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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Movie Review

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 fantasy slasher film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Heather Langenkamp and Patricia Arquette. It’s a very good sequel.

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“Welcome to prime time, bitch!“

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Nancy, a psychiatrist, encounters Kristen, a survivor of an attack by the demonic Freddy Krueger. Using her own knowledge of Freddy, Nancy decides to help Kristen and a group of teenagers fight him. This is a very inventive and different kind of sequel that functions more as a fantasy than as a horror story for better and for worse.

It was such an interesting idea to give the children superpowers, weapons and magic when they enter the dream world. This is how dreams operate, so it was only natural that they would have more power in their own dreams than its predecessors presented.

On the more negative side of that approach we have a significantly reduced sense of suspense or danger. As these kids are better equipped to deal with their tormentor, gone was any creepiness factor. That was quite disappointing to witness in what should be a horror film.

But we do still get two sequences that were truly creepy and unforgettable in their execution. The two death scenes are both excellent – one focuses on puppetry while the other used the television set as a killing device inventively so.

Freddy Krueger is nowhere near as scary in this sequel as he was in the previous two entries, but he was still a lot of fun. His use of the word bitch continually amused me. There is so much artistry and ingenuity on display when it comes to his design as well as the world building and striking imagery.

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The special effects in Dream Warriors is truly incredible, especially for the time. So many of these practical effects look downright believable even today. The movie flies by how fun and exciting it is while the fantastical elements made it uniquely imaginative. I also loved seeing the kids unite and fight him together, but individually speaking they were all underdeveloped. Nancy was not well used at all. It was interesting seeing Patricia Arquette and Laurence Fishburne in very early roles for them, but their characters did not get much to do. There were too many silly scenes here as well with the martial arts ones being particularly goofy.