"Sticks and stones may break my bones... but nothin' will ever kill me. Well, let's see now. First, they tried burning me. Then, they tried burying me. But this... this is my favorite. They even tried holy water! But I just keep on tickin'."
This is the one "A Nightmare on Elm Street" that I'm going to find really difficult to review. There are several reasons for this, but the most prominent, are the fact that this is probably one of my favorites of the entire series, but at the same time, I can't give it the score that I WANT to because it is, in all fairness, a very lame movie. With this movie, they attempted the demise of Freddy, and when you consider into effect "New Nightmare," then technically, Freddy IS dead, but if you factor into consideration, "Freddy Vs. Jason," Freddy's still not even close to going away. All I'm saying is that there seems to be a pattern between this series and "Friday the 13th," in the fact that they've both had titles stating that it was the end of said series, but then decided to go back, and make another one. I have no problem with that, whatsoever, I like to see that they want to give the audience more of Freddy and more of Jason. I know some people, however, have grown tired of it. I don't blame them, but I also disagree. Make any sense? Anyhow, this movie was the end of Freddy, so to speak, and for the most part, it manages to do a really good job at that. However, what really drags this movie down into the lameness, is the fact that it was more focused on making the audience laugh at Freddy's crazy antics, rather than making them scared stiff at what was happening. In essence, it was comedy, when it was aimed for horror. That's not too bad for me, but then you factor in all of the bad acting from over fifty percent of the cast, as well as a lot of over-the-head jokes, you've got one doozy of a film. The overall lameness of this film is what really brings my score down. However, it's not stopping it from being one of my favorites in the whole series. Why, you ask? Because it's fun! Freddy made a transformation, though, from the end of "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child," and became more of a comedian, than a stalking, ruthless, and murderous killer. Not a problem, really, since many nowadays know Freddy for his constant jokes and his gloved fingers, than the dark, sadistic, and evil creature that was introduced with Wes Craven's original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" film. That's how I like to remember Freddy. I mean, sure, Freddy had his jokes throughout the series, but he was a lot more evil and ruthless, than he is in "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare." Not necessarily a bad thing, just an odd change for the series. While this film isn't the best in the series, it's definitely, by far, one of the most enjoyable.
The directorial torch of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, is once again passed on to a new person. In this case, it is passed on to the first, and only, woman director in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, Rachel Talalay. Talalay was actually one of the producers for both "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master," and also one of the production managers for both "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge," so it's fair to say that she has had her hand in the world of Freddy Krueger since it's conception, basically. She has gotten a special thanks, too, for "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child." Anyway, as I've never seen anything else that she has directed, which is mostly just episodes for different television shows, I cannot compare her talent with anyone else, like I have been for the last few directors in this series. Talalay doesn't do bad for not only her debut into directing the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, but also her debut into the directorial world period. She does a pretty good job behind the camera, and manages to come up with some new camera angles that work nicely. This can be seen in the scene where Spencer is sucked into the videogame. There are so many different and strange angles to make it seem like the audience is tripping out WITH Spencer, that it makes for a very fun scene. She also manages some very interesting filters to go along with the movie. For instance, in the same scene, as Spencer is getting sucked into the TV, you get lots of different colors, but the darkness of the room really gives it a strange, but not unwelcome effect. She manages her parts nicely for the most part, and really makes it fun to watch the movie. Rachel Talalay also came up with the story for this installment of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, and the story was developed into a screenplay by Michael De Luca. They both manage to do a good job with the writing, though a lot of the stuff that went into the screenplay, mainly the dialogue that went into it. A lot of the comments and jokes are kinda lame, and don't manage to produce laughs for the audience. It's still a fun film, though, and I really like the twist that Talalay put into the story about Freddy having a daughter. It was a nice touch, I thought, and makes this a worthy addition into the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series.
The visuals of this movie manage to both keep pace with the previous five films, and at the same time, drop the ball. First of all, Freddy's point of view is still as the guy you see jumping across the screen and hacking shit up. It's not as freaky anymore, though because now you want Freddy to kill the characters because, for the most part, they're really annoying. Freddy, however, still looks as creepy as ever, in his trademark fedora, striped red and green Christmas sweater, home-made knife-fingered glove, and his hideous burns. He's always been a cool looker, and many wonder how such random clothes could be put together into one being, and make him so creepy. I'm afraid the scary aspect of Freddy in this one died right about the scene where he flies on a broom, and imitates the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of OZ." That's just me, though. The blood in this film, manages, to stay realisitic looking, and really helps the kills out a lot, not enough, though because while the kills in this film are as inventive, crazy, gruesome, disgusting, and disturbing as ever, the visuals that were put INTO these visuals kinda died themselves. For instance, during Carlos's death, which was an awesome concept, his head starts to bubble, and it just looks so fake. Or when Tracy is beating the shit out her Dad with the coffee pot, in her dream, and he looks up, with his face looking like knuckled play-dough. It was just ridiculous. However, there was one kill that stood out for me because of two things: one, it was an awesome concept, and two, it was so incredibly stupid that I couldn't stop laughing at it. This is the death of Spencer. He is sucked into a TV after lighting up a doobie, and getting high. After this he is put through a videogame, where Freddy has different characters, representing Spencer's over-expecting father, trying to kill him. Spencer, in reality, however, is walking around, spinning around, and jumping around the place just going nuts. It's such a cool concept, but the way they took it made it end up hilarious. The one visual that really bugged me about this whole thing, was the one aspect of the movie that I thought was cool. These were the dream demons. They couldn't have looked stupider. I mean, come on, even on a low budget, you'd think you could do a little better on the animatronic puppets than that. Oh well. So the visuals, I'm kind of half-and-half on. For the most part, they do very well with them, but then on the other hand, so many things are done the wrong way and just end up looking kind of stupid.
