Today’s What The Franchise was inspired by a post I’m working on. Actresses I would like to see in horror movies. It occurred to me that Rooney Mara has been in a horror movie! It wasn’t good, but overall the series was. So, here’s The. Isn’t,Are On Elm Street from beginning to end. Hope you enjoy because all the negative energy gave me nightmares! I love horror, but there’s something about Freddy that does actually scare me. I think it’s because Wes Craven’s inspiration for Freddy Krueger is similar to an experience I had when I was younger. Yes, you read that correctly. Everyone knows that The Elm Street Series is inspired by an actual phenomenon where people were dying in thier sleep for like, no reason. But, few know Fred Krueger actually existed. I don’t wanna get too into it, because....well, you’ll see why soon.
Freddy‘s Nightmares
This show premiered after Freddy Krueger was already established as a horror icon. The year was 1988, if you were curious. In this series, an episode explains Freddy’s origins. It’s actually the pilot episode and the director is Toby Hooper. Which is awesome because Toby Hooper directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was also responsible for the “weird“ Poltergeist sequel. He also directed Billy Idol‘s music video for Dancing With Myself! One of my favorite music videos. Does anyone else miss music videos on television? I do!
So anyway, the television show has Fred Krueger on trial for using an ice cream van to lure/kidnap/kill kids. In the script for the original movie, Freddy was also a pedophile. Due to real cases of child molestation in California at the time, this was scrapped. They didn’t want to deal with the accusations of exploiting the situation. I feel the ice cream van was a nod to the original script. But, I was born after the show and the movie. So I’m not too sure the ice cream van stereotype came from but I was always told to never go to an ice cream van by myself. And this was not an uncommon thing amongst children my age. The police did not read Fred Krueger his Miranda rights so there was a mistrial. The town’s parents engage in a little street justice and find Freddy’s hide out. They burn that b*tch to the ground (relatable).
After that Freddy begins to frequent the dreams of the local police lieutenant. At the dentist, Lieutenant Blocker is killed by Freddy. Most of the episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares don’t have Freddy in the actual story, he sometimes shows up to make his lil comments. If you like Tales From The Crypt or Are You Afraid of the Dark, you’ll like Freddy‘s Nightmares. It’s a very similar vibe.
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1985)
Tina dreams of a boiler room where she is being chased by a being with knives attached to his hand. Eventually, he catches up with her. She wakes up screaming. Tina and her mother see cuts in her pajamas that match the knives in her dream. She tells her friends, Nancy and Glen about what happened. They bring up the infamous… “One, two, Freddy‘s coming for you” jumprope rhyme. Nancy says she also had a nightmare last night.
Nancy and Glenn sleepover at Tina‘s house because her mother is out of town. Tina‘s boyfriend Rod shows up as well. Tina falls asleep and sees the same being from her dream before. She runs away from the man. Rod sees Tina flipping out in her sleep and then sees her die horribly by something he can’t see. Rod leaves, Which makes Nancy and Glenn blame Rod for Tina’s death. Nancy tells her father Lieutenant Don Thompson of the murder. He arrests Rod. Rod says he’s innocent but....Then they’re like well who did it? And Rod can’t give a good answer.
Nancy fall the sleep in class and sees the being that Tina saw. He says his name is Freddy Krueger and he chases her in the boiler room. Nancy uses a pipe to burn herself and wake up. The burn has crossed over into real life. At home, Nancy falls asleep in the bathtub and Freddy almost drowns her. I feel like this scene is the most iconic one in the entirety of the franchise. When I think of Elm Street, this is what I think of.
Rod tells Nancy what happened to Tina; Nancy blames Freddy for the death now.
Glenn keeps an eye on Nancy and she falls asleep. She looks for Friday but she sees and getting ready to kill Rod. When Freddy sees Nancy he turns attention to her. She wakes up by the sound of her alarm. Nancy and Glenn rush to the jail. Rod is found dead in his cell, it looks to be a death by suicide. But Nancy and Glenn know better. Nancy‘s parents worry about Nancy, especially when she describes the man that has been in her dreams. Nancy’s mother takes Nancy to a dream clinic. Nancy’s able to fall sleep. During her nightmare, she grabs Freddy’s hat. The staff wakes her up. She has an injury on her arm....and she has acquired Freddy’s hat.
Nancy’s mother comes clean and admits that her and the other parents burned a man named Fred Krueger alive. They did this because he was a child murderer. He ended up being released on a technicality. In the show it was Miranda rights, in this movie it’s the lack of a signed search warrant. Nancy figures out that Freddy wants revenge and Glenn helps her. Her plan is to pull Freddy into the real world, like she did with the hat. Nancy sets up traps in her house. Glenn’s parents think that Nancy has gone bonkers and he no longer allowed to see her. So he stays home and gets murdered by Freddy.... right in front of his mother.
With Nancy’s mother Marge asleep. Nancy asks Don who is across the street to come over in 20 minutes. She falls asleep and finds Freddy and pulls him out of the dream. In the real world, Nancy begins to run from Freddy.....Who falls into the traps. In a sense of poetic justice, she lights him on fire and locks him in the basement. The police arrive only to discover that Freddy has escaped! They did witness Freddy smothering Marge in her bedroom. Don puts out the fire, Freddy and Marge are gone. Nancy is still fearful. For good reason, because she is once again attacked. Nancy learns at Freddys power comes from the victims fear. So she hits him with the “boy bye” and turns her back.
Nancy goes outside where all her friends are waiting for her in Glen’s car. Not hurt, not scared, happy to be hanging out with Nancy. But then, the top of the car comes down and they’re locked in! The car begins to drive by itself and her mother is grabbed through the window by Freddys gloved hand.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Wanna know about the worst date of my entire earthly existence? Too bad! Just know it happened at this movie....So I don’t like this due to the association. There are a lot of differences in this remake, and you know what? I’m already tired of talking about it. This movie makes me so irrationally angry. So, I’m just going to roast this movie that is less canonical that the “Nightmare on my Street” music video with Will Smith and Dj Jazzy Jeff.
If you’ve read my post on horror movies that should not be remade, I included Scream. BUT all the reasons we don’t need a Scream remake are also reasons why this remake should not exist. Wes Craven was alive at the time, but they still didn’t consult him in any way (rude). Freddy Krueger was not played by Robert Englund (wtf). Instead of hiring more skilled makeup artist, they relied on CGI (lazy). They made him a pedophile, like he was originally... Which means there was nothing comical about it( boring). Like, it may seem weird because OG Freddy was out here killing kids, but we all still found him likeable. But, there’s no coming back from child molestation, sorry. I hate 2010 Freddy and not in a Pennywise way. Obviously, we don’t like that he kills children, but we like that he’s charismatic. Pedophiles have no redeeming qualities. Especially serial pedophiles. That’s the way it is. Argue with ya mama, not me.
And, there’s a prequel version written by the same person that wrote Se7en, but they made this instead (stupid). New Nancy isn’t as nice or brave or tolerable as the original Nancy. She is hard to root for, and I hoped they all just died so the movie would end. It should have ruined Rooney Mara’s career, but I’m glad it didn’t. I like Rooney!
Jackie Earle Hayley isn’t even a bad actor. His take on the dream demon is good. It’s scary, if it’s your first exposure to Freddy...But, Freddy is Freddy. That’s Robert Englund. Other people can’t play Freddy. Just like Robert Englund has a disproportionate amount of roles related to villainy. It doesn’t mean Robert Englund is a bad actor, he is a classically trained actor. We just associate Robert with being a bad guy because Freddy is what we see. You can’t just put in an already established iconic role that is sooooo tied to someone else. It’s rarely good. That’s the reason Jared Leto’s joker was going to be terrible no matter what. The live action joker is now Heath Ledger, and that’s the way it is. If they ever try to replace Darth Vader, it’s going to suck. They need to have James Earl Jones recording the dictionary in his downtime. The television adaptation of Clueless is unwatchable. Cher is Alicia Silverstone. If we need to employ necromancy in the very distant future so Sigourney Weaver is the only Ellen Ripley... We’re gonna do what we have to do.
