REVIEW: FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE

[Brian L. Johnson]

[Followups directed to rec.arts.movies. -Moderator]

FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1991 Ken Johnson

89 min, R, Horror, 1991
Director: Rachel Talalay
Cast: Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, Shon Greenblatt, Lezlie Deane,
Yaphet Kotto, Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper

Supposedly the last Elm Street film finds Freddy, Englund, in a
problem. He has killed off all the kids but one in his hometown of
Springfield. This one kid is Freddy's only link to kids everywhere
else. The kid escapes the town of Springfield. The kid gets amnesia on
the road and when he gets picked up and brought to a children's shelter
all he can remember is that his dreams can kill him. All he has with
him is some money, some pills to keep him awake, and a newspaper
clipping from the town of Springfield. One of the staff at the
children's shelter wants to bring the kid to Springfield to see if
anything sparks the kid's memory there. The staff member is warned by
Kotto, a dream psychologist, that the kid's dreams are dangerous and
may, somehow, be linked to the town of Springfield.

FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE is rated R for explicit
language and graphic violence. I give the film a three (on a zero to
five scale). It has good 3-D effects which were not as good as FRIDAY
THE 13TH - PART 3 and CAPTAIN EO (the film that is currently being shown
at The Epcot Center building "Journey into Imagination"). FREDDY'S DEAD
has reasonably good special effects, but they aren't up to the level of
the effects in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD.

The ads for FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE say "See Freddy die
in Freddy Vision." These ads should be taken literally, as you find out
when you get the 3-D glasses. The 3-D glasses state on them that the
glasses should only be put on when the girl in the film puts hers on, so
it turns out that only the last fifteen minutes are in 3-D. The 3-D
effects, like I said before, are quite good. The one part of the 3-D
that I was disappointed in was that the 3-D scheme used was the old red
and blue glasses instead of the new polarized technology.

This is the first NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET film not to start the
title with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The film is almost a parody of
the Elm Street series instead of being a true sequel. Robert Englund
puts nice comic touches into the gruesome Freddy, but the film is not
nearly as good as the first Nightmare film. Roseanne Barr and her real
life husband Tom Arnold have a cameo as a husband and wife team in
Springfield and metal rocker Alice Cooper has a cameo as Freddy's
father. If you are a fan of the Elm Streets series I urge you to see
FREDDY'S DEAD in the theater because the video will probably not be in
3-D. If you are not a fan of the series and are interested in seeing a
funny Nightmare movie or you are interested in "Seeing Freddy bite the
big one" you might go see it at the theater, or you might wait for it to
come to video.