A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) or, Your Kids and the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs!

8/20/2013

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) or, Your Kids and the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs!

♥♥♥

The promising, very 1980s styled and expectations-raising poster for Chuck Russell's A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Nightmare teen murderer Freddy Krueger's backstory as "the bastard son of 100 maniacs!" is revealed, as Nancy and other youngsters in a mental hospital near the Elm Street neighborhood battle the wicked evil again.

This entertaining second sequel to Wes Craven's (Shocker (1989)) slasher horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) marks the feature debut of great Illinoisan filmmaker Chuck Russell (Eraser (1996)). It is written by Craven, Russell, Bruce Wagner (Maps to the Stars (2014)) and Frank Darabont (The Fly II (1989)).
John Saxon (Magnum, P.I. (1984), TV-series), Zsa Zsa Gabor (Moulin Rouge (1952)) and Laurence Fishburne (Contagion (2011)) cast some stardust on Dream Warriors along with Patricia Arquette (True Romance (1993)) in her screen debut. The film is loaded with inventive horror like Kruger's syringe fingers (responsible for an effective ban of the movie in Queensland, Australia!), contorted faces in his stomach and the concluding bone fight. Unfortunately for the film, the sound, lighting, sets and acting all have a kind of studio artificiality to them, and the story about the kids in the asylum runs out of steam at times. Also, I suspect parts of it to be derivative of novelist Stephen King's (Pet Sematary (1983)) It (1986).

Related posts:

The Elm Street franchise: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - Another terrible remake of a horror classic
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or, Don't Fall Asleep!
Chuck Russell: Eraser (1996) - Great Arnold action!

Listen to some of Angelo Badalamenti's (Auto Focus (2002)) score for the film here

Cost: 4.5 mil. $
Box office: 44.7 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned more than 9.93 times its cost)
[A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors was released 27 February (North America) and runs 96 minutes. Craven was not keen on his original film turning into a franchise, and his idea for a sequel was to have Krueger breaking through to the real world (our world) and invading another movie production about his murders. The studio vetoed this, which was picked up later and made as Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), the 7th in the franchise. Suicidal elements of the script were cut out. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #1 to a great 8.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 3 more weeks in the top 5 (#3-#3-#5). It was the 24th highest-grossing film of the year and New Line Cinema's biggest moneymaker of the year. In the original franchise (before 2010's awful remake), it ranks as the 3rd highest-grossing, following Freddy vs. Jason (2003) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988). The ban on the film in Queensland, Australia lasted until 1990, when the Queensland Film Board of Review was abolished. Russell returned with The Blob (1988). Heather Langenkamp (Nickel Mountain (1984)) returned in 3 TV and video credits before she returned to big screens as 'victim' in Shocker (1989); Robert Englund (Fear Clinic (2009, TV-series)) returned in 4 TV and video credits before A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988). A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is fresh at 74 % with a 6.03/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

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8/20/2013

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) or, Your Kids and the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs!

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