Nightmare 3 - I guerrieri del sogno

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is the third installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It's actually one of the better sequels that I enjoyed. I was lucky enough to get the Nightmare on Elm Street series boxed DVD set for my birthday. So I've now seen all the sequels and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a decent sequel. Not to mention it was pretty cool to see Patricia Arquette's first big role, I can't believe a lot of these movies how many stars started out in this series. It was also a nice touch that they had Nancy back for this film. The deaths are gory and Freddy is back and meaner than ever! This time he's after the kids in the mental institution and he's not going to go easy on them at all.

Nancy has now grown up and she's become a therapist for dreams, she starts her work at the mental institution where she meets Kirsten, a girl who has the power to pull other people into her dreams. Kirsten is a bit scared of her powers though and knows that Freddy wants to use her so he could pretty much squish several bugs with one stomp. But Nancy knows that Freddy is up to his old ways and wants to help Kirsten along with the other teenagers at the hospital that Freddy is after, but hopefully she can do it before it's too late.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors has one of my favorite nightmare sequences. I loved the puppet on the strings, only, well, I won't spoil it, you're going to have to trust me when I say that this was a very cool death scene. This is a must see for the Nightmare on Elm Street fans of course, but even you're just looking for a good scare, I promise you that you'll get a few chills from watching this nightmare. Freddy isn't going light when it comes to scaring these kids... to death.

7/10

This is certainly one of the better "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels. For the most part the dream sequences strike the perfect balance of silly and spooky, this film expands upon the world of the original film, it stars young Patricia Arquette ("Boyhood") and Lawrence Fishburne ("The Matrix"), and best of all Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp, "New Nightmare") makes her triumphant return to the franchise. I won't say this is a great movie, but if you enjoy the franchise, then it's certainly worth a watch.

A person could make the argument that this is the best if the 80's slasher films. I would agree! It just creepy and dark enough to have some scares. But also started introducing the comedy that would actually become too overused in later sequels. Probably the best kills in the series.

I've been a fan of Chuck Russell's films ever since his 1994 classic THE MASK. Each one of his movies have a strong amount of slickness and energy, especially A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS. It's one of the better 'ELM STREET' films in the series and was one of the cinematic highlights of 1987. Like THE LOST BOYS, which was also released in 1987, it has style, imagination, a good premise, and gore. It does have a few faults though. Some of the special effects are dated and look quite cheesy and the flick seems to rely more on blood than genuine scares at times. Also, while by no means terrible, Heather Langenkamp's performance is not quite up to par with her performance in the first 'ELM STREET' and NEW NIGHTMARE. Occasionally it feels like she's phoning it in. These faults don't hurt the movie too much. It's still a enjoyable horror picture that holds up relatively well today. It may not be as good as the first A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, but it's much better than most third installments are. I give it 7/10.

The original 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' is still to me one of the scariest and best horror films there is, as well as a truly great film in its own right and introduced us to one of the genre's most iconic villains in Freddy Krueger. It is always difficult to do a sequel that lives up to a film as good as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' let alone one to be on the same level.

'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' has often been touted as the best 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' sequel (or one of them) and one of the best of the series. Couldn't agree more with this. For me it is the best sequel, and while it is not quite in the same level as the original it is the closest the follow-ups get to having what made the original the classic that it is and is much better than the second film.

'Dream Warriors' may not be perfect. Maybe it could have done with having a few less characters, Neil could have been more interesting and stronger developed, and the support acting is variable though none terrible.

However, Heather Langenkamp fills her role very well and Robert Englund is terrifying once more as Freddy (cannot imagine anybody else). Chuck Russell's direction is some of the best of the series in by far the best directed sequel. He is not afraid to stretch genre boundaries and does it in a way that feels fresh, a lot of it is remarkably imaginative for an 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' sequel and the execution is great.

As are the special effects, particularly the snake and the TV set, the darkly comic humour with cracking one-liners and the truly frightening scares with the marionette scene being one of the highlights of the series.

Very little is shoddy in the production values, the production design being both dream-like and nightmarish and the photography is stylish. The music looms ominously, while the Edgar Allan Poe quote and the Ray Harryhausen montage are inspired touches.

In summary, very well executed and the best of the sequels. 8/10 Bethany Cox