And, yes, I am going to talk about the rare time it was good, because like I said, this movie makes me angry on so many levels that I have to post a picture of Bill Skarsgård, because he’s basically internet sage for me. Sorry, I have to do it!
No I’m not.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
We don’t celebrate this as queer horror like we should. Yes, the homoerotic subtext was intentional. David Chaskin admitted it in the Nightmare On Elm Street documentary. Robert England said this is a bisexual themed film (we’ve made it, y’all). I totally get why it took so long for them to come out 😏 and say it. Right after the movie came out, the AIDS crisis began in America. It’s wouldn’t be a good look for a movie to be about a kid questioning his sexuality.... While his body is being taken over by a disgusting looking child killer. It would have made Freddy a metaphor I would rather not asso with this franchise.
Mark Patton, who played Jesse is a gay man. I could see him fearing typecasting. Even though that’s what ended up happening even with the denials of the “gayness” of the movie. Now, Mark Patton is considered the first male scream queen. I couldn’t find out how he feels about that title but idk it makes me uncomfortable. I prefer the term “horror hunk”. We should make that a thing.
So, this is what happened in the movie.
Jesse and his family move into Nancy’s old house five years after the first movie’s ending. He dreams of a killer on a school bus. When he wakes up, he thinks his nightmare is due to the temperature in the room. The next day, Jesse gets in a fight with Grady. They have to stay after school. Grady and Jesse become friends. Jessie‘s crush Lisa visits him after school and they find Nancy’s diary. Nancy’s diary talks about her nightmares and Jesse thinks about how similar they are to his own. Little fires begin to happen around Jessie‘s house and eventually his birds are also caught on fire. Jessie‘s father blames him.
The next night Jesse has a nightmare. Freddy tell Jessie that he needs to kill for him. Jessie’s dreams become more realistic and he tries to keep himself up so he doesn’t have to go to sleep. He walks around at night and is eventually caught by Coach Schneider. Jessie has to run laps at school as punishment. Jesse goes to the showers. Coach Schneider is attacked by something that drags him into the showers. Jesse is unseen on screen due to all the steam in the shower. The steam subsides. Jessie’s gone and Freddy is in his place! He kills Coach Schneider with his glove. Jessie will later find the glove on his hand.
The police send him home after they find him walking down the street with no clothes on. Jessie‘s parents think that he is on drugs or sick. Lisa takes Jesse to Freddy Krueger‘s old job which is now an abandoned factory. The night after, Jesse kisses Lisa at her pool party. He goes to Grady’s house immediately after 😏.
He tells Grady that he’s the one that killed Coach Schneider. He asks Grady, who is only wearing tight af underwear,to watch him as he sleeps 😏 to make sure that he doesn’t hurt anyone else. Which was a pretty cool callback to the first movie. Nancy did ask her man’ s to watch her sleep sleep as well. Grady falls asleep and once again, Freddy shows up where Jesse was. Freddy kills Grady. Freddy turns back into Jesse. But when Jesse looks in the mirror all he can see his Freddys reflection. Jesse leaves before Grady’s parents go into the room and find them in there together 😏.
Jesse goes to Lisa’s house he tells her what happened. Jessie is told by Lisa that his fear is what makes Freddy strong. Jesse admits that he cannot stop fearing Freddy and turns into Freddy again. He locks Lisa’s parents door and tries to hurt Lisa. But Jesse will not let him. He goes outside and begins to kill people at the party. Lisa’s father comes out with a gun Lisa won’t let him hurt Freddy, because he’s actually Jesse. Freddy escapes in a ball of fire. Lisa goes to the factory. On her way she has nightmares and she struggles to not be afraid. Lisa begs Jesse to fight Freddy but he cannot. Lisa tells Jesse that she loves him and kisses Freddy. This is what encourages Jesse to begin to fight. They eventually turn to ash and only Jesse remains. The next day (I assume) Jesse, Lisa, and this girl Carrie are taking the school bus. Jesse realizes how familiar this scenario is and begins to freak out. Lisa calms Jesse down and Carrie says that everything is over. But then, Freddy’s glove emerges through her chest. Freddy cackles as the bus driver (cameo by Robert Englund!!!) drives into a nearby field.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Kristen dreams that she’s in an abandoned house on Elm Street where she is chased by Freddy Krueger. When she wakes up, she goes to the restroom where Freddy attacks her. He cuts her wrists with a razor. So her mom assumes that she is suicidal and takes her to a hospital run by Neil Gordon. Kristen doesn’t want to be sedated because that’s were Freddy is. In her dreams. The therapist is a familiar face Nancy Thompson! Kristen knows that she can trust Nancy because Nancy knows ready to. Nancy meet the other patients Phillip (sleepwalker) , Kincaid ( violent), Jennifer(wanna be actress), Will (wheelchair bound/suicidal) Tayn (struggles with addiction) and Joey (too scared to speak). Kristen makes a cardboard house of Nancy’s house on Elm Street.
Freddy attacks Kristen again he makes an effort to dress up as my favorite fear a giant f*cking snake. Kristen manages to pull Nancy into her dream and they both escape Freddy. Apparently Kristen has always been able to do this. Friday spend the next few nights trying to kill the other people. Philip is thrown off of the roof and it is made to look like a suicide attempt. Jennifer has her head pushed into a television. “Welcome to Primetime, b*tch!”
Nancy tells the patients that they are the last remaining children of the people who killed Freddy Krueger many years ago. Dr. Neil and Nancy try to get the group to go through hypnosis together so they can have the same dream. All of them have the pulling into dream power that Kristen has, I guess?
So they have the same dream and Freddy captures Joey which puts him in a coma IRL. Dr. Neil and Nancy are both fired, lol. And no one tells Dr. Neil that Freddy is the son of a nun who ended up locked in a room with hundreds, and I mean hundreds of mental patients. Which makes Freddy the son of 1000 maniacs. We have to remember this is technically B horror and therefore expected to be politically incorrect. I dislike the implication that Friday was killed was a killer because of his parents. We know mental illness can be inherited. I feel like his heritage is irrelevant because he made no effort to seek help. His father....fathers....whatever....it’s irrelevant! He’s a child killer! The nun also says the only way to truly stop Freddy is to put his bones to rest. The doctor Nancy go to her father Lieutenant Thompson to find out where Freddy’s bones are. Dad doesn’t help her. She goes back to the hospital when she hears Kristen is going to be sedated. Dr. Neil gets Nancy’s dad to help them.
Nancy and the other patients go under the hypnosis once again in order to find Kristen. They all lose track of each other when Freddy shows up. Taryn and Will are killed by Freddy. Taryn is killed when Freddy turns his knives into syringes and gives her an overdose of drugs. Will is killed because he tried to incorporate some D&D kind of stuff into the dream (the actor is a D&D master irl LMAOOOO) and Freddy straight up tells him he doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Kristen Nancy and Kincaid are able to find each other. They’re able to save Joey, but they are unable to defeat Freddy. He has grown too strong. Apparently, he absorbed the souls of everyone he killed. Freddy then locate his remains which are in a car junkyard and he possesses his bones to kill Nancy’s dad and seriously hurt Neil. He comes back and tries to attack the other people, joy interviews in his dream powers to send Freddy away. Nancy’s dad appears to her and tells her that he’s going to the other side/crossing over/whatever you wanna call it. But it’s actually Freddy and he kills Nancy.
Before he gets to kill Kristen, Nancy rises from up and stabs Friday with his own glove. Neil is able to properly bury the bones which destroys Freddy. Nancy has a funeral. Use there and he sees the original none that hold him about Friday’s origins. But when he tries to follow her, it’s revealed she is the ghost of Amanda Krueger, Freddy’s mom.
Dr. Neil sleeping at home. Suddenly, one of the windows in Kristen‘s cardboard house lights up, which leads the audience to assume Freddy is not dead and he’s coming back.
also, Lawrence Fishburne is in this movie as an orderly. Zsa Zsa Gabor cameos too.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Honestly, it’s all down hill from here. Now Kristen, Kincaid, Joey are living their lives outside of the hospital. Kristen thinks at Freddy will still come back one day so she brings Joey and Kincaid into her dreams. Joey and Kincaid are like, “You keep bringing Him up.... Of course he’s going to come back...Stop doing that or he’s going to come back.” The next day Kristen goes to see her boyfriend Rick and her friends, Alice, Sheila, and Debbie.
