Tagline: If you think you’ll get out alive, you must be dreaming.
Curiosity: Dream Warriors was my favorite Nightmare when I was a kid (It’s got Larry Fishbourne from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse!). Also, it was creator/co-writer Wes Craven’s first attempt to end the franchise. Too bad this resulted in a good movie with tons of room for sequels.
Plot: Kristen (Patricia Arquette) is sent to Westin Hills, a psychiatric clinic, after her mother finds her with a slashed wrist and razor blade. Turns out Freddy Kruger did it (I know!). He’s preying on the children of Elm Street again, this time focusing on the committed. Turns out adults have trouble believing the suicidal, emotionally disturbed, and drug-addicted youths of Springwood. But just when Kristen doesn’t think anyone will accept her story, in steps Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) from the original Nightmare on Elm Street! And she’s a dream specialist! Serendipity doo-daa, serendipity day! While she prefers using the drug Hypnocil – which prevents dreaming and therefore keeps Freddy at bay – Nancy opts to train Kristen and the other teens at Westin Hill how to use their dreams to combat Krueger in the dream world. They are… DREAM WARRIORS! [Cue bitchin’ Dokken song]
Thoughts: Overall, Dream Warriors holds up. Craven, along with director/co-writer Chuck Russell (Collateral, The Mask, and, uh, The Scorpion King) expand the mythos quintuple-fold, introducing the mysterious Sister Mary Helena, a nun who sure seems to know a lot about Krueger. Craven and Russell also try to level the playing field a bit by giving the kids some powers in the dream world. The concept of Freddy feeding off of kids becomes clearer, and we learn one more way to defeat the bastard that doesn’t work.
There are distracting issues, of course. Nancy’s grey streak is on the wrong side of her face, Krueger’s original body is found with his glove – which is impossible given the events of the original film, and mute character Joey has a magical disappearing face tattoo. Oh, and Freddy’s descent into cheesy one liners begins here. Dude used to drop eerie shit like “This… is… God!”, now he’s saying “Welcome to prime time bitch” before shoving someone’s head through a TV set. In fact, most of Freddy’s dialogue from here on out consists of “Blankity blank, bitch.” “Make sure you deposit your paycheck, bitch.” “Trickle down economics doesn’t work, bitch.” “Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, bitch.” Then he stabs somebody. For a long stretch, Dream Warriors is where Nightmare on Elm Street should have ended.
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