Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Rachel Talalay

Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, Shon Greenblatt, Lezlie Deane, Yaphet Kotto

From: New Line Cinema

Yes, I saw this infamous motion picture last night. No, it's not any good. I saw the 2D only version; even if I would have seen the 3D bits in 3D, my opinion wouldn't be any different. It's definitely not the song Freddie's Dead by Curtis Mayfield, that is for sure. My Letterboxd review is below:

So, last night I watched this infamous movie... or maybe “experienced” is a better term to use. It is different from the typical Elm Street movie and that's great and all... it doesn't mean that this is any good. Now, I do think it's interesting that it was directed by a woman (Rachel Talalay), someone who not only spent time with the John Waters crew-no wonder why there are weird moments throughout this picture-but worked at New Line Cinema for years and did various things with all the previous Freddy movies, so she worked her way up the ladder to direct this, and the company typically did things like this, which is why the original New Line Cinema was pretty awesome, and the corporate entity with that name really has nothing to do with how they used to be.

Anyhow, aside from the meta New Nightmares and the cool Freddy vs. Jason (let's not even talk about that universally despised remake from 2010, which I doubt I'll ever see), this was the last Freddy Krueger movie, so at least the title was more accurate than when Friday the 13th had “The Final Chapter” then had a number of future editions. This was done with the sudden revelation that Freddy had a daughter, and she (w/ some youngsters, including Breckin Meyer, whose hair is even worse than the clothing he has to wear, and Lezlie Deane, who if you've seen the Never Sleep Again documentary, at least as of about 6 years ago looked quite different than she did here) and the great Yaphet Kotto help finally put a stop to him; I am not sure how Krueger came back after the ending of the 5th movie, but does it really matter?

The fact that the movie is set in 2001 (really; the introduction said it was set in “10 years to this point”) is pretty wacky; the idea of Springhill, Ohio being royally screwed up because of Fred's actions in the previous 5 movies is understandable, although handled goofy, and so is the notion that the city literally has no children left except for some dude with amnesia. The look at Krueger's backstory is interesting (as a kid, a family men then what happens which caused him to become a haunter of dreams), although the seriousness of that is in contrast to how Freddy usually is, which is REALLY cheesy and goofy. The menacing threat of the early movies is long gone.

To me, the biggest problem with the movie is that it all is strange and surreal, as if it was all a dream. Talk about confused when you experience those dream worlds, which really aren't that great or memorable. It's just a mess and considering there isn't even any gore to speak of except for a bit or two, it should only really be watched to be laughed at, if you want to see Freddy Krueger as a circus clown, playing one of the movie characters in a videogame (it was even worse than I imagined), or you want to see cameos from the likes of Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp (both are cool), Tom Arnold and his then wife Roseanne... which aren't cool. Speaking of not cool, the Iggy Pop end credits song... that is pretty bad, and I am usually fine with Iggy. To think that the several Goo Goo Dolls songs on the soundtrack are better, and this was before the mid and late 90's when the band was a huge deal for a few years.

Anyhow, considering that this is a film which begins with a Nietzsche quote and then shows a Freddy Krueger quote, someone rolls down a hill for like a half minute straight, and you see Old Fred ride a broom and impersonate the Wicked Witch of the West, it's no surprise that this is quite odd.