# Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, A (1987)

### reviewed by
Jerry Saravia

In light of the recent resurgence of horror movies instigated by the success of "Scream" and more respectable fare like "The Sixth Sense," I felt it was necessary to take a trip back in time to my nostalgic years, particularly 1987. This was the year of the Freddy Krueger craze, and everyone was talking about the latest "Elm Street" sequel. I saw it with a friend in Douglaston, Queens, New York, and I was immediately caught up in the hype. Granted, I saw the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" years earlier and it was scary stuff, but this one was so tongue-in-cheek and goofy and thrilling that I found it predated "Scream" by a decade. It was a self-parody but never over-the-top, and it was the first time Freddy was jocose before using his talon glove to slash the sleeping kids.

The heroine who put Freddy away in the original, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), is back as a psychiatrist visiting the last of the Elm Street kids at a mental hospital. They all have seen Freddy, and now Nancy will try to help them control their dreams, prescribing sleeping pills much to the chagrin of the hospital staff (which includes Craig Wasson and Laurence Fishburne!). There is also Patricia Arquette on hand (in her debut role) as Kristen, a supposedly suicidal patient who can kick ass when needed. Oh, and how can one forget Jon Saxon reprising his role of Nancy's father, a police captain too keen on alcohol. But Freddy has a way with words...taunting them any way he can.

The first Elm Street is still the best and the most original, but the third has moments of humor mixed with horror and satire that elevates it above similar movies. And do check out Patricia Arquette as the saintly, sweet Kristen - beautiful, dreamy, but she can fight like a true Dream Warrior.

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E-mail me with any questions, comments or complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com

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