Kristen keeps herself awake so she doesn’t fall asleep. Kincaid falls asleep and wakes up in a junkyard. Freddy is waiting for him. Kincaid attempts to fight Freddy, but Freddy gets the upper hand and kills him! RIP Kincaid, you lasted longer than most black people in horror. Freddy also attacks Joey after making Joey think a model is swimming inside of his water bed. Kristen has a panic attack at school when she sees that Joey and Kincaid did not show up. When she’s knocked out, Freddy almost attacks her but she’s woken up by the school nurse.
She tells her friends about Freddy. She later has dinner with her family. Kristen notices her mother put sleeping pills in her food. She falls asleep. Freddy forces Kristen back into his home. Since Kristen is the last of the Elm Street children, Freddy wants her new friends as victims as well. Kristen brings her friend Alice into the dream. Freddy kills Kristen by throwing her into the boiler. Alice wakes up and Rick takes her to Kristen‘s house. They see Kristen burning to death in her room.
Alice falls asleep in class and brings Sheila into her dream. Freddy kills Sheila but the people that don’t know about Freddy. It looks like an asthma attack. Rick begins to believe Alice. However, the next day he is killed in his dream too. Alice notices that she begins to get the abilities and personalities of her dead friends. Alice, Debbie, and Dan plan to kill Freddy together. But her father doesn’t let her go with them. Alice falls asleep and Freddy begins to stalk Debbie. He turns her into a bug and kills her in a bug trap. Alice acquires Debbie’s temper, which has already been established as bad. Alice tries to ram Friday but she hits a tree IRL. Dan is sent to surgery. Alice is now prepared to face Freddy as Dan is obviously already asleep. She rescued him, and they are in an old church in the dream. Dan is woken up so Allison is alone to fight Freddy. She uses her friends dream powers against him but it’s not enough, because he is more experienced. As he’s about to kill Alice, she remembers a nursery rhyme. It’s called “The Dream Master”. It makes Freddy look at his own reflection causing all the souls that he stole to revolt. It literally tears Freddy apart and Alice’s friends are able to leave his body.
Later on it’s revealed that Alice and Dan are now a couple. They walk by a fountain and Dan throws a coin inside. Alice can view Freddys reflection in the water, but she ignores it. Dan wants to know what Alice wished for. She does not say. I wish this movie and the next were not made.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A year later, Alice and Dan are still together. They have not seen or heard from Freddy Kruger. One day Alice is in the shower and sees herself at a weird asylum dress like a nun with a name tag that says Amanda Kruger. She begins to get attacked by the patients but then she wakes up. The next day is her high school graduation. She’s with her new friends Greta, Mark, and Yvonne. She tells Dan about her nightmare but he tells her she is in control of her own dreams.
Alice wanders to back to the asylum she sees Amanda giving birth to a yucky looking baby. Amanda tries to get the baby but It escapes. She follows it to the same church where she defeated Freddy before. The baby locates Freddy’s bones and rapidly turns into an adult. Scared AF she tells Dan...who manages to go to sleep on his way to catch up with her. He is electrocuted by Freddy. He looks so gross and swerved right into traffic. Dan‘s body frightens Alice before she passes out. Alice wakes up in the hospital, they tell her not only is Dan dead, but she’s pregnant with his baby. A boy named Jacob visits her that night. But Yvonne tells her there is not a children’s ward. Alice tells her friends about Freddy. Yvonne doesn’t want to hear about it, but Mark and Greta listen to her. Later that afternoon, Greta falls asleep at a party. She yells at her mother, going off on her mother about controlling her. Freddy shows up and makes Greta eat herself alive, then he chokes her in front of the dream audience. IRL she’s dead, the people around her cannot figure out what happened. Yvonne and Alice visit Mark. He’s very sad about Greta dying(obvi). Mark falls asleep and Freddy almost killed him.
The little boy, named Jacob kind of says but doesn’t say that Alice is his mom. Alice get an early ultrasound from Yvonne. She sees that Freddy is feeding Jacob his victims to make him look like him. Yvonne says Alice is nuts. Dan’s parents also don’t think too highly of her sanity and want her to give them the baby when it’s born. Alice says no. Alice and Mark research on Freddy and Amanda. They realize Amanda wanted to stop Freddy, so they try to find her whereabouts. Alice goes to sleep because she thinks she will find Amanda at that asylum.
While there Freddy threatens Yvonne, which makes Alice leave. Yvonne, after falling asleep in a jacuzzi (how tbh?). Alice is able to rescue her. Yvonne begins to believe Alice about Freddy. Mark falls asleep, Freddy pulls him into comic books world and slices him to death. Alice goes back to bed so she’s able to find Freddy but more importantly save her unborn son. She’s taken into a maze that reminds me of the one from Labyrinth starring David Bowie. They are both inspired by the art of M.C. Escher. She is able to draw Freddy out from inside herself. Yvonne finds what’s left of Amanda’s body at the asylum, and goes into the dreamworld to fight. She tells Jacob to use the power Freddy has slowly been giving him. Jacob is the one that beats Freddy. Alice picks up baby Jacob. Amanda is the one that seals Freddy away in time, she sends Alice away before doing so.
Later, Jacob is having a picnic with his mom, Yvonne, and his grandpa. The audience can hear Freddy’s theme from children playing jump rope in the near distance.
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
I really want someone to explain to me why this one has the best soundtrack, but is the worst movie. Actually, I just got inspired to make a list of movies that are garbage but have awesome soundtracks. Honestly there are a lot.
Peter Jackson wrote a version of this movie that they stupidly decided wasn’t good enough. So, buckle up buckeroos! The best thing about this movie is the cameos. We got Elinor Donahue, Johnny Depp, Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper, and R*seanne Barr.
So it’s like 10 years later. Freddy has returned and killed all the children and teenagers in Springwood. There’s only one teenager left. He’s known as John Doe and he is confronted by Freddie via dream and he wakes up outside the city limits of Springwood. He remembers nothing about himself or how he got there. He Is sent to a youth shelter. Other children, named Spencer, Carlos, and Tracy are planning to run away to California. Carlos comes from an abusive home and now he is deaf. Tracy was sexually assaulted by her father, and Spencer just likes to get high. Our main character Jon was picked up by the police and he is now a resident at the shelter and he’s also a patient of Dr. Maggie. Maggie notices a newspaper that’s from Springwood. In the attempt to cure his memory issues, she takes him to Springwood. The other youth hide in the van in order to leave the shelter. hey’re found out because John has a hallucination when they are almost to Springwood. Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos rest at an abandoned house. It turns into 1428 Elm St. which we know is Freddy Krueger‘s old house. John and Maggie go to the Springwood orphanage and learn Freddy had a kid. John thinks he’s the kid because Freddy let him live. Carlos and Spencer were killed by Freddy, but Maggie is able to wake Tracy. John went into the dream world with Tracy because he wanted to help Spencer. Maggie and Tracy bring him back to the shelter. Freddy kills John while he’s asleep, and let them know his child is a girl. Tracy and Maggie go back to the shelter and nobody remembers John, or Spencer, or Carlos. No one except for Doc, who can control his dreams. Maggie remembers what John said. she locates her own adoption papers and she learns that she is actually Freddy’s child. Her original name was Katherine Krueger
Doc learns at Freddy gets his powers from Dream demons who are what keeps bringing him back to life. Freddy is able to be killed if he’s pulled into the real world. Maggie says she will be the one to go into Freddys mind and pull him into the real world. When she’s in the dream world, Maggie puts on a pair of 3-D glasses (the movie is in 3-D at this point too). Maggie goes into Freddys mind. She learns of Freddy’s past. He was teased when he was a kid, he was abused at home, he was a foster child, he was a self harmer, and he killed his wife. Freddy was given the power of immortality from the dream demons. Freddy is pulled into the real world by Maggie.
