Harefooted Halloween: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

What I Liked: Some of the story ideas are interesting.  Krueger has killed all but one child in Springwood which caused the adult townsfolk to go crazy and some don’t even want children to visit because they fear Freddy’s wrath.  On top of this the town is located in some other dimension where Freddy has control.  Once you enter it becomes nearly impossible to escape.

We also get the most backstory to Krueger than ever before.  *Spoilers for the rest of this paragraph* It turns out he’s been psychotic since he was a child by mutilating helpless small animals and then as an adult he probably killed his adoptive father (Alice Cooper (music shit)).  Later he murders his wife and gets ratted out by his toddler daughter on the child homicides.  It turns out Freddy brandished all sorts of knife gloves with various sharp implements at the tips.  The cops took his daughter away so that’s part of the reason why Freddy pursues children in their dreams.  This point seems kinda moot though considering he was already targeting kids.  And we get a glimpse at the demons that Krueger bargains with to live on killing folks in their dreams.  Phew!  That’s a helluva lot to fill in.

Best death has to go to Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan (Back to the Future II & III)) who wears a hearing aid as a result of child abuse from his parents.  Krueger turns his hearing super sensitive so that a pin drop sounds like a bomb exploding.  What’s genius about the setup is they found a way to incorporate the knife glove into the finisher.  Freddy pulls out a small chalkboard and there’s a great simple eerie effect where he stretches it larger.  He then scratches his knives across the board to create that dreadful screeching noise that most people cannot stand (I’m actually not one of those people, I mean it’s not pleasant but it’s not the worst sound to my ears).  Krueger builds the squealing up and he goes into what looks like an orgasmic trance until Carlos’ head explodes.  Bravo.

I’m conflicted about the humor employed.  Bizarrely there are some straight up spoof jokes in here but goddammit I laughed out loud a couple of times.  One is when Carlos tries to unfold a road map but it keeps going and going and unfolding more and more and the map eventually has “you’re fucked” written on it and engulfs him.  And the other time is when Freddy takes Carlos’ hearing aid which causes the sound in the movie to cut out.  Freddy jumps around behind his back and tries to make a bunch of noise but Carlos, and you, can’t hear it.  It’s so fucking silly.

What I Didn’t Like: Ok even though I just pointed out some of the comedy is pretty humorous the overall tone is too light.  Krueger isn’t really threatening at all in this one because he toys with his victims more than usual and I swear he looks at the camera more than once while making a quip.  At times this is like a Looney Tunes Nightmare.

The studio mandated that the finale be shot in 3D and oh boy do they lean into that shit (this explains the image on the poster of Freddy sticking his glove directly in your face).  Our hero Maggie (Lisa Zane (Bad Influence)) puts on 3D glasses before the last stretch because she’s told they’ll help her see things she normally wouldn’t in the dream world.  Really this is the cue to the audience to put their glasses on.  Then all this crap is pointed towards the camera like a spiked baseball bat, the knife glove, Freddy’s stretching arms, etc. to give you a thrill in threee deee!  And of course Maggie takes the glasses off when she’s finished so you know you can take yours off too now.

One of the biggest issues with the film is how dated it is.  The grunge soundtrack by Brian May (no, not Queen guitarist Brian May, a different dude who did the soundtracks to Mad Max 1 & 2) is bad enough but the numerous video game references, specifically the 8 bit Nintendo type stuff and the power glove, are the worst offenders.

Overall Impressions: Long time Nightmare producer and all around film guru Rachel Talalay used this as the springboard for her directing career.  She intentionally wanted to make something funnier and not as dark as the rest of the series by pushing Freddy’s sense of humor to the breaking point. And with the dilapidated oddball town angle she was aiming for a Twin Peaks vibe too.  In those terms she succeeded.

Freddy’s Dead is a strange bird because it comes off as more of a reboot.  There’s an odd Escape from New York style intro that shows a computer screen map of the US with text explaining how Springwood is a shell of a town meaning either a lot of time has passed since the last episode or we’re dealing with an alternate timeline.  Plus Freddy doesn’t seem to need a conduit to get into other kids’ dreams anymore and he can completely take over the real world, well at least this one town.  Most of what’s been setup in the previous installments is inexplicably ignored yet this is billed as the next sequel.

The aspect that had the strongest potential is the town ravaged by Freddy’s murder spree where the remaining residents have turned into blabbering basket cases.  This makes sense if Freddy were allowed to continue unimpeded.  His shadow looms large creating a mysterious atmosphere.  Interestingly writer and ridiculous producer Michael De Luca (Deep Cover, Last Man Standing, The Social Network, Moneyball, etc.) also wrote In the Mouth of Madness which uses a very similar premise about a town that’s taken over by a supernatural evil and becomes difficult to escape from.  The ideas work much better in that movie though because you have more leeway with the story.  There aren’t five previous pictures to contend with where everyone is very familiar with the main character and his world.

The filmmakers all knew there wasn’t a good way to end the series but they did their best to make it definitive instead of leaving the whole thing open ended.  I know I keep doing this with whatever number I’m on but part 6 is probably the weakest film yet.  I like the darker Nightmares better.