amanda Kruger’s ghost helped Dr. Gordon in Dream Warriors - he was totally awake. So these movies DO have ghosts…
It turns out the Dream Master, Alice, is pregnant with Dan’s son and that the baby has dream powers that Freddy gave him. I think. Also Dan is killed. RIP Dan. the motorcycle transformation is very kool.
The baby’s name is Jacob and he appears to Alice in her dreams as like a 10 year old. He defeats Freddy with Amanda’s help. Yes he is played by the little boy from Jurassic Park who doesn’t think Velociraptors are scary.
Oh now Alice has new friends: Greta, Mark, and Yvonne. WHO ARE THEY!?! Why is she involving them? WTF? Charge this woman with murder. You know what, Kristin too! I know we need victims but is there not a better way to do it!?!
Oh how old is Alice supposed to be? It’s been a year since Dream Master, she should still be in high school. She was Rick’s younger sister, she couldn’t have been a senior? We don’t know her, and that’s on 80s-horror. So I’ll move past the nitpicking.
While the ending is odd it does… no it’s just odd, I can’t redeem it. Having him be… reabsorbed? into Amanda’s womb is also A CHOICE! And I hate it.
The effects, as always, are still good but we certainly are getting more and more… it’s creative but goofy at the same time. The ideas are executed well but they’re lame.
Freddy comes out of Alice’s body in a way that is very reminiscent of Jesse. I’m just throwing that out there.
In the end Alice and Jacob live. As always we get a hint Freddy is still around - this time by the jump roping girls.
I don’t have much to say about this movie. I don’t like it. Sorry.
Male | Female | |
Survivors: 3 | Dan. Mark. | Greta. |
Victims: 3 | Jacob. | Yvonna. Alice. |
FREDDY'S DEAD, THE FINAL FRIDAY
THEY SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST
Directed by: Rachel Talalay. Of the 9 Nightmare, 10 Friday, and 13 Halloween films… this is the only single one to be directed by a woman.
Written by: Michael De Luca + ^
Composed by: Brian May
Effects by: John Carl Buechler
Released: September 13th 1991 by New Line
Budget: apx 9-11m Gross: 34.9m. 3.49x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio. 1999: Ten years after Dream Child.
Freddy is trapped in Springwood where all the teenagers, save one, are dead and the adults have lost their minds.
Fun Fact! Roseanne and Tom Arnold make guest appearances.
Freddy literally threw the last teenager, who will be known as John Doe, out of Springwood. He has amnesia and is taken to a shelter in the neighboring town.
There he is helped by Maggie, a social worker. She also is looking after: Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos.
In Fred’s adulthood he married, had a daughter, worked at a power plant, and in his spare time operated as the Springwood Slasher by killing children. He killed around twenty kids in the neighborhood before being arrested. Due to a technicality he was released back into the public. Only to be killed in 1968.
Apparently he also killed his wife… by I guess we don’t talk about that…
Freddy’s adoptive father is played by Alice Cooper, which is funny that he’s involved in the sixth installment of Nightmare, as he was also involved in the sixth installment of Friday. Jason Lives’ soundtrack is a banger.
(31 years later)? Maggie is Kathryn Krueger! Shock and Ah!
Freddy kills some of the teens at the shelter, we see how Springwood has become creepier than Silent Hill, and John Doe dies without learning his name (Damn! That’s depressing. I really wanted to know about him!).
Anyway, something about Dream Demons and then Freddy is pulled into the real world Nancy style. Maggie kills Freddy with the help of 3D glasses. It makes sense.
Credits Roll.
FUN FACT: this ‘final’ film came out September, Friday the 13th. Coincidence?
Hey, no ending stinger. Kool.
Male | Female | |
Victims: 3+2 past | John Doe. Spencer. Carlos. (adoptive father) | (Loretta Kruger) |
Survivors: 3 | Doc | Maggie. Tracy. |
FREDDY VS JASON
WINNER KILLS ALL
Directed by: Ronny Yu
Written by: Damian Shannon + Mark Swift
Composed by: Graeme Revell
Effects by:
Released: August 15th 2003 by New Line
Budget: 30m Gross: 116.6m. 3.88x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio + Crystal Lake, New Jersey. 2003, Four years after Freddy’s Dead
It’s been four years since Freddy has really been able to properly massacre some teens and he’s getting angsty. Springwood has had time to heal, teens move back in, anyone who talks about Freddy is sent to Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital and given Hypnocil to prevent dreams. Freddy is ‘dead’ and in Hell with Jason, hey both their previous titles were true, what do you know.
Freddy is able to resurrect Jason… who I guess is just buried waiting to come back.
While Springwood learned their lessons about precautions, obviously Crystal Lake did not. Way to screw it up for everyone Jersey.
Jason somehow gets to Springwood. He kills some teens and lets Freddy take the credit so he can get back to some dream action. I guess Freddy just lucked out that some of his former almost-victims broke out of Westin Hills and started to tell people about him. Weird random happenstance.