Even though Maggie apparently has the hands to take on Freddy. She also uses weapons that have been taken away from people at the shelter. She is pissed that Freddy was such a terrible human being/supernatural being. She takes his clawed glove from him, stabbing him in the stomach. Tracy tosses Maggie a pipe bomb. Maggie throws the bomb into Freddys chest telling him “Happy Father’s Day.” I don’t care for my biological dad either, but, damn sis that’s cold. She runs away and the demons fly from Freddy once the pipe bomb has gone off. Freddy is dead. Maggie smiles at Tracy and Doc because she knows that her father is no more
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Ok, let’s be real. Two things are about to happen. We’re going to acknowledge this is the canonical end of the Elm Street Series. However, we’re also going to remember the Nik-or-Treat brand thrives on camp. So, the next two....let’s just do it. The good news is we get to see the Freddy that Craven originally envisioned. His look in this one is the OG concept. Wes Craven returned as writer and director. The bad news is I totally see the point of the people that say this isn’t canon. This is not a bad movie. But, I mean, Freddy is dead. The last movie is literally called Freddy’s Dead! Not only did Craven the return as writer/director, but he’s also acting....as himself. Heather Langenkamp returns to the series to play....Heather Langenkamp. Same goes for John Saxon ( Nancy’s dad) , Robert Englund (Freddy). Also Tuesday Knight, and Nick Korri Also show up. Johnny Depp wanted to be in this movie, but they were too afraid to ask. I don’t like Johnny Depp as a person, but I think it’s pretty cool he didn’t forget where he came from. A Nightmare on Elm Street was his film debut.
We also get cameos from Robert Shaye and Marianne Maddalena. They are partially responsible for The Elm Street Series success. Shaye is the founder of New Line Cinema, the production label that distributed and produced the movies! Maddalena was Craven’s producing partner.
So, this is what happened.
Heather lives in LA with her husband and son. She still known as a scream queen thanks to The Nightmare on Elm Street series. One night, she has a nightmare of her own. Her family is being attacked by Freddy Krueger claws. The ones from the upcoming Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Two murders have already happened on set. They are unsolved. During an earthquake, she sees that Chase’s finger has been cut exactly like the one he got in her dream. She realizes how stupid it is to think that Freddy Krueger actually attacked her son.
Some creep calls Heather using the Freddy voice saying the Freddy rhyme. Later, she goes to a meeting where the production company wants her to replace her role as Nancy in the new movie. Her husband has been working on this movie and not telling her. She goes home sees Dylan (her son) watching the movie. She gets mad because children shouldn’t be watching the movies. Dylan flips out and screams at her so she calls her husband. He says he’ll come home and falls asleep while he’s driving. He is killed by Freddy. His death really bums Dylan out. Heather‘s friend John Saxon says that Dylan should go to the hospital. She should go to the hospital too. She had a nightmare at Chase’s funeral where Freddy tried to take Dylan away. Dylan’s health gets worse and he doesn’t want to go to sleep because of Freddy. Heather is like WTF because he didn’t see that much of the movie. She goes to see Wes Craven and he says that Freddy could be a supernatural entity drawn to the movie. And he was freed after the film series ended a few years back. Now Freddy thinks that Heather is actually Nancy. (Mess). Robert Englund, also knows this Freddy. He is able to describe him perfectly. Then he runs away never to be heard from again I guess. Another earthquake happens Heather takes Dylan to the hospital. The doctor thinks Heather is abusing Dylan so the doctor keeps them at the hospital. Heather goes home to get Dylan stuffed dinosaur. His babysitter tries to get the nurse to not sedate Dylan. But she fails. Dylan falls asleep and Freddy ends up killing the babysitter. Dylan can sleepwalk. He leaves the hospital and Heather chases him down the freeway .....the Los Angeles freeway. I guess that explains the traffic that is always going on over there. Freddy is literally dangling him in and out of cars and trucks. John Saxon has decided that he is Don Thompson. Heather has also decided to embrace being Nancy. Freddy is able to come into reality completely and snatches Dylan up. Heather follow the trail of sleeping pills into the underworld. Freddy fights off Heather and Dylan is chased into an oven but escapes. Dylan finds his mother… I mean Nancy and they push Freddy into the oven and light it. This rids Freddy from the dreamworld...underworld.... thing and from real life. Dylan and Heather come out from under the blankets. Heather sees everything that just happened neatly put into a screenplay at the end of the bed. Wes Craven has written a thank you to Heather. It’s for finally getting rid of Freddy and for playing Nancy for one last time. Dylan asks if it’s a story Heather says yes, and begins to read/recount what what happened. I’m sure her son was hyped to relive the brutal death of his father. The end.
Freddy vs. Jason
Meanwhile in hell, Freddy has no powers because everyone forgot about him. So, he disguises himself as Pamela Voorhees (Jason‘s mom). He tricks Jason into starting to kill the teenagers of Springwood so he can get strong again. Lori lives with her father, a widower. She also has friends Kia (played by the beautiful Kelly Roland!!) Gibb, Trey, and Blake. Jason kills Trey and the police think it’s Freddy back at it again. Blake wakes up, he wakes he finds his father dead, and Jason kills Blake. The police want to call a murder suicide. They don’t need anyone knowing about/believing in Freddy. Lori’s ex Will and this other guy Mark are patients at Weston Hills Hospital. They use Hyponocil so they won’t dream. They don’t want to deal with Friday either. When they see the news, the escape the hospital to warn Lori. However, Lori is at a rave in a cornfield. Freddy makes an attempt on Gibb’s life. He isn’t successful because Jason has killed Gibb (and a lot of other people) IRL at the rave. Freddy comes to the realization that he won’t be able to kill people in dreams...... because Jason is killing them in real life. Also, Freddy gets his power from fear/belief. So if people are more worried about Jason, Freddy is not as powerful. I guess there really *was* a Panic! At The Disco.
Lori and the majority of her friends are able to escape. Will and Lori go to Mark’s house, only to see him getting murdered by Freddy. Her friends become aware of Hypnocil, and how it can help them. They make plans to steal it from Westin Hills Hospital. But, Freddy posses Freeburg. Freddyburg gets rid of the medication. Meanwhile, Jason electrocutes one of the cops. Freddyburg tranquilizes Jason. Before he is completely knocked out, Jason kills Freeburg. Which obviously annoys Freddy.
The remaining people decide they should bring Freddy into the real world and get him to fight Jason. They bring Jason’s body to Camp Crystal Lake. Since Jason is unconscious, he’s using his naptime to fight Freddy in the dream world. Freddy uses his powers to deduce that Jason has Aquaphobia. So, Freddy uses water to mess with him. With water, Jason is unable to fight. Lori falls asleep so she can help Jason. When Freddy notices her, he tells her that HE killed her mother. She wants to avenge her mother’s death by ensuring Freddy dies.
Jason wakes up at Camp Crystal Lake, and our favorite aquaphobe is pissed. He chases the kids into a cabin. When Linderman is killed, the cabin catches fire. Lori wakes up via a burnt hand. She pulls Freddy into the real world. Freddy and Jason agree to fight. Everyone that’s left (Lori, Kia, and Will) leave the cabin.
Kia gets the attention of Freddy. Momentarily distracting him with an (unscripted) utterance of “f*ggot”, and is promptly killed by Jason. The battle between the horror icons is brains (Freddy) vs. brawn (Jason). As the two are ripping off arms and stabbing eyes, Lori and Will set the dock they’re fighting on fighting over ablaze. Nearby propane tanks explode which sends Freddy and Jason flying into the lake. Freddy catches up to Lori and Will. But, before he can kill them, Jason uses Freddy’s severed arm to stab Freddy. Lori seizes the opportunity to cut off Freddy’s head. Jason falls into the lake. The two teens escape. The next day, Jason steps out of the lake. His machete in one hand, and Freddy’s head in another. Freddy gives the camera a wink. His laugh is able to be heard off screen.
This is the true end of the Nightmare Franchise, as it was Robert Englund’s final appearance as Freddy. Personally, I’ve had enough of Freddy and Jason together. But, Freddy and Jason also appear in Mortal Kombat X.
They also have teamed up for a few Halloween Horror Nights! And of course, I have to mention the comic book based on this movie’s alternate ending...Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash!
Freddy has also had various cameos throughout popular culture! Here are my favorites.
