A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

1987 New Line Cinema
Directed by: Chuck Russell; Written by: Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont, and Chuck Russell
Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Larry Fishburne, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson, John Saxon, Dick Cavett, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Robert Englund
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 96 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Kristen Parker is having terrible nightmares about a disfigured, knife-clawed man, who compels her toward death. When her mother walks in on a Kristen who's not only sleepwalking, but slashing her own wrist with a razor, it's off to the psychiatric hospital, where it turns out a whole crew of teenagers have been having nightmares about the same man. An intern at the hospital, Nancy, knows exactly what's going on. Her old nemesis, Freddy Krueger, has returned. Freddy wants to kill all the local children in their sleep because many years before, those children's parents burned him at the stake for the unspeakable crimes Krueger committed. Krueger is now much stronger because of all the teenage souls he's possessed, and Nancy can't fight him alone again. Thankfully, Kristen has the ability to unite dreamers together into a single dream...and now the teens are fighting for their lives, together.
I'll say this for the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels: they don't just rehash the plot of the 1984 Wes Craven original. They're weird movies, but thankfully 1987's A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a more entertaining watch than the lousy 1985 second film. I wouldn't necessarily call it good, though. The film is exceedingly silly. There is no semblance of horror here, and the film won't scare anyone over the age of five. The acting isn't great, with Patricia Arquette as Kristen, and a returning Heather Lagenkamp as Nancy giving performances that are best described as "raw." Some of the young actors fare better than others, though the clear standout is a young Laurence Fishburne as a no-nonsense hospital attendant who gets all of the film's best lines (maybe they were adlibbed).
Dream Warriors works best as a fun and silly creature feature. Director, Chuck Russell, who helmed the 90s CGI-pioneering comedy classic, The Mask, knows his way around special effects, and the practical effects artists at his disposal here all turn in creative work, with household objects often morphing into deadly, monstrous appendages, and Krueger's head seemingly popping out of every random object on set. There's a lot of imagination at work here, even if the plot is silly (though again, better than that of the previous film, thanks to a returning Wes Craven) and the acting is lousy. There's even a musical score by the famed Angelo Badalamenti, who's clearly having just as much fun as the special effects department. Again, overall, I can't say that Dream Warriors is anything approaching a good film, but it is a fun film, and for the third entry in an 80s horror franchise, that's close to as good as it gets.