Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Rachel Talalay |
Screenplay by | Michael De Luca |
Story by | Rachel Talalay |
Based on | Characters by Wes Craven |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Declan Quinn |
Edited by | Janice Hampton |
Music by | Brian May |
Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $9–11 million [2] [3] |
Box office | $34.9 million (US) [3] |
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: The Final Nightmare) is a 1991 American slasher film [4] and the sixth film in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. It is a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and was originally intended to be the final installment of the series; Wes Craven's New Nightmare was released three years later but takes place outside the series canon. A canonical crossover/sequel, Freddy vs. Jason , was released in 2003. This was New Line Cinema's first 3D film release.
Directed by Rachel Talalay (in her feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Michael De Luca, the film stars Lisa Zane, Yaphet Kotto, Breckin Meyer, Shon Greenblatt, Ricky Dean Logan, Lezlie Deane, Tobe Sexton, and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Additionally, several well-known actors make cameo appearances, including: Johnny Depp (whose screen debut was in the original film), Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, and Alice Cooper. Iggy Pop sings the title song, which plays during the end credits over a montage of scenes from the previous films in the series.
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare was released on September 13, 1991, and grossed $34.9 million in the US on a budget of $9–11 million, surpassing its predecessor's gross. [5] It was panned by critics upon release.
Set "ten years from now," Freddy Krueger has returned and killed nearly every child and teenager in the town of Springwood, Ohio. The only surviving teenager, John Doe, is confronted by Freddy in a dream. John wakes up just outside the Springwood city limits but, due to a head injury, does not remember who he is or why he is there.
At a shelter for troubled youth, three of the residents—Spencer, an affluent stoner who is resisting his dad's attempts to get him to conform; Carlos, a troubled kid who was physically abused by his mother to the point of becoming deaf in one ear; and Tracy, a tough girl who was sexually abused by her father—plot to run away to California. The police find John and take him to the shelter, where he becomes a patient of Dr. Maggie Burroughs. Maggie notices a newspaper clipping from Springwood in John's pocket. To attempt to cure John's amnesia, she plans a road trip to Springwood. In an attempt to run away, Tracy, Carlos, and Spencer stow away in the van, but they are discovered when John has a hallucination and almost wrecks the van just outside Springwood.
Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos attempt to leave Springwood but not before stopping to rest at the abandoned 1428 Elm Street house. John and Maggie visit the Springwood orphanage and discover that Freddy had a child. John believes he is that child because Freddy allowed him to live. Back on Elm Street, Carlos and Spencer fall asleep and are killed by Freddy. Tracy is almost killed but is awakened by Maggie. John, who went into the dream world with Tracy to try to help Spencer, is still asleep. Maggie and Tracy take John back to the shelter. On their way back, Krueger attacks John in his dream. Before killing John, Krueger reveals that his child is a girl; as John dies, he tells this to Maggie. Tracy and Maggie return to the shelter, but they find that no one remembers John, Spencer, or Carlos except for Doc, who has learned to control his dreams. Maggie finds her adoption papers and realizes that she is Freddy's daughter. Her birth name was Katherine Krueger, but her name was changed to Maggie Burroughs when her father was arrested and subsequently murdered.
Doc discovers that Freddy's power comes from dream demons who continually revive him and that Freddy can be killed if he is pulled into the real world. Maggie decides that she will be the one to enter Freddy's mind and pull him into the real world. Once in the dream world, she puts on a pair of 3D glasses and enters Freddy's mind. In his mind, she learns that Freddy was teased as a child, was abused by his foster father, inflicted self-abuse as a teenager, and murdered his wife when she discovered his murderous tendencies. Freddy was given the power to become immortal by fiery demons. Maggie struggles to pull Freddy into the real world but eventually succeeds.
Maggie and Freddy end up in hand-to-hand combat against each other; she uses several weapons confiscated from patients at the shelter. Enraged by the knowledge of what he has done, Maggie tears off Freddy's clawed glove and stabs him through the stomach with it, embedding the glove's claws into a steel support beam and leaving Freddy suspended above the ground. Tracy tosses Maggie a pipe bomb, which she throws into Freddy's chest. The three dream demons, unable to revive him in the real world, fly out of Freddy after the pipe bomb kills him. Tracy, Doc, and Maggie rejoice as the latter triumphantly declares, "Freddy’s dead."