A Nightmare On My Street, a song by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. There’s actually a lot of drama with the music video and the whole thing went down before I was born. They were sued for copyright infringement, even though its a song that was considered the soundtrack of Nightmare On Elm Street 4. I guess they had a problem with it being released. The video online isn’t the original video, that only aired on MTV a few times before it disappeared. I have a deep interest in lost media, as you probably know already. This is actually what took me so long to post this article! I wanted a definitive answer and was unable to find one. Maybe someone out there (probably Will Smith himself) has a copy of it, but other than that, I guess it’s gone forever.
There’s another rap song about Freddy, and Robert Englund is actually on it!"Freddy Krueger's the name/You know my game/Elm Street's the place/You got the time/Listen to this/You'll bust a rhyme." The difference between A Nightmare On My Street and Are You Ready For Freddy is: The Fat Boys got legal permission and DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince didn’t. The music video didn’t qualify for protection under fair use either. Because it didn’t make a “critical comment or statement” about the franchise. Dumb, but whatever I guess.
Freddy, or Freddy-like beings have also made appearances in South Park, Rick and Morty, The Simpson’s, and a downloadable playable character in Dead by Daylight.
What are your favorite moments in the franchise? Do you think this is the true end of the series? How would you want it to end?
Stay spooky,
Nik
This show premiered after Freddy Krueger was already established as a horror icon. The year was 1988, if you were curious. In this series, an episode explains Freddy’s origins. It’s actually the pilot episode and the director is Toby Hooper. Which is awesome because Toby Hooper directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was also responsible for the “weird“ Poltergeist sequel. He also directed Billy Idol‘s music video for Dancing With Myself! One of my favorite music videos. Does anyone else miss music videos on television? I do!
So anyway, the television show has Fred Krueger on trial for using an ice cream van to lure/kidnap/kill kids. In the script for the original movie, Freddy was also a pedophile. Due to real cases of child molestation in California at the time, this was scrapped. They didn’t want to deal with the accusations of exploiting the situation. I feel the ice cream van was a nod to the original script. But, I was born after the show and the movie. So I’m not too sure the ice cream van stereotype came from but I was always told to never go to an ice cream van by myself. And this was not an uncommon thing amongst children my age. The police did not read Fred Krueger his Miranda rights so there was a mistrial. The town’s parents engage in a little street justice and find Freddy’s hide out. They burn that b*tch to the ground (relatable).
After that Freddy begins to frequent the dreams of the local police lieutenant. At the dentist, Lieutenant Blocker is killed by Freddy. Most of the episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares don’t have Freddy in the actual story, he sometimes shows up to make his lil comments. If you like Tales From The Crypt or Are You Afraid of the Dark, you’ll like Freddy‘s Nightmares. It’s a very similar vibe.
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1985)
Tina dreams of a boiler room where she is being chased by a being with knives attached to his hand. Eventually, he catches up with her. She wakes up screaming. Tina and her mother see cuts in her pajamas that match the knives in her dream. She tells her friends, Nancy and Glen about what happened. They bring up the infamous… “One, two, Freddy‘s coming for you” jumprope rhyme. Nancy says she also had a nightmare last night.
Nancy and Glenn sleepover at Tina‘s house because her mother is out of town. Tina‘s boyfriend Rod shows up as well. Tina falls asleep and sees the same being from her dream before. She runs away from the man. Rod sees Tina flipping out in her sleep and then sees her die horribly by something he can’t see. Rod leaves, Which makes Nancy and Glenn blame Rod for Tina’s death. Nancy tells her father Lieutenant Don Thompson of the murder. He arrests Rod. Rod says he’s innocent but....Then they’re like well who did it? And Rod can’t give a good answer.
Nancy fall the sleep in class and sees the being that Tina saw. He says his name is Freddy Krueger and he chases her in the boiler room. Nancy uses a pipe to burn herself and wake up. The burn has crossed over into real life. At home, Nancy falls asleep in the bathtub and Freddy almost drowns her. I feel like this scene is the most iconic one in the entirety of the franchise. When I think of Elm Street, this is what I think of.
Rod tells Nancy what happened to Tina; Nancy blames Freddy for the death now.
Glenn keeps an eye on Nancy and she falls asleep. She looks for Friday but she sees and getting ready to kill Rod. When Freddy sees Nancy he turns attention to her. She wakes up by the sound of her alarm. Nancy and Glenn rush to the jail. Rod is found dead in his cell, it looks to be a death by suicide. But Nancy and Glenn know better. Nancy‘s parents worry about Nancy, especially when she describes the man that has been in her dreams. Nancy’s mother takes Nancy to a dream clinic. Nancy’s able to fall sleep. During her nightmare, she grabs Freddy’s hat. The staff wakes her up. She has an injury on her arm....and she has acquired Freddy’s hat.
Nancy’s mother comes clean and admits that her and the other parents burned a man named Fred Krueger alive. They did this because he was a child murderer. He ended up being released on a technicality. In the show it was Miranda rights, in this movie it’s the lack of a signed search warrant. Nancy figures out that Freddy wants revenge and Glenn helps her. Her plan is to pull Freddy into the real world, like she did with the hat. Nancy sets up traps in her house. Glenn’s parents think that Nancy has gone bonkers and he no longer allowed to see her. So he stays home and gets murdered by Freddy.... right in front of his mother.
With Nancy’s mother Marge asleep. Nancy asks Don who is across the street to come over in 20 minutes. She falls asleep and finds Freddy and pulls him out of the dream. In the real world, Nancy begins to run from Freddy.....Who falls into the traps. In a sense of poetic justice, she lights him on fire and locks him in the basement. The police arrive only to discover that Freddy has escaped! They did witness Freddy smothering Marge in her bedroom. Don puts out the fire, Freddy and Marge are gone. Nancy is still fearful. For good reason, because she is once again attacked. Nancy learns at Freddys power comes from the victims fear. So she hits him with the “boy bye” and turns her back.
Nancy goes outside where all her friends are waiting for her in Glen’s car. Not hurt, not scared, happy to be hanging out with Nancy. But then, the top of the car comes down and they’re locked in! The car begins to drive by itself and her mother is grabbed through the window by Freddys gloved hand.
Wanna know about the worst date of my entire earthly existence? Too bad! Just know it happened at this movie....So I don’t like this due to the association. There are a lot of differences in this remake, and you know what? I’m already tired of talking about it. This movie makes me so irrationally angry. So, I’m just going to roast this movie that is less canonical that the “Nightmare on my Street” music video with Will Smith and Dj Jazzy Jeff.
If you’ve read my post on horror movies that should not be remade, I included Scream. BUT all the reasons we don’t need a Scream remake are also reasons why this remake should not exist. Wes Craven was alive at the time, but they still didn’t consult him in any way (rude). Freddy Krueger was not played by Robert Englund (wtf). Instead of hiring more skilled makeup artist, they relied on CGI (lazy). They made him a pedophile, like he was originally... Which means there was nothing comical about it( boring). Like, it may seem weird because OG Freddy was out here killing kids, but we all still found him likeable. But, there’s no coming back from child molestation, sorry. I hate 2010 Freddy and not in a Pennywise way. Obviously, we don’t like that he kills children, but we like that he’s charismatic. Pedophiles have no redeeming qualities. Especially serial pedophiles. That’s the way it is. Argue with ya mama, not me.
And, there’s a prequel version written by the same person that wrote Se7en, but they made this instead (stupid). New Nancy isn’t as nice or brave or tolerable as the original Nancy. She is hard to root for, and I hoped they all just died so the movie would end. It should have ruined Rooney Mara’s career, but I’m glad it didn’t. I like Rooney!
Jackie Earle Hayley isn’t even a bad actor. His take on the dream demon is good. It’s scary, if it’s your first exposure to Freddy...But, Freddy is Freddy. That’s Robert Englund. Other people can’t play Freddy. Just like Robert Englund has a disproportionate amount of roles related to villainy. It doesn’t mean Robert Englund is a bad actor, he is a classically trained actor. We just associate Robert with being a bad guy because Freddy is what we see. You can’t just put in an already established iconic role that is sooooo tied to someone else. It’s rarely good. That’s the reason Jared Leto’s joker was going to be terrible no matter what. The live action joker is now Heath Ledger, and that’s the way it is. If they ever try to replace Darth Vader, it’s going to suck. They need to have James Earl Jones recording the dictionary in his downtime. The television adaptation of Clueless is unwatchable. Cher is Alicia Silverstone. If we need to employ necromancy in the very distant future so Sigourney Weaver is the only Ellen Ripley... We’re gonna do what we have to do.
