Robert Englund

A zombie epidemic spreads throughout a strip club in Nebraska. In the not too distant future a secret government re-animation chemo-virus gets released into conservative Sartre, Nebraska and lands in an underground strip club. As the virus begins to spread, turning the strippers into "Super Zombie Strippers" the girls struggle with whether or not to conform to the new "fad" even if it means there's no turning back. —Anonymous

Freddy Krueger is trapped in Hell, and enraged as the parents of Springwood have emerged from their psychosis and figured how to keep the children from remembering him, rendering him powerless and unable to escape. Determined to make them remember and fear him, Freddy locates Jason in Hell and disguises himself as Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees, convincing him to rise again and go to Springwood to slaughter the teens; though Jason will kill, Freddy will be blamed, and thus be able to escape. Jason arrives on Elm Street, sneaking into the house where Nancy Thompson and Jesse Walsh used to live, now owned by Lori Campbell and her widowed father. While Lori, her friends Kia, Gibb, Blake and Trey, are in the house, Trey is brutally murdered by Jason using his machete and bent in half. The group is taken in for questioning. After overhearing several police officers accidentally discussing Freddy, Lori falls asleep and has a dream about Freddy, allowing him to gain some of his powers back. Freddy then tries to attack Blake. However, he is unable to harm him, so he decides to rest for now and "let Jason have some fun." Blake then awakens to find his father beheaded, sitting next to him, and is, a moment later, killed by Jason. The police in order to avert suscpicion to Freddy claim that Blake killed Trent, his father and then sacrificed himself. Lori has recurring dreams about Freddy and tells Kia and Gibb about it. She is reunited with her boyfriend, Will Rollins and his friend Mark, who were institutionalized in Westin Hills Asylum and escaped after hearing of the murders on Elm Street. At a rave party, Gibb falls asleep and has a dream where she is attacked by Freddy after he took the form of the deceased Trey to lure her into his trap. Another raver attempts to rape her, but Jason appears and kills the two, angering Freddy, who realizes that Jason will not stop killing and that the public is becoming more afraid of Jason than him. Jason goes on a rampage around the rave, killing several others. Afterward, Will, Lori, Kia, and two fellow students Freeburg and Linderman escape and meet up with Stubbs. The group formulate a plan to defeat Freddy and Jason: they will take Jason back to Camp Crystal Lake, and Lori will pull Freddy into the real world to fight Jason; in the real world, Freddy will be vulnerable, and Jason, at home in Crystal Lake, will have the "home field advantage" and remain in his territory, and thus no longer terrorize Springwood. Freddy kills Mark while leaving a bloody "message" on his back that says "FREDDY'S BACK", and then possesses Freeburg's body to stop the group from taking Hypnocil, a drug that will prevent them from sleeping and dreaming. Jason electrocutes Stubbs and is then confronted by Freddy in Freeburg's body, who injects Jason with two vials of tranquilizer. Jason bisects Freeburg before passing out. Once inside Freddy's dream world, Jason realizes he was tricked and engages Freddy. At first Freddy thinks that Jason is afraid of nothing, which combined with his real-world invincibility makes him impossible to kill even in the dream-world. But then Freddy accidentally discovers Jason's fear of water, then exploits it to turn Jason back into a child, then brings him to a nightmare of his childhood, and starts to drown him. But before Freddy can kill Jason, Lori enters the Dream World and interrupts the fight, causing Jason to wake up and attack the group, who are now at Crystal Lake. Freddy, enraged, attempts to kill Lori, after revealing that he was the one, who killed her mother, but she awakens and drags him into a burning cabin in reality. Jason turns his attention to Freddy, who is somewhat paralyzed by his fear of fire and whom Jason beats up and throws through the burning cabin's roof. Lori, Will, Kia and Linderman try to escape, but Linderman is wounded and dies soon afterwards. Kia tries to save Lori and Will from Freddy, but is killed suddenly by Jason. Freddy and Jason continue their battle and Lori decides to stay until Freddy is dead. While Freddy seems to be no match for Jason's physical power, he still heavily wounds Jason because of his superior speed. During their fight, Lori and Will burn the gas tanks at the docks to blow both Freddy and Jason up. Until then Jason already lost four fingers and his eyes. When the fire starts to spread Jason rips off Freddy's arm with the claws and Freddy stabs Jason's heart with the machete. The resulting explosion sends both of them into the lake. Freddy comes back and attempts to kill Lori with Jason's machete. Jason ultimately defeats Freddy despite appearing to die in the process, stabbing him with Freddy's own claws before falling into Crystal Lake, though if he did this to continue battling Freddy or for some reason save Lori for saving him earlier is unknown. Lori picks up Jason's machete, while Freddy kneels on the dock helplessly. She shouts at Freddy "Welcome to my world bitch!" then uses the machete to behead Freddy and throws the machete to Jason as he sinks. Lori and Will depart, but the next morning Jason rises from the water, carrying his machete and Freddy's severed head, which smirks and winks at the audience before laughing maniacally, leaving the winner ambiguous.

