A Quick Look: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 DREAM WARRIORS (1987-color)

    In the 80's cycle of slasher horror, one franchise stood apart with a degree of intelligence and special effects, although the series could be hit or miss. Wes Craven delivered a superior horror epic called A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET which did boffo box office. In it, teenager Nancy found her friends being bumped off by supernatural killer Fred Kruger, a murderer who had been killed by the parents of his victims only to come back in their dreams as a monster which could kill them in reality. A sequel film, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2, FREDDY'S REVENGE, found Kruger trying to take over the body of the young man who had moved into Nancy's old room in an effort to exit the dream world and step into our world. This one was pretty good too, as 80's monster movies go, but New Line Cinema felt it wasn't quite on par. Craven was brought back to provide the script for the third entry, which stands as the high water mark of the series.

   Heather Langenkamp returns as Nancy, now a dream psychologist who discovers Kruger is again trying to slay the teenage children of Elm Street. Said kids have been gathered at an asylum to which Nancy enters the staff. With nobody but Nancy willing to believe the truth of the situation -that the kids can't risk going to sleep lest they be horribly slain by Kruger, the gang must unite to defeat the bogey man. This is possible thanks to one of the inmates, a young lady who has the power to actually pull others into her dreams.

   This was easily the best entry in the series, not to be matched until Wes Craven and Heather Langenkamp, along with John Saxon, returned for WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE -which was a stand-out bit of fiction that fizzled at the box office possibly due to it's being too intelligent. Meanwhile, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, DREAM WARRIORS stands as one of the best horror movies of the 80's, and certainly one of the better sequels offered up by a decade noted for it's numerous sequels. (In fact, as a kid, that was how I figured a series was a success or a flop: if it reached a third entry.)