A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors review.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors stands as one of the best horror movies of the 80s. It’s rank within the Nightmare series is only debated among the top spots. A great set-up and a villain at the peak of his power…it’s the most fun version of a Freddy movie.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Directed by Chuck Russell
Screenplay by Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell
Starring Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson, John Saxon and Robert Englund
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Review
Let’s rip the band-aid off right away. There are three excellent Freddy movies. With apologies to fans of The Dream Master. I’m talking, of course, about the 1984 original, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Which one ranks as the series best is up for debate. That Dream Warriors is the most fun isn’t. It’s one of the most fun horror movies of all time.
While all three movies are very different from tone to purpose…it’s not hard to see what they do have in common. These are the three movies in the series that saw creator Wes Craven involved in any capacity. While he wrote and directed the original and New Nightmare, here he serves as a co-writer of a screenplay that would be re-written. I don’t know exactly how much of his work remains in the final draft. I do know that he is credited with two of the major reasons the movie works. First, that it would be a group of teens fighting Freddy together. And second, the other thing all three movies have in common. Nancy Thompson.
Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) is one of our best final girls. It shouldn’t be a surprise that she appears in the three best installments of the series. Here she is a mentor. A wiser version of her teenage survivor of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Dream Warriors passes the final girl baton to a very capable Kristen (Patricia Arquette)…but Nancy is a key part of the film’s success. She even brings her father (John Saxon) along for the ride. He too appears in just the three great versions of Nightmare.
That’s what they all have in common…but A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors also succeeds because of what they don’t. The original Nightmare is tasked with introducing us to Freddy’s world. New Nightmare is focused on finding meaning in its existence. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is only concerned with playing in the sandbox.
Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is in peak form here. He’s got quips…but it hasn’t tipped into a cartoon yet. Ironic kills are put onto the table for the first time…but they too haven’t gone over the top yet. There’s a mean spirited nature to the character that starts to wane as he becomes the movie star of the series starting with part 4. Part 4 is good, mind you…but it’s the best of the rest as far as the Nightmare series is concerned.
Nancy and Kristen are joined by a group of teens who have been haunted by Freddy. The last of the Elm Street children. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors does the series’ best job imbuing these characters with likability and unique qualities. Sure sometimes that just amounts to “wants to be on TV”…but when that character ends up dying IN the TV that’s all you really need. A rag tag group of underdogs fighting the kind of nightmare chaos. It’s a perfect idea.
What makes the group formidable is that they learn to harness some dream powers of their own. A concept that the series somehow never goes back to. While most of them will end up fodder before the end…their collective journeys easily outdo the side characters of other entries in the series. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors mastered the ensemble…and then dispatched a majority of them in memorable ways. You can’t ask for more than that.
As fun as the side characters are…the stars of the movie are Kristen and Nancy. We rarely get to see two final girls interact like they are here. Scream (2022) made good use of the idea…a survivor aiding the next one. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors does it better. Nancy helps Kristen unlock the strength she needs to survive. She’s the only person in the world who can understand what that is, and knows what Kristen is going through.
Given that New Nightmare is set in the real world, Dream Warriors is where we say goodbye to Nancy. She dies at Freddy’s hand…err…glove, but not before turning that weapon back on him and sending him back to hell. It was the passing of the torch moment. Unfortunately, Arquette wouldn’t return for Part 4 and her recast character wouldn’t reach the halfway point of that movie. Still, Kristen holding Nancy in her arms and promising to dream her into a beautiful dream hits a rare emotional high for the series.
The bookends of the original Nightmare films might have higher concepts or more dramatic purpose…but no movie in the series will have you smiling as often as Dream Warriors. It’s telling that the series wouldn’t see this kind of peak again until it upended the entire formula. What A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 does well couldn’t be topped. At least, it hasn’t been.
Scare Value
I’m not going to debate where A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors ranks inside the franchise here. That will come on another day. What I will say is that there are 3 completely different and utterly fantastic chapters in the Freddy Krueger canon. Dream Warriors is one of them. It’s a lot of people’s favorite for good reason. Great characters, a fun story and a fully realized villain. You can’t go wrong.
4.5/5
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Links
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, check out other classic movie reviews: Possession and Chopping Mall
