Short Attention Span Review - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Dream Warriors is a fan favorite for many reasons. Among them are an impressive cast for a late 80s horror flick, a lot of creativity, kooky effects, and director Chuck Russell filling in nicely for genre heavyweight Wes Craven. It also boasts a lively script, some of Englund's best work straddling the fence between horror and comedy, and a frantic pace. It is surely the best entry in this series that Craven didn't engineer, and it's a pretty damn good horror movie in general. I love the inventive kills, and there are some huge beats in the story. The only shortcomings are a few instances where there was a little too much cheese in the recipe and a couple of effects gags that miss the mark. Honestly, that's to be expected in a film of this ilk that aims to do so much, and there are way more hits than misses. The TV kill is one of my favorites, and the puppet sequence is also wicked. John Saxon's presence in the closing reel is a huge plus, and the subplot with the creepy but helpful nun is a nice touch. This is a really fun spookshow with a lot of substance, and while the first film from this franchise is much better (I do consider it to be a legitimate classic), Dream Warriors is as good as it got for Freddy beyond that. And that's good enough for me to show it some love here in the Land of Way.
Final Grade: B
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| Dream Warriors shines when emphasizing the creativity that always separated this franchise from the pack. |
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