A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3:
Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Chuck Russell
Produced by Robert Shaye
Screenplay by
Story by
Based on Characters
by Wes Craven
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Angelo Badalamenti
Dokken
Cinematography Roy H. Wagner
Edited by Terry Stokes
Chuck Weiss
Production
company
Heron Communications
Smart Egg Pictures
Distributed by New Line Cinema1
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • February 27, 1987 (1987-02-27)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $4.5 million
Box office $44.7 million (United States)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 American slasher fantasy film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell, written by original creator Wes Craven and co-written by Bruce Wagner, and starred Craig Wasson, Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and Patricia Arquette in her first role.[1] It is the sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and is followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.

Plot

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Late one night, a young girl named Kristen Parker is up late working on a papier-mâché house. Drinking diet soda and caffiene, she appears to be forcing herself to stay awake until her mother Elaine enters the room and scolds her to go to bed. Objecting, Kristen obeys her mother and goes to sleep before revealing the papier-mâché house is actually 1428 Elm Street, the home of Freddy Krueger. She awakens at the house, and follows a little girl into its cellar where the little girl ominously claims "Freddy's home." Kristen grabs the girl and attempts to escape, but finds several teenagers and the little girl are all dead before waking up. She goes to her bathroom, where Freddy attacks her again and slashes her wrists, her mother discovers her and believes it to be a suicide attempt. Being rushed to Westin Hospital, Kristen is at first violent when the doctors try to sedate her. She is calmed when an intern therapist Nancy Thompson appears, earning her trust by completing Freddy's Nursery Rhyme. Impressing the resident doctor with the most compassion toward the teenagers; Neil Gordon.

Nancy, who is expected to help aid in the care of the "last" of the Elm Street Children is introduced to Philip; a habitual sleep walker, Kincaid; a tough kid from the streets. In a group session she meets the rest of the group; Jennifer, a budding television actress. Taryn, a former drug addict. Will; a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast who attempted suicide, ending up paraplegic, and Joey, a former school debater who was so traumatized by his nightmares that he refuses to speak. That night, Kristen has a nightmare and Freddy attacks her. Calling on a long-forgotten power, Kristen calls Nancy into her dream who comes to her defense and they escape. The next day, she discusses her power, which she hasn't used since she was a little girl. The following night, Philip is walked like a puppet by Freddy under the guise of sleepwalking and he is led up to the high tower and falls to his death in front of the other teens. Upset over his loss the following night, Jennifer begs the orderly Max to let her stay in the TV room, but falls asleep and Freddy possesses the TV as she approaches it and grabs her, smashing her head into it and killing her too.

Neil begins to lose hope, but meets a nun named Mary Helena, who comforts him. Nancy suggests using Hypnocil; an experimental drug that suppresses dreams. Initially, he refuses, but when Kincaid causes an outburst that subjects him to sedation, he tells his boss Elizabeth Simms that he is prescribing Hypnocil and she defiantly allows it. Nancy fills the teens in on Freddy's history and encourages them through group hypnosis to experience a shared dream and they each discover their dream powers except for Joey, who wandered off and is captured by Freddy, leaving his body in a comatose state. Their acts get Neil and Nancy fired by the administrator Carver; but as Neil is leaving, he sees Mary Helena again, who claims that Freddy's bones must be laid to rest. Nancy goes to the only man who would know where his bones were hidden; her father Don Thompson. Meanwhile Kristen has an outburst over Nancy being fired and is sentenced to sedation in the quiet room, Taryn contacts Nancy who rushes back to the hospital while Neil and Don go to find Freddy's bones, buried in an auto salvage yard. Nancy meets with the others who volunteer for group hypnosis to meet with Kristen, but they are quickly divided. Taryn and Will are subsequently killed by Freddy while Kirsten, Nancy and Kincaid find one another and are lured down to find Joey, rescuing him but discovering that Freddy is stronger because of the souls he has collected. Sensing his bones are being disturbed, Freddy embodies them and attacks, knocking Neil out and killing Don on the fin of the Cadillac he had been buried in. He returns and attacks the others, but Joey discovers his dream power and saves them. Don appears to tell Nancy he is crossing over, but he reveals to be Freddy in disguise and he brutally stabs Nancy with his glove, trapping Kristen in the room with him. As he is about to kill Kristen, Nancy uses the last of her strength to stop him. At the same time, Neil consecrates Freddy's bones, finally destroying him. Kristen cries over Nancy, promising to send her into a beautiful dream forever and ever while Joey and Kincaid watch sullen.

At Nancy's funeral, Neil sees Mary Helena again and goes after her, discovering her tombstone. Her tombstone reveals her to be Amanda Krueger, Freddy's mother. That night, asleep near the papier-mâché house Kristen made and a Malaysian Dream Doll that Nancy had given him, Neil does not notice the lights in the house come on and Freddy's laugh coming from within.

Cast

Production

Elm Street creator Wes Craven, who did not participate in the first sequel and did not want the first film to evolve into a franchise, had intended for this film to end the series, but its success prompted a continuation.