And, yes, I am going to talk about the rare time it was good, because like I said, this movie makes me angry on so many levels that I have to post a picture of Bill Skarsgård, because he’s basically internet sage for me. Sorry, I have to do it!
No I’m not.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
We don’t celebrate this as queer horror like we should. Yes, the homoerotic subtext was intentional. David Chaskin admitted it in the Nightmare On Elm Street documentary. Robert England said this is a bisexual themed film (we’ve made it, y’all). I totally get why it took so long for them to come out 😏 and say it. Right after the movie came out, the AIDS crisis began in America. It’s wouldn’t be a good look for a movie to be about a kid questioning his sexuality.... While his body is being taken over by a disgusting looking child killer. It would have made Freddy a metaphor I would rather not asso with this franchise.
Mark Patton, who played Jesse is a gay man. I could see him fearing typecasting. Even though that’s what ended up happening even with the denials of the “gayness” of the movie. Now, Mark Patton is considered the first male scream queen. I couldn’t find out how he feels about that title but idk it makes me uncomfortable. I prefer the term “horror hunk”. We should make that a thing.
So, this is what happened in the movie.
The next night Jesse has a nightmare. Freddy tell Jessie that he needs to kill for him. Jessie’s dreams become more realistic and he tries to keep himself up so he doesn’t have to go to sleep. He walks around at night and is eventually caught by Coach Schneider. Jessie has to run laps at school as punishment. Jesse goes to the showers. Coach Schneider is attacked by something that drags him into the showers. Jesse is unseen on screen due to all the steam in the shower. The steam subsides. Jessie’s gone and Freddy is in his place! He kills Coach Schneider with his glove. Jessie will later find the glove on his hand.
He tells Grady that he’s the one that killed Coach Schneider. He asks Grady, who is only wearing tight af underwear,to watch him as he sleeps 😏 to make sure that he doesn’t hurt anyone else. Which was a pretty cool callback to the first movie. Nancy did ask her man’ s to watch her sleep sleep as well. Grady falls asleep and once again, Freddy shows up where Jesse was. Freddy kills Grady. Freddy turns back into Jesse. But when Jesse looks in the mirror all he can see his Freddys reflection. Jesse leaves before Grady’s parents go into the room and find them in there together 😏.
Jesse goes to Lisa’s house he tells her what happened. Jessie is told by Lisa that his fear is what makes Freddy strong. Jesse admits that he cannot stop fearing Freddy and turns into Freddy again. He locks Lisa’s parents door and tries to hurt Lisa. But Jesse will not let him. He goes outside and begins to kill people at the party. Lisa’s father comes out with a gun Lisa won’t let him hurt Freddy, because he’s actually Jesse. Freddy escapes in a ball of fire. Lisa goes to the factory. On her way she has nightmares and she struggles to not be afraid. Lisa begs Jesse to fight Freddy but he cannot. Lisa tells Jesse that she loves him and kisses Freddy. This is what encourages Jesse to begin to fight. They eventually turn to ash and only Jesse remains. The next day (I assume) Jesse, Lisa, and this girl Carrie are taking the school bus. Jesse realizes how familiar this scenario is and begins to freak out. Lisa calms Jesse down and Carrie says that everything is over. But then, Freddy’s glove emerges through her chest. Freddy cackles as the bus driver (cameo by Robert Englund!!!) drives into a nearby field.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Kristen dreams that she’s in an abandoned house on Elm Street where she is chased by Freddy Krueger. When she wakes up, she goes to the restroom where Freddy attacks her. He cuts her wrists with a razor. So her mom assumes that she is suicidal and takes her to a hospital run by Neil Gordon. Kristen doesn’t want to be sedated because that’s were Freddy is. In her dreams. The therapist is a familiar face Nancy Thompson! Kristen knows that she can trust Nancy because Nancy knows ready to. Nancy meet the other patients Phillip (sleepwalker) , Kincaid ( violent), Jennifer(wanna be actress), Will (wheelchair bound/suicidal) Tayn (struggles with addiction) and Joey (too scared to speak). Kristen makes a cardboard house of Nancy’s house on Elm Street.
Freddy attacks Kristen again he makes an effort to dress up as my favorite fear a giant f*cking snake. Kristen manages to pull Nancy into her dream and they both escape Freddy. Apparently Kristen has always been able to do this. Friday spend the next few nights trying to kill the other people. Philip is thrown off of the roof and it is made to look like a suicide attempt. Jennifer has her head pushed into a television. “Welcome to Primetime, b*tch!”
Nancy tells the patients that they are the last remaining children of the people who killed Freddy Krueger many years ago. Dr. Neil and Nancy try to get the group to go through hypnosis together so they can have the same dream. All of them have the pulling into dream power that Kristen has, I guess?
So they have the same dream and Freddy captures Joey which puts him in a coma IRL. Dr. Neil and Nancy are both fired, lol. And no one tells Dr. Neil that Freddy is the son of a nun who ended up locked in a room with hundreds, and I mean hundreds of mental patients. Which makes Freddy the son of 1000 maniacs. We have to remember this is technically B horror and therefore expected to be politically incorrect. I dislike the implication that Friday was killed was a killer because of his parents. We know mental illness can be inherited. I feel like his heritage is irrelevant because he made no effort to seek help. His father....fathers....whatever....it’s irrelevant! He’s a child killer! The nun also says the only way to truly stop Freddy is to put his bones to rest. The doctor Nancy go to her father Lieutenant Thompson to find out where Freddy’s bones are. Dad doesn’t help her. She goes back to the hospital when she hears Kristen is going to be sedated. Dr. Neil gets Nancy’s dad to help them.
Nancy and the other patients go under the hypnosis once again in order to find Kristen. They all lose track of each other when Freddy shows up. Taryn and Will are killed by Freddy. Taryn is killed when Freddy turns his knives into syringes and gives her an overdose of drugs. Will is killed because he tried to incorporate some D&D kind of stuff into the dream (the actor is a D&D master irl LMAOOOO) and Freddy straight up tells him he doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Kristen Nancy and Kincaid are able to find each other. They’re able to save Joey, but they are unable to defeat Freddy. He has grown too strong. Apparently, he absorbed the souls of everyone he killed. Freddy then locate his remains which are in a car junkyard and he possesses his bones to kill Nancy’s dad and seriously hurt Neil. He comes back and tries to attack the other people, joy interviews in his dream powers to send Freddy away. Nancy’s dad appears to her and tells her that he’s going to the other side/crossing over/whatever you wanna call it. But it’s actually Freddy and he kills Nancy.
Before he gets to kill Kristen, Nancy rises from up and stabs Friday with his own glove. Neil is able to properly bury the bones which destroys Freddy. Nancy has a funeral. Use there and he sees the original none that hold him about Friday’s origins. But when he tries to follow her, it’s revealed she is the ghost of Amanda Krueger, Freddy’s mom.
Dr. Neil sleeping at home. Suddenly, one of the windows in Kristen‘s cardboard house lights up, which leads the audience to assume Freddy is not dead and he’s coming back.
also, Lawrence Fishburne is in this movie as an orderly. Zsa Zsa Gabor cameos too.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Honestly, it’s all down hill from here. Now Kristen, Kincaid, Joey are living their lives outside of the hospital. Kristen thinks at Freddy will still come back one day so she brings Joey and Kincaid into her dreams. Joey and Kincaid are like, “You keep bringing Him up.... Of course he’s going to come back...Stop doing that or he’s going to come back.” The next day Kristen goes to see her boyfriend Rick and her friends, Alice, Sheila, and Debbie.
