Countdown to Halloween – A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)

To countdown to this year’s Halloween, Luke Owen reviews a different horror film every day of October. Up next; A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors…

A Nightmare on Elm Street is not only one of the best movies of the slasher sub-genre, but horror movies in general. While its sequel was a huge letdown, the return of Wes Craven to the series brought about a movie that many feel bettered its original – A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. Along with Frank Darabont and Chuck Russel (who also served as director), Craven created a movie that not only captures the brilliance of his first installment, but improved upon it.

Ignoring the events of the second movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors sees a group of Freddy survivors in a psychiatric ward, working together to make sure they don’t fall asleep to avoid running into the bastard son of 100 maniacs. While none of the doctors believe their claims of a dream stalking slasher, one person does – dream therapist Nancy Thompson, herself a Krueger survivor. Together, they decide to take the fight to Freddy, to try and put a stop to his reign of terror once and for all.

Bringing back Heather Langenkamp as Nancy highlights just what A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge was missing (and why it never feels like a true entry in the franchise) – a good opponent for Freddy.  As a character, Jesse was fine enough but he was no Nancy Thompson as he never stood up to Freddy, one of Nancy’s best character traits. As mentioned in the Nightmare on Elm Street entry of Countdown to Halloween, Nancy is more than just a survivor, she’s a fighter – which makes her the perfect opposition for Freddy.

However a heroes performance can only be as good as whomever they are against. And in Heather Langenkamp’s case, she was given a Robert Englund performance that would cement the brilliance of Freddy Krueger and turn him into a pop culture phenomenon. While Englund was fantastic in the first movie and the only good thing about the second one, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors would be his defining moment as the character as he exudes the charisma needed to make Freddy a captivating entity. He treads the line of scary predator and stand-up comic perfectly to have you chuckling in one scene to hiding behind your hands the next. This level of performance helps Nancy’s surivial instincts, as well as provide the terror for her Dream Warriors. It may seem hyperbolic to claim that no other actor could have made Freddy the character that he is, but there is a strong argument for the case.

Originally published October 24, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.