Review of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Ah, hello my monstrous little darlings. If you haven't been paying attention to my reviews recently I have been talking about one particular series, the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. In the previous installment I talked about Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and how despite the few problems there was, that it was still an enjoyable installment. I also explained how we gained a bit more insight into how Freddy became the killer that he is today, but now we get his origin story in the form of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. The first thing you should know that the title is a misnomer since Freddy technically does come back but those two other installments willl be discussed afterwards. Second, we get a new cast of characters and this cast is pretty solid. We find that Freddy has killed off every single child and teen in Springwood except for John Doe, the one surviving teen.


John wakes up with amnesia after confronting Freddy in a dream and is taken with a group of other teens to a special place to live which is a shelter, by a woman simply known as Maggie (she's a vital part of this). He has just left Springwood. But it is explained he had a falling dream before he left, but Freddy didn't kill him - he let him go. So Maggie aims to cure his amnesia by taking him to Springwood, specifically the place where Freddy grew up.


I like that we get a look at Freddy's backstory and we learn he was a little demon child who liked hurting small creatures, specifically small animals, and that he had an abusive father who is played by none other than Alice Cooper. Yep, Alice has been with both Jason AND Freddy. Wow, between him and Ozzy Osborne, rock icons and horror go well together. Even the Rolling Stones have a few horror songs - although I really wish that Mick Jagger could have contributed a song for a few movies (we all know that Sympathy For The Devil would have been perfect for The Exorcist or The Omen or Night Of The Demons).


Also after suffering from a hallucination in which after the troop of teens tries to get away the map reads 'you're all fucked', they end up lost in a strange town. A strange town in which the only two residents appear to be a couple played by at the time couple Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold - don't worry, this was classic Roseanne, not controversial Roseanne (interestingly Roseanne did a halloween special with Robert Englund making a cameo as Freddy), it is later explained Freddy had a kid. Hang on a minute, in Elm Street 2 didn't he say and I quote...'You are all my children now.'? Yeah , he did.


John Doe has that same falling dream from before and he thinks that he is Freddy's son, only for it to turn out to be wrong as he falls and lands on a pit of spikes that Freddy sets up. I have to admit this death wasn't as creative as the previous deaths in the previous installments. And it does seem a bit more comedic as opposed to Dream Warriors or Dream Master or Dream Child.


This is considered the most hated of the Elm Street movies next to Freddy's Revenge...well up until the remake that is. I kind of found John's demise to be disappointing to be honest. But Carlos's death, while it is silly, it is kind of really disconcerting especially when Freddy cuts Carlos's ear off and it's made to be like everything is silent. And then there's when he gets his hearing back, or rather a super-hearing aid which stretches his ear and has these vine-like attachments forming around it, oh and to make it worse...super-sensitive hearing.


Of course Freddy naturally toys with him and uses this to his advantage, dropping pins onto the floor. Oh and if that's not enough, the ultimate ear-piercing sound to end all sounds is what kills the guy - nails on a chalkboard, or rather claws on a chalkboard. Ouch. Talk about an earful of pain. *he laughs* And yes, that terrible pun was intentionally. I did learn from the Cryptkeeper after all. And his lessons are so good they're scary, but I have to say if you must axe me any questions about it, I will say it will cost you.


It turns out that Freddy's child is female, not just any woman though but Maggie. Maggie or as she is formally known - Katherine, was Freddy's daughter. We also find out and see the dream demons, which I have to admit do look like a bit like tadpoles. We actually also get to see Freddy as he was before he got burned too, which is a nice touch, also through Maggie's dreams we see him about to kill his wife. The next death I admit is probably the funniest death of the series and the best one in the movie, basically Spencer the resident stoner of the trio has a dream while watching television and tripping out.


Also look who pops up to warn us of the evils of drug use on the brain, it's Johnny Depp. Depp was in the first Elm Street, it was his breakout role. It's funny he was in this and in the first Elm Street considering the year prior to the release of this movie he played another famous character with blades for hands/fingers in the movie Edward Scissorhands. So after a brilliant send up of those iconic 'This is your brain/This is your brain on drugs' PSAs, we get this really trippy sequences in which Spencer gets pulled into a television screen and it's like a video game, a video game where he has to run from enemies such as his own dad who chants 'be like me' .


And it's a real fun little sequence too, but unfortunately Spencer/Super Spencer doesn't live long as Freddy takes control and starts making it harder for him. In the real world, oh boy...Spencer is hopping around and moving on his own as if he is possessed by a demented cartoon character and it isn't too long until it's game over for him. Oh yes, and that powerglove line, you all know it...'Hey, you forgot the powerglove!' 'Now we're playing with power!' Hey..what, do you know, I beat my high score?'. Also we learn that just because they have left Spingwood doesn't mean they have left Elm Street, after all...as Freddy says, every town has an Elm Street. He's right you know, there's always that weird town that nobody goes near because it has a dark history to it...like Santa Carla with all those damn vampires, Stepford, Amityvile, Maine in pretty much any of Stephen King's horror novels, and Valkenvania. There is always a town like that.


Maggie finally gets to take down her 'father' by pulling him out of the dream world, attacking him with his own glove and giving him the old pipe bomb in the chest. But this won't be the last of him. This movie doesn't deserve to get as hated as it is, personally I like it...I found it to be fun.


True, it's a bit more comedic - actually it's a lot more comedic than the previous installments but I don't mind that, while there are some parts that are incredibly goofy like Freddy's impersonation of the Wicked Witch of The West, it's not terrible by any means.