However, the teens figure out what’s happening and pit the two big bads against one another like Kaiju… neither of them win but both are decommissioned.
Side: Will saw Freddy murder Lori’s mother but he saw Freddy in the visage of Lori’s father... who’s dream was that in? Will’s, then why was someone else killed? Lori’s Mom’s, then how did Will see it? It’s almost like Freddy’s Revenge is totally in-line with the franchise. Because there are no rules! Thank you.
OH and Freddy possesses people in this too!
This leaves two survivors, Lori and Will.
Male | Female | |
Freddy's Victims: 1 +2 past | Mark + (brother) | (Lori's mom) |
Survivors: 2 | Will | Lori |
FREDDY VS JASON VS ASH
While a film adaptation was never created, these three franchises do take place in the same universe. There is a 6 issue comic book series that I highly recommend that picks up with the survivors Lori and Will. It is mostly from Ash’s (from Evil Dead) perspective.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
WELCOME TO YOUR NEW NIGHTMARE.
Directed by: Samuel Bayer
Written by: Wesley Strick + Eric Heisserer
Composed by: Glen Scantlebury
Effects by:
Released: April 30th 2010 by New Line + Platinum Dunes
Budget: 35m Gross: 117.7m. 3.36x the budget.
Location: Springwood, Ohio 2010 I guess…
This version did not do so well.
This adaptation played up Freddy’s misdeeds, making him not only a child murder but a pedophile too. While the ‘84 version implied this. This movie makes it not only canon but contextual. We see this play out on screen. That was a horrible mistake.
The decision to make his burn scares more realistic was also a terrible mistake.
The CGI usage was not done well. This franchise has amazing kills and unique surreal dream sequences… this movie really lacks creativity. There is a way to walk back the lighter tone the later films progressed to without doing it in this angsty teen way. This movie failed on every aspect.
Then we get to the cast. Lawrd. Unfortunate. I don’t think Jackie Earle Haley was right. To me if the actor has to act scary, it won’t feel scary on screen. It’s more the set up and depiction around the actor that’s scary. Once they put effort into trying to be intimidating, they aren’t. It’s an easy mistake to make. Robert Englund’s Freddy was having fun! He enjoyed scaring people and killing them. And that came across.
Back to the plot… I guess.
Once again he is burned alive by the parents of Springwood; one of whom is Clancy Brown. This time he isn’t a killer who gets off on a technicality. The parents don’t even notify the police at all. They just kill him. deep sigh. That’s also a terrible choice.
Freddy returns to haunt the dreams of the children he abused and kills them in their sleep. JEEZ! That is a sick plot. Really. No wonder it didn’t get a sequel.
Further, this movie goes down the repressed memories route. Deep Breath. I HATE THIS! It’s some Michelle Remember, Freudian nonsense not backed by evidence based science. That’s not how trauma works. At all. It’s frustrating to watch. Repressed memories are really a thing, certainly not how it’s shown here and the idea an entire class would repress the memory of something that traumatic… not how it works.
Even holding breath that it could be a false accusation. Always listen to a child when they say something like this. Also false accusations don’t often happen and certainly not for kindergarten aged children. I know this is alluding to the McMartin Preschool Trial but those kids didn’t make a false accusation that ruined people’s lives. Adults lead them to nonsense and they were kids.
How child abuse is treated by this screenwriter is straight up inappropriate, it’s beyond incorrect, it perpetuates dangerous incorrect ideas then walks them back to make the lead of the film a pedo…. A lot of men worked on this film and it shows.
I don’t care about survivors.
I don’t have a single positive thing to say about this movie. We’re moving on.
Male | Female | |
Victims: 3+ | Dean. Jesse. | Kris. (Mom?) |
Survivors: 2 | Quentin | Nancy Halbrook |
WES CRAVEN'S A NEW NIGHTMARE
THIS TIME THE TERROR DOESN’T STOP AT THE SCREEN.
Written and Directed by: Wes Craven
Composed by: J. Peter Robinson
Effects by:
Released: October 14th 1994 by New Line
Budget: 8m Gross: 19.8m. 2.475x the budget.
Location: Los Angeles
A decade after the first film, Wes Craven brought this into reality. I mean that literally.
This is not about Freddy Krueger so much as it is about the real actors from the first film in fictionalized versions of theirselves. Heather Langenkamp who played Nancy, Wes Craven, and Robert Englund as Freddy, even the producer Robert Shay.
It’s is SO meta. They even use Northridge.
The actors/director are hunted by the movie monster they created. Yup, Freddy is real!
I don’t consider this part of the actual timeline.
Kool movie though, and Robert Englund looks DAMN GOOD in that make up.
DYLAN'S NEW NIGHTMARE
Is an awesome short I would absolutely recommend by Womp Stomp Films, its a continuation of New Nightmare with the same actor, Mike Hughes, who played Dylan.
Youtube link.
Comments