Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

“Every town has an Elm Street.” - Freddy Krueger 

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) is about an unknown character by the name of John Doe (Shon Greenblate) who is taken to a shelter for homeless and troubled teens. There are three other characters in this shelter who have all endured trauma in their lives. Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan), who has hearing loss/damage to one of his ears. Next is Spencer (Breckin Meyer), who is always causing trouble with his dad. And finally we have Tracey (Lezlie Deane), who was physically abused by her own father. One of the main counselors named Maggie (Lisa Zane) meets John and decides to bring him back to Springwood to help his memory. While driving there, she discovers three stowaways in the back, Carlos, Tracey and Spencer. They were trying to escape the shelter. Anyway, when they get to Springwood, they find a very isolated town. They realize that Freddy has taken away all of their children from them leaving the adult residents in disbelief.

This movie is way different from all of the others. For the final nightmare, they decided to take a more comedic approach to the franchise as well as sort of poke fun of themselves. I mean it starts off with a Wizard of Oz parody. The house is caught in a tornado and soon you see Freddy pop-up on a broom and says “I’ll get you my pretty, and you’re little soul too.” Classic. You know, in my opinion, it’s probably one of the best in the franchise. It pokes fun at the different ways he was killed, gives more backstory into the person he was and it really showcases why Freddy is a Dream entity. They recreated the scene where the parents get their revenge on Freddy; which brings in these three ancient Dream demons, who give immortality and the ability to invade people’s dreams. You think they overthought this a little bit?

The biggest plot twist and probably spoiler of this whole movie, is that Maggie is Freddy’s daughter. She is the only one that can take Freddy out of a Springwood, so he’s able to murder more kids; but wasn't his whole MO to get revenge on the parents who burned him alive in his boiler room by taking their kids away? This movie shows that he actually did that, now he wants to leave so he can murder more kids? And he even says it in the movie "Every town has an Elm Street." Um so now he's the murder of Elm Street regardless of which city/state he's in? He just owns Elm Street, I guess. Yeah that concept may seem insane, but, in all honesty, it actually works. It makes Freddy a prisoner to Springwood much like Jason is a prisoner of Crystal Lake. I don’t know, I liked the concept. I like the movie, however it is very dated; which most movies of the past tend to be.  

Now the way Freddy kills his victims this time is interesting. First there’s John; who is 100 percent convinced that he is Freddy's son. This is why John was the last kid/teen in Springwood to die. He's wrong, obviously.

Regardless, they sort of created a loop of John waking up in his house and dying in different ways. This is similar to what they did in part four, where the scene with Alice and Dan, trying to rescue Debbie. Anyway, one final time, John refuses to buy into Freddy's looping of his death and doesn't move, until the room catches on fire. Eventually he jumps from he window and starts falling out of the sky. His shirt turns into a parachute (dreams, they make no sense), and he starts floating down to the ground. Freddy shows up, tells John he is NOT his father (insert Star Wars reference here), cuts the straps to the parachute and John falls to his death.

Before he hits the ground, Freddy comes alone, and in a sort of a cartoon fashion rolls out a bed of spikes for him to fall on. It’s actually quite hilarious. Next, Carlos has hearing problems, so Freddy uses his glove on a chalkboard to blow up his head similar to the SciFi movie Scanners. Finally there is Spencer, who is a gamer, so Freddy turns him into a game character and eventually kills him. The special effects are pretty good, especially when Spencer dies and all the blood comes out of the TV. 

Spencer’s death is probably my favorite; mainly because of the gamer references used. Gamer jokes did not exist in movies until now. The producers originally wanted to use Nintendo’s Power Glove in the film, however Nintendo said no. Well executive producer, Robert Shanye, said I don’t care that they said no, I’m doing it anyways. So you see Freddy playing a video game with what appears to be an Atari 2600 controller, and when that is pulled away from him, he pulls out his “Power Glove,” and uses that to “finish off” Spencer. It’s great, because it’s probably one of the first gamer jokes in a film; which is pretty cool. He also uses phrases like “Now I’m playing with Power,” “Great Graphics and “What do you know? I beat my high score;” which are all amazing lines. Thankfully, Nintendo never sued New Line for making such a bold move, then again, they probably never even say this film, so they wouldn’t even know. 

For real though, there is just so much to talk about in this movie and I don’t want to spoil the whole thing. I do like the fact that they brought some guest stars like Rosanne and Tom Arnold for a brief cameo appearance at the Town Fair. Also they brought Johnny Depp back as the drug infomercial about the effects of drugs on the brain; that was good.

I’d have to say the highlight of the film is the ending. SPOILER ALERT. But Maggie eventually takes a trip into Freddy’s mind and learns all about his life. First off, this was shot in 3-D; which makes it pretty insane. With or without the 3D glasses, it’s still a great effect. Anyway, you get to see what Freddy was like as a child and how he was disturbed. Next you see him as a young adult and find out his foster dad was Alice Cooper; which was freaking awesome!! It wasn’t until my 3rd viewing of this movie to realize it was Alice Cooper, because it does not look like him at all. Finally, you reach Freddy as an adult and you see the trauma that Maggie has buried for years. She witnessed her father murdering her own mother. Eventually, she pulls him into the “real world” like Nancy did in the original; and now she has to fight him.

One of the things about this movie that I hated was the Dream Demons. They briefly talk about it, but I wish they have explored it a little more. It seemed like it was a subplot that they added last minute to give Freddy some kind of supernatural purpose. Also if they were mentioned earlier on in the series, it may have made this one a little better. I would have liked to know more about them and really why they chose Freddy. Another is that, while it is a deleted scene, they don’t talk too much about the 3D glasses playing a major part in the film. Like I said, there were many elements of this film they could have expanded on to make it a little better. However, I still enjoy it. It’s a good movie. Some plot holes, but all in all it’s a fitting “end” to Freddy.

This was probably the first horror parody movie I’ve seen. I don’t know, I enjoyed and I thought it was a great way not to only show a tribute to Freddy, but a way to poke fun of themselves for making so sequels. In my opinion, the reason the movie did so poorly was because no one expected them to make a horror comedy. Like I've mentioned, if they had explored the Dream Demon aspect a little more which would make Freddy a supernatural entity; this movie may have done a little better. Then again, they tried that already with Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (or Halloween 666, if you prefer) and we all know how that ended.

But yeah in the 90s, New Line decided to take a risk and attempt to create something different; and I believe it was a success. One thing I have learned about movies in my attempts to review them is that you can't please everyone. If you see a movie has a poor score on Rotten Tomatoes, make an attempt to see the movie anyways, because critics don't always know what's best. Plan and simple. There are movies I've seen that are critically acclaimed, and they aren't my favorite as well as some who aren't critically acclaimed; and are my favorite.

IMDB: 4.7/10 || Rotten Tomatoes: 20% 

ANYWAY, this was supposed to be the FINAL Freddy movie. They even had a FUNERAL for him. They laid him to rest. I swear. No joke!! In LA cemetery, there is a grave that says “Freddy Krueger” on it. However, it wasn't the end, was it? Nope, Wes Craven just can't let this guy go, and he returns 10 years after the original to resurrect Freddy again for one...final...time...

NEXT, we will explore Wes Craven's New Nightmare!!

Sleep Tight,
A Nightmare on Movie Night