Horrorfest 2015: Cravenfest - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

All right, this is where things get back on track: Craven returns to help craft the story and oversee production for 1987's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS, and his influence can definitely be seen. This flick basically discards part 2 and acts as a direct sequen to part 1, even going so far as to bring back Heather Langenkamp as our heroine and John Saxon as her father.

This time out, Langenkamp's character has grown up to become a psychiatrist specializing in dreams who has recently joined the staff at the teenage ward of a mental hospital. The patients include Patricia Arquette who was committed after a Krueger dream left her looking like she attempted suicide. In fact, that's Krueger's M.O. this time out: manipulating the teen's dreams to make their eventual deaths look like suicides.

Arquette's character turns out to have a special ability, to call other people into her dreams. She used to do this as a kid but doesn't re-discover the ability until a particularly awful Krueger dream she pulls Langenkamp into for help. This is when Krueger first sees Langenkamp is back on the case and glares at her with a satisfying, "You!"

Embracing the dream aspect of the premise works to the film's benefit. Instead of shying away from it and making Freddy a traditional slasher, the narrative heads happily into fantasy territory and the sky is the limit when it comes to the images and set pieces that follow, including one of the most striking and memorable images of the entire series: Freddy lifts his sweater to reveal the faces of the souls he has murdered, visible but trapped beneath his burnt skin.

Langenkamp's character empowers Arquette and the other kids in the institution to take control of their own dreams, to the point where they form a team of titular "Dream Warriors" who have special powers to fight Freddy with together. The most memorable (aside from Arquette) is Ken Sagoes, who plays a patient who is somehow simultaneously a super tough guy and whiny and effeminate.

The movie's not as good as the original but it's a masterpiece compared to the first one.  The biggest misstep is the wasting of Laurence Fishburn in a thankless role – why cast him as the janitor? He could have been the doctor love interest of Langenkamp (Craig Wasson) who had a way bigger role but was 10x as boring.

This movie probably strikes the best balance when it comes to the unique tone of Freddy Krueger as a villain – he's at his most frightening in the first film, and was pretty ridiculous in the second, but here he's able to be equally funny and scary and never quite hit that balance again in the rest of the series, though not for lack of trying.

This movie also delves into more of Krueger's backstory: apparently his mother was a nun who was accidentally locked into the mental ward and raped by the inmates. This leads to the line explaining that Freddy is the "bastard son of 100 maniacs."

So, if New Line ever hires me to write the next NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movie, you can rest assured it will be named: FREDDY KRUEGER: BASTARD SON OF 100 MANIACS.