FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE marks the sixth and, according to production company and domestic distributor New Line Cinema, last outing for the teen dream killer and cultural phenomenon.
Tired of being a big fish in a small pond, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is anxious to spread his evil beyond Springwood, where the horror began, to Elm Streets throughout the world. Krueger draws amnesiac teen John (Shon Greenblatt) back to the considerably depopulated town in order to lure
his own long-lost daughter Maggie (Lisa Zane) under his spell. Working as a dream therapist for a children's home run by Doc (Yaphet Kotto), Maggie arrives with the usual batch of expendable, afraid-to-sleep youths (Lezlie Deane, Ricky Dean Logan, Breckin Meyer), who are killed by Krueger one by
one. The finale, shot in headache-provoking 3-D, has Maggie entering a dream state with the intention of drawing Krueger out into the real world where he can finally be laid to rest.
Beginning with Wes Craven's excellent NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET in 1984, the ELM STREET series has always been a cut above its competition, namely the equally long-running HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH teen slaughterfests, with imaginative scripts and special effects. Helmed by producer Rachel
Talalay (HAIRSPRAY, CRY-BABY) in her feature directorial debut, FREDDY'S DEAD is one of the weaker entries, with overt violence downplayed, perhaps because Freddy has become something of an institution, star of the silver screen as well as a short-lived TV series and innumerable merchandizing
ploys. Hidden under layers of latex makeup, Englund still makes a juicy villain, tossing off grisly one-liners like a Henny Youngman from hell, but the film is seldom suspenseful or frightening. The rest of the acting is rote, with Kotto (ALIEN, MIDNIGHT RUN) wasted in a few scenes, and the
ancient, 50s-style anaglyphic 3-D sequences are tame.
As befits a finale, the movie features cameos by Mr. and Mrs. Tom Arnold, metal rocker Alice Cooper, New Line chief Robert Shaye, Elinor Donahue (of TV's classic "Father Knows Best"), and now-major-star Johnny Depp (who made his feature debut in the first film), as well as an end-title montage of
Krueger's stylish mayhem from the previous films. (Violence, profanity.) leave a comment