Horrorfest 2015: Cravenfest - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

And now we reach the nadir of the series. 1991's FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE is terrible. It also makes no sense. The movie is notable for being the only NIGHTMARE flick (and one of the few slashers) directed by a woman, Rachel Talalay. Unfortunately it's not notable for anything else.

 

Where do I even start with this one? An opening title crawl lets us know it's now 10 years in the future and there are no kids left in Springwood because Freddy has killed all of them. How we got there from the last movie is beyond me. In any case, after that we're treated to possibly the dumbest dream sequence yet as a kid played by Shon Greenblatt is dropped from an airplane before seeing Freddy Krueger riding on a broomstick and dressed as the wicked witch.

 

So, it's not Freddy's greatest moment. None of this movie is Freddy's greatest moment. Poor bastard (son of 100 maniacs).

 

This kid played by Greenblatt doesn't know who he is or where he came from and ends up in an orphanage run by Lisa Zane and Yaphet "Across 110th Street" Kotto. Zane figures out Greenblatt has some connection to Springwood, so she takes him on a road trip to check it out.

 

Some of the orphans stow away and come along for the ride to up the body count – Breckin Meyer as a stoner, Ricky Dean Logan as an abuse victim with hearing impairment and Lezlie Deane as a victim of sexual abuse by her father. So with this dark subject matter you can see that it's totally appropriate when Freddy shows up and starts chewing scenery.

 

The most painful sequence involves Freddy torturing the hearing impaired kid, but he moves on later to make the sex abuse victim relive her trauma as well. So it's a fun night at the movies. The only sequence that's not offensive on moral grounds is the one in which Krueger murders Breckin Meyer by video-gaming him to death, but that one's offensive on another level. An artistic one.

 

The climax of the movie was meant to be seen in 3D. You can tell by the way Yaphet Kotto hands our heroine a pair of 3D glasses to wear.

 

The only joke that works in this flick is the one where Johnny Depp (God bless his soul) shows up on TV in a "this is your brain on drugs" ad. But that's promptly ruined by Freddy butting in.

 

Perhaps the only redeeming quality of this flick is the additional glimpses we get at Freddy's history. So now we know his nun mom was raped by 100 maniacs, he was abused by his stepfather, made fun of by his classmates (because he's certifiably insane), and killed his wife in front of his… daughter! He has a daughter! Who could it be?

 

If you guessed Breckin Meyer guess again. No, it's not Yaphet Kotto, either.