The previous five installments of the Elm Street franchise had considerably helped the finances of New Line Cinema that it earned the nickname "The House that Freddy Built" but the studio had also begun to develop other franchises (for example Critters and, by 1990, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ). Bob Shaye recalled in the Never Sleep Again documentary in 2010 that "frankly it was time to move on and we had other projects we wanted to focus on". The decision was made to make the sixth entry the final film in the Elm Street series. Director Rachel Talalay had produced most of the previous installments and was keen to helm the sixth film as its director; she also had a number of ideas that would help refresh the series including not calling the title Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6 and incorporating more humor into this entry which she felt was lacking from the previous film. The production of Freddy's Dead coincided with the original airing of Twin Peaks which was later acknowledged as an influence on the film with its more surreal humorous aspects. Elements of this can be seen throughout the film including Freddy using a version of the Nintendo Power Glove to control Spencer's character and dragging a bed of spikes to impale John Doe in a manner reminiscent of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
In the original script, 15-year-old Jacob Johnson (son of the previous installment's main character Alice Johnson) is the major character, and many of the dream warriors from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors return to aid Jacob in defeating Freddy after he kills Alice. [7] This idea was later discarded. Peter Jackson also wrote a screenplay that was not used; his story was about teenagers who did not see Freddy as a threat and took sleeping pills to enter Freddy's world. Jackson's script also included a police officer put into a comatose state to permanently be in Freddy's realm. [8]
John Carl Buechler was the chief special make-up effects artist for the film, returning to the series after serving the same role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master . He also contributed to the film's 3-D "Freddyvision" climax. [9]
The last ten minutes of the film are in 3D. To cue the audience to put on their 3D glasses, Maggie is seen to put on her 3D glasses in the film. The effect was eliminated for the VHS, Blu-ray, and television releases, with the exception of the UK and French rental version and the US LaserDisc version. The DVD box set released in 1999 reinstated the 3D effect and included two pairs of 3D glasses. Rachel Talalay revealed that whilst the film was being processed in 3D, the lab developing the print accidentally sent them a two-second clip from the then-unreleased Terminator 2: Judgment Day .
Unlike its predecessor, there was relatively little editing of violent sequences as mandated by the MPAA. Rachel Talalay noted that the original cut of the film was long and, as a result, several sequences were either removed or significantly shortened (a total of around 47 minutes of footage was removed from the final print of the film).
The work-print for Freddy's Dead includes much of the deleted material. This includes Maggie discussing her nightmares with her mother, more dialogue between Doc and Tracy, additional footage of the Springwood Fair and the discovery of Freddy's basement lair. Rachel Talalay suggested that the reason the footage was removed was so the audience could "get to Freddy quicker". Some of the more disturbing elements of John's first nightmare were also trimmed down.
On September 3, 1991, Varèse Sarabande released an album of Brian May's score. Warner Bros. Records released the film soundtrack on September 24, 1991. [10] Although not included on the soundtrack, the song "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly is featured in the film.
No. | Title | Artist | Length |
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1. | "I'm Awake Now" | Goo Goo Dolls | 3:34 |
2. | "Everything Remains the Same" | Junk Monkeys | 2:43 |
3. | "You Know What I Mean" | Goo Goo Dolls | 3:22 |
4. | "Remember the Night" | Johnny Law | 4:15 |
5. | "Treat 'em Right" | Chubb Rock | 4:44 |
6. | "Why Was I Born (Freddy's Dead)" | Iggy Pop | 4:49 |
7. | "Hold Me Down" | Johnny Law | 5:09 |
8. | "Two Days in February" | Goo Goo Dolls | 3:17 |
9. | "Give Me a Beat" | Young Lords | 4:32 |
10. | "Nothing Left to Say" | Fates Warning | 7:58 |
Total length: | 44:16 |
As a publicity stunt for both Freddy's Dead and the comic storylines that were still being released around the film's cinematic release, New Line Cinema held a mock funeral for Freddy Krueger at Hollywood Forever Cemetery [8] in Los Angeles, including attendants from the film series such as Alice Cooper, Lezlie Deane, Shon Greenblatt, Ricky Dean Logan, Breckin Meyer, Tobe Sexton, Lisa Zane, Lisa Wilcox and Whit Hertford. Andy Mangels and Rachel Talalay were among others present. [11] On encouragement by New Line Cinema, the Los Angeles mayor at the time, Tom Bradley, declared September 13 to be "Freddy Krueger Day", but this move was heavily criticized for glorifying a mass murderer, with Robert Englund adding that "we have to separate crime reality from movie escapism". [5]
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare made $12.9 million in its opening weekend, [3] which was the highest opening weekend of the series until the release of Freddy vs. Jason and the biggest September opening at the time, ranking number 1 at the box office. [12] [13] In its second weekend it made $6.6 million and remained in the top spot, before falling to number 4 in its third weekend. After its initial run, the film grossed $34.9 million in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film in the series. [14]
The film holds a 22% positive rating on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Reducing the once-terrifying Dream Reaper into a goofy caricature, this joyless climax will leave audiences hoping Freddy stays dead." [15] It is the second lowest rated Elm Street movie on the website, ahead of only the 2010 remake. [16] Austin Chronicle wrote, "Freddy Krueger ... has devolved from the horrific, ill-defined phantasm posited in the original film, into a bland and annoyingly predictable boogeyman loved by kids everywhere." [17]
The song "Why Was I Born? (Freddy's Dead)", written for the film, was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song. In the 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again , Lisa Zane commented that she had submitted a Bond-esque ballad called "The Worst Is Over" for use over the end credits but "Why Was I Born" was chosen instead. Director Rachel Talalay had worked with Iggy Pop on the 1990 film Cry-Baby and offered him the chance to compose a song for the film.
