A Murder by Numbers Series, where I watch all the sequels to a horror franchise
SPOILERS FOR ALL ELM STREET MOVIES BELOW
For whatever reason, I never got around to watching all the Nightmare On Elm Street movies. Other horror franchises, I’ve seen most, if not all of the movies: Hellraiser, Saw, and even the Wishmaster series all come to mind. But then I think back to a childhood Halloween, when me and my friend were going through our treasure trove of candy. I glanced up at the TV, which I knew was playing Halloween classics for the occasion.
What I saw was the general shape of a man…. But the arms were impossibly long. He came towards the screen and I panicked. I remember my friend’s mom changing the channel once she saw my reaction. I don’t think I went back to Freddy for a while after that.
I’ve struggled with insomnia for over 15 years off and on so the idea of an almost all powerful being stalking and murdering you in your most vulnerable moment is a pretty good one!
Then, on a whim after the DVD release, me and my partner watched the remake of Elm Street, with Jackie Earl Haley starring. I remember being pretty meh about it, although using adrenaline to stay awake was interesting. Did they do this in any older ones? I guess we’ll find out.
In the spirit of Halloween, and to better round out my viewing of classic horror, I’ve decided to watch all the Elm Street movies and share my general thoughts on them. Follow me into dreamland…
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
The original, the classic! I definitely appreciate this one more as an adult than I did as a scared little kid. Already setting the stage with creative kills and a good Final Girl in Nancy. I find it interesting that Freddy was originally meant to be a child molestor, not a child murderer, although I feel like bits of this are still present, but probably subdued. The ending shot of Nancy’s mother being pulled through the window of the front door is very memorable. A takeaway from this as I go into the sequels is that Freddy’s power seems to weaken if you are not afraid of him.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE
My first impression and laugh from this was the main character, Jesse, putting on his shoes to go downstairs and get a midnight snack. Like clearly I know this will be revealed to be a dream but really? I get Americans wear shoes in the house but not for a 2am snack! I guess the implication in this one is the boiler room Freddy is often seen in, is in their basement. There’s a great shot of everything in Jesse’s room melting and later their pet lovebird FREAKS OUT and attacks them, exploding into flames! I was not expecting that.
Freddy takes over Jesse’s body and commits murder, and there’s a unsettling bit with the knives of the glove coming out of his fingers with whale song in the background. The Elm Street twist on the werewolf transformation? The theme seems to be not knowing what’s real, not being in control of your body..I’ve definitely dealt with similar things due to mental illness. I don’t think the ending kill of this was quite as good as the original, the cut to fake person wasn’t as clean. Overall I liked it!
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS
I’ve heard this described as the best Elm Street sequel/most people’s favourite, so I’m excited about this one. Right off the bat, Freddy makes a sink faucet grow claws and slashes Kristen, our main character. Her mother runs in and it looks like she slashed her wrists. This seems like a great strat for Freddy…Let’s see how it plays out for him! Also Nancy is back, this time as a college student? intern? Doing research on patterned nightmares, seemingly the only person who cares about these kids in a psychiatric ward of a hospital. I’m really digging the motif throughout these movies of things melting and the boiler room! The dream sequences in this one are equally strange and terrifying, my favourite being FREDDY WORM!! I’m quite a Dune fan so whenever I see a big worm I get excited.
I really enjoyed Joey, a nonverbal kid. Nobody really treats him differently and it’s not something you see portrayed in a fairly positive light! He later gets his voice back and uses it against Freddy…It would have been nice if he stayed nonverbal, but I guess I understand him “overcoming” this for plot reasons. All the main cast of teens realize they have dream powers, and Tayrn, a recovering addict, goes “In my dreams I’m beautiful….AND BAD” And flips out switchblades. Hell yes. My queer ass is here for this.
Freddy kills each kid and becomes more and more powerful, before eventually having a pretty intense final showdown with Kristen. His backstory is also revealed…Which is pretty upsetting and not cool. His mother was a nun that worked at the hospital and was abused by patients, making Freddy “the son of 100 maniacs”. They also find Freddy’s corpse and bury it, dousing it in holy water. I’m not sure how he could come back from this, but I guess he does because now we have…
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER
The surviving kids from 3, Kristen, Joey and Kincaid are back, now out from the hospital and going to high school. Kristen feels like Freddy is coming back and the others are like nahh. Regret. Kincaid has a dog named Jason…Has anyone ever actually named their Dog Jason? Anyway he dreams of Freddy’s grave, and his dog pees fire on the grave mound and it somehow revives Freddy!? His body then comes back piece by piece, Hellraiser style. After he summarily gets rid of Kincaid, he next goes after Joey in probably the only water bed related death scene I’ve ever witnessed in a slasher. I feel like most of this movie is going to be me saying “that effect was cool” but not much else.
After a gross “Freddy pretends to be a nurse and it’s kind of really transphobic in retrospect” bit, Kristen and her new group of friends set out to deal with the Freddy problem. Was it this easy to make friends as a teen? I don’t remember. Kristen tries to stay awake as long as possible because somehow her dream powers are unwittingly bringing her friends into the dream, and Freddy snatches them up quick. Her mom, worried for her, has possibly the worst plan of action ever that was frankly pretty triggering for me personally: She drugs her with sleeping pills so that she will stop acting erratically and go to sleep!! Kristen rightfully screams in despair “I’m dead!! You’ve killed me!” Freddy shows up in her dream and throws her into the boiler and as she dies she throws her dream power to Alice, the shy new girl. I wasn’t expecting this and Alice is honestly not as interesting as Kristen, sadly. Jock girl Debbie gives her the spiked cuff bracelet she wears, saying it’s a good luck charm. Oh YES gay moment I’m here for it. The kids are picked off one by one, AGAIN, and Alice somehow absorbs their powers, or skills? Her brother was a karate jock and now she can suddenly use nunchaku. There’s a montage where she puts on a piece of clothing each representing the kids taken out by Freddy leading to the most clashy outfit ever.
Debbie has the most disgusting death probably in ALL of the Freddy movies to me at least. She’s lifting weights and Freddy pushes the barbell down, crushing her arms at the elbows and they fall off, and insect arms sprout in their place. She continues to transform and falls into fly paper, screaming as it sticks to and rips her face off. The camera cuts to show she is now completely a cockroach, in a Roach Motel, and Freddy squashes it, sending goop everywhere.
Alice wins out against Freddy, with the help of all the souls taken by him over the years as they literally rip him apart from the inside. Quite a dramatic finish. This movie lost me halfway and then brought me right back in!!
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD
The weakest movie in the series..Maybe I’m just getting burnt out? Alice is back and she finds out she’s pregnant. We see a flashback of Freddy’s mother and I was very worried I was going to have to see her be abused horribly. Instead we see her give birth to a deformed Freddy! Wow! As someone who has an extreme phobia and discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth in general, this was a hard watch. Probably the point, but I digress. It’s instantly brought to a lighter tone when baby Freddy goes on a rampage. A tiny baby with Freddy’s face!! He is trying to come back or take over Alice’s baby, Jacob, through his dreams? They say that a baby in utero is almost always dreaming (I don’t know how true this is) so he has free range to manipulate this kid, who is for some reason shown as an 8 year old and not a baby. Logistical reasons, I guess.
Alice tells her boyfriend and baby daddy Dan that Freddy is going to come back, so he hops on his motorbike to make his way over. Freddy’s head comes out of the dashboard and wires dig into Dan’s face, and he turns into a Tetsuo: The Iron Man body horror biomechanical amalgamation. He then crashes and dies. Meanwhile Alice keeps having visions of her future son who tells her cryptic shit and then leaves.
I’m starting to feel like this is “Elm Street by numbers”. The one liners are starting to make me groan and I honestly feel really bad for this town. It just has tons of horrible murders and “suicides” happen constantly! The best part is a boy named Mark who draws comics being pulled into a comic and fighting Freddy as his OC. Unfortunately he still loses. Alice has her final showdown in a MC Esher style staircase maze that ends with Freddy’s mother reabsorbing him to contain his evil? It ends with, again, Freddy possibly coming back. Will nothing stop this dude I mean really!!
FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE
Me: “These movies are getting too ridiculous. Nothing can surprise me now” Freddy rides by on a broomstick Wizard of Oz style “…Ok nevermind that was hilarious.” I enjoyed this one a LOT more than the previous two for whatever reason. It takes place in a shelter for troubled teens, and the kids are just way more likeable? There’s also Carlos, who has a hearing aid which is not something I see often in movies. (I’m sure THAT will come into play later!!) John Doe, literally a dude with amnesia, has been teleported somehow by Freddy to here and I think Freddy wants him to go seek out something to restore his power. Him, the other teens, and a young therapist who seems to be the only one who wants to help them, Maggie, go to the town of Springwood based on a newspaper clipping they find in John’s pocket.
THIS is where it gets really cool, to me. The town has absolutely no children. They arrive at a town fair, where all the adults are playing on the kids rides by themselves and it’s extremely surreal and unsettling. “It’s like Twin Peaks in here”, one of them says. ACCURATE, and fitting because Twin Peaks was airing around the time this movie came out. When they try to leave the town, some force is stopping them so they stay the night in an abandoned house which OF COURSE is Freddy’s old home. Carlos falls asleep and Freddy seems to have a ball killing him with sound. Spencer, the resident stoner, gets sucked into a TV and Freddy plays a video game with him. Why is this movie so fun?? It feels so genuine even when referencing things.
“NOTHING is gunna make me get off this bed”, says John, before the room literally catches on fire. I laughed too hard at this. The constant gags feel fresh and creative in this compared to Dream Master and Child. There’s some backstory into Freddy as a child, being bullied and self harming, which adds a bit but obviously still doesn’t excuse him becoming a serial child murderer, domestic abuser, and vengeful dream spirit but it adds some flavour.
“There’s an Elm Street in every town!!” Freddy exclaims. I LOVE this. It reminds me of Alan Wake’s final moments, “It’s not a lake…it’s an ocean” There’s a bunch of nonsense and Maggie is Freddy’s daughter and he is trying to get back through her. She ends up slashing him with his own glove and taking control of her life. Yeah! Then they throw a pipe bomb into his chest for good measure. SURELY this is the end of Freddy.
WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE
Meta story about Nancy’s actress (Heather Langenkamp) as herself, with more and more Freddy related things happening making her believe he is real. I actually really wasn’t into this one, but I can appreciate the kind of ideas it was going for and how things are predetermined, like they read the script and it’s exactly what they did and what they will say next.
The contrast to how scary this new, almost cosmic horror being that Freddy is supposed to be and the movies are what held him back and the old style Freddy scary/silly effects really clash. A long tongue wrapping around Heather..is just hokey. THe CGI in this is also really dated looking. Overall, a unique concept especially for the time, but not really for me. Goodbye Freddy!
BONUS: FREDDY VS JASON
This is….just terrible. It has all the hallmarks of an early 2000’s horror movie. The numetal, the blood effects, the dialogue, the random celebrities (Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child).. And yet still the highest grossing of both the Elm Street AND Friday The 13th series. Wild.
Thank you for coming along this (very long) ride with me! If you have any suggestions for other sequels to horror films I should check out, please let me know. ※
Personal Ranking:
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
Freddy’s Dead: Final Nightmare
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Wes craven’s New Nightmare
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Freddy VS Jason
LORMAGGOT 