The storyline of this movie was handled very well, I thought, and for the most part. As I mentioned earlier, I really liked the dream demons aspect. For one, it finally gives us an insight into why and HOW Freddy is the way he is, and where he got his abominable powers from. At the same time, too, it's an excellent concept, just as The Dream Master was in "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master," and Freddy getting to Alice through her child, Jacob, in "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child," was. They manage always, it seems, to conjur up a very awesome concept to put the movie through, even if, in some parts, they don't seem to execute this concept very well. With this movie, the characters and some of the visuals are what really drag it down into lameness. Like I said, though, for some reason this movie has ended up as one of my favorites in the entire series. What I've always said was the strong point of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, was the fact that they always manage to come up with excellent concepts that keep every sequel in the series fresh, avoiding a tottering, out-of-control, roller-coaster-crash, like "Friday the 13th" inevitably suffered. While the series did, eventually, peter out into non-existence, they managed to basically stay around the same line of quality, a rather staggered line, yes, but it stayed rather consistent. "Halloween," in my opinion, is the only series of slasher films that stayed good throughout. Anyway, with "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare," we seem to finally get the proper way to defeat Freddy. In the real world, Freddy is nothing, and so his powers are useless. Kill him there, and it's end of the line for Mr. Krueger. In the dreamland, he can control the proper elements to restore him to power, but in real life, he's just as human as anyone else. Bring him into reality, and Mr. Krueger is screwed. That's what I liked. They finally revealed that Freddy does have a weakness, and can be killed without having to spray him with holy water, or bury his bones, or someone his mother to banish him. It's just not that easy to do. So they gave him a prominent weakness, but at the same time, they still made it so that it wasn't going to be that easy to cause to happen. This is an excellent aspect, and the story is really an awesome aspect of the movie.
The movie starts out with a prompt explaining that this movie takes place ten years from there. Violent deaths and suicides have wiped out the population of children in Springwood, and now the adults are left in a mass psychosis. From here we see a kid, John Doe (Played by Shon Greenblatt of "Newsies") , as he is sitting on the plane. It is explained that he is the only surviving child of Springwood, and he knows this fact, too, as he is trying to escape. However, as he sits there, freaking out in the plane because he is afraid of heights, he is suddenly thrust through the bottom of the plane. He lands, quite suddenly, on his own bed back in his own house. He knows exactly what is happening, and he starts to freak out. Suddenly, he finds that the house is being swept up in a tornado, and flying by the window on a broom, is Freddy Krueger (Played by Robert Englund of "Dead & Buried") himself, the very man John was trying to escape from. Soon, the house lands in a street, and John finds himself in a road. Freddy hits him with a bus, and tells him that he's going to help to bring him more souls, more children, as John is plastered to the front of the bus. Freddy hits the breaks, and John flies through a rip leading back into reality, where he lands, hitting his head on a rock on the side of the road. We cut now to a scene where a kid, Spencer (Played by Breckin Meyer of "Payback") as he is being yelled at by his father. His father tells him that his attitude needs to change for him to come home, but Spencer just tells him it was nice to see him. As his father is leaving, he runs into the lead helper at the halfway house where they are, Maggie Burroughs (Played by Lisa Zane of "The Passion of Martin"), and he tells her that she's done a nice job on his kid. She tells him that he's not a Toyota, and they part ways. She clearly doesn't care for Spencer's Dad, and tells this to him. They talk, when the leader of the halfway house reaches them, and shows Maggie the pipebomb he had found in Spencer's room. Spencer runs out, but the troubles not up yet. Soon, Tracy (Played by Lezlie Deane of "Midnight Ride"), who is chased in by cops. They tell Maggie that she was beating up on some kids, and Tracy shouts about how they were hitting on her. Maggie tells the officers that Tracy doesn't like to be touched, and they leave. Soon, we go back to John, as he is standing in a back alley, eating some caffeine pills, and two cops grab him, and take him to the halfway house, where they can deal with him. We then see Tracy as she is working out, punching a punching bag, with a kid, Carlos (Played by Ricky Dean Logan of "Guilty as Charged"), a deaf kid that goes to the shelter, too. They mess around a bit, and Spencer comes in, telling them that everything is ready for their escape. That they just need to get into the van before sun-up the next day, and wait, and they'll soon be in California. Meanwhile, Maggie is told about a John Doe that was brought in, he has amnesia and hasn't slept in days. She talks to him and he asks for stuff to keep him awake, she just stares. He explains about what's happening in his dreams, and she is brought to the realization that he's dreaming about the same place she is. She goes to talk to Doc (Played by Yaphet Kotto of "Live and Let Die"), who tells her that there seems to be a connection between his dreams and hers, and that he has a bad feeling about it. Doc is the resident psychiatrist, and is sort of a know-all in dreams. Maggie has an idea, though, and grabs John and takes him to the van. She tells him that she's taking him to Springwood, because that's where the article he was carrying talked about. He remembers enough about it not being safe to not want to go, but she forces him to, and they head off. On the way, John falls asleep, and has a dream. While he is looking forward, he sees a little girl in the street, and grabs the wheel from Maggie, telling her to look out. It was just a dream, though, and they almost crash in real life. Soon, they find that Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos have all stowed away in an attempt to escape. They pull off at the Springwood town fair, to take care everything. What they all notice, though, is that Springwood Fair is completely devoid of children. It's all adults. Maggie tells Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos to go to the payphone and call the shelter, tell them where they are, and gives them the keys, telling them to go STRAIGHT back to the shelter. They do so, but they get lost on the way, and it's dark before they finally give up, since Springwood is like a maze. They stop at a deserted old house, where Nancy Thompson used to live, and stay. Meanwhile, Maggie and John look for something to spark his memory. What they find, though, is that the whole town is obsessed with a guy named Freddy Krueger, whom John remembers as the guy he was running from. They discover, too, that he had a child, and head to an orphanage to find out more about her. However, as they stay in the house, Carlos and Spencer disappear, and Tracy heads out to find Maggie. John knows exactly what's happening. Freddy is after them, and they need to find out why he won't stop before he kills them all. However, Freddy is something they don't understand, and as he kills them off one by one, they realize they might be in for something they can't possibly stop. All of the actors and actresses in this movie are pretty much crap. Many are well-known today, but for the most part their roles in this are pretty much crap. They don't manage to get down their characters emotions, feelings, worries, or other such characters very well, and you don't really feel a thing for them. The only two actors that were in main roles that did really good jobs were Yaphet Kotto who played Doc, and Robert Englund, of course, he once again portrays Freddy very well, though he's lost the scare factor in this movie due to his endless jokes. What the movie does do well on, are celebrity cameos. Roseanne and Tom Arnold star as two of the crazy people of Springwood, who lost their children. Also Johnny Depp makes a cameo, back in the series that started his career, as the guy on television in Spencer's dream, but Johnny Depp goes under the strange and crazy name of Oprah Noodlemantra for the film's credits. Those were the only excellent things in it, and they were merely cameos. Good job to Yaphet Kotto and Robert Englund, though, as I said earlier. Definitely could have done a much better job on the casting of this movie.
All in all, this was a very fun movie, and it's probably one of my favorites in the whole "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series. However, it's defintiely not that well done. Pretty much all of the aspects of this movie ended up being very lame, and nothing really worked out very well to the movie's benefit. The Director of this movie, whose had her hand in pretty much the entire "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, manages to come up with some fun angles and filters that add a fun edge to the film, though there's really no scare left to it at all. DEFINITELY an alright job on the Directing of this movie. The Writers of this movie manage to come up with a very good concept for the movie, but the screenplay didn't exactly turn out the best, and it pretty much ruined any seriousness that the film could have had. DEFINITELY an alright job on the Writing of this movie. The Visuals of this movie are pretty fun, but even they drop the ball in some parts. They manage well with the point of view for Freddy, the look of Freddy, the look of the Blood, and the inventiveness and creativeness of the kills. However, most of the kills ended up looking completely ridiculous, as well as other things like the dream demons, and it really didn't help to make the film as scary as it could have been, had the left out all the senseless humor. DEFINITELY a pretty good job on the visuals of this movie. The Storyline of this movie was the one part of the movie that really excelled. They came up with an excellent concept that really made for a very good movie, it's just a shame that it wasn't handled very well. DEFINITELY a good job on the Storyline of this movie. The Acting ties everything about this movie together. All of the Actors and Actresses involved with the film manage to deliver performances as characters that are NOT Convincing, NOT Believable, and NOT Realistic, and they also deliver performances as characters that you really CAN'T feel for, though I'm not sure how well you could relate to them, on ANY levels. DEFINITELY could have done a much better job on the Casting of this movie. So if you really liked the first five movies in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street," and are a Freddy fanatic, then I urge you to see this movie. It might not be that great, but I'm betting that you'll like it anyway. So give it a try. I'm almost POSITIVE that you will not get COMPLETELY disappointed with it. I know I didn't!!!!!
THIS CONCLUDES PART 6 IN MY REVIEW SERIES FOR THE "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET" SERIES!!!!! STAY TUNED FOR PART 7, "NEW NIGHTMARE!!!!!"
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