Innovation Publishing published a three-issue comic adaptation of the film. An alternate version of the third issue was published in 3D to recreate the effect used in the film. The series was also published in trade paperback format. Innovation followed the adaptation with A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning, which served as a direct sequel to Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. In the sequel, Maggie Burroughs continues to have nightmares of her father, Freddy Krueger. Burroughs travels back to Springwood with Tracy, another survivor from the film, to research Freddy's life leading up to his death at the hands of the Springwood parents. Only the first two issues of the series were released before Innovation Publishing declared bankruptcy. The third issue went unpublished, and the story remains incomplete. Series writer Andy Mangels made the original script for the third issue available on his website. [18]
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American supernatural slasher media franchise consisting of nine films, a television series, novels, comic books, and various other media. The franchise began with the film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), written and directed by Wes Craven. The overall plot of the franchise centers around the fictional character Fred "Freddy" Krueger, the apparition of a former child killer who was burned alive by the vengeful parents of his victims, who returns from the grave to terrorize and kill the teenage residents of the fictional Springwood, Ohio in their dreams. Craven returned to the franchise to co-script the second sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and to write/direct Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). The films collectively grossed $472 million at the box office worldwide.
Freddy Krueger is the antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street horror film franchise. Created by Wes Craven, he made his debut in Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as the malevolent spirit of a child killer who had been burned to death by his victims' parents after evading prison. Krueger goes on to murder his victims in their dreams, causing their deaths in the real world as well. In the dream world, he is a powerful force and seemingly invulnerable. However, whenever Freddy is pulled back into the real world, he has normal human vulnerabilities and can be destroyed. He is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, dirty red-and-green-striped sweater and brown fedora, and trademark metal-clawed, brown leather, right hand glove. This glove was the product of Krueger's own imagination, having welded the blades himself before using it to murder many of his victims, both in the real and dream worlds. Over the course of the film series, Freddy has battled several reoccurring survivors including Nancy Thompson and Alice Johnson. The character was consistently portrayed by Robert Englund in the original film series as well as in the television spin-off Freddy's Nightmares.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 American meta supernatural horror film written and directed by Wes Craven, creator of 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. A standalone film and the seventh installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, it is not part of the same continuity as previous films, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew involved in the making of the films about him. In the film, Freddy is depicted as closer to what Craven originally intended, being much more menacing and less comical, with an updated attire and appearance.
Freddy's Nightmares is an American horror anthology television series, which aired in syndication from October 1988 until March 1990. A spin-off from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, each episode is introduced by Freddy Krueger, and features two different stories, with eight of them throughout the series actually having Freddy Krueger as the main antagonist. The pilot episode was directed by Tobe Hooper, and begins with Krueger's prosecution on child-murdering charges.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The film's plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an undead child killer who can murder people through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 American fantasy slasher film directed by Chuck Russell in his feature directorial debut. The story was developed by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner and is the third installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Larry Fishburne, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson, and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Nancy Thompson, now a psychiatrist, and Kristen, a patient who can bring others into her own dreams, team up with other kids to launch a daring rescue into the dreamland and save a child from Freddy Krueger.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a 1988 American fantasy slasher film directed by Renny Harlin, and is the fourth installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Serving as a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), the film follows Freddy Krueger who, following the death of Nancy Thompson and completing his revenge against the families who killed him, reappears in the dreams of Kristen Parker, Joey Crusel, and Roland Kincaid, where he uses Kristen's best friend, Alice Johnson, to gain access to new victims in order to satiate his murderous needs. The Dream Master is often popularly referred to as "the MTV Nightmare" of the franchise.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is a 1989 American slasher film directed by Stephen Hopkins and written by Leslie Bohem. It is the fifth installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and stars Lisa Wilcox, and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. The film follows Krueger, using a now pregnant Alice Johnson's baby's dreams to claim new victims.
