Freddy's Nightmares - It's a Miserable Life

Freddy's Nightmares is fun because you never know who might show up. And with Friday alum, Tom McLoughlin directing an episode of the show, and actress of a Friday film, Lar Park-Lincoln, in a sizable role in the "back half" of the episode, "It's a Miserable Life", there is some nice "Friday-Nightmare synergy" involved. John Cameron Mitchell, for instance, is desperate to get out of Springwood and his dead-end job at his dad's burger shop. College seems ideal somewhere way out of Springwood. But he happens to be stuck at the burger shop overnight due to his dad needing him to take over because another employee won't be showing up. Meanwhile, Park-Lincoln, Mitchell's girlfriend, insists on coming to the shop to see him. Unfortunately for both of them, some leather-jacket crook with a wicked smile on a motorcycle, packing a pistol with quite the nose, happens to arrive to ruin their evening.

The first half makes it seem the shooter on the motorcycle is but a bad dream. Mitchell believes he goes home, hitching a ride with Park-Lincoln, despite a blood spot (from a gunshot wound to the forehead perhaps?) on his high school album. But repeated "awakenings" have him arguing with his parents about leaving home, getting a big smooch from his mom in a lot of over-the-top makeup (set to game show music), trying to keep his dad from lighting up the stove with his head on the door, and viewing his ice-cold mom in a refrigerator. Holding a glass of water where blood collects as he looks about for the source, it would seem Mitchell's gunshot wound dream could be foreshadowing.

Michael Melvin as the killer is very much the Freddy Krueger of this story. The second half focuses on Park-Lincoln in a kooky hospital with a quirky Nancy McLoughlin as a nurse and Burr DeBenning, typically a straight-laced, very serious exec character actor, as a nutty doctor. Of course, everything Park-Lincoln experiences seems off, dream-like, nightmarish. Like surgery related POV weirdness where doctor, nurse, and staff look right into the camera with lots of fog and bright light (or use of shadow) with shots on Park-Lincoln appropriately freaking out. A mouth sewn shut, bloodied surgical covering, a head (looks like chopped fruit) sawed off, and lots of threats towards being taken into the morgue where her boyfriend is on a slab (or calling to her to join him) or the room where limbs are taken off; this section of the episode has Park-Lincoln popping up in her bed over and over, often finding the nurse behaving oddly or kissing the doctor. Hypodermics of green fluid, sinister or untrustworthy faces of the staff, and comments from the staff that are off-putting and wacky consistently bombard Park-Lincoln until the very end where she sees the ghosts of her parents while the doctor and nurse try to ease her anxieties.

So Tom McLoughlin gets to have lots of fun with a limited budget. It seems he had mainly three sets, but within those sets he could just go crazy. Now this point already in the anthology series establishes that a lot of what we see seems to be a series of bizarre setpieces loosely tied to characters with life issues. Mitchell wants to leave home and get out of Springwood. Park-Lincoln lost her parents and fears death because of that. The killer on the motorcycle almost ruins both characters. Mitchell can't escape that fate he'll die inside the burger shop. Park-Lincoln happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time because she loves her boyfriend. 

As far as Freddy goes, there is a cool moment where he emerges from a french fries grease fryer to kick off the episode. In the second half, Freddy is in scrubs, mask, and hat within his nightmare realm to tie him to the hospital section featuring Park-Lincoln. Englund is still a lot of fun even in very small doses. I get that there was no way you would be able to feature Freddy Krueger in every episode and multiple New Line movies. And the lore of the films just don't factor into the show besides that first episode -- and even that is suspect because we know Nancy's parents were involved and do not show up in the episode -- so Freddy is more or less the host in excerpts not linked to the episodes to haunt the characters. I think that is why the show was a bummer to me because Freddy isn't really a factor himself despite his name being on the title.