On a dark and rainy night, a young woman, named Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner), is driving her pickup truck, listening to a college campus radio DJ. After nearly colliding with another car, she realizes that she is almost out of gas and pulls into the nearest gas station, a creepy looking, run-down place in the middle of nowhere. The strange-looking attendant offers to fill up her car, and Michelle offers to pay by credit card. After a minute, the attendant convinces Michelle that her credit card is not working and wants her to come into his office to speak to the credit card company on the phone. However, when Michelle gets inside the station and picks up the phone, there is no one on the other line. The attendant approaches her and excitedly stutters, but he cannot say anything clearly. The fearful woman sprays mace in his face and manages to run back to her truck and speeds away while the attendant remains behind and yells after her that he's only trying to help her and screaming, "SOMEONE'S IN THE BACK SEAT!" On the road, Michelle relaxes a little bit until someone sits up in the back seat and swings an axe at her. That same night, inside a coffee shop lounge at Pendleton University, college student Parker Riley (Michael Rosenbaum) is telling an urban legend called the 'Stanley Hall Massacre' about 25 years ago when a crazy professor killed a dozen students at a closed down dorm on campus. Two of the students, Natalie Simon (Alicia Witt) and Brenda Bates (Rebecca Gayheart), listen with skepticism while they listen to Parker's girlfriend, Sasha Thomas (Tara Reid), who operates a local radio call-in show, finish her broadcast. Paul Gardener (Jared Leto), a pompous college reporter, joins the group and sneers at Parker's yarn. Brenda is obviously attracted to Paul. Natalie and Brenda walk towards the closed down Stanley Hall dorm building, where they suggest they chant Bloody Mary as a gag, when they are surprised by Damon Brooks (Joshua Jackson), a misfit student who taunts them over going inside the boarded up building. Natalie and Brenda split up where Natalie goes home to her dorm room where she interrupts her Goth girl roommate, Tosh Guaneri (Danielle Harris), having sex with a Goth guy. The next day in class, Professor William Wexler (Robert Englund) is discussing folklore and urban legends. Damon, the class goof-off, walks up to the front of the class and tries drinking soda and pop rocks candy to prove the urban legend that his stomach will not explode. He then feigns going into a seizure and playing dead much to the annoyance of Wexler and the amusement of his friends. Later that day, Natalie and Brenda see Paul distributing out newspapers detailing about the decapitation murder the previous night in which the stuffy Dean Adams (John Neviulle) and the campus security guard, Reese Wilson (Loretta Devine), seizes copies of the school paper about the recent murder. Paul protests to the dean about a possible murder on the campus. But Adams tells Paul that there is no killer and the only crazy person is him. Later that day, Natalie, Brenda, Paul, Parker, Sasha, and Damon meet where they discuss the murder. Natalie claims not to know the murder victim, but she has in her procession a high school yearbook which shows that Natalie and Michelle were captains of their cheerleading squad. That evening, Damon arrives at Natalie's dorm room to console her and takes her someplace in his car to talk. After driving to a secluded part in the nearby woods, Natalie is angry to discover that Damon only wants to talk to her to persuade her for some need of loving. After Natalie becomes angry and demands that Damon take her home, he exits the car to the call of nature when someone attacks him with a rope. When Natalie goes to check on him, the killer, wearing a heavy hooded winter overcoat, attacks her. As she tries to drive away, Damon, tied to a rope attached to the bumper of the car is hoisted up and choked to death. His body lands on top of the car, forcing Natalie to get out and run. Natalie goes to the campus security office and tells Reese about the killing, but when the both arrive at the scene, the body and Damon's car are gone. The next day, after failing to locate Damon, Natalie's friends are skeptic to her claims of a murder and think that Damons disappearance is one of his practical jokes. Natalie goes to the library to research urban legends by reading a book titled 'The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends'. While Natalie is in the library, Tosh meets a fellow Goth guy online and they plan to meet. When she returns from the bathroom to get ready for her date, the killer is waiting for her in the room and attacks. Natalie walks into the room and assumes the noises are of Tosh having sex again. The killer pulls out the electrical plugs for the lights in the room, and Natalie goes to bed, not realizing that Tosh is being strangled to death. The next morning, Natalie wakes up and sees her roommate dead from slashed wrists and a message left by the killer written on a wall in blood saying: "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?" Everyone thinks that Tosh committed suicide and the message on the wall was "a very morbid suicide note". Natalie convinces Paul that Tosh's death was not a suicide and they look for evidence about the Stanley Hall Massacre, but they find no evidence and all the old newspaper clippings in the library from 1972 where the killings took place are gone. Natalie and Paul run into the creepy-looking janitor where they ask him questions about the Stanley Hall Massacre and the janitor tells them to talk to Wexler. Natalie and Paul sneak into Wexler's office for evidence and are caught by the professor. Brought before Dean Adams, Paul asks about the Stanley Hall Massacre, but the dean avoids the question by telling Paul that he's fired from the school newspaper and tells both of them to stop investigating something that never happened. Adams further tells Natalie that she has a criminal records for "reckless endangerment" and served a year of probation and that she too is to stop investigating the urban legend about the Stanley Hall Massacre if she wants to stay at the college. Outside, Paul becomes angry when Natalie continues to avoid his questions about her past or if she knew Michelle. Later, Natalie walks into the campus swimming pool where Brenda is doing laps when she thinks she sees the killer approach. But the figure in the winter coat is only a fellow colleague. In the locker room, Natalie confides in Brenda that she did know Michelle. She tells the story of how she and Michelle were out driving one night on a dark road without their cars headlights on when a passing car flashed them and, with Michelle driving, the chased down the car in which the car went off the road and the driver was killed. That evening, Dead Adams is in the parking garage to drive home when the killer ambushes him and kills him by slashing his ankles and driving over him with his own car. At a fraternity party where Parker is throwing, Paul arrives with an old newspaper article given to him by the janitor which tells that Wexler was the sole survivor of the 1972 Stanley Hall Massacre and that he may be responsible for the killings. When Natalie admits to having feelings for Paul, they kiss. Brenda sees this and in a jealous rage, leaves the party. A little later, during the party, Parker gets a phone call and is told about what happened to his pet dog (it was cooked in a kitchen microwave over as another urban legends). He runs into a nearby bathroom to throw up when the killer attacks him and kills him by pouring pop rocks and liquid draino drown his throat. While Natalie is trying to reach Paul who ran off, Sasha is attacked at the radio station by the killer who chases her through the building with an axe. Natalie hears Sasha screaming over the radio and runs over to the station but is too late as the killer catches up to Sasha and axes her to death. Meanwhile, Reese searches Wexler's office but finds the floor covered with blood. She calls the police, but because of a serious thunderstorm, the roads are washed out. Reese goes off to find the killer on her own. Natalie runs into Paul outside her doom room and becomes suspicious to where he went during the time Sasha was killed. They both find Brenda, in which they become suspicious about her. They drive away from the campus to look for help when they stop at another gas station. While Paul goes to a phone to call the police, Brenda and Natalie notice a strange odor and upon opening the car truck, discover the dead and mangled body of Professor Wexler. They both run away and into the nearby woods where they both split up. On a back road, Natalie is picked up by the eerie janitor (Julian Richings). But the killer chases them in another car and the janitors truck runs off the road in which the janitor hits his head and is killed. Natalie returns to the campus and tries calling for help on a police phone, but she hears screams from inside the abandoned Stanley Hall building where there is a light on the third floor. Natalie breaks in to look around and finds the dead bodies of Parker, Adams, and Damon. She finds Brenda lying motionless on a bed in a room lit with hundreds of different candles. But before she can react, Natalie is knocked out. Waking up later, Natalie finds herself tied to the bed with the killer standing over here in which the hood comes off to reveal..... Brenda. No longer acting like the casualty nice and friendly girl as seen thorough the movie, the sneering and wild-eyed Brenda explains to Natalie that the boy who was killed in the accident by Michelle and Natalie years before was Brenda's boyfriend. Brenda befriended Natalie this whole time to torment her with this urban legends as her insane way of getting even with her. Just as Brenda is about to kill Natalie by removing her kidneys as the "kidney heist" urban legends, Reese appears to come to Natalie's rescue, but Brenda attacks Reese with a knife and wrestles her gun away. Just then, Paul appears applauding Brenda for her revenge plan and offers wanting a part of it for the credit for his career. But Brenda is not fooled and before she can shoot either one of them, Reese revives and shoots Brenda. However, as Paul and Natalie are driving away to find help and safety, Brenda sits up in the back seat of their car and attacks them in the same manner she killed Michelle in the opening scene. Paul smashes the car into a guardrail and Brenda smashes through the windshield and off a bridge into a river far below. Some time later at another college campus, a group of college students are discussing the recent Pendleton Massacre and about the urban legends, when one student, whom is the alive and well, Brenda with a different haircut, offers to tell them the real story about all of it.

