Movie Review: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

After the box office flop that was Dream Child, New Line decided to give Freddy his last bow. By this time, Freddy has turned into a caricature. From the commercialized Dream Master to The underperformed Dream Child, It seems that the nightmare series was going downhill. Who's fault is it,  you may ask? Well ever since New Line became more substantial, they thought they can cash in on Freddy but the result of that turned him into a big fat joke. Needless to say, one of the producers thought they could chime in and direct the last feature film. And her name is Rachel Talay. I don't know if she was the sole reason of how Freddy became this burned out wisecracker but she did write, produce, AND directed this movie. So yeah, she was responsible.
So enough chit-chat, let's see what I think of this: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Well, it's sad to say that Freddy Krueger, the man who traumatized half my childhood and made a name for himself by being this dark, weird figure, is now no scarier than a bunny rabbit. There are some fans of this movie since some don't mind the jokester Freddy but for me (and everyone else, I might add), It's an insult to the whole series. It has none of the intelligence or innovativeness that the series have.  Although, there are some cool moments of the movie, most of the time I felt like I was watching a bad, cheesy episode of Tales From The Crypt.
Okay, the plot is engaging enough (although, very ridiculous) but again, it's executed horribly. The thematical elements are strong such as child abuse, molestation, and being a child of a serial killer, yet it doesn't leave with much impact. It just felt out of place for a movie like this and I think these kinds of heavy topics would've been used much better in a more darker, deeper film.
And lastly, I didn't get the whole Freddy having a daughter, just didn't work for me. I always saw Freddy as this outcast weirdo, the creepy janitor who stalks his prey from afar. Him as a family man isn't much to convince. I just don't understand how they keep ret coning the long lost relatives into these slasher villains' histories. I just don't get it. There's more to come trust me.
I really don't have anything much to say, so let's move on shall we?
Here's the story: It's been ten years ( that's either 1999 or 2001, whatever how you see it) and Springwood, once an idyllic society, has almost turned into a ghost town since the murders of all the children and teens at the hands of Freddy Krueger. Only one teen remains and that is an amnesiac named John Doe, who is constantly suffering nightmares from the dream stalker. Once he sleepwalks his way to the streets of an unnamed city, he is soon under the care of Maggie Burroughs, a child psychologist. When John tells her of his ordeals, Maggie begins to piece the puzzles to her mysterious past and starts to have vivid dreams of her lost childhood. So, Maggie and John go back to Springwood to recharge his memory while keeping an eye on the troublesome trio from foster home, Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos. But once the mystery is solved, all hell breaks loose and Freddy is waiting for a long-lost relative to come home.....

The cast was decent enough, although the characterizations of the characters is left up to debate once their vulnerabilities are on display. It is used more as a gimmick rather than overall development. It just doesn't give us time to get attached to these characters.

Now let's get to Maggie. She is a bit underwritten but the filmmakers wanted to add mystery to her character but it just doesn't work for me. Once her mysterious backstory is revealed.....SPOILER ALERT! She's Freddy's daughter, it's not very effective and I wish it was handled much better but considering how bad the writing is, I wasn't expecting much. There's one thing to have a strong female character but then there's another way of developing that character and how the filmmakers developed Maggie is a bit shaky.

We see that she's a smart, capable woman at first but then by the climax, she suddenly gains excellent fighting moves but the film never gives time to establish that. There were times where she came off a bit cold and bitchy, which was hard for me to get attached to the character. Although, I think Lisa Zane is a decent actress, I wish she would convey more emotion, especially the flashback scenes. Usually it goes back and forth of how weak the character is written or how bland the actress comes off at times. To be fair, Lisa Zane is hit or miss,  however, Maggie is one of my least favorite of the nightmare heroines.

Doc, As I would like to call him, was a tad much better written character, even though, he's only this messiah type who spits out exposition but I did like the scenes where he put Maggie in her place when she gets all stubborn and defiant (I'm sorry, sometimes Maggie's superior , cocky attitude annoys me). He also seems to be an equivalent of Neil in Part 3 and he also uses his wits to defeat Freddy Krueger. He seems to be the brains of the operation and not Maggie.
Yaphet Kotto  does a fine performance on this movie and is one of the better actors. He takes the film seriously but it's a shame that the film don't take itself seriously.

John Doe played by Shon Greenbalt is hit or miss for the character and the actor. By the start of the film, John is introduced as the main character. As the movie goes on, we take interest in him since he is the last elm street teen and is trying uncover his past. Most of the time when he is investigating with Maggie, John begins to believe that he is Freddy's son, which is confusing since the two years before the lynch mob incident, which is around 1968 or 1969, would take place in 1966, which would make him at least in his thirties instead of his teens. But anywho, as the film goes on, this is where John's character development wears thin. Most of the time, it's just padding, him being trapped in the dream world and Freddy playing with his head.

