Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Review #1144: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Cast: 
Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Lisa Zane (Maggie Burroughs/Katherine Krueger), Lezlie Deane (Tracy), Shon Greenblatt (John Doe), Breckin Meyer (Spencer Lewis), Ricky Dean Logan (Carlos), Yaphet Kotto (Doc), Tobe Sexton (Teenage Freddy Krueger), Cassandra Rachel Freil (Young Maggie/Katherine), and Lindsey Fields (Loretta Krueger) Directed by Rachel Talalay.

Review: 
With such a ridiculous title like this, what do you expect? The sixth (and intended to be final) film in the franchise, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare sinks to improbably new lows in terms of execution and ridiculousness, where Freddy Krueger has turned into a cartoon character for the amusement of an audience that have seen better days and clearly have seen better films. After all, Freddy even had his own day proclaimed for him, done so by Mayor Tom Bradley for the city of Los Angeles on the day before the film's release on September 13, 1991. Sometimes you just have to admire the audacity of a film in how ridiculous it can get without being scary, and this is done within the first five minutes of the film, featuring such "bold" moments as a title card telling us about how Freddy (in the not-too distant future of ten years since the last film) has apparently eliminated all of the children and teenagers from Springwood, which I guess means he has evolved into some sort of super-villain, although that doesn't help the fact that the actual body-count is just as low as the previous film, lingering more on mediocre exposition and even more mediocre characters. But the cherry on top is Englund on a broomstick mimicking the Wicked Witch of the West while taunting someone about how they'll get them and their little soul too. It doesn't get much better from there, but at least there are cameos to keep the audience surprised (or something), from Mr. and Mrs. Tom Arnold to Johnny Depp to even Alice Cooper. I found myself wondering which sixth installment in a horror franchise was worse, this one or Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers - both are needlessly incompetent with trying to deliver slasher scares, since they both look like films given re-workings even after filming stopped - but I at least could have a laugh with this one.

The cast doesn't exactly help make the film any better either. Sure, Englund is game to spew out one-liners and do stuff equivalent to a cartoon character, but it's sad to see how the series progressed so ridiculously for something that also tries to show some of the character's origins (at least the parts that weren't said in the other films, anyway). It just seems more like it demystifies the nature of who this guy is, unless you're big on having details about someone who likes to haunt people in their dreams. Zane is the lone highlight from the other members of the cast, having some actual screen presence and being interesting to follow around with. Greenbatt can't really elevate his role with no name to anything other than bare minimum characterization. The trio of Deane-Meyer-Logan to go along with the others as the new batch of kids with a characteristic to exploit later on, just like the previous film. Kotto is fine, but he doesn't have much time on screen. It's amusing to poke at when the film wants to be like a cartoon, but the film is never scary. Whether you like the idea of the backstory scenes or not, the "dream demons" are not executed well at all - it looks too silly with its resemblance to worms to really be anything haunting. Talalay wrote the film while Michael De Luca was credited for doing the screenplay, but the film never really goes anywhere too special that isn't either done for a cheap laugh or a cheap thrill in its 89 minute run-time. The effects and slashing sequences don't really help give the movie too much life either. The last portion of the film was shot in 3-D, complete with one of the characters putting on 3-D glasses, and I do wonder how the effect looked in theaters for 1991, but it doesn't really do anything for me as a way to end the film, especially the resolution for Freddy, which combines taking elements from the climax of the first film along with an "innovative" way to take him out - putting a pipe bomb on him while impaired on a steel beam, ending with a ridiculous effect when he explodes, complete with a title drop. On the whole, this is a ridiculous installment that serves as the low point for A Nightmare on Elm Street, failing at being fine horror slasher entertainment by how it executes itself with its style and story that makes this a silly one to get through.

Overall, I give it 4 out of 10 stars.