The narrator, Angus Scrimm, in his only words in the film, introduces the audience to the creatures called "djinn***" ***(which are actually mohammedian efreets; correction should concern every following mistake)." with the following statement: Once, in a time before time, God breathed life into the universe. And the light gave birth to Angels. And the earth gave birth to Man. And the fire gave birth to the Djinn, creatures condemned to dwell in the void between the worlds. One who wakes a Djinn shall be given three wishes. Upon the granting of the third, the unholy legions of the Djinn shall be freed to rule the earth. Fear one thing in all there is...fear the Djinn. The next scene is set in Persia during the year 1127 A.D. with the Djinn asking a Persian emperor to make his second wish. The emperor asks the Djinn to show him wonders. The Djinn uses his powers to torture and mutilate people in the palace. Before the emperor can make his third wish, Zoroaster, a sorcerer (Ari Barak), interrupts and states that upon the third wish granted to the one who woke the Djinn, a gateway will open between the worlds and the evil race of Djinn can live on earth. The sorcerer then reveals a fire opal. The Djinn is sucked into the jewel, where he remains captured. In present day America Raymond Beaumont (Robert Englund) is supervising workers as they lower a box containing an antique statue of Ahura Mazda onto a ship's deck. The worker who is lowering the crate is drinking on the job and accidentally drops it from his crane, killing Beaumont's assistant (Ted Raimi) and destroying the statue. It breaks open and a dockworker finds the fire opal inside which he steals and pawns. The jewel ends up at Regal Auctioneers, where boss Nick Merritt (Chris Lemmon) gives it to appraiser Alexandra Amberson to examine. Her examinations of the jewel wake the Djinn. Thinking she saw something inside the jewel, Alexandra takes it to her labworker best friend and potential love interest, Josh Aickman (Tony Crane) to analyze. Later, as he is collecting data, light reflections cause the gem to explode and the Djinn is released. The lab is destroyed and Josh is killed, upon his wish for relief from his physical pain. Alex, thinking the gem has something to do with the explosion and subsequent death of Josh, tracks down Beaumont, to whom the statue belonged. Beaumont tells Alex to visit a folklore professor named Wendy Derleth (Jenny O'Hara) to find out more about Ahura Mazda and the gem. He also invites Alex and her sister, Shannon (Wendy Benson) to a party he is hosting. The folklore professor tells Alex about the jewel, the Djinn, and its evil history. Later, Alex learns that the Djinn needs to power the gem with the soul of humans, and then grant her three wishes before he can unleash the Djinn on Earth. During this time, the Djinn, who had been in demonic form removes the face of a corpse in the morgue, taking on the dead man's form and the name Nathaniel Demerest. The Djinn, now as Nathaniel, goes about granting people wishes in return for their souls while he searches for Alex. He finally tracks down Alex's boss and grants him a greed-inflicted wish so that he can get Alex's address. Alex is haunted by visions whenever the Djinn grants a wish. She goes to Wendy's house to consult with her again, but Nathaniel has already killed her and taken her form. During their conversation, Alex realizes she is really talking to the Djinn. He confronts her and asks her to make three wishes. He even gives her a "test" wish. She uses this wish and orders the Djinn to kill itself. He complies by blowing his head off with a gun, yet the wound heals instantly; as the Djinn is immortal, he cannot be killed. Alex then uses the first of the "official" three wishes: Her first being to know her opponent, the Djinn. He teleports her to his terrifying world within the gem, thus demonstrating his true nature to her. Next, she wishes herself back to her apartment, alone. The Djinn had been threatening Alex's sister, so Alex sets about finding Shannon. She races to Beaumont's party and Nathaniel follows. While talking to Nathaniel at the party, Beaumont makes the mistake of wishing his party would be unforgettable, and Nathaniel begins wreaking havoc by causing the art pieces to kill the guests. The Djinn finally corners Alex and traps Shannon, trying to scare Alex into making the ultimate third wish. Alex wishes that the dockworker had not been drinking on the job two days ago undoing the events that followed (and presumably reviving the Djinn's victims back to life) and trapping the Djinn in the opal. The dock scene is shown again and the now sober operator has no trouble lowering the crate containing Ahura Mazda. Alex goes to see Josh at the lab. He notices that Alex is strangely pleased with herself, but she will not say why. Back on the statue of Ahura Mazda, which is now in Beaumont's private collection, the camera zooms inside the jewel and shows us the Djinn on a throne, waiting to be released.

