A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chuck Russell
Produced by	Wes Craven Robert Shaye
Screenplay by	Wes Craven Bruce Wagner Frank Darabont Chuck Russell
Story by	Wes Craven Bruce Wagner
Starring	Heather Langenkamp Patricia Arquette Laurence Fishburne Priscilla Pointer Craig Wasson Robert Englund
Music by	Angelo Badalamenti Dokken
Cinematography	Roy H. Wagner
Editing by	Terry Stokes Chuck Weiss
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	February 27, 1987 (1987-02-27)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4.5 million
Box office	$44,793,222 (United States)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.^[1]

Plot

Six years after the events of the first film, Kristen Parker makes a replica of a house on Elm Street. Her mother tells her to go to sleep while she has a man over. Kristen falls asleep and dreams of meeting up with a little girl outside the house. Kristen hears someone coming, picks up the little girl, and runs in the house to the basement. The little girl says "Put me down, you're hurting me" and when Kristen looks down she discovers that she's holding a skeleton. Kristen wakes up and goes to the bathroom where she finds she is still asleep, again meeting Freddy Krueger, who slashes her wrists with his glove. Her mother mistakes this incident as a suicide attempt, because when Kristen awakes, she is holding a razor blade to her own wrist. After this event, Kristen is placed in Westin Hills, a psychiatric hospital, where she meets the other patients - Joey Peterson, who does not speak, Taryn White, an ex-drug addict, Roland Kincaid, a tough kid with behavioral problems, Phillip Anderson, a talented sculptor, Jennifer Caulfield, a wannabe actress, and Will Stanton, who now uses a wheelchair because of an earlier suicide attempt, who are the "last of the Elm Street children" – the last remaining children of the vigilantes who killed Freddy. She also meets Dr. Neil Gordon, the main psychiatrist and Nancy Thompson, the new staff member.

Dr. Neil Gordon and Nancy go to a restaurant where Nancy reveals some information regarding her past experiences and explains that she knows what the children are going through. It is revealed that Nancy has been taking an experimental dream suppressant, Hypnocil, which Nancy suggests using with the children to ensure their safety. Due to the drug not yet receiving FDA approval, Neil is extremely reticent. When Kristen has another terrifying dream in which Freddy appears from the flooring and attempts to eat her in the form of a giant snake-like creature, she reveals a latent ability to bring others into her dreams by bringing Nancy into the dream to assist her. Nancy enters the room from a mirror, and seeing Kristen in peril, uses a shard of glass to stab the Freddy-snake in the eye. Freddy recoils from the wound and recognizes Nancy, as she defeated him 6 years prior. He attempts to attack, but Kristen shuts the door and takes Nancy and herself out of the dream, and Nancy sees the potential of Kristen's ability to put Freddy down for good.

Meanwhile, Neil begins to receive visits from a mysterious nun, who introduces herself as Sister Mary Helena. She informs Neil that Freddy Krueger was born in the abandoned wing of the same hospital, Westin Hills, after one hundred maniacs raped his mother, Amanda Krueger. Amanda Krueger was a staff member who was accidentally locked inside over the Christmas holidays, and that when he was killed, Krueger was never properly buried and must be laid to rest in consecrated ground.

Freddy kills Phillip when he slashes his feet and wrists, uses his tendons to walk him to the top of the building like a marionette, cuts the tendons, and sends him falling to his death. Later, while Jennifer watches TV, the host of a talk show turns into Freddy and attacks the guest as the TV goes haywire. She walks over to it as screams and moans come from the TV and smacks it. Then two large mechanical arms explode out of the sides and pick her up as Freddy's head comes out the top and smashes Jennifer's head right through the Television. Nancy tells the kids during a group session that in their dreams they can be whomever, and possibly be able to do whatever, they want. Nancy convinces Neil to try an experimental hypnosis to put the kids and themselves into a deep sleep and then has Kristen attempt to pull them into her dream. After attempting this, it appears that it has failed and they prepare to try again. Joey notices an attractive nurse outside the room who proceeds to seduce him. She leads him to one of the empty rooms and lays him on the bed. She then turns into Freddy, who holds him captive in the dream world while at the same time rendering him comatose in the real world. Dr. Carver fires Neil and Nancy due to those incidents.