Kristen keeps herself awake so she doesn’t fall asleep. Kincaid falls asleep and wakes up in a junkyard. Freddy is waiting for him. Kincaid attempts to fight Freddy, but Freddy gets the upper hand and kills him! RIP Kincaid, you lasted longer than most black people in horror. Freddy also attacks Joey after making Joey think a model is swimming inside of his water bed. Kristen has a panic attack at school when she sees that Joey and Kincaid did not show up. When she’s knocked out, Freddy almost attacks her but she’s woken up by the school nurse.
She tells her friends about Freddy. She later has dinner with her family. Kristen notices her mother put sleeping pills in her food. She falls asleep. Freddy forces Kristen back into his home. Since Kristen is the last of the Elm Street children, Freddy wants her new friends as victims as well. Kristen brings her friend Alice into the dream. Freddy kills Kristen by throwing her into the boiler. Alice wakes up and Rick takes her to Kristen‘s house. They see Kristen burning to death in her room.
Alice falls asleep in class and brings Sheila into her dream. Freddy kills Sheila but the people that don’t know about Freddy. It looks like an asthma attack. Rick begins to believe Alice. However, the next day he is killed in his dream too. Alice notices that she begins to get the abilities and personalities of her dead friends. Alice, Debbie, and Dan plan to kill Freddy together. But her father doesn’t let her go with them. Alice falls asleep and Freddy begins to stalk Debbie. He turns her into a bug and kills her in a bug trap. Alice acquires Debbie’s temper, which has already been established as bad. Alice tries to ram Friday but she hits a tree IRL. Dan is sent to surgery. Alice is now prepared to face Freddy as Dan is obviously already asleep. She rescued him, and they are in an old church in the dream. Dan is woken up so Allison is alone to fight Freddy. She uses her friends dream powers against him but it’s not enough, because he is more experienced. As he’s about to kill Alice, she remembers a nursery rhyme. It’s called “The Dream Master”. It makes Freddy look at his own reflection causing all the souls that he stole to revolt. It literally tears Freddy apart and Alice’s friends are able to leave his body.
Later on it’s revealed that Alice and Dan are now a couple. They walk by a fountain and Dan throws a coin inside. Alice can view Freddys reflection in the water, but she ignores it. Dan wants to know what Alice wished for. She does not say. I wish this movie and the next were not made.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A year later, Alice and Dan are still together. They have not seen or heard from Freddy Kruger. One day Alice is in the shower and sees herself at a weird asylum dress like a nun with a name tag that says Amanda Kruger. She begins to get attacked by the patients but then she wakes up. The next day is her high school graduation. She’s with her new friends Greta, Mark, and Yvonne. She tells Dan about her nightmare but he tells her she is in control of her own dreams.
Alice wanders to back to the asylum she sees Amanda giving birth to a yucky looking baby. Amanda tries to get the baby but It escapes. She follows it to the same church where she defeated Freddy before. The baby locates Freddy’s bones and rapidly turns into an adult. Scared AF she tells Dan...who manages to go to sleep on his way to catch up with her. He is electrocuted by Freddy. He looks so gross and swerved right into traffic. Dan‘s body frightens Alice before she passes out. Alice wakes up in the hospital, they tell her not only is Dan dead, but she’s pregnant with his baby. A boy named Jacob visits her that night. But Yvonne tells her there is not a children’s ward. Alice tells her friends about Freddy. Yvonne doesn’t want to hear about it, but Mark and Greta listen to her. Later that afternoon, Greta falls asleep at a party. She yells at her mother, going off on her mother about controlling her. Freddy shows up and makes Greta eat herself alive, then he chokes her in front of the dream audience. IRL she’s dead, the people around her cannot figure out what happened. Yvonne and Alice visit Mark. He’s very sad about Greta dying(obvi). Mark falls asleep and Freddy almost killed him.
The little boy, named Jacob kind of says but doesn’t say that Alice is his mom. Alice get an early ultrasound from Yvonne. She sees that Freddy is feeding Jacob his victims to make him look like him. Yvonne says Alice is nuts. Dan’s parents also don’t think too highly of her sanity and want her to give them the baby when it’s born. Alice says no. Alice and Mark research on Freddy and Amanda. They realize Amanda wanted to stop Freddy, so they try to find her whereabouts. Alice goes to sleep because she thinks she will find Amanda at that asylum.
While there Freddy threatens Yvonne, which makes Alice leave. Yvonne, after falling asleep in a jacuzzi (how tbh?). Alice is able to rescue her. Yvonne begins to believe Alice about Freddy. Mark falls asleep, Freddy pulls him into comic books world and slices him to death. Alice goes back to bed so she’s able to find Freddy but more importantly save her unborn son. She’s taken into a maze that reminds me of the one from Labyrinth starring David Bowie. They are both inspired by the art of M.C. Escher. She is able to draw Freddy out from inside herself. Yvonne finds what’s left of Amanda’s body at the asylum, and goes into the dreamworld to fight. She tells Jacob to use the power Freddy has slowly been giving him. Jacob is the one that beats Freddy. Alice picks up baby Jacob. Amanda is the one that seals Freddy away in time, she sends Alice away before doing so.
Later, Jacob is having a picnic with his mom, Yvonne, and his grandpa. The audience can hear Freddy’s theme from children playing jump rope in the near distance.
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
I really want someone to explain to me why this one has the best soundtrack, but is the worst movie. Actually, I just got inspired to make a list of movies that are garbage but have awesome soundtracks. Honestly there are a lot.
Peter Jackson wrote a version of this movie that they stupidly decided wasn’t good enough. So, buckle up buckeroos! The best thing about this movie is the cameos. We got Elinor Donahue, Johnny Depp, Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper, and R*seanne Barr.
So it’s like 10 years later. Freddy has returned and killed all the children and teenagers in Springwood. There’s only one teenager left. He’s known as John Doe and he is confronted by Freddie via dream and he wakes up outside the city limits of Springwood. He remembers nothing about himself or how he got there. He Is sent to a youth shelter. Other children, named Spencer, Carlos, and Tracy are planning to run away to California. Carlos comes from an abusive home and now he is deaf. Tracy was sexually assaulted by her father, and Spencer just likes to get high. Our main character Jon was picked up by the police and he is now a resident at the shelter and he’s also a patient of Dr. Maggie. Maggie notices a newspaper that’s from Springwood. In the attempt to cure his memory issues, she takes him to Springwood. The other youth hide in the van in order to leave the shelter. hey’re found out because John has a hallucination when they are almost to Springwood. Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos rest at an abandoned house. It turns into 1428 Elm St. which we know is Freddy Krueger‘s old house. John and Maggie go to the Springwood orphanage and learn Freddy had a kid. John thinks he’s the kid because Freddy let him live. Carlos and Spencer were killed by Freddy, but Maggie is able to wake Tracy. John went into the dream world with Tracy because he wanted to help Spencer. Maggie and Tracy bring him back to the shelter. Freddy kills John while he’s asleep, and let them know his child is a girl. Tracy and Maggie go back to the shelter and nobody remembers John, or Spencer, or Carlos. No one except for Doc, who can control his dreams. Maggie remembers what John said. she locates her own adoption papers and she learns that she is actually Freddy’s child. Her original name was Katherine Krueger
Doc learns at Freddy gets his powers from Dream demons who are what keeps bringing him back to life. Freddy is able to be killed if he’s pulled into the real world. Maggie says she will be the one to go into Freddys mind and pull him into the real world. When she’s in the dream world, Maggie puts on a pair of 3-D glasses (the movie is in 3-D at this point too). Maggie goes into Freddys mind. She learns of Freddy’s past. He was teased when he was a kid, he was abused at home, he was a foster child, he was a self harmer, and he killed his wife. Freddy was given the power of immortality from the dream demons. Freddy is pulled into the real world by Maggie.