Lezlie Deane is an American singer, musician, roller derby athlete and actress who has starred in film and television. She was once best known for her roles in horror films, including 976-EVIL (1988), Girlfriend from Hell (1989) and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). In the 1990s, she was a member of the techno group Fem2Fem.
Nancy Thompson is a fictional character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. She first appears in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as a teenager hunted in her dreams by enigmatic serial killer Freddy Krueger. In this film, she was portrayed by Heather Langenkamp—who reprises the role in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). Langenkamp later portrayed a fictional version of herself who embodies the role of Nancy in Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). A reimagined version of the character, Nancy Holbrook, is portrayed by Rooney Mara in the 2010 remake.
Kristen Parker is a character from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. She is a co-protagonist and final girl of the third film of the series A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the false protagonist in the following film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and has appeared in various merchandise as well. She is played by actress Patricia Arquette in Dream Warriors and Tuesday Knight in The Dream Master. She is the central member of the titular Dream Warriors, seven teens who have to learn to fight as a group in order to survive their spectral tormentor, enigmatic murderer Freddy Krueger, and has the ability to bring others into her dreams as well as being an Olympic-level acrobat in her dreams.
The popularity of the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series has led to several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Innovation Publishing, Trident Comics, Avatar Press and WildStorm Productions. After the success of Freddy vs. Jason and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake film in 2003, New Line Cinema created their House of Horror licensing division which licensed the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to Avatar Press for use in new comic book stories, the first of which was published in 2005. In 2006, Avatar Press lost the license to DC Comics imprint, WildStorm Productions which then published several new stories based on the franchise before their license expired as well.
Rachel Talalay is an American filmmaker and producer best known for directing films such as Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Ghost in the Machine (1993), and Tank Girl (1995). Her television credits include episodes of Ally McBeal, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Riverdale, Doom Patrol, Superman & Lois and Quantum Leap.
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors is a six-issue limited series comic book written by Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric, with drawings by Jason Craig. The series was published by Dynamite Entertainment and DC Comics, with imprint by Wildstorm, beginning in August 2009 and concluding in December 2009. The Nightmare Warriors is a sequel to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, which was published in 2007 and was itself a sequel to the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason. The series is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Evil Dead horror film franchises.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American supernatural slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer, and starring Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, and Kellan Lutz. Produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes, it is a remake of Wes Craven's 1984 film of the same name, as well as the ninth overall installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film is set in a fictitious town in Ohio and centers on a group of teenagers living on one street who are stalked and murdered in their dreams by a disfigured man named Freddy Krueger. The teenagers discover that they all share a common link from their childhood that makes them targets for Krueger.
Alice Johnson is a fictional character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. She first appears in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) as a teenager that inherits dream superpowers from the victims of enigmatic serial killer Freddy Krueger. In this film, she was portrayed by Lisa Wilcox—who reprises the role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989).
1428 Elm Street, also known as [the] Elm Street House, is a fictional residential house and street address in Springwood, Ohio, and is an important location in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, where it has been the home of Nancy Thompson and her mother, later Jesse Walsh and his family, and finally Lori Campbell and her father, throughout the film series. It has also been implied to have been Freddy Krueger's home at some point before the events that take place in the films. It appears in some form in nearly all the films, as well as literature, comic books, toys, and music videos. The house, like Freddy Krueger, Nancy Thompson, Tina Gray, and Kristen Parker, were all conceived by Wes Craven.
Nightmares on Elm Street is a six-issue comic book limited series set within the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, set chronologically between A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). It was written by comic book writer Andy Mangels and published bimonthly throughout 1991 and 1992 by Innovation Publishing. The first two issues revolves mainly around Nancy Thompson's fate following her murder by Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, while issue three through six deals primarily with the return of Alice Johnson and her son Jacob to Springwood. The comics are considered to be canonical to the franchise.
Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street was a short lived black-and-white comic book set in the A Nightmare on Elm Street universe and published by Marvel Comics in late 1989. Chronologically, its events takes place about three years after the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). It was cancelled after only its second issue for unclear reasons. The remaining storyline is named Dreamstalkers and was left unresolved with a cliffhanger ending.