Nancy, knowing that while under the care of a more strict psychiatrist the kids will be in great danger, goes to see her father, Lt. Donald Thompson. She makes an impassioned plea to him which ultimately falls on deaf ears due to his alcoholism. Neil tells her to go back to the hospital to help the kids whilst Neil forces Lt. Thompson to help him find Freddy's remains and bury them, stopping at a church to collect holy water and a crucifix. Nancy and the kids attempt a group sleep session to try and go in and free Joey and get to Kristen, who was thrown in the "quiet room" and sedated without her consent.

As soon as the kids fall asleep, Freddy separates them. He kills Taryn by turning his fingers into needles filled with drugs and giving her an overdose, and Will who he stabs in the stomach with his glove. Kincaid, who dreams of having super strength, manages to fight his way through Freddy's barriers and reunite with Nancy and Kristen. They save Joey before Freddy can kill him and Krueger reveals he gains strength from imprisoning the souls of his victims. Kincaid attempts to attack Freddy, but Freddy, demonstrating how strong he has become, to the shock of Nancy, picks him up with one arm. He is about to kill Kincaid but notices that someone is messing with his bones and disappears. Meanwhile, Neil and Lt. Thompson have found Freddy's remains in a large auto salvage yard. They begin to dig a makeshift grave when the bones come to life. Lt. Thompson attempts to attack the Freddy-skeleton but he's easily beaten and impaled on the tail fin of a car. The skeleton then beats Neil with a shovel, leaving him unconscious near the make-shift grave.

The kids and Nancy proceed to make their way through Freddy's lair when they come to a room full of mirrors, and each of the party are grabbed and pulled through by multiple Freddys, except for Joey who lets out a piercing scream which shatters the mirrors and releases his friends, seemingly stopping Freddy. Nancy notices a bright light from an adjoining room and realizes it is her father's spirit. He tells her that he has crossed over and wanted to say goodbye to her, and they embrace. Seconds later, Nancy is stabbed twice in the stomach by Freddy, who was impersonating her father. Knowing that the biggest threat to him has been removed, Freddy closes the door on Kincaid and Joey, and proceeds to attack Kristen. Just as he is about to kill Kristen, Nancy appears behind him, and makes Freddy stab himself with his own glove. At this precise moment, Neil awakens and sprinkles the holy water on Freddy's remains, causing bright light to emanate from his body. He also uses the crucifix and completes the burial, causing Krueger to disappear in a brilliant white light.

Nancy, grievously wounded, dies in Kristen's arms. At Nancy's funeral, Neil sees the nun that helped him. When he goes to thank her, she vanishes. He is left standing by a gravestone. On the stone there is a name, Amanda Krueger, just below that is another name, Sister Mary Helena, showing that the nun was the spirit of Freddy's mother. At the end, Neil falls asleep at his home with the same house Kristen made at the beginning of the film, when a light suddenly comes on in it, implying Freddy's survival, which sets up the events of the next film.

Cast

• Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson
• Patricia Arquette as Kristen Parker
• Craig Wasson as Dr. Neil Gordon
• Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
• Ken Sagoes as Roland Kincaid
• Rodney Eastman as Joey Peterson
• Jennifer Rubin as Taryn White
• Bradley Gregg as Phillip Anderson
• Ira Heiden as Will Stanton
• Laurence Fishburne as Max Daniels
• Penelope Sudrow as Jennifer Caulfield
• John Saxon as Donald Thompson
• Priscilla Pointer as Dr. Elizabeth Simms
• Clayton Landey as Lorenzo
• Brooke Bundy as Elaine Parker
• Nan Martin as Amanda Krueger
• Dick Cavett as Himself
• Zsa Zsa Gabor as Herself

Production

Elm Street creator Wes Craven, who did not participate in the first sequel and indeed did not want the franchise to be a franchise at all, intended for this film to end the series, but its success made that impossible.

Craven's very first concept for this film was to have Freddy Krueger invade the "real" world, emerging to haunt the actors filming a new Elm Street sequel. New Line Cinema rejected this metacinematic idea at the time, but years later, Craven's concept was finally brought to the screen with Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

The "dream suppressant" drug Hypnocil which Neil researches is also featured and written into this film, yet more prominently figures in Freddy vs. Jason and is mentioned in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. The psychiatric hospital Westin Hills reappears in both A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Freddy vs. Jason.