And so you know it, he's dead. This is where the story falls short. We have gotten so interested in the character and wanting to know more about him and then, Boom!, it over, there's no revelation, nor any backstory, he's just a plot device. This sort of scenario was handled much better in Part 1 and Part 4 but in this, it's just a lame attempt of building John up as a decoy protagonist. Shon Greenbalt did an okay performance but the bad dialogue he has to work with, wavers him down a bit. If the script and character was better written, his acting would've been a lot stronger.

Tracy, played by Lezlie Dane was, to be honest, really annoying to me. Throughout the movie, she yells and screams, always looking for a fight, and jumps around like she's on pep pills. But then our sympathies are with her when it's revealed that she was sexually abused by her father. I wish they could've handled this a lot better since this only used for Freddy to highlight her fears and insecurities. And it's kind of uncomfortable to use a such a heavy subject in a so-called horror-comedy but the revelation gives us more character development, giving us a reason why she has such a tough exterior. Lezlie Dane is a good enough actress but again if the character was written better, we would've been invested in her more.

Carlos is shown to be a comic relief among the three kids. Not much development  on him but at least the actor is charismatic. His revelation, unfortunately, is not taken seriously as Tracy's. When has suffered abuse from his mother who has rendered him deaf in the ear. This time the dream sequence is played for laughs rather than drama. Again, it just doesn't feel right to use a subject like this for comedy unless the filmmakers are trying to be crude about it. But anywho, although Carlos isn't the prominent character of the movie, he still is the most memorable.

Spencer, played by Brekckin Meyer in his first role, is a well-known slasher stereotype: The Stoner. Now I never thought a character like this would end up in a nightmare movie but it's interesting since that type of character would be in some sort psychosis, which Spencer ended up in. He does have a subplot at least. He has an emotionally distant and demeaning father, which is why he is so dependent on drugs and mindless video games. Again, there's nothing to say about Spencer, only is that he is a stoner and that's what gets him killed. And trust me, it's probably the most ridiculous death scene I've seen a horror movie.

This movie has made Freddy into a big, huge joke and I'm not going to hold back.

Once I saw him flying on a broomstick, I was like wow, this was the same guy who scarred half my childhood and now he's some burned out comedian with lame one-liners. He is the absolute worst in this movie and probably the most annoying character by far.
So basically he kills all the kids and teenagers of Springwood, which was a pretty weak plot point, it leaves him with no motivation or plan to back up whatsoever. But oh wait, he does have a motive. He wants, in fact......World Domination! Because every town has an elm street! The producers are just making him more and more into a hammy cartoon villain and this film takes the cake. The backstory was the only, at least, interesting aspect of the movie. It goes from his childhood to his adult life to his "death." But it never dwells deep into enough to keep us invested and to be honest, the television show handled the backstory much better. They also seem to retcon his reason for kidnapping and killing the town children. His reason behind is that since the townspeople took away his daughter, he'll take their children as well. It just seems clunky and it's like the film is trying to paint Freddy as sympathetic when he is ABSOLUTELY not.

Okay what was with the Dream Worm Demon creatures being in control of Freddy's powers? it just doesn't make sense. Who's idea was to even add that in there? You see this raises a lot of questions because all this time, I thought Freddy always stood alone when it came to using his dream powers but apparently it was the Dream Demons all along. How F-ing stupid! and the special effects on the creatures are pretty lackluster and cheap. is this a muppets movie? Furthermore, that should've explained this in the earlier movies but the concept STILL would've been hilariously ridiculous.

And one more thing, Freddy's makeup looks like chewed up bubblegum. Definitely his worst makeup. Where is Kevin Yahger when you need him?

Now, the directing is okay. It definitely has that dream-like quality like in the early nightmare films but it still feels like I'm watching an overly long TV episode. One thing that bothered me though, was how Rachel Talay wanted to have the same humor of the show Twin Peaks, which was popular at the time. The point of that show's humor came from the quirkiness of it's characters yet still had very dark undertones. The humor in Freddy's Dead is nowhere near that. It is a full-on live action cartoon and it's just unbelievably tepid. And trying to establish the quirkiness or weirdness of the adults of Springwood is over-the-top with bad acting. It's like they're ripping off the show rather than paying homage to it.

Okay, I will admit the special effects are cool but this time it is used for humor than horror. Soon in time the special effects begin to falter as it dwells deep into cartoonish buffoonery.

Most people say that Carlos's death is the best but then again it's still seem like I'm watching a Looney Tunes Show.

From Spencer's Death By Nintendo Glove

 

 

To John Doe landing on spikes, none of the scenes had any tension or suspense and none of it is any worth praising about.

 

Trivia Time! Peter Jackson once tried to pin a script, a draft called Dream Lover, which indeed was a much interesting script than this but decided to go with screenwriter Michael De Luca and Rachel Talay. Bummer. The concept would've involved a more weaker, vulnerable Freddy and this would've worked much better to see that side of Freddy but oh well, it is what it is.

There was also another script involving a grown up Jacob Johnson (from Part 5) and the dream police which consists of the fallen dream warriors: Taryn, Kincaid, and Joey. I read the script and trust me, it's as cheesy as it's sounds.

And here's my little Trivia moment. This movie was released on September 13th, which is my birthday and in the opening scene it references The Wizard Of Oz, which was my favorite movie as a kid. So you have a horror villain that scared me most of my childhood, a movie that I cherished during my childhood, and then it all comes together on my birthday. Isn't that a coincidence?

The movie was successful enough but I'm thinking pretty much got tired of it and it went down quickly.

This is a disappointment. I mean a huge downfall to the quality of what the films should've been. This is why you shouldn't let a producer, especially an executive from a Major Motion Picture Company, take over a faltering movie series. What was once a potential horror franchise with a clever and scary concept is derived with over-the-top special effects, lazy writing, and a killer that just won't shut up.

 

And I forgot to mention, what was with the 3D effects? see that's exactly what I'm talking about! There was just no reason for it. Rachel Talay would later direct Tank Girl, a movie that was supposed to be serious in tone but turned out to be a goofy mess just like this movie.
This definitely put a nail in the coffin for the series and Wes Craven was deeply embarrassed, eventually turning the franchise around in his next movie.
Surely, the worst nightmare. Period.
My Last Word: It's your choice. If you like it, good for you. If you don't, thanks.





 

 

Movie Review: A Nightmare On Elm Street: Dream Child

After the success of Dream Master, Freddy Krueger had turned into a pop culture icon. He had his own television show, his own costume line, his own plush doll, his own lunchbox. He was definitely turning into one of those cereal box mascots. Heck, it wouldn't be surprising if he had his own cereal box. It was that out of control So the filmmakers decided to bring back the darker, edgier atmosphere of the early nightmare films. It's a quick attempt since the movie was made just a year after it's predecessor. The result: it's way much campier than part 4 and it's not even good, cheesy camp.
Okay, I did like that they bring back the thematical elements of the first three films. The first film was about teen angst/stress, the second was about teen homosexuality, and the third was about teen suicide. This time around it's about teen pregnancy. The story was good to follow but it was poorly executed. To have a serious subject like teen pregnancy is a pretty risky choice, especially for a teen audience who is looking to see a slasher bloodfest. There are some good points to the movie. I thought the opening dream sequence was kind of creepy and unsettling and then there's the Westin Hills scene of Freddy's birth which was totally something out of House On Haunted Hill(1999 version). But once Freddy is introduced that's when everything falls apart. Not to mention the over-the-top hokey death scenes. Most of the time, It felt like I was watching a Goosebumps episode. The elaborate special effects doesn't really save the movie this time around and it only makes it more cheesy.
It could've worked better if it had been more psychological but apparently what we end up with is insipid and uninspired.
Here's The Story: After the events of Dream Master, Alice and Dan finally make love for the first time. But unexpectedly, Alice develops a bun in the oven, which unfortunately, conjures up Freddy Krueger from his grave, invading her unborn child's dreams. Now graduating from high school and dealing with the struggles of teen pregnancy, Alice must stop Freddy from preying on her friends and mostly from possessing her baby.

With the exception of the main lead, like the cast in Jason Takes Manhattan, the cast in this is very mediocre. Considering most of the focus is on Alice, there's barely any development on the minimal cast of characters, along with acting, it's just meh.

Lisa Wilcox is the only saving grace in this movie. She gives quite an emotionally-charged performance blending in with Alice's vulnerability and strength. It's a shame the film is not taken seriously enough to match the emotional state of Alice. Speaking of the character of Alice, she may be not as better written in the last movie but she is still a strong female character I love to admire. The one flaw I see in Alice is how she burst out expository about Freddy Krueger, when in fact, nobody would believe her. I understand she might be under the stress of pregnancy and she's in a vulnerable position, but the writers make her come off like a crazy person and the Alice I know would be middle ground on the situation, trying to keep herself sane and saving the day at the same time.

