Daddy Issues on Elm Street

 My daughter kept bugging me about watching Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) early Sunday afternoon, and I broke down. I couldn't tell her that "I just don't wanna." I admit that "The Dream Child" had really worn me down after just a blast watching "The Dream Warriors" mid-week. Well, Friday night wasn't too bad with "The Dream Master". I noticed just this afternoon that, of all streaming services, "Peacock" (the NBC Universal platform) has the first five Nightmare films. So if you are so inclined and have it, they are available there. But, if it looks like I'm avoiding talking about "Freddy's Dead", it really has gotten to that point where I almost feel pity for Talalay, because she seems like such a fun lady and I know she worked hard, wearing lots of hats, in order to land the directing gig.

When I was barely a teenager, "Freddy's Dead" was such a lot of fun, though. But this was before I really dug into the early part of the series and realized how menacing Fred could be. I think I mentioned not too long ago that I once would only watch "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) every few years. But around 2019, that first film really imprinted on me and since I have easily watched it over and over, never tiring of it. Now that has a lot to do with Heather Langenkamp, 1984 high school, Freddy more lighted as a boogeyman, the rough-around-the-edges style Wes had, and the freshness of the franchise before all the cartoon-foolery.

As far back as "Freddy's Revenge", Englund was shown out of makeup, which was fine since the burn makeup covered the actor's features up so significantly. In "Freddy's Dead", Englund legit played Fred Krueger before he was caught, got off on a technicality in trial, and set on fire by the parents of children he killed. "Freddy's Dead" sort of brings up child molestation from the father with a character played by Lezlie Deane as the victim who uses martial arts and a fighting spirit to ward away those demons too often pervasive when she closed her eyes in sleep. In the film, in perhaps the darkest nightmare sequence, Deane's father draws in close for some "playtime" and to know that Freddy is using that, weaponizing that trauma, is seriously fucked up. That is a point in an otherwise goofy horror comedy where the nightmare world Freddy occupies has been used for amusement, even playing to the camera instead of really frightening those he plans to torment and kill.

Besides that, Freddy's "wicked witch" and "Nintendo power glove" shtick, even with the "knives across the chalkboard" routine to blow a deaf victim's head up, acknowledging his audience, even with the bad of spikes he pushes on rollers across a road, taking a deep breath while nodding to the viewer; these decisions sacrifice real terror for laughs, kicks and giggles. When Shon Greenblatt keeps falling down (and up) a hill during the opening credits after falling from an airplane, even hit by Fred driving a bus, the film was already preparing us for a different kind of Nightmare film. This is why I think so many drop the Freddy franchise down their list of favorites. Here recently, I noticed that many of the YouTubers who do ranking videos and have horror communities, frown upon the Freddy franchise, blaming Part 4 for starting the "standup comedian" trend that ultimately resulted in "Freddy's Dead". They feel that Part 3 even bares a lot of responsibility for how the franchise just craters in quality from those first few Freddy films. It is hard to blame them, but I look at my daughter while watching "Freddy's Dead" and she is having a ball, so perhaps that speaks volumes we don't want to hear or refuse to hear...it is a film that introduces a lot of kids to Fred, provoking them to pursue the earlier films. And the closing credits with that Iggy Pop score, the franchise clipshow, is very important..."Freddy's Dead" was the first film I ever fully watched of the Nightmare franchise. I wanted to see what else I was in store for. And those first films were worth looking for.

Lisa Zane, though her performance didn't knock me for a loop, I was very attracted to, so even if I wasn't into her as the heroine of the film, it wasn't a problem following her. But Shon Greenblatt as John Doe never felt like anything more than the red herring. He was always a means to an end until Freddy got what he wanted. The rest of the cast made up probably, for me, the weakest of the franchise. And "The Dream Child" didn't exactly have a cast I ever felt too enthusiastic about. Springwood as a childless desolate town besieged by madness sort of does work to me because it is just so surreal. And there is even a "loop" reprisal, last seen in "The Dream Master" where our heroes try to drive some place but never seem to get anywhere except where Freddy wanted them.