Just as the first Nightmare film opened with the creation of Freddy's infamous glove, New Nightmare opens with the creation of an updated, more sinister and sleeker looking glove. As the maker of the claws appears to chop off his own hand in preparation for attaching the claws to his own wrist, the other people on the set wince, and the director, Wes Craven, encourages the effects specialists to pump more blood. Soon he yells, "Cut! Print that Gretchen!" Heather Langenkamp, her husband, Chase, and their son, Dylan, are wandering around the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Presently the claw, which was only a prop a minute ago, comes to life and starts maiming and killing the special effects crew. Dylan is now gone, and as the claw advances to attack Chase, Heather screams waking up in her own bed in her own house with Chase, during an earthquake in Los Angeles. After the earthquake dies down Chase has a couple of scratches, which are the very same as he had received in the dream. This causes Heather to wonder if they were sustained in the earthquake or during the dream. Heather reveals she has been receiving harassing phone calls from "someone who sounds an awful lot like Freddy", but they've stopped for the last couple weeks until now. Heather is a guest on a morning talk show the very same day, where they discuss the 10th anniversary of the "Nightmare" films. Also, as part of the talk show line-up, Robert Englund as himself tears through a screen dressed up as Freddy Krueger to surprise Heather, Heather is slightly disturbed by this. Producer Bob Shaye asks Heather to visit his office at New Line Cinema, and explains that Wes Craven is working on a script for the new and final "Nightmare" film. Heather is asked to reprise her role as main character "Nancy", but decides against it with her own recent nightmares, disturbing phone calls, and disgruntlement over her son's change in behavior. Bob explains that her husband Chase Porter is also working on the film and he is creating a scary new glove for Freddy, much to Heather's dismay. When she gets home, her son has an episode during which he warns her in a voice not of his own, "Never sleep again!" Worried, Heather asks Chase to come home, however Chase falls asleep at the wheel on the way and dies supposedly in a car crash. When Heather goes to identify the body, it seems to her that there may have been more than meets the eye to the "crash", as was made apparent by the claw-like marks on his chest. Dylan, now also grief stricken, continues acting even more strangely. She enlists Wes Craven's help for making sense of what's been happening. Craven explains that he does not know much more than she does. He dreams a scene or two each night and wakes up and writes them down. Craven goes on to tell her that in the script he's been writing, pure evil can be temporarily defeated if its essence is effectively captured in a work of art that is able to allow evil to express itself. Craven explains that the evil has taken the form of Freddy Krueger because it is a familiar one. "Freddy" sees her as the gatekeeper who holds Freddy at bay, since Heather's character Nancy defeated Freddy in the first movie who in turn eliminated Nancy in the third, but still couldn't be released. To Freddy it is Heather that gave the character of Nancy her fortitude. Freddy is attacking her at her weakest points, trying to break her down before confronting her, prompting her to leave just as confused as when she arrived. After a short sleep in Dylan's room, Heather wakes to discover Dylan is gone, she goes downstairs and finds Dylan in another episode. Heather finally takes Dylan to the hospital, there a doctor asks if Dylan said anything during his trance, Heather says "No" but the doctor later gets it out of her that Dylan has been doing Freddy-like actions and singing Freddy's theme. Later, Julie (Dylan's babysitter) shows up at the hospital and tells Heather she had a nightmare about him. Soon, two nurses want to sedate Dylan, but Julie had been instructed by Heather to not let Dylan fall asleep while she goes home to get Rex. Julie ends up punching a nurse and threatening another with a needle (cameo appearance by Wes Craven's daughter), and locks the door. Meanwhile, Heather tried to leave but had been stopped by security guards to be questioned by the doctor, the doctor suspects Heather is insane, and tries to get her to agree to foster care. Next, Dylan drifts to sleep, Freddy appears in the locked hospital room and brutally slays Julie.(ironically in the same fashion as Tina Gray in the first film) The nurses unlock the doors, and discover the murder in progress. They run, but Heather is concerned where Dylan went, the doctor realizes Heather is right. Heather soon remembers home, (previously she comforted Dylan by telling him their home is right across the freeway from the hospital). She discovers a giant Freddy dangling Dylan from above traffic. She arrives home and finds Dylan, but Freddy begins to manipulate the world around her, causing her to become Nancy and her house to become the house on Elm Street. By forcing Heather to accept the role he wants her to play, Freddy rises out from Dylan's bed and is fully in the real world. Heather runs inside and into Dylan's room only to find him gone, and the toy dinosaur Dylan believed was protecting him totally eviscerated by Freddy. Heather takes sleeping pills to join in on a lucid dream, final showdown with Freddy to save an already captured Dylan. It occurs in a hot, steamy and water-logged dreamscape ruin, apparently Freddy's home turf. Dylan finds Heather, only for them both to be attacked by Freddy, Heather is knocked out, Dylan is left in a state of defenselessness. Freddy lures Dylan into a trap and tries to attack him vigorously, Heather discovers the battle and fights off Freddy, but Freddy makes his tongue extend and wrap around her face. Dylan gets out of the trap to save Heather by taking a large kitchen knife that she brought in with her, stabbing Freddy's tongue and making it go back to its previous size. The two succeed in killing Freddy, by locking him in a lit furnace where upon catching on fire, (in a Hansel and Gretel-like ending) his true visage is shown amidst a fiery blast, all the while Dylan & Heather flee said inferno, escaping back to reality, where they find the script of the film Craven has been working on, waiting for them. Dylan asks his mother to read some of it to him, which she does: "We open on an old wooden bench. There's fire and tools, and a man's grimy hands building what's soon revealed as a gleaming set of claws. And the claws are moving now as if awakening from a long and unwanted sleep...."

Dream-haunting Freddy Krueger returns once again to prowl the nightmares of Springwood's last surviving teenager, and of a woman whose personal connection to Krueger may mean his doom. In part six of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, dream monster Freddy Krueger has finally killed all the children of his hometown, and seeks to escape its confines to hunt fresh prey. To this end, he seeks his child. However, someone discovers the demonic origin of Krueger's powers and meets him head-on in a final showdown.

The pregnant Alice finds Freddy Krueger striking through the sleeping mind of her unborn child, hoping to be reborn into the real world. Alice, having survived the previous installment of the Nightmare series, finds the deadly dreams of Freddy Krueger starting once again. This time, the taunting murderer is striking through the sleeping mind of Alice's unborn child. His intention is to be "born again" into the real world. The only one who can stop Freddy is his dead mother, but can Alice free her spirit in time to save her own son? —David Thiel <d-thiel@uiuc.edu> Springwood, 1989. With no sign of Freddy Krueger after the razor-sharp horror in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Alice Johnson is confident that she has survived the wrath of the clawed dream demon. But the evil son of 100 maniacs has found a workaround: the undeveloped foetus of an oblivious young mother-to-be is now Freddy's key to the physical world. As horrible visions start haunting Alice's troubled dreams again, an unexpected ally from the past offers closure. However, Alice and her vulnerable friends are running out of time. Can the new batch survive the dream-within-a-dream and the blood-chilling advent of the infernal dream child? —Nick Riganas

Freddy Krueger returns once again to terrorize the dreams of the remaining Dream Warriors, as well as those of a young woman who may be able to defeat him for good. Following up the previous Nightmare film, the dream demon Freddy Krueger is resurrected from his apparent demise, and rapidly tracks down all three of the surviving Elm Street kids. However, Kristen Parker soon realizes that Freddy is taking advantage of that unknown power she now wields to pull a new group of teenage children into his foul domain. Can she finally defeat Freddy or is it already too late? —David Thiel <d-thiel@uiuc.edu> With the boiler room at the creepy house on 1428 Elm Street forever cold after the events in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), lucky survivors Kristen, Kincaid, and Joey try to pick up the pieces and live free again. But no force on Earth can contain pure evil. As the gruesome dream manipulator returns from the dead, hungry for teenage souls, fresh meat gets a taste of Freddy's horror. Now, it's up to the remaining Dream Warriors to finish the charred stalker of the dream world off once and for all. But when death is only an illusion, can the last of the Elm Street Children end what Nancy started in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)? —Nick Riganas

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" brings back the iconic character Nancy Thompson, portrayed by Heather Langenkamp, as she returns to confront the enduring threat of Freddy Krueger. Now 23 years old, Nancy is drawn back into the fight against the dream-stalking killer when she encounters a group of teenagers at Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital who are being tormented by Freddy in their dreams. The teenagers, including Kristen Parker, Joey, Kincaid, Jennifer, Phillip, and Taryn, are all prescribed Hypnocil, a drug designed to prevent nightmares. However, Freddy's influence is so strong that he can override the effects of the drug and pull the teenagers into his dream world. Nancy, with her past experiences and knowledge, becomes a mentor and guide for the group, teaching them how to harness their dream powers to fight back against Freddy. Throughout the film, Nancy's presence adds a sense of continuity and familiarity, serving as a reminder of her heroic efforts in the past and her enduring legacy in the fight against Freddy. A ghostly nun appears briefly but does not interact with Nancy, adding an eerie atmosphere without complicating the main narrative. This installment also marks Patricia Arquette's first film appearance, though she has rarely discussed it in interviews, perhaps due to the film's horror genre or her desire to focus on her more prominent roles later in her career. As Nancy delves deeper into the teenagers' dreams, she helps them understand the nature of their fears and the power they hold within their collective consciousness. The film explores themes of unity, belief, and the strength that comes from standing together against adversity. Nancy's guidance is crucial as the story builds to a climactic confrontation between the teenagers and Freddy, where their newfound abilities will be put to the test. The film's pacing is excellent, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats throughout, and the performances by the cast are strong, making the characters' struggles and triumphs deeply engaging. "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" is a thrilling and emotional continuation of the franchise, centered around Nancy Thompson's return and her role in helping the next generation of dream warriors. The film's unique twist on the dream world concept adds a layer of depth to the story, making it a standout entry in the series. Filming Locations "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" was filmed at several notable locations in California: 1. **Lincoln Heights Jail**: This historic jail in Los Angeles served as the exterior for Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital. The imposing structure added a sense of foreboding and isolation to the setting. 2. **East Los Angeles College**: The interior scenes of Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital were filmed at East Los Angeles College. The college's buildings provided a suitable backdrop for the hospital's corridors and rooms. 3. **Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden**: The arboretum in Arcadia, California, was used for the dream sequences involving the teenagers. The lush greenery and serene environment contrasted sharply with the horrors they faced in their dreams. 4. **Downtown Los Angeles**: Various streets and alleys in downtown Los Angeles were used to depict the urban landscape of the film. The gritty and industrial setting added to the overall atmosphere of dread and danger. 5. **Chatsworth, California**: The suburban neighborhood of Chatsworth was used for the exterior shots of Nancy Thompson's home. The quiet, residential setting provided a stark contrast to the nightmarish events unfolding within the dreams of the characters. These locations contributed to the film's eerie and immersive atmosphere, enhancing the storytelling and the overall horror experience. Submitted by Andy Benson June 2025

It has been five years since Nancy Thompson waged her last battle with Freddy Krueger in that sinister house on Elm Street. The Walsh family- Jesse, a seventeen year old with his father, mother and sister, Angela- has just moved in. Right off the top Jesse starts having bad dreams. His parents assume this is due to the pressure of being the "new kid in town." Jesse knows otherwise. Somthing evil is alive in this house. The signs are clear but disturbing. The house becomes unbearably hot suddenly on one of the coolest nights of the year. Appliances take on a mentality of their own, and abruptly burst into flames. The pet parakeet has an anxiety attack and turns into a roman candle. Jesse turns to Lisa, his new girlfriend, to try and figure out what's happening. They piece together assorted rumours and old newspaper clippings of the house's homicidal past, and discover the grisly details about the local child-murderer Freddy Krueger, who was burned to death by town citizens years ago. Meanwhile, Jesse's dreams are turning frighteningly real, and perhaps blurring into reality itself. Freddy Krueger appears in the darkness, muttering black threats about the "plans" he has for Jesse. Lisa tells Jesse that he's just having a series of intense psychic episodes, but something tells him the situation is far more odious. Slowly, he feels himself succumbing to Freddy, and his own darker impulses rising within. In a bloody nightmare, Jesse finds himself observing the brutal slaying of his gym teacher, Coach Schneider. The next day, he learns that the murder has, in fact, occured. Jesse is convinced that it wasn't Freddy Krueger but himself who was the murderer. The fear starts to build inside Jesse like never before. He feels his sanity starting to unhinge. Panic-stricken, Jesse cuts himself off from his family and friends. But Lisa seeks him out and refuses to leave, comforting him. Jesse begins to relax. They start to make love when, abruptly, Freddy siezes hold of Jesse: a long-tongued demon is suddenly staring hungrily at Lisa. Fearing for her, Jesse tears imself away and runs outside, leaving Lisa in tears. Jesse visits his old friend, Grady, and begs him to stay awake with him. He tries to tell Grady about Freddy's possession of his body, but his friend shrugs and dozes off. Soon after, Jesse doubles over in terrible pain, and Grady wakes up to see him being ripped apart by a savage force: a beast within, Freddy Krueger, clawing it's way out. The glistening killer emerges and eyes Grady. Grady screams and tries to run out of the room. The door is locked. Freddy reaches out and, within seconds, Grady slumps to the floor, blank-eyed, wasted. And there, standing over Grady's body, is Jesse. He finds Lisa and falls into her arms, bloody and agonizing over Grady's murder. Lisa listens with numbing realisation: these aren't just dreams, and Freddy is no shadow. As Jesse feels another transformation coming on, he warns Lisa to run away. But she stands by, trying to help him fight it. Still, Freddy wins out. Freddy attacks Lisa and begins chasing her through the house. In his clutches, Lisa begs for her life and pleads with Jesse to come through. Poised for the kill, Freddy is about to slash at her....when something stops him. A glint of recognition in his eyes, his features contorting into confusion. Freddy screams out and runs away from Lisa and into the night. A rampage of terror follows. Freddy invades a pool party, boils the pool water and spreads flames everywhere, slashing at random at the young party guests. Lisa's father attempts to fire at Freddy with a shoutgun but Lisa, knowing it is really Jesse, stops him. Freddy turns and stalks away, right through a hedge fence. Lisa runs to the old power plant where Krueger used to work, thinking she might save Jesse there. She finds him and tells him that she loves him and that he can fight from the inside. She then removes Freddy's hat and kisses him. Freddy begins to lose control and begins to weaken, as Jesse feels an inner strength of his own welling inside him. As the power plant begins to burn to the ground, Freddy himself starts burning and finally gives up his possession of Jesse's body. After he dies, the rest of the power plant suddenly extinguishes. Just when Lisa thinks it is all over, Freddy's burnt corpse begins to move and Jesse crawls out of Freddy's ashes. The horror is over, not with a bang but with a whisper. The following Monday, Jesse goes back to school. He climbs the bus, finally relieved that it is all over. When the bus begins traveling too fast, Jesse panics and jumps up, only to find out there is nothing wrong; the bus is coming to its regular stop. As he and Lisa rest at ease, Freddy's glove bursts through their friend Kerry's chest and the bus speeds off the main road and into the open land, just like in Jesse's nightmares.... Freddy is back again!

The film opens with a bizarre sequence where we see an unidentified individual, visible only by his hands, creating a strange weapon: a glove with sharp knives for fingers. Tina, a young girl in a nightgown, is rushing down ominous alleyways filled with steam and shadows. Suddenly the bizarre man lunges at her, brandishing the glove. Tina screams and sits bolt upright in her bed; the entire episode was a nightmare. Tina's mother comes into her bedroom, alerted by her scream, and notices that Tina's nightgown is slashed near her stomach. The cuts are similar to what would be made with the glove from the dream. Tina meets her friends at school the next morning: her boyfriend Rod, her best friend Nancy, and Nancy's boyfriend, Glen. Nancy and Tina discover that they have both had the same nightmare, and although Glen and Rod try and hide the fact, they seem to have been having nightmares, too. That night, Nancy and Glen decide to stay with Tina, because her mother has gone out of town. Rod shows up later and frightens the three of them by making strange sounds in the back yard and then jumping out at Glen. Rod and Tina go upstairs into a bedroom to have sex, while Nancy and Glen sleep separately downstairs; Nancy resists the idea of fooling around, since she and Glen are supposedly there as moral support for Tina. As all of them fall asleep, strange things begin to occur. The wall over Nancy's bed seems to lose its solid form, and the shape of a human figure looking at her seems to lean out of it. Nancy does not see it, her eyes closed in half-sleep, and when she awakens, the form disappears. In the room where Tina and Rod are sleeping, Tina is awakened by noises at the window; someone is in the back yard hurling small rocks at the glass. Tina knows this is whoever has been trying to frighten her, and she goes downstairs to confront whoever it is. When she ventures out into the back yard, a phantom voice lures her into the alley, the same as in her dream. She is startled by strange things such as a goat suddenly lurching into the alley, and then finally her stalker emerges, a man in a fedora, a dirty red and green striped sweater, and the deadly glove with knives for fingers. He taunts Tina by laughing at her and whispering her name, and he walks towards her with his arms stretching further than humanly possible, spanning the entire alley, blocking her escape. Tina retreats into her back yard and the figure leaps out again, this time from behind a tree. He slices off his own fingers and strangely colored blood spurts out. Tina tries to make it into her back door, but the man grabs her, and she struggles with him. We see Tina in bed next to Rod, trashing around; she has been dreaming this incident, as well, only the man seems to actually be under the covers with her. Rod awakens and pulls off the sheet. He can only see Tina, but she is being manipulated by some unseen force. Her stomach is slashed open, four wounds appearing all at the same time, obviously from the glove. Tina is dragged screaming up the wall, over the ceiling, and falls down dead into the bed, which is now covered in her blood. Nancy and Glen have now awakened and burst into the room to find Rod gone, apparently through the window. Tina is dead. At the police station, Nancy is giving her account of what happened and she talks to Lt. Donald Thompson, who also happens to be her father. Nancy's mother, Marge, and Lt. Thompson are apparently divorced, and they greet each other with restrained hostility. Rod is the obvious suspect in the murder, but Nancy feels that this is not the case; although Rod has a reputation as a delinquent, Nancy knows he is not a killer. As Nancy walks to school the next morning, Rod appears and pulls her into some bushes. Rod swears to Nancy that he did not kill Tina, but before they can talk any further, Lt. Thompson appears with his men and arrests Rod. Nancy is offended that her father used her to capture Rod, and she storms off. At school, the exhausted Nancy falls asleep in English class, and she thinks she sees Tina standing outside the classroom door. Tina speaks to her from a bloody body bag, and Nancy sees the bag dragged away by some unseen hand. She drifts out of the classroom and follows the bloody trail down into the basement. On the way, she is confronted by a female hall monitor, who scolds her for not having a pass. Leaving the girl behind, Nancy turns around when she speaks to Nancy in a man's voice, brandishing the weird knife-glove and cackling at her. Nancy goes down into the basement and is confronted by the killer, who is dressed in the