Even though Maggie apparently has the hands to take on Freddy. She also uses weapons that have been taken away from people at the shelter. She is pissed that Freddy was such a terrible human being/supernatural being. She takes his clawed glove from him, stabbing him in the stomach. Tracy tosses Maggie a pipe bomb. Maggie throws the bomb into Freddys chest telling him “Happy Father’s Day.” I don’t care for my biological dad either, but, damn sis that’s cold. She runs away and the demons fly from Freddy once the pipe bomb has gone off. Freddy is dead. Maggie smiles at Tracy and Doc because she knows that her father is no more
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Ok, let’s be real. Two things are about to happen. We’re going to acknowledge this is the canonical end of the Elm Street Series. However, we’re also going to remember the Nik-or-Treat brand thrives on camp. So, the next two....let’s just do it. The good news is we get to see the Freddy that Craven originally envisioned. His look in this one is the OG concept. Wes Craven returned as writer and director. The bad news is I totally see the point of the people that say this isn’t canon. This is not a bad movie. But, I mean, Freddy is dead. The last movie is literally called Freddy’s Dead! Not only did Craven the return as writer/director, but he’s also acting....as himself. Heather Langenkamp returns to the series to play....Heather Langenkamp. Same goes for John Saxon ( Nancy’s dad) , Robert Englund (Freddy). Also Tuesday Knight, and Nick Korri Also show up. Johnny Depp wanted to be in this movie, but they were too afraid to ask. I don’t like Johnny Depp as a person, but I think it’s pretty cool he didn’t forget where he came from. A Nightmare on Elm Street was his film debut.
We also get cameos from Robert Shaye and Marianne Maddalena. They are partially responsible for The Elm Street Series success. Shaye is the founder of New Line Cinema, the production label that distributed and produced the movies! Maddalena was Craven’s producing partner.
So, this is what happened.
Heather lives in LA with her husband and son. She still known as a scream queen thanks to The Nightmare on Elm Street series. One night, she has a nightmare of her own. Her family is being attacked by Freddy Krueger claws. The ones from the upcoming Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Two murders have already happened on set. They are unsolved. During an earthquake, she sees that Chase’s finger has been cut exactly like the one he got in her dream. She realizes how stupid it is to think that Freddy Krueger actually attacked her son.
Some creep calls Heather using the Freddy voice saying the Freddy rhyme. Later, she goes to a meeting where the production company wants her to replace her role as Nancy in the new movie. Her husband has been working on this movie and not telling her. She goes home sees Dylan (her son) watching the movie. She gets mad because children shouldn’t be watching the movies. Dylan flips out and screams at her so she calls her husband. He says he’ll come home and falls asleep while he’s driving. He is killed by Freddy. His death really bums Dylan out. Heather‘s friend John Saxon says that Dylan should go to the hospital. She should go to the hospital too. She had a nightmare at Chase’s funeral where Freddy tried to take Dylan away. Dylan’s health gets worse and he doesn’t want to go to sleep because of Freddy. Heather is like WTF because he didn’t see that much of the movie. She goes to see Wes Craven and he says that Freddy could be a supernatural entity drawn to the movie. And he was freed after the film series ended a few years back. Now Freddy thinks that Heather is actually Nancy. (Mess). Robert Englund, also knows this Freddy. He is able to describe him perfectly. Then he runs away never to be heard from again I guess. Another earthquake happens Heather takes Dylan to the hospital. The doctor thinks Heather is abusing Dylan so the doctor keeps them at the hospital. Heather goes home to get Dylan stuffed dinosaur. His babysitter tries to get the nurse to not sedate Dylan. But she fails. Dylan falls asleep and Freddy ends up killing the babysitter. Dylan can sleepwalk. He leaves the hospital and Heather chases him down the freeway .....the Los Angeles freeway. I guess that explains the traffic that is always going on over there. Freddy is literally dangling him in and out of cars and trucks. John Saxon has decided that he is Don Thompson. Heather has also decided to embrace being Nancy. Freddy is able to come into reality completely and snatches Dylan up. Heather follow the trail of sleeping pills into the underworld. Freddy fights off Heather and Dylan is chased into an oven but escapes. Dylan finds his mother… I mean Nancy and they push Freddy into the oven and light it. This rids Freddy from the dreamworld...underworld.... thing and from real life. Dylan and Heather come out from under the blankets. Heather sees everything that just happened neatly put into a screenplay at the end of the bed. Wes Craven has written a thank you to Heather. It’s for finally getting rid of Freddy and for playing Nancy for one last time. Dylan asks if it’s a story Heather says yes, and begins to read/recount what what happened. I’m sure her son was hyped to relive the brutal death of his father. The end.
Freddy vs. Jason
Meanwhile in hell, Freddy has no powers because everyone forgot about him. So, he disguises himself as Pamela Voorhees (Jason‘s mom). He tricks Jason into starting to kill the teenagers of Springwood so he can get strong again. Lori lives with her father, a widower. She also has friends Kia (played by the beautiful Kelly Roland!!) Gibb, Trey, and Blake. Jason kills Trey and the police think it’s Freddy back at it again. Blake wakes up, he wakes he finds his father dead, and Jason kills Blake. The police want to call a murder suicide. They don’t need anyone knowing about/believing in Freddy. Lori’s ex Will and this other guy Mark are patients at Weston Hills Hospital. They use Hyponocil so they won’t dream. They don’t want to deal with Friday either. When they see the news, the escape the hospital to warn Lori. However, Lori is at a rave in a cornfield. Freddy makes an attempt on Gibb’s life. He isn’t successful because Jason has killed Gibb (and a lot of other people) IRL at the rave. Freddy comes to the realization that he won’t be able to kill people in dreams...... because Jason is killing them in real life. Also, Freddy gets his power from fear/belief. So if people are more worried about Jason, Freddy is not as powerful. I guess there really *was* a Panic! At The Disco.
Lori and the majority of her friends are able to escape. Will and Lori go to Mark’s house, only to see him getting murdered by Freddy. Her friends become aware of Hypnocil, and how it can help them. They make plans to steal it from Westin Hills Hospital. But, Freddy posses Freeburg. Freddyburg gets rid of the medication. Meanwhile, Jason electrocutes one of the cops. Freddyburg tranquilizes Jason. Before he is completely knocked out, Jason kills Freeburg. Which obviously annoys Freddy.
The remaining people decide they should bring Freddy into the real world and get him to fight Jason. They bring Jason’s body to Camp Crystal Lake. Since Jason is unconscious, he’s using his naptime to fight Freddy in the dream world. Freddy uses his powers to deduce that Jason has Aquaphobia. So, Freddy uses water to mess with him. With water, Jason is unable to fight. Lori falls asleep so she can help Jason. When Freddy notices her, he tells her that HE killed her mother. She wants to avenge her mother’s death by ensuring Freddy dies.
Jason wakes up at Camp Crystal Lake, and our favorite aquaphobe is pissed. He chases the kids into a cabin. When Linderman is killed, the cabin catches fire. Lori wakes up via a burnt hand. She pulls Freddy into the real world. Freddy and Jason agree to fight. Everyone that’s left (Lori, Kia, and Will) leave the cabin.
This is the true end of the Nightmare Franchise, as it was Robert Englund’s final appearance as Freddy. Personally, I’ve had enough of Freddy and Jason together. But, Freddy and Jason also appear in Mortal Kombat X.
They also have teamed up for a few Halloween Horror Nights! And of course, I have to mention the comic book based on this movie’s alternate ending...Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash!
Freddy has also had various cameos throughout popular culture! Here are my favorites.
A Nightmare On My Street, a song by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. There’s actually a lot of drama with the music video and the whole thing went down before I was born. They were sued for copyright infringement, even though its a song that was considered the soundtrack of Nightmare On Elm Street 4. I guess they had a problem with it being released. The video online isn’t the original video, that only aired on MTV a few times before it disappeared. I have a deep interest in lost media, as you probably know already. This is actually what took me so long to post this article! I wanted a definitive answer and was unable to find one. Maybe someone out there (probably Will Smith himself) has a copy of it, but other than that, I guess it’s gone forever.
There’s another rap song about Freddy, and Robert Englund is actually on it!"Freddy Krueger's the name/You know my game/Elm Street's the place/You got the time/Listen to this/You'll bust a rhyme." The difference between A Nightmare On My Street and Are You Ready For Freddy is: The Fat Boys got legal permission and DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince didn’t. The music video didn’t qualify for protection under fair use either. Because it didn’t make a “critical comment or statement” about the franchise. Dumb, but whatever I guess.
Freddy, or Freddy-like beings have also made appearances in South Park, Rick and Morty, The Simpson’s, and a downloadable playable character in Dead by Daylight.
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