Craven's very first concept for this film was to have Freddy Krueger invade the "real" world, emerging to haunt the actors filming a new Elm Street sequel. New Line Cinema rejected this metacinematic idea at the time, but years later, Craven's concept was finally brought to the screen with Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

The "dream suppressant" drug Hypnocil which Neil researches is also featured and written into this film, yet more prominently figures in Freddy vs. Jason and is mentioned in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. The psychiatric hospital Westin Hills reappears in both A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Freddy vs. Jason.

In interviews with cast and crew in the DVD extras, it is revealed that the original idea for the film centered around the phenomenon of children traveling to a specific location to commit suicide, with dreams of Freddy Krueger eventually discovered to be a common link between the youths. Suicide, at the time, was a taboo social issue and this led to the abandonment of that storyline, though some aspects remained within the filmed version which still depicts suicide and self-mutilation, though they were deemed less controversial because these acts are committed with Freddy's distinct influence, inserting enough fantasy into the acts to remove it from the supposed controversial exploitation of disturbed youths in America.

In the original script by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner the characters were somewhat different from what was eventually filmed. Nancy was not a dream expert nor any kind of mental health professional, Kristen stayed in the institution for only a while and had a father, Neil's last name was Guinness and he was much younger, Dr. Simm's last name was Maddalena, Taryn was African-American, Joey was the one who built the model of a house and had trouble getting around (although he did not use a wheelchair), and Philip was a thirteen-year-old. Will's name was originally Laredo, he had long hair, did not use a wheelchair, and was the one who made the clay puppets. This script also showed the ranch house where Krueger was born, and is the house that shows up in their dreams rather than the Elm Street house. Contrary to the film, Lt. Donald Thompson knows from the start that Krueger is real and still alive. He had been missing and Nancy was intent on finding him, she finds him and learns that he was obsessed with finding the Krueger house and burning it down. In the original script, there is a romance between Nancy and Neil and they eventually have sex. There are scenes and lines that are very reminiscent of the first film. There is no talk of Krueger's mother having been a nun or Freddy being "the bastard son of a hundred maniacs", and both Joey and Kincaid are killed. The deaths in this script were much more grotesque, with Krueger not as talkative and more vulgar. Freddy is killed by Nancy by using his own glove, not by holy water. In Jeffrey Cooper's novelization The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, 3: The Continuing Story (1987), the original Craven/Wagner version of the Nightmare 3 script is adapted, rather than the Russell/Darabont rewrite. Thus the book version of the story is fairly different from the finished film.

Music

The theme song of the movie, "Dream Warriors", was written and performed by the American heavy metal band Dokken. The success of the single led to the following sequels to include a heavy metal song in its soundtrack.

In the original VHS release of the film, during the opening sequence, a hard rock instrumental version of the song "Quiet Cool" is playing. The original version of that song, performed by Joe Lamont, was written for the movie with the same name in 1986. When Dream Warriors was released on DVD, the song that was on the original theatrical release, "Into the Fire" by Dokken, was reinserted.

Banned in Queensland, Australia

In the Australian state of Queensland, Dream Warriors was banned by the then Bjelke-Petersen government due to its drug references, particularly the scene where Freddy's glove becomes a number of syringes as he injects Taryn with an amphetamine overdose. In 1990, the newly elected Goss government abolished the Queensland Film Board of Review. Consequently, Dream Warriors became available to Queenslanders through normal market channels rather than just through sympathetic video rental stores. The Australian public at the time thought the ban was absurd, as the film was not very graphic.

Reception

Box office

The film was released theatrically in the United States by New Line Cinema in February 1987. It opened in 1,343 theaters, grossing $8.9 million and debuting at number 1 during its opening weekend. It eventually made $44,793,222 at the domestic box office,[2] making it both the highest grossing film for the studio that year and the 24th highest grossing film of 1987.[3] It is the third highest grossing of the original Nightmare movies after Freddy vs. Jason and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.[4]

Critical reception

The critical reception of Dream Warriors was very positive, especially when compared to the first sequel. It has an approval rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 professional reviews. It is usually considered one of the best Nightmare films[citation needed] but still received some negative reviews from critics because of the comedic themes present in the film; director Chuck Russell said in an interview he felt it needed to be taken down a different path, making Freddy fun to keep the audience entertained instead of being dark tone and scary over and over again.[5]

Many fans of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise rate this film as their favorite out of the series[citation needed], specifically for its special effects, a new comedic tone for Freddy Krueger, the return of Nancy Thompson from the first film, the theme song of the same name by heavy metal band Dokken, celebrity cameos such as Dick Cavett and Zsa Zsa Gabor and Wes Craven returning as co-writer and executive producer. Both Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp[citation needed] have even stated themselves that this film is the fans' favorite.

Accolades

1988 Saturn Awards
Fantasporto Awards 1988
  • International Fantasy Film Award Best Film – Chuck Russell (Nomination)
  • Critics Awards: Special Mention – Chuck Russell (Won)

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The film's distribution rights were transferred to Warner Bros. in 2008.

References

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  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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