Dan, unfortunately, is still the most underdeveloped out of all the cast. There is a little establishment on him, mainly about his parents pressing him to get a football scholarship. That's basically it and once we have more development on the character, he gets killed off abruptly. The only interesting thing about him is his death scene.

Greta is the typical beauty queen who is under the constant demands of her overbearing mother who wants her to achieve in the fashion world. That's pretty much all we know about Greta. Most of the film focuses on how beautiful she is and just doesn't make her much of a character but at least the actress is charismatic.

Mark is the typical nerd who is obsessed with comic books and is an avid skateboarder, who has a total crush on glamour queen Greta. That's pretty much all we know about him. Although he tags along in the action with Alice, but there's nothing really interesting about him. But I would say he is totally cute!

And last, there is Yvonne who seems to be the more mature and, quite frankly, the most honest of the group when she tells Alice how she feels. Half of the film, she is quite skeptical of the whole situation until her encounter with Freddy. And you know what, she lives! Although, I think she is at least the most interesting of the cast, I was a little thrown off by her Jacuzzi joke at what seems to be an emotional moment.

The person who has the most development is Alice's father, who actually grown (unlike Elaine Parker) from the events of the last film and starts to kick the habit and get his life back on track.

Oh Freddy. Oh Freddy, Freddy, Freddy. I barely don't have any words to describe how hammy he is in this movie. I wouldn't want to say he's the worst thing in this movie because Robert England seems to be having fun in his role but otherwise I have to say it because of how much he comes off like a campy superhero villain. He seems to be more align to his TV Show personality than the dark, twisted killer he was in the first movie. The producers tried to bring back that aspect of Freddy but it was a point of no return. The one-liners were getting pretty irritating as to where I just shout at the screen and said "Shut up, Freddy!" In Dream Master, It wasn't as bad, but in this it got totally overboard.

Freddy's makeup in this is terrible. It doesn't come close to the awesome aesthetic of Kevin Yahger's makeup. I mean he looks like a sad, demented clown. The whole basic plot of Freddy trying to invade Alice's baby's dreams and posses him was just stupid idea to me. What he's doing is getting the souls he's just harvested and implanting it into the fetus, which is beyond logic if you ask me.
Now to the directing and special effects. Furthermore, the tone is all over the place.

 

First, the gothic atmosphere was, in fact, creepy and the first few scenes, especially the opening dream sequence was intense. But just as Freddy arrive, things instantly gets goofy and the atmosphere isn't taken seriously anymore.

It's a shame because Stephen Hopskins is a really good director, giving off this avant-garde vibe, which fits perfectly with the dream sequences. Nowadays, Mr. Hopskins has had a more successful career and escaped this movie unscathed.

The death scenes are incredibly cheesy and over the top. It was to the point where it was a bunch of scenes. There was no suspense, no tension, and I just got exhausted. It was too elaborate for it's own good. One of them, I actually like.

And that's Dan's. Like Debbie's death scene in part 4, it's quite cringeworthy, especially when a person mutate into something, this time into a motorcycle cyborg. When I first watched this, it freaked me out and it was so cool to watch. Just see the clip for yourself:

As for the rest of the death scenes, it was just plain silly to watch....

Now on to the trivia. Stephen King and Frank Miller were set to writing and directing this movie, but refused. There was one draft where it featured a character trapped in a place called the coma pit while trying to escape from Freddy which was conceived by splatterpunk writers John Skip and Craig Spector. It would've been way much better and interesting movie  than this one. This was a production mess and I'm not going to hold back. There were last minute rewrites, the crew building sets while filming, there was also a heatwave melting the glass windows, which were made of candy, of the climatic scene. Stephen Hopskins were given 4 weeks of filming and 4 weeks of editing. Talk about stressful and given the final result of the movie, it was probably total hell to go through.
The movie was a box office flop, especially compared to the highly successful Dream Master.
This is possibly the weakest of the nightmare films. The biggest problem of this is it doesn't know what movie it wants to be. The tone is all over the place, the special effects overshadow the movie rather than save it, and Freddy is just plain annoying now.
My last word: It's watchable enough but if you're a nightmare fan, you'll be surely disappointed.

 

Endless Love

So since it's Valentine's Day and the remake for this movie is coming out in theaters, I thought I would take a swipe at this. I usually review horror movies, but this turns out to be some psychological drama/thriller, which would fit right well in here.
I first watched this on lifetime movie network naturally and I thought this was your usual teen romance starring Brooke Shield, but oh no, it is something way beyond that. Once it gets to the second act, it never holds back. And I'm not going to give out a brief synopsis. I'm going to tell it bit by bit.

