Freddyâs Dead: The Final Nightmare
For nearly seven years, Freddy Krueger had cut a bloody swath across the cinematic landscape as he unleashed unspeakable carnage upon the spoiled American 80s teen archetype, and audiences around the world had wound up loving him for it all the more, made even more ironic by the fact that there was really little to no controversy over the enduring popularity of a movie character who was in essence little more than a filthy, perverted child molester who had seemed to gain unfathomable powers to continue his killing ways. But with New Line Cinema trying to top themselves on the runaway hype machine and with Robert Englund himself reportedly having grown weary of the constant latex makeup jobs, the decision was made in 1991 to release this under the idea that it would be the âlastâ Freddy movie and thus guarantee the big box office returns even though Englund would return to the role on two more occasions. Deciding the tone of this film didnât take very long, as the previous entry (Part 5: The Dream Child) had attempted a âthrowbackâ style to the early Wes Craven entries while still making an attempt to keep Freddy hip, and the result was a mish mash like film that had weakened Freddyâs stock considerably. But after delegating the directing chores to first timer Rachel Talalay (who had actually worked in some capacity on ALL the previous Nightmare films so she had a very good working notion of what Freddy was all about) the filmmakers went full bore into making this almost unashamedly a straight up horror comedy that still spoke as much about the demonic popularity of Krueger as Cravenâs own later deadly serious revival film, thus making them almost seem like companion pieces to each other. To that end, Freddy comes across as being at his most wickedly scathing and sardonic with his usual mocking of teens for whatever drawbacks (and excuses) are holding them back in life that he can gleefully exploit to his own advantage, along with a rockin soundtrack that recalls Part 4âs similar MTV inspired vein. Unfortunately, those people who were fans of Lisa Wilcoxâs Dream Master Alice Johnson will be let down by the fact that not only does she not return (although negotiations had reportedly taken place), but the characterâs eventual fate ultimately remains a mystery to this day (not surprising after the way she was metaphorically declawed in Part 5) so instead we get kind of a âretconâ treatment here (or just a fresh new storyline featuring Freddy) which goes on the idea that â10 years from nowâ the franchiseâs primary small town location of Springwood, Ohio, has seen its entire child and teen population wind up dead, with the surviving adults now experiencing a âmass psychosisâ where (unlike the prior films) they now believe VERY much in Freddy, obsessing over and fearing him constantly. In short, Freddy has now become a God of sorts there (irony), albeit only in that one small town while even having the power to seemingly control and alter the reality within the town itself (including having the ability to âeraseâ people from having ever existed). It turns out that there IS actually one surviving teen (Shon Greenblatt) still remaining in the place who looked to be doing an escape attempt, but is struck down with amnesia and rendered into being a John Doe. A bit of controversy still remains with this particular character, as early drafts of the script had clearly identified him as being Jacob Johnson, the Dream Master son of Alice who had battled with Freddy before he was ever born in Dream Child and to which his presence in the story would explain a lot of things continuity wise, including how Freddy could have used him as a conduit to kill the whole townâs youth while keeping him alive and a later moment where he actually suggests entering someone elseâs dream to protect them from Freddyâs wrath (an ability which was made clear in the last two films that only a Dream Master can do), but with Wilcox unwilling to sign on for the project (where reportedly Alice herself would have been killed), the decision was made to shroud the characterâs past in total mystery, made even fuzzier by his growing belief as the film goes on that he is actually Freddyâs son (which turns out to be wrong). Stumbling into a nearby city, he is picked up by the cops and dropped off at a nearby youth shelter facility where we meet the remaining main players, including a stoner rich kid (Breckin Meyer) whose disgusted father has all but turned his back on him to let him rot amongst the street kids in there, a jittery Latino (Ricky Dean Logan) with an earpiece he has to wear after his mother went too far in abusing him with Q tips for his ears, a rather clichĂ© âtough girlâ (Lezlie Deane) who overtrains on the heavy bag and carries a chip on her shoulder against all men because her father used to rape her, and the lead counselor at the shelter (Lisa Zane) who would appear to have it all together but still suffers from her own recurring dreams (which might explain the actressâ own sleepwalking performance). All of these characters (and actors) comprise one of the least interesting casts of cannon fodder in the whole series, with the one exception being Yaphet Kotto (a VERY big name actor by the standards of this series) as Doc, a therapist at the shelter who not surprisingly pursues a side interest as a dream researcher, even incorporating it into his standard therapy techniques for the kids and also turning out to seemingly know everything thatâs going on when he realizes the threat that Krueger poses. And so the pieces are in place for Freddy to wreak his own patented brand of havoc (albeit with no females turning out to be victims here), complete with the merry go round of who might actually be Freddyâs long lost child with no less than three characters all thrown into that mix, and any actual sense of mood, scares, or frightful atmosphere going completely out the window as Freddyâs kills here are all of the cruelly hilarious kind with no apologies whatsoever, with the best one being a âvideo gameâ kill where Krueger sits back and enjoys a round of (what looks to be) Nintendo while his latest little piggie bounces right to his doom. This being the âfinalâ entry, New Line decided that one way to make this âextra specialâ was to round up some celebrity cameos that would have people talking, including Roseanne and Tom Arnold embarrassing themselves as a delusional white trash couple in the crumbling town, Elinor Donohue giving a genuinely chilling turn as a deranged head matron in an (empty) orphanage, Johnny Depp(!) paying back the favor from making his debut in Cravenâs original by coming on TV for a fake commercial (and getting whacked out with a frying pan by Freddy for his troubles), and best of all, Alice Cooper (a rock legend with legitimate ties to the horror genre) coming out of nowhere all too briefly in order to play Freddyâs adoptive pimp father in a flashback of sorts (a character who was explained in much better detail in the novelization of the original filmâs screenplay). Another gimmick on hand was the use of 3D during the filmâs climactic scenes, due mostly to the desire to show Freddyâs âdeathâ onscreen in that way, although on home video it was only made available via DVD and NOT Blu Ray. But the most fascinating thing here is the previously unseen and unheard of glimpses into Freddyâs actual past, including showing him as a child and revealing him to indeed have had a wife and child with his losing the child to the state after the âdisappearanceâ of his wife being the new true motive for him wanting to âtake everyoneâs children awayâ (although it was clear that he had been an active serial killer long before that). These scenes not only bring insight (and a longshot attempt at sympathy) to Kruegerâs character, they also allow us to see Englund get his most screentime in a Freddy movie WITHOUT his makeup which is almost worth the price of admission in and of itself. So in the end, what we get here is not the end of Freddy himself necessarily but rather a celebration of him in all of his pop icon status (complete with a series montage at the end set to a rockin Iggy Pop song) that ensures that some legends and legacies (evil or not) will never truly dieâŠ
8/10