A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

[Mortal Envelope]

This is probably one of the best of the series (except the first of course) but it's still pretty cheezy.  Seems Freddy is vulnerable to the Catholic faith (good thing he wasn't a Buddhist for whatever would those kids have done?) and who can forget the awesoem rockinest bust-outta-the-wall Dokken soundtrack?  But we did have a main character (the male Doctor lead) who ultimately learned that Science is bad (mmmkay).  Over the course of the movie, and with a ghostly Freddy's mom, he learned to use some faith and Holy water to defeat Freddster only to have that whole thing shat upon in the intro of the next installment when Freddy is resurrected by dog p**s (literally).

Sure, it's a typical 80s flick and you know this because all the teens are in a mental institution and everyone is Catholic - it was quite the norm back then I suppose.  Seems many characters had the script and knew just when to all fall asleep together as well.

The Dream Warriors themselves weren't all that formidable: we had strong guy that wasn't strong enough to beat Freddy, an acrobat pull-you-in-my dreams chick, a chick with switchblades and hairspray who was overall non effective with her combat abilities, and let's not forget the Harry Potter D&D fan shooting green s**t from his hands, among others.

Still, I did like the appearance and significance of Nancy's character (and her dad) - it did add some weight and gave us a really good character to cheer.  <spoilers> Too bad she dies in the end.  But lookie here, the black guy actually lives.  Yes Acrobat dream puller girl, the token black guy, and the mute all live to go to the next movie and are therefore guarenteed to die soon (after some major cosmetic surgery for a couple of them).

Overall it was good cheezy fun - Freddy was probably his funniest here.  This was IMO the last good Freddy movie until Freddy vs Jason.

Note: My comments about the religion of 80s teens is meant to be tongue-in-cheek so please don't be offended.

[Torgo]

This is my personal favorite film of the series.  They really pulled out all the stops with this one.  The marionette death is my favorite of this one.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Torgo said pretty much what I wanted to say.  I love the puppet death in this film and aside from the original, it's the best of all of them.  I also love the revealing of Freddy's past, with his mother getting raped by 100 asylum inmates. 

Great, great, great film.   

[Mr. DS]

This by far is one of my top ten favs of all time.  Perhaps its the reason also why I hated part 4 so much. 

[akiratubo]

I think this movie is awful, by far the worst Nightmare movie.

All of a sudden, Freddy eats souls?

When the parents killed him all those years ago they gathered up his bones?  And rather than scatter tham all over the place they put them in a sack?  In the back of a wrecked car?  And the car is still in the exact same place after all this time?

Dream power!  Huzzah!  Dream powers include: wearing leather, having a mohawk, and carrying two knives; being able to yell really loud; acting like a stereotype angry black guy and being king of strong; and being sort of agile!  That's so awesome!

"I am the WIZARD MASTER!"

In the first couple of movies, Freddy's jokes were sadistic and cruel.  Starting in this movie, Freddy is just an idiot who makes lame wisecracks before a kill (at least Freddy's Dead took that and ran with it).

And, wow, what a climax!  Freddy's going "argh" and spinning around with cartoon light beams shooting out of his body!  That's so amazing!  (It was at least better than Freddy dying because he saw his reflection in The Dream Master.)

I do think this one had the best poster art.

[Torgo]

This by far is one of my top ten favs of all time.  Perhaps its the reason also why I hated part 4 so much. 

Part 4 had some good set pieces but it didn't hang together at all as a whole as they had been well into film without a finalized script. All they had is the dream gags that they wanted to do and that was it at first.   

[evildeadchick187]

 I love this film so much that I am even including the green phallic Freddy munching on Kristin in my sleeve I am getting done soon. (I will post pics when it is done)

 I cant say I agree with everything akiratubo had to say about it but i do agree that it was great how they ran with the senseless humor in Freddy's dead. That is my other favorite of the nightmare movies along with part one of course.

[AndyC]

This was the first of the Nightmare movies I saw. Didn't become a fan of slashers until midway through high school. Watched this in a rec room with a bunch of other guys and had a blast. This was the one where they just went for total cheesy fun, stylish deaths, and quotable quips. Made me want to see the first two.

I have to say, the series went mostly downhill from there, though.

[Mr. DS]

I love this film so much that I am even including the green phallic Freddy munching on Kristin in my sleeve I am getting done soon. (I will post pics when it is done)

Evil Dead Chick, love the idea.  Can't wait to see the pics. 

[HappyGilmore]

Overall I was happy with this one.  Felt it was a bit of a step up after the second one. 

[Torgo]

Here's how I rate the entire Elm Street series out of 4 stars:

Part 1    ***
Part 2    *1/2
Part 3    ***1/2
Part 4    **1/2
Part 5    **
Part 6    *1/2
New Nightmare   ***

[Mortal Envelope]

Torgo, I pretty much agree with your rating system at least as far as I can remember some of the entries; I haven't watched some of them for years, especially parts 2, 5, and 6.

I would personally rate Freddy vs Jason with 4 stars; it was about as good as it could have been and paid homage to both legends fairly well.  I like the cinematic shots reminiscent of Elm Street 1 and the reference to hypnocil, for example.

From what I remember, the thing about part 2 I didn't care for (in addition to the outta place homo eroticism elements) was the notion that Freddy wanted to come back to the real world where he's ultimately more vulnerable.  One thing I did like about part 2, however was the the readings of Nancy's diary -quite effective on the creep factor.

Well, I see I've digressed quite a bit from part 3.  Part 3 did seem to bring the series back and, for better or worse, started the Freddy as a comedian/anti-hero of the series.  And yeah, things did get progressively worse there after.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I recently went back and re-watched all of the films.  I've been meaning to do a run down of reviews for each film but haven't done so yet.  Might need to get around to it soon.

[DistantJ]

Definitely the most popular Nightmare on Elm Street, though my favourite was always the 4th.

[Neville]

I keep hearing (since the 80s) that this is one of the best sequels, but I've never been able to finish watching it. Don't ask me why, just find it boring. Number 4 is dumb, but at least it's fun to watch. And I don't think I've ever een #5 or New Nightmare, now that I think of it.