The films I'll be watching are Freddy's Dead : The Final Nightmare, Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Freddy .vs. Jason.
If you have been following this blog over the past few days, you'll know that my enjoyment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series of movies ended around the time of the fifth film. I haven't seen Freddy's Dead or Freddy .vs. Jason and - if memory serves correctly - I wasn't too fussed on Wes Craven's New Nightmare so the next few paragraphs should make for interesting reading.
Freddy's Dead : The Final Nightmare
Here's a joke : what do you get when you cross A Nightmare on Elm Street with Twin Peaks?
The answer - Freddy's Dead : The Final Nightmare.
I didn't like hate on this film as much I did with Nightmare 5. With that said, I don't think it is possible to reach the depths that The Dream Child descended to.
The story was kind of goofy. Freddy is trying to find his long-lost daughter - she happens to be a counsellor at a young person's hostel / care home so - as you would expect - Freddy tries going through the children to finally get to his daughter.
The Twin Peaks reference I made is about a part in the movie where the hostel worker and her clients end up in Springwood where the original movies were based. Springwood has changed in that only adults reside there because they live in feat of Freddy.The weirdo characters found in this scene reminded me of Twin Peaks.
I recall this movie came out in 3D when it was released in the cinemas. The last part of the film has a lot of effects that made use of the glasses. These effects were not necessary. For instance, they had three flying worms flying in and out of Freddy through the movie. These wormy snake things had apparently possessed Freddy and were the reason why he was able to haunt people in their dreams.
Well, I think that's what they did. They seemed to just be there for the sake of it, if you ask me.
Like I noted earlier, it wasn't a good film. It certainly wasn't the worst in the series.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
This movie saw Wes Craven - the creator of A Nightmare on Elm Street - return to the series for the first time since the third film.
It had quite the bizarre twist to it, too.
The gist of the story goes like this - Heather Langenkamp (Nancy from Nightmares 1 & 3) is asked by Wes Craven to reprise the role of Nancy so as to exorcise the Freddy Krueger character who happens to be haunting Heather, Wes and - Freddy actor - Robert Englund in reality.
Quite far fetched, eh?
Langenkamp has to protect her son from the spirit of Freddy. It was a darker baddie. Just like how he was in the original. No wise cracks here.
All I did throughout the film was wonder if it was her real son. The lines were so blurred that I started questioning whether she had a son in real-life or whether it was artistic license.
All I did throughout the film was wonder if it was her real son. The lines were so blurred that I started questioning whether she had a son in real-life or whether it was artistic license.
I guess the fact her husband in the movie ends up being killed points to the latter.
I am finding it difficult to group this movie with all the other Nightmare films because of the way it uses the actors from the first movie as themselves.
With that said - it has Freddy in it so it is a Nightmare movie.
It's not the best but it is miles away from being the worst.
Freddy .vs. Jason
I was never a fan of the Friday the 13th series of movies. If I had, this would have been my Hulk Hogan .vs. Ric Flair.
The film starts off with us seeing Freddy powerless so he therefore cannot strike fear into the children of Elm Street (they aren't that young!) so he sends Jason Vorhees to go and murder a few people. Once they are terrified, Freddy can enter their dreams and torment them.
Well, that's what I think it is.
By the end of the movie, the youths have been scared enough for Freddy to get his strength back. Only, Jason Vorhees is having too much fun so it ends up with the two villains fighting between themselves.
Who wins?
Neither.
They both end up getting killed off with Freddy getting decapitated at Camp Crystal Lake. However, the final scene shows Jason walking out of the lake with Freddy's head in his hand. Krueger gives a wink to the camera possibly teasing a sequel. Alas, there hasn't been a Freddy .vs. Jason II which leads on to surmise that this was not well received.
As for my reception of the movie? It wasn't bad but nor was it great. The special were up-to-date and I believe it blended the two styles of horror together well.
The film was released in the early 2000s. In my opinion, this was late. Had it come out during the peak of both A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, it would have been a franchise all to itself. It would have been big.
And that's all for this week.
I've learned a lot. I now know why I subconsciously tapped out on the Nightmare series. I came into the week with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 as my most favourite of the bunch and it still is.
I also came in hating on Nightmare 2. The film gets a pass now because Nightmare 5 was dreadful.
This week has been a fun trip down Memory Lane. Or should that be Memory Street?
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