It's a good thing that "Freddy's Dead" is right there in the title. Because after this terrible entry, he'd be dead to me anyways. Lame introductions aside, this is a really terrible movie, and it's pretty obvious by this point that the Elm Street series is out of steam. They make a semi-logical move by expanding Freddy's backstory a bit - we learned about his parentage in part 5; so here we get glimpses into his childhood as well as his pre-burnt adult life. We learn that he was not only married but also reproduced, and that his child would be old enough to star in one of these movies now...
Usually, once you get to the the origins of a character in a sequel, you're pretty much just treading water. But in Freddy's Dead Krueger's pre-glove life is the best part of the film. Not that these parts are great (or even that good) by any means... it's just that the bulk of the film focusing on our dreaming teenagers is so bad that it makes any breather a welcome change of pace.
Our story starts with an onscreen text (on a computer that had to be out of date in 1991) that explains that all of the children in Springwood, Ohio - the original home of Mr. Krueger - have died, except for one. All of the adults have fallen into some sort of mass psychosis. The lone (child) survivor has amnesia, so we never learn his name. He starts off with an okay-ish dream sequence inspired by The Wizard of Oz, although Freddy shows up in a tribute the the Wicked Witch, so you know the this entry is not afraid to bring on the corny. He wakes up in a big city he doesn't know, where he is promptly picked up by the cops and brought to a home for troubled youths (which pales in comparison in every way to the teen psych ward in part 3). The only thing he remembers is that he'll be in trouble if he goes to sleep, and his only possessions are caffeine pills and a newspaper clipping about a missing Krueger woman from Springwood. He is able to convince the young doctor Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane) to accompany him to Springwood to investigate. Along for the ride are three stowaway trouble-makers - the stoner Spencer (Breckin Meyer), the short-fused fighter Tracy (Lezlie Deane), and the uh, deaf Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan). They learn that getting into Freddy's town is much easier than getting out.
The whole time the gang is in Springwood is just a disaster. It's brutal to watch - not because of its violent content, because it sucks. I suppose it's supposed to be Freddy's dreamworld? People are walking around in a daze and behaving "creepily," like they are seeing ghosts or something. There's no way an entire town like this could exist in the real world without being overrun by psychologists. But early on in the film, they reference mass psychosis in Springwood, so maybe it's set in reality? And people still have to go to sleep to get attacked by Freddy, so who the hell knows if it's supposed to be real or not. (There are many conveniently placed clues for Maggie and Amnesia Guy to find, so that's something.) Intra-movie logic has never been a strong suite of the Elm Street series, but it's particularly rough here.
Also, stoner Spencer's death is maybe the stupidest single thing I've ever seen in a movie. (And BTW, I love how in these movies a guy can smoke a joint and act like he's just taken a huge dose of morphine.) He falls asleep in front of the TV and gets sucked into it while there's some crazy psychedelic stuff going on. But this somehow transfers to an 16-bit style video game, where Freddy either controls him or controls the bad guys (again... logic). Meanwhile, in the "real"-er world, the other characters see him bounce around all wackily, complete with zany sound effects. It's really dumb.
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| So stupid |
And Freddy here isn't scary, he isn't funny - really, he's just kind of annoying. He's got this loud laugh (AH HA HA HA HA!) that is just too forced - it actually made me feel a little bad for Robert Englund.
The other actors are worse than usual. Amnesia Guy in particular has some really wooden line deliveries. Lisa Zane is okay as the main character Maggie, but never emotes enough to really get you on her side. Yaphet Kotto is on hand as the dream expert who tries to give lend some real world credence to Freddy (some nonsense about ancient cultures and dream demons). He tries to class up the proceedings a bit, but ultimately seems a little bored.
The final battle is in 3D. They even shoehorn in a way for Maggie to put on 3D glasses so you'll know when you should do the same. I think we're a bit spoiled on 3D now... the old red and blue doesn't really cut it any more. Some of the effects are kind of cool (I like the dream-demon/snake-statues coming to life), but they don't amount to anything other than just that - a neat visual. Ultimately, they fall asleep, grab Freddy, and drag him into the real world to kill him, just like part 1. So five movies in, they couldn't think of anything different. Sounds about right.
So it was really bad. Hard to say if it's worse than part 2. I'll never be watching either of them ever again, so I guess it's destined to remain an unsolved mystery.
I would definitely not recommend this film.
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