In interviews with cast and crew in the DVD's extras, it is revealed that the original idea for the film centered around the phenomenon of children traveling to a specific location to commit suicide, with dreams of Freddy Krueger eventually discovered to be a common link between the youths. Suicide, at the time, was a taboo social issue and this led to the abandonment of that storyline, though some aspects remained within the filmed version which still depicts suicide and self-mutilation, though they were deemed less controversial because these acts are committed with Freddy's distinct influence, inserting enough fantasy into the acts to remove it from the supposed controversial exploitation of disturbed youths in America.

In the original script by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner the characters were somewhat different from what was eventually filmed. Nancy was not a dream expert or any kind of mental health professional, Kristen stayed in the institution for only a while and had a father, Neil's last name was Guinness, Dr. Simm's last name was Maddalena, Taryn was African-American, Joey was the one who built the model of a house and has trouble getting around (although did not use a wheelchair), and Philip was a thirteen year-old. Will's name was originally Laredo, with long hair, did not use a wheelchair, and the one who made the clay puppets. This script also showed the ranch house where Krueger was born, and is the house that shows up in their dreams rather than the Elm Street house. Contrary to the film, Lt. Donald Thompson knows from the start that Krueger is real and still alive. He had been missing and Nancy was intent on finding him, she finds him and learns that he was obsessed with finding the Krueger house and burning it down. There are scenes and lines that are very reminiscent of the first film. There is no talk of Krueger's mother having been a nun or Freddy being "the bastard son of a hundred maniacs," and both Joey and Kincaid are killed. The deaths in this script were much more grotesque, with Krueger not as talkative and more vulgar. In Jeffrey Cooper's novelization The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1,2, 3: The Continuing Story (1987), the original Craven/Wagner version of the Nightmare 3 script is adapted, rather than the Russell/Darabont rewrite. Thus the book version of the story is fairly different from the finished film.

Reception

Box office

The film released theatrically in the United States by New Line Cinema in February 1987. It opened in 1,343 theaters, grossing $8.9 million and debuting at number 1 during its opening weekend. It eventually made $44,793,222 at the domestic box office,^[2] making it both the highest grossing film for the studio that year and the 24th highest grossing film of 1987.^[3] It is the third highest grossing of the original Nightmare movies after Freddy vs. Jason and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.^[4]

Critical

The film received more positive reviews than the first sequel. It has garnered an average score of 72% 'fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 32 professional reviews. It is almost unanimously considered the best Nightmare movie, after the original.^[5]

Banned in Queensland, Australia

In Queensland, Australia, Dream Warriors was banned by the then Bjelke-Petersen government due to its drug references, particularly the scene where Freddy's glove becomes a number of syringes as he injects his victim with a heroin overdose. In 1990, the newly elected Goss government abolished the Queensland Film Board of Review. Consequently, Dream Warriors became available to Queenslanders through normal market channels rather than just through sympathetic video rental stores.

Awards

1988 Saturn Award

• Best Horror Film - Nomination
• Best Make-up - Nomination
• Best Supporting Actor - Robert Englund - Nomination

Fantasporto Awards 1988

• International Fantasy Film Award Best Film - Chuck Russell - Nomination
• Critics Awards - Special Mention - Chuck Russell - Won

Soundtrack

The theme song of the movie, Dream Warriors, was written and performed by the American heavy metal band Dokken. The success of the single led to the following sequels to include a heavy metal song in its soundtrack.

In the original VHS release of the film, during the opening sequence, a hard rock instrumental version of the song Quiet Cool is playing. The original version of that song, performed by Joe Lamont, was written for the movie with the same name in 1986. When Dream Warriors was released on DVD, the song that was on the original theatrical release, "Into the Fire" by Dokken, was reinserted.

References

1. ^ http://www.tv.com/patricia-arquette/person/55374/summary.html
2. ^ "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3". boxofficemojo.com. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elmst3.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-02. 
3. ^ "1987 Domestic Grosses". boxofficemojo.com. http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1987&p=.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-02. 
4. ^ "Nightmare on Elm Street series". boxofficemojo.com. http://boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=nightmareonelmstreet.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-02. 
5. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nightmare_on_elm_street_3_a_dream_warriors/

External links

Film portal

A Nightmare on Elm Street portal

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors at the Internet Movie Database
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors at AllRovi
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors at Box Office Mojo
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors at The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion