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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - September 13th

"FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE" 

released in 1991

Dream killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is back! Having already killed all the remaining children in Springwood, Freddy spares one last survivor, known as John Doe (Shon Greenblatt) to help him find for his long lost daughter, Katherine (Lisa Zane) who now works at a children's shelter under the name Maggie Burroughs, so she can transport him to a whole new "playground", in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare!

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The only surviving teenager of Springwood, known only as "John Doe" (Greenblatt), finds himself confronted by Freddy (Englund) in a dream and is knocked past the town of Springwood's city limits, which serves as a barrier that Freddy cannot cross. However, when John goes through the barrier, he hits his head on a rock and does not remember who he is or why he is outside of Springwood. Found wondering aimlessly, John is taken to a local children's shelter and becomes a a patient of Dr. Maggie Burroughs (Zane). In a hope of curing John's amnesia, Maggie takes him back to Springwood. Once there, she quickly discovers three of the shelters troubled youths have stowed away in the van; Spencer (Breckin Meyer), Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan), and Tracy (Lezlie Deane). Ordering three to take the van and return to the shelter, Maggie takes John to the high school where they learn through the ramblings of a deranged school teacher that Freddy once had a child. Meanwhile, Spencer, Carlos and Tracy become lost trying to leave town and decide to rest for the night at an abandoned house - which quickly transforms into 1428 Elm Street. Falling asleep, Spencer and Carlos are quickly killed by Freddy in their dreams. John enters their dreams with the help of Tracy - who has learned to control her dreams from one of the shelter's counsellor's Doc (Yaphet Kotto) - and confronts Freddy, believing he is Freddy's child. Freddy simply mocks John before killing him, claiming he only needed John long enoug to bring him his "daughter". Returning to the shelter, Maggie discovers that no one remembers John, Spencer, or Carlos except for Doc. That night, Freddy reveals himself to Maggie in her dream, claiming only she could have brought him out of Springwood, before invading the dreams of Tracy and Doc, although both survive. Doc discovers Freddy's power comes from the "dream demons" who continually revive him, and that he can be killed if he is brought into the real world. With the fate of the remaining children in the shelter at stake, Maggie decides to enter Freddy's own mind to confront the dream killer before Freddy can start his killing spree all over again!

[Freddy is dressed as The Wicked Witch of the West and is riding a broom]
Freddy Krueger: I'll get you, my pretty! And your little soul, too!

Top:   Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) appears in John Doe's (Shon Greenblatt) nightmare;

Above:   Maggie (Lisa Zane) doesn't yet realize her connection to Freddy.

After the release of The Dream Child (1989), New Line Cinema started to look long and hard about ending the franchise, having already made and released five films in as many years and feared the series was becoming stale. On of the first ideas for Freddy's Dead was written by Peter Jackson, where we saw Freddy aging and growing weak within the dream world and the teens of Springwood would have drug-fueled slumber parties for kicks, and enter the dream world to beat him up.  But when Freddy regains enough power to take a boy's father hostage in the dream world, the boy must go there one last time to save his dad. In the final draft of the film, Alice and Jacob are seen briefly moving away from Springwood during the montage at the end of the film. Another more developed idea was written by Michael Almereyda. His screenplay focused on a now 16-year-old Jacob Johnson, the son that was born to Alice Johnson in the previous installment, after Alice (now in her thirties) is killed by Freddy. Jacob then seeks revenge with his girlfriend Karen and aided by previous characters from Dream Warriors returning as "dream police"; Taryn was the "Blade Cop," Joey was the "Sound Cop," and Kincaid was the "Power Cop." However Rachel Talalay, by now picked to direct the film,  greatly disliked original script and that the replacement script by Michael De Luca "saved the day." De Luca also said that he was surprised he wasn't asked to write the screenplay in the first place, since he had done a similar last-minute rewrite on The Dream Child.

Talalay, who would be the first female director of a Nightmare movie, had already had a long association with the series, dating back to the very first Wes Craven film, where she acted as an Assistant Production Manager. Over the years she continued to work on the Elm Street films, with A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (as Production Manager), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Line Producer) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Co-Producer). She had also worked as a Producer on a number of John Water's film, including Hairspray (1988) and Cry-Baby (1990), and, in fact, Talalay re-used most of the crew from Cry-Baby for Freddy's Dead, including star Traci Lord's then-husband, prop master Brook Yeaton.

[Carlos wakes up startled from his dream]
Tracy: Carlos! I asked you for the map.
Carlos: Yeah? Well, the map says "We're fucked".

Top:   Teens Tracy (Lezlie Deane), Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan) and Spencer (Breckin Meyer) at a strange carnival with no children;

Above:   Maggie and John find signs of Freddy all over Springwood

Although Robert Englund was growing weary of the role of Freddy Krueger (reportedly hating the last installment The Dream Child), he was happy enough to don the glove again, if nothing else but to support Talalay who had been with the series from the beginning. It was Englund who recommended they hire Lezlie Deane, the actress having worked on Englund's directorial debut, 976-EVIL. Ricky Dean Logan, the actor who played Carlos was originally cast as John Doe, however the role of Carlos simply spoke to him more, and that was the one he lobbied for even though that's not who they had brought him to play. Shon Greenblatt then got the part of John Doe, the 'Janet Leigh'-type we're meant to think is the lead until he unexpectedly dies halfway through. Freddy's Dead would also be Breckin Meyer's first theatrical role. Joining the young cast was Lisa Zane and Yaphet Kotto, as the shelters main counselors. In addition, there was a slew of cameo's for what was (supposed) to be Freddy's last outing, including Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold (who according to Deane would constantly make-out on the set between shots), Alice Cooper as Freddy's alcoholic and abusive stepfather, Producer and New Line Cinema head Robert Shaye as the Bus Ticket Seller (continuing a long tradition where Shaye would cameo in a Freddy movie), and Johnny Depp as simply "Guy on TV". Drag performer Divine was also set to play the Woman on the Plane during John Doe's first nightmare, but died before filming.

It keeping with reference pop culture in the films, there is a scene where Krueger tries to kill Spencer using an NES, but when the controller gets unplugged, Freddy uses his version of the Power Glove as a replacement, saying "You forgot the Power Glove!" (Freddy also shouts "Now I'm playing with power!", a play on Nintendo's tagline "Now you're playing with power!"), mocking Nintendo's real life Power Glove controller which was a critical and commercial failure. The producer's were originally refused permission by Nintendo to use the Power Glove in the movie, but Shaye casually dismissed any idea of a lawsuit and let them go ahead and use it anyway. The final ten minutes of the film was originally filmed entirely in 3-D, with the audience members were given one pair of red cardboard 3-D glasses with movie taglines printed on it. There was a visual cue in the movie when the audience was supposed to put their glasses on - when Maggie puts on her own anagylphic Red/Blue 3D glasses before entering the dream world to confront Freddy - although most movie-goers missed it and complained that the final sequence looked "blurry and weird".

[confronting Alice in the real world]
Freddy Krueger: I didn't need a glove to kill your bitch of a mother, and I don't need one now!

Top:   Donning "3D glasses", Maggie enters Freddy's mind, guarded by the ancient Dream Demons;

Above:   Inside Freddy's memories, Maggie relives the day Freddy (Robert Englund sans make-up) killed her mother

On 12 September 1991, a day before the U.S. release of the movie, Los Angeles officially declared it Freddy Krueger Day when a mock funeral was held for Freddy at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In attendance was Talalay and assorted cast members and production people from Freddy’s Dead and prior Elm Street films mournfully watched over an empty coffin adorned with flowers and Freddy’s hat and shirt. This wasn't just another marketing ploy as New Line (at the time anyway) fully intended Freddy's Dead to be the last film in the series. As such, fans flocked to the theaters to see how Freddy finally dies once and for all, with Freddy's Dead becoming the highest opening weekend gross of the entire series with nearly $13 million at the box office (ultimately earning a little under $35 million worldwide). Critics however did not love the movie as much as the fans, with