Nightmare Nights III

You ever talk about those horror films with other friends right before school started in the morning, when it's chilly and some jerk thumped your ears resulting in a sting before conversation focused on whatever the skinny offered that set in motion a VHS rental store excursion? Early in my formative horror years in the late 80s, the way I could discover popular titles, besides my uncle's second hand recordings, was unexpected intrusions while walking through my step-grandmother's house early in the morning to go to the bathroom, seeing "A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors" on the television while my stepbrother (who I loathed for his bullying) was adding it to a video tape before taking it back to whatever store he rented it from--at that time Ray's Rent-A-Movie or Eagle's Video--so I was introduced to Kristen's mom beheaded after Freddy called her a bitch for not getting his bourbon. A talking head balking at her daughter while Freddy prepared to attack her certainly sticks in the mind. I knew that this was a film I just had to see. I knew getting my stepbrother to lend it to me would be difficult because he just loved being an asshole. But eventually I did. My hometown did have six rental stores so a copy of "Dream Warriors" wasn't hard to find, although plenty of empty boxes on shelves left me disappointed on Fridays when I really wanted a weekend watch of this film.

This was available during the weekdays, though, but I always thought Part 3 just fit so perfectly on weekends after school. This was always an event movie, too. I recall the giddy I would feel popping open the white container and readying my VCR for the tape, excitedly preparing for the Freddy snake attempting to swallow Arquette, as she let out a mean scream that could shatter the same mirrors as Eastman's mute Joey when he got his voice back.

Dokken on cassette, blasting from my boombox, crashed on the bed after that lucky Friday late night when a copy was at the video store, this was such a completion to a great start to the weekend.

Well, I most definitely covered "A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors" (1987) in depth (Review here) back in 2012, so I can be just as lax and free to offer a stream of thoughts instead of working in an official write-up. 

When I got done with the film I had such an adrenaline rush of real excitement. I like that I can still feel this way about a film that's been firmly entrenched in the nostalgia department of my brain always looking to be tickled out of dormancy.

I remember how cool it was to see that Langenkamp's Nancy and Saxon's boozing father cop returned from the first film, even though neither survives thanks to Freddy and his nefarious methods behind chicanery and a keen ability to move from nightmare world to reality and back, kick-starting his old bones into fighting shape.

One of the debates fans of the series often have is which film is the best or favorite. I just waffle and/or seesaw back and forth between the first or third. While the first film has key sequences that are right at the top as my favorites list, three has also. I think my sticking point is the ending of the first. That just never quite lands without some turbulence. Part 3, on the other hand, just seems to benefit from a screenplay that realizes the full potential of the first film, corrects some of that previous turbulence, and lands with better precision. Freddy isn't scary in Part 3, though, while he's always a menace in the first film. And there is just a more low budget rawness and grit while Part 3 is executed with professional ingenuity and creativity, a finger on the pulse of what stop motion and special effects were able to accomplish. The luxuries taken advantage of in Part 3 cannot be discounted while Craven took a little in the first film and made much. Still, I always felt the first film was sure-footed until the ending, while Part 3 always seemed confident all the way from start to finish. But what the first film gets right, it really gets right. Part 3 just functioned to me as a setpiece machine where so many ideas play out magnificently. You have this nightmare playground...go crazy! And they did.

MTV in the 80s and Fred Krueger were very much on friendly terms so that supplanted itself within the firmament of my growing love for horror and just the impression and influence rooted deep. Prime Time was Fred's domain, even if it was too bad for Sudrow's Jennifer that her head smash into the telly brought her killer the true Hollywood fame.