So it starts off with Jade and David and they are like so in love with each other. So after the party at Jade's house, they decide to consume their love together. Then this is when things get weird. So Jade's mom, goes down the stairs and catches them and she's like "oh shit" but then decides to sit back and watch. What?! I know it's established that Jade's parents are these opened-minded hippies, who blend in with the other teenagers, giving them free drugs and alcohol and throwing wild parties. But this....this is full on creepiness.
So, la de da de da, love montage. And then we cut to James Spader as Jade's older brother going hunting with David. You see, Him and David are kind of buddies together and I guess that's how he met Jade. This won't last long though. So James tell him he's not too fond of him, dating his sister. After this, however, David constantly comes over to ravage Jade. Her parents notices this yet doesn't say anything about it. Well, of course, the father does but the mom is so blasé about the whole thing. Judging by her voyeuristic urges, I wasn't surprised.
So Jade is having trouble sleeping and concentrating on her studies and suddenly is taking sleeping pills. This is when Dad flips out and grow some balls. He tells David not to see Jade for at least 30 days. Not months. Not years. Just 30 days. He is actually giving this guy a time limit. But turns out he can't wait that long. He just can't get enough of that Brooke Shields lovin'.
So while David is obsessing about her, he chats with one of his high school friends, where the friend brags about a prank he pulled off but suddenly made him the town hero. So David gets the idea that this would win Jade's father approval.
So it's later at night where Jade's parents are having one their wild parties and is shown where her father is making out with a young woman who is presumably a teenager. Gross. David goes around and stalks her. Turns out that Jade is striking up a conversation with her older brother's new best friend. Uh huh.....
So David goes on with his stupid plan and all of a sudden the house burns down.
Cut to court scene and David is sentenced to a psychiatric ward. He goes through "I'm going crazy" montage and sees visions of Jade. He convinces his parents (in the most over-the-top way) that he's not crazy, he's in love! though love and obsession really don't go together.
And therefore, David is released just like that and dad is ragging mad, thinking his punishment wasn't severe enough. So David is out and about and hears that the parents are divorced and the rest of the family is living in New York. So off he goes on his love-obsessed quest. But first he give Mom a chat, she reveals to him when she watched David putting the smooth moves on her daughter, she wanted the piece of the action as well. uh, ew! But David declines and says his heart belong to Jade.
Blah, blah, blah, Jade's Dad sees David walking down the street, and of course, with a younger woman in his arm. Full of rage, he stupidly runs down the street, without looking both ways, and gets hit by a car in the process.

So during the wake of this tragedy, David finally meets Jade again. He professes his love to her but she feels guilty of all the things that happened and thinks they shouldn't be together. So full of passion and desperation, he pushes down the bed and force kisses her, and she goes with it....okay.
So after their love-making and reconciliation, David and Jade are finally happy together....that is until deceased dad's young girlfriend telling Jade's older brother that David was at the scene of the accident. Melodrama ensues. David and big brother get into a fight. And David is carried off to jail. Mom gives advice to Jade about love. Blah, blah, blah. David starts having hallucinations about Jade and is obviously going crazy again. The End.

 

Wow, what a movie. Was it interesting? yes. Was it any good? No. It's definitely something out of some shitty romance novel but the thick of it is.....

it's actually based on a novel. A best-selling one in fact. Too bad it has an awful adaptation.

 

Most of the acting was either over-the-top or just plain bad.

 

At least Brooke Shields tried. I'm not saying she's the best actress in the world but at least she put some effort into her performance. Even though some of the actors like Shirley Knight and even her own mother thought otherwise.

Martin Hewitt, on the other hand, isn't much of an actor. He's a mix of bland and over-the-top. Apparently, He beated out 5,000 actors for the role. It was probably his good looks and nice ass that got him the deal. Well after that, he's been in a slew of B-movies, which fits perfectly for him.

James Spader is the only one who shows promise. Even in a piece of shit, melodramatic crapfest like this.

The only reason the film is well-known for (just a tiny-bit), is the soundtrack and most notably the theme song. But to my surprise, this was a box-office hit in it's day, mainly because Brooke Shields' popularity was on the rise.

So the film went into obscurity for a few years, not even getting a DVD release, until now. The Remake. Well, it seems to me that this is just a Nicholas Sparks Knock off, nothing more....
So there you have it, a sappy 80's teen romance that's different from the norm but still not any good.