Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Freddy Kruegar, who used to live on Elm Street, Springwood, USA, was killed after countless meetings with teenagers in the nightmares in their sleep. Freddy, a guilty serial killer of children was freed without a search warrant and then burned to death by understandably angry parents. Freddy said he would return, which he did in a number of films titled, “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Sadly for Freddy, the latest sequel looks like it was the last, since it’s called “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.” For him it was released on Friday the 13^th in 1991.

Goodbye Freddy, it was nice knowing you. Your nightmare days are over.

Richard Harrington stated in his review, “And you're going out with a touch of class: a slam-bang finale in 3-D -- make that Freddyvision; a gaggle of one-liners directed at the final crop of victims and a few in-jokes; some wonderfully bizarre dream sequences; and the possibility that while Freddy may be gone, some of his progeny may live on (we can say no more).”

“Freddy’s Dead” starts with John, played by Shon Greenblatt, the last surviving Springwood kid, having, you guessed it, a nightmare, this one which has planes, houses and heights, the increasing case of what’s called amnesia (movies being the one place where people suffer from this story-assisting problem). What happens is that a bus picks up John and he goes to another town’s shelter for troubled teens, where therapists Doc (Taphet Kotto) and Maggie (Lisa Zane, looking like Madonna) are usually hesitant to believe in the idea of a dream killer, despite that Maggie’s been having this one dream about a little girl (Cassandra Rachel Friel) and a faceless father. The girl’s been in John’s dreams as well.

There are other disturbed kids at the shelter: Tracy (Lezlie Deane), a martial artist, Spencer (Breckin Meyer), a video game addict, and Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan), who is deaf. I guess you can say they are in trouble. Especially when the team goes back to Springwood, where they find no kids but do run into a cameo of Roseanne and Tom Arnold.

Soon enough, the nightmares are in full swing, and Freddy does what he does best in the crazy nightmares. Freddy shows that he is skilled in playing Atari, especially when he has a Power Glove installed on his arm. He also has a fun time with Tracy (that’s all I can say).

Harrington said, “To the end, moviegoers are being given clues about Freddy's origins and insights into his behavior, and so what if they sometimes contradict previous mythology. Logic has only a foothold here, particularly as the film winds to its 3-D conclusion inside Freddy's head -- talk about a fantastic voyage! By that time, we know who Freddy's child is and everything takes on the hue and cry of convoluted intra-family mayhem that has always informed the series. It's an explosive ending, to say the least, but, um, we can say no more.”

Freddy does say, “I am forever. Too bad you’re not.” Actually Freddy, you’re not forever.

In the end, this movie does have its highlights, but this is where it got silly. I will say check it out, but bear in mind, much like “Friday the 13^th Part 3” the 3D will be very distracting, especially since you won’t have the glasses while watching it. As you might have guessed, this movie is not the last in the series, since we still have three more to review.

Speaking of which, look out tomorrow when I look at another one of the best in the series. It does seem right since we have gone through a few of just middle of the road, average films that did have enjoyments and highlights to them. “Elm Street-a-thon” will be getting back to some of the best in the franchise tomorrow in the continuation of “Halloween Month.”