Ah, Halloween. That time of year when the leaves change colors and there’s a crispness in the air. Store shelves overflow with fall flavors of pumpkin and apple, and it becomes socially acceptable to decorate your home with witches and 12-foot-tall plastic skeletons. It’s also the time of year to eschew obligations and binge as many horror- and Halloween-themed films as possible, because when else are you going to do something like that? So what better way to celebrate the season than by bringing you some Halloween-flavored Rewind Reviews?
Slasher films are particularly popular to watch around this time of year, which helped me to decide which movie should mark my first Halloween Rewind Review. And when I think “slasher,” I think Freddy Kruger. I considered taking a look at the very first Nightmare on Elm Street movie and talked about the scares and gore and Johnny Depp dying in an eruption of blood. And that would have made for a fun read, I’m sure. But reviews of that film have been done to death (pun intended). I’ve decided, instead, to go to the end of the series and revisit at the final installment, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plot behind Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, it’s extremely simple. “Ten years from now,” the population of Springwood has been drastically reduced, with the town’s teenagers and children having disappeared or committed suicide. This phenomenon leaves the adults of Springwood left in a state of “mass psychosis.” However, one teenager remains (Shon Greenblatt).
During a nightmare, Freddy appears to the kid, taunting him as only Freddy can, but leaves the kid alive on the side of an abandoned road with a raging case of amnesia. See, Freddy wants to use the kid, who is referred to as “John” since he has no idea who he is, to bring a new wave of teenagers to Springwood. John gets picked up by the police and brought to a youth shelter where he meets Maggie, played by Lisa Zane. (Fun fact: Lisa Zane is the older sister of The Phantom star Billy Zane and also voiced She-Hulk in the 1996 Incredible Hulk cartoon series.)
Maggie takes John back to Springwood in the hopes it will spark some memories, but they soon discover a trio of stowaways in their van: Tracy, Carlos, and Spencer. The most notable character of the bunch is Spencer, who is portrayed by a young Breckin Meyer in one of his earliest roles. While in Springwood, John and Maggie learn that the notorious child murder Freddy Kruger had a child, which leads John to believe it’s him. After all, why else would Freddy leave him alive?
The plot is simple and completely full of holes, but let’s face it… when you watch a horror movie, you don’t expect Citizen Kane. All that matters is that the story holds together well enough to deliver the goods. While Freddy’s Dead isn’t the bloodiest of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, it does offer some good action. Freddy doesn’t go back to his roots of being a terrifying killer; he likes to have fun with his prey, by placing them in their worst fears or using their passions against them right before he kills them. Most notably, Freddy puts Spencer in a giant video game, controlling him with the “Power Glove.” These types of scenes have made the later Elm Street movies absolutely ridiculous, but they have also kept the series fun.
The movie also introduced a lot of Freddy’s backstory. In addition to learning that Freddy has a child, we see a few defining moments from his past. Moments that made him the psycho killer he turned out to be.
The studio went all out for the series’ final film, calling upon a host of guest appearances. Johnny Depp returns to series that offered him his breakout role; he’s not reprising his original character, mind you, as Glen eventually turned into a geyser of blood. But also appearing are Alice Cooper and then-a-couple Tom Arnold and Roseanne Barr. OK, so these guest appearances were a little more special in 1991, but still, at least they tried.
I would be remiss to mention the film’s 3D sequence. Keep in mind this isn’t your Avengers or Avatar style 3D. No, this is old-school 3D, the kind with the red and blue plastic glasses. The scene takes advantage of a few cheap tricks to make the 3D work, like Maggie holding a spiked baseball bat out toward the audience or the trio of Dream Demons that gave Freddy his powers. It’s poorly done, and if you’re not looking straight on at the screen, it will hurt your eyes minutes into the segment, but it’s worth viewing at least once. The 3D scene gives the movie an extra layer of campiness that’s missing from a lot of horror movies.
Interestingly, Freddy’s Dead is the only film in the Elm Street series to be directed by a woman. Rachel Talalay takes up the reigns behind the camera to bring this story to life in her directorial debut. The Elm Street series has always relied on female protagonists (Nancy in the first and Alice in Parts 4 and 5 for example), which could have been more of an extension of the “Final Girl” trope seen so often in slasher flicks. But here, Talalay explores Maggie’s relationship with her father, a theme that’s heightened by the director’s insight into a father/daughter relationship. Though Talalay’s career as a film director is short, with the Lori Petty vehicle Tank Girl being her only other well-known project and Netflix’s A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting her most recent credit, she has a long history directing for television, helming episodes of Doctor Who, Supernatural, and The Flash.
If you have a few extra pairs of those 3D glasses, I would definitely recommend making Freddy’s Dead part of your movie marathon with your friends. It’s not the kind of horror movies that will make you jump out of your seat or leave you with a sense of dread after the final credits. It’s also not a “good” movie in the truest sense of the word.
What it is, though, is a straight-forward, fun, hack-and-slash flick. There are plenty of hokey moments and tongue-in-cheek one-liners, delivered as only Robert Englund can. Horror movie purists may disagree with me, but I feel Freddy’s Dead is a worthy ending to the classic series, especially considering how Freddy evolved through the series. The film provided a satisfying closure which, thankfully, the studio respected (with both New Nightmare and Freddy vs. Jason notwithstanding).
If you’re interested in adding Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare to your viewing schedule this year, it is streaming on both HBO Max and Peacock Premium.