Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) starring Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, Shon Greenblatt, Lezlie Deane, Ricky Dean Logan, Breckin Meyer, Yaphet Kotto, Tom Arnold, Roseanne, Johnny Depp directed by Rachel Talalay Movie Review

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Drop Dead Freddy

Having slowly been working my way through "The Nightmare on Elm Street" movies, and trust me you don't want to watch too many in a row, I find myself up to "Nightmare on Elm Street 6" or "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" to give it it's proper title. Now the good news is that "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" is no worse than its predecessor "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child" and is pretty much it's equal. But that is not a compliment as "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child" was not a good movie and so that means "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" is not a good movie either and in reality another lack lustre episode in "The Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise. Once more we have a contrived storyline so that Freddy can once more return and start haunting more children's nightmares and at the time of release was written as the last movie in the franchise we have a final battle for Freddy whilst we learn a bit more about his past. Oh and just for good measure when originally released it had a 3D element with the seriously stupid 3D glasses scenes to tell you when to put them on.

Having been picked up on the streets as a suspected drug addict, John Doe (Shon Greenblatt) is taken to a shelter where therapists Doc (Yaphet Kotto - Midnight Run) and Maggie (Lisa Zane - Bad Influence) discover not only that he is suffering from amnesia but also from a strange stalker who enters his dreams. The only clue to who John is, is a press clipping about Springwood and so Maggie takes him back there along with some other teenagers where they discover that there are no children in the strange town of Springwood. It doesn't take long for Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) to start terrorizing them all as they learn some secrets and surprises about the ugly nightmare stalker.

Shon Greenblatt as John Doe in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

By now, having worked my way through the first 5 movies in "The Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise you start to expect a couple of things one of which is a contrived and ultimately stupid storyline. And if being contrived and stupid was something to be proud of then "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" would be a good movie but it isn't. So what we get is a contrived storyline which gives us another small bunch of teenagers who find themselves having to battle the ugly one in their dreams, and in some cases be his latest victim. And then to add to that we get a bit more history to Freddy as we learn that he had a child oh and if you can't guess that child happens to be one of the main characters who has now grown up. All of which leads to Freddy's child, and I won't say which one it is, trying to bring Freddy out of the dream world into the real world so that his reign of terror can be ended once and for all, with a little help from some friends. It is totally stupid, which you expect, but sadly ultimately very uninteresting.

What makes matters worse is that none of it is that scary and the horror of Freddy Krueger is barely present as the emphasis of the movie almost seems to be on being funny. In fact the opening sequence which sees a character called John Doe, falling from a plane into a falling house and seeing Freddy fly past on a witches broom almost borders on being horror spoof. And whilst after the painful opening things become less comical it never once manages to find the horror or even really managing to disgust you with Freddy's diabolical antics.

Now I have to say that I have never seen the 3D version of "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" but part of me wishes I had. The whole 3D segment is ushered in with the terrible plot device of a pair of 3D glasses being worn by Freddy's child as they plan to bring him back to the real life but even in 2D the 3D segment looks like it could have been quite funny. It all looks very obvious as weapons are held up towards the camera so I presume they appeared to be coming out of the screen but I imagine that this 3D segment made "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" more interesting and amusing than it ends up being in just 2D.

As for the performances well frankly there's not a single memorable performance in the whole movie with the likes of Lisa Zane, Shon Greenblatt, Lezlie Dean, Ricky Dean Logan and a young Breckin Meyer being both 2 dimensional and generic. Even Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger doesn't come out of "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" very well as the character has become less and less scary as he tries to be more amusing. And as for the cameos which include Roseanne, Tom Arnold and Johnny Depp well none of these are even enough to make "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" any better.

What this all boils down to is that like its predecessor "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" is not a good movie and another lack lustre outing for Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Maybe watched in 3D it was more entertaining but that doesn't disguise that it is totally stupid, completely contrived and worst of all not in the least bit scary as it tries to be funny.


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