same sweater and hat. His skin is horribly scarred, burned almost beyond recognition. He traps Nancy in the boiler room and backs her against the wall, taunting her. "Come to Freddy!" he says, but just before he can slash her with the glove, Nancy burns her arm on a hot pipe. The burn wakes her up, and she disrupts her English class by screaming and jumping out of her chair. Even though she is now awake, she has a large burn mark on her arm. Embarassed and frightened, she leaves school for the day. She visits Rod in prison and confirms her fears: Rod is having the same nightmare, haunted by the same figure with the glove. She tells Rod that she knows he didn't kill Tina, and leaves. Nancy has another incident where she is threatened by "Freddy"; she falls asleep in the bathtub and she is pulled underwater, dragged into some kind of abyss underneath. She manages to swim back up to the opening of her bathtub and pulls herself to safety. Marge, hearing Nancy's screaming, bursts into the bathroom, but Nancy tries to pretend she simply fell. Marge sends Nancy to bed, but Nancy is now afraid to sleep. She drinks coffee constantly and has a fresh pot hidden in her room, just in case. Nancy enlists Glen's help in an experiment. It appears as if she asks Glen to follow her, but she is in her nightclothes, so we presume she is dreaming. Nancy goes to the jail where Rod is being held, and by peering in the window she can see his cell. Rod is asleep, and she can see the killer approaching him, walking right through the bars of Rod's cell. Nancy yells for Glen but he is no longer there; instead, the voice of the killer answers "I'm here, Nancy!" and he lunges at her, chasing her back to her house. She runs inside and finds she cannot escape because her stairs have suddenly turned into a sticky mess. The killer smashes the window on the front door and peers inside as Nancy struggles to get away; he is wearing Tina's face as a mask, and imitating her voice, he says "Nancy, help me, please! Save me from Freddy!" Nancy wakes up, and she is furious to find Glen asleep next to her bed, as she had asked him to keep watch and wake her if it looked like she was having a nightmare. Nancy and Glen hurry over to the jail to see Rod, as Nancy is convinced the killer is going to strike. Sure enough, before they can intervene, Rod's nightmare becomes real and an unseen hand twists his bedsheets around his neck, stringing him up in his cell and breaking his neck. Lt. Thompson is skeptical of Nancy's claims that they are being haunted in their dreams, as it appears Rod simply hung himself. Both Marge and Lt. Thompson seem to share an unspoken realization about Nancy's allegations, but they will not admit anything to Nancy. Instead, Marge takes Nancy to a sleep clinic where they monitor her body as she sleeps. Her nightmare sends the instruments haywire because of its intensity, and when they wake Nancy up, she has a sudden gray streak in her hair from terror. There is another shock for all of them: Nancy is inexplicably holding the killer's Fedora. She says she was holding onto it when she woke up. Nancy's mother continues to deny that anything strange is going on, and she insists that Nancy get some sleep. Instead Nancy produces the Fedora and points out that it has a name written inside: Fred Krueger. Marge denies knowing who that is, and Nancy reacts angrily. Nancy has a conversation with Glen where Glen tells her that certain zen masters could control their dreams. Nancy asks what they would do if they met a monster in their dreams, and Glen says they would turn their back on it. If you take away a nightmare's energy, it disappears. Glen is surprised that Nancy believes she will die because of a nightmare, and also that she is reading books on creating booby traps and survival techniques. Nancy's mother finally opens up to her and tells her the truth. Taking Nancy down into their own basement, Marge tells her about Fred Krueger, who was a murderer that preyed on young children. When Krueger was apprehended, a technicality (being an improperly signed search warrant) caused the evidence against him to be inadmissable, and he was not convicted and was hence, released from prison. As a result, she and Nancy's father, along with other parents in the neighborhood, murdered Krueger on their own by setting him on fire. Marge reaches into the furnace and removes a dirty bundle; unwrapping it, she produces Freddy's glove, which she took the night they murdered him. Nancy realizes that Freddy is out for revenge, somehow reaching from beyond the grave to murder them in their dreams. Nancy tries to warn Glen but his parents will not allow her to talk to him. She receives a taunting phone call from Kreuger, even after she rips the phone out of the wall, and she realizes that Glen is about to die. Nancy can't rescue him because her mother has placed metal bars on all the windows and doors. Glen falls asleep and is killed by Freddy, being sucked into his bed and apparently shredded until nothing is left but gore, which erupts into a horrible fountain all over his bedroom. Nancy realizes she is now alone and must face Freddy or die. Calling her father, she tells him that she is going to go and get Freddy and bring him out of her dream, and she wants her father to be there to arrest Freddy when she does. Lt. Thompson doesn't believe her, but he patronizes her so that she will go to sleep. Nancy sets up a number of booby traps in the house for Freddy in order to give herself an advantage after she 'captures' him. After saying goodnight to her mother, who is now completely drunk, Nancy falls asleep and goes down into her basement. There she finds a door that was never really there before, and it leads down a long staircase into another basement. She continues to climb further and further downwards, following ladders and stairwells, until she is in Freddy's boiler room. Freddy is nowhere to be found, and time is running out before Nancy's alarm goes off and wakes her up. Finally he attacks her and she struggles with him; her nightmare suddenly shifts and they are outside of her house. Nancy's scheme succeeds, and she brings Freddy into the real world, holding onto him as her alarm goes off. The booby traps she has rigged for Freddy help her get an edge on him, but she is unable to get the attention of her father; the cop he has posted to watch Nancy's house seems to be unable to understand that Nancy needs help. Freddy chases Nancy through her house and down into her basement, where she sets him on fire. Lt. Thompson breaks into the house, but he and Nancy are shocked to see fiery footprints leading out of the basement. They follow the trail upstairs and find Freddy struggling with Marge in her bed. When they pull back the bedclothes, Freddy is gone. Marge is nothing but a charred corpse, and the body disappears into the bed. The supernatural manifestation shocks Lt. Thompson, but Nancy seems resolute. She asks to be alone for a moment and when Lt. Thompson leaves, Freddy appears, rising up out of the bed. Nancy turns her back on him this time, remembering what Glen told her. She curses Freddy, telling him "You're nothing. You're shit." He lunges at her, but her lack of fear renders him powerless, and he vanishes into thin air. Nancy leaves the bedroom and suddenly finds herself outside, dressed for school. Marge stands on the porch and sees Nancy off to school in a loving way, telling Nancy that she is going to quit drinking. Glen, Rod, and Tina pull up in Glen's car to take Nancy to school. When Nancy gets in, the convertible roof suddenly slams shut over their heads; the roof is red and green, like Freddy's sweater. The windows go up and the car drives off, with all four of them trapped inside. Marge seems oblivious, waving goodbye to the kids, when suddenly Freddy's arm smashes outwards through the small window in the front door. In a bizarre movement, Marge's entire body is pulled through the tiny window, and she is gone.

Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a young Southern man born of a wealthy family in Birmingham, Alabama, but left lonely and idle after his parents died in a plane crash. He is content to spend his time fishing, hunting and puttering around his large family mansion, inhabited only by himself and an elderly butler named William (Scatman Crothers). Craig's "job" is a sinecure working at a shady investment firm run by a slick con artist named Jabo (Joe Spinell) and he does very little actual work. But since Craig has to have his name "on paper" somehow as an employee, he is asked by Jabo to personally transact the purchasing of a small gym that the real estate firm is buying in order to clear space for an office high-rise. Craig initially approaches the gym, called Olympic Spa, representing himself as a businessman looking to buy it, and acts relatively impersonal with its staff, one of whom includes trainer Franklin (Robert Englund), although he is strangely fascinated with the world he discovers there (reflecting the expansion of physical exercise to the mainstream which occurred in the 1970s). But Craig's primary social life is centered around the upscale country club he attends. Later, the audience is introduced to the ritzy country club crowd, including the WASP-y Lester (Ed Begley, Jr.) and the roguish rake Halsey (John David Carson). Craig Blake spends his time at this club with his friends playing tennis and shooting poker dice, and flirting with the upper-class women of all ages - one of whom asks Craig to find an "authentic" musical guest for an upcoming party at the club. As Craig moves forward with his business deal, he falls in love with the gym after visiting it several times - he is immediately taken by the pretty receptionist Mary Tate Farnsworth (Sally Field) and the free-spirited, friendly Austrian bodybuilder Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who aspires to win the Mr. Universe title. He cannot bring himself to sell out his newfound friends at the gym for the sake of his job, and so he evades the inquiries of his friend and co-worker Hal Foss as to his progress in the purchasing deal. All the while, he grows closer to Mary Tate and Joe Santo - who initially appear to be a couple. However, Mary Tate latches onto Craig romantically - and Santo gives Craig his blessing for this unorthodox relationship, claiming that he needs to keep himself challenged both in the gym and in his romantic life in order to succeed. Mary Tate and Craig begin a passionate and exciting relationship. But trouble erupts when he tries to integrate Mary Tate into his country-club scene. This tension comes to a head at a party at the country club, which features Joe Santo as a musical guest, performing bluegrass songs on the violin with a small country group. Craig, with Mary Tate as his guest (dressed inappropriately in a garish and revealing pink dress), is enthusiastic about Joe Santo's upcoming musical performance for the night. But Craig's friends, particularly Halsey, mock Santo as a "freak" and an outcast. When Halsey suggest that Santo disrobe and show the crowd his "tits," Craig throws a glass of Scotch in his face and tells Halsey that Santo could "crush him like an eggshell." A fight nearly breaks out between the two, but is broken up. Meanwhile a bitter Halsey and his friend Packman formulate a plan to embarrass Santo. When Santo's musical act is finally put on stage, the crowd seems enthusiastic about the music, though the hostess of the party dismisses it as a "racket." However, Halsey and Packman drunkenly bellow at Santo and heckle the band. Santo notices it, but stoically continues playing. However, when Halsey screams "let's hear it for Muscle Beach symphony orchestra!" Santo is unable to continue playing, puts down his violin and leaves the party. Meanwhile a frustrated Craig tries to convince Mary Tate to see him for who he really is, and not for his snobbish friends and ritzy surroundings. The Mr. Universe contest is approaching fast and Santo is training hard. But Jabo attempts to bribe the owner of the gym, Thor Eriksen (R.G. Armstrong), when he realizes that Craig will not purchase the building as he was supposed to. He plies Eriksen and his assistant Newton with drugs, booze and hookers, and on the day of the contest, they are busy with acts of debauchery as Santo is readying to take the stage - hoping to beat his rival Dougie Stewart (played by fellow bodybuilder Ken Waller in a memorable cameo). While Thor is drunk and distracted with the prostitutes, Newton secretly stashes the prize money inside his handbag, and then leaves the gym with the prostitutes when they are finished - stealing the money and fleeing. Meanwhile, Joe Santo and Dougie Stewart pose together on stage, to the theme song from the film 'Exodus' and the enthusiastic applause of the crowd. Meanwhile, Craig visits at the gym and engages in an intense physical fight, dodging weights and gym equipment thrown by the drunken and drug-crazed Eriksen. He finds Mary Tate at the gym, who had just moments earlier been assaulted by Eriksen in an amyl nitrite fueled rage. When the contestants at the Mr. Universe show discover that the prize money has been stolen, they run after Joe Santo, who himself is actually running to try to meet Mary Tate. The chase results in the wave of bodybuilders pouring out into the streets of Birmingham, to the amazed crowd of onlookers which sees them. The bodybuilders take advantage of this unexpected attention to put on an impromptu posing routine for the crowd, and the members of the crowd join in, imitating the athletes' poses and enjoying themselves - an embracing of the bodybuilding lifestyle by 'normal' people which arguably represents the real-life 1970s boom of personal fitness. The film ends with Craig sarcastically deriding Jabo and his former bosses at the real-estate firm, and deciding to go into the gym business with Joe Santo. A voice-over by his uncle Albert says, "you may not have been the Blake that we anticipated, but you are definitely Craig Blake - an identity that no one will dare challenge." Craig has finally "found himself" and discovered a true place in the sun, and true friendships, and he mocks his former boss Jabo with an exaggerated bodybuilding pose - acting as a final burning of the bridge between his old life and his new one. The final shot of the film shows Craig moving out of his family's mansion, passing on all of his old family memorabilia to his loyal butler William, and leaving behind his old self once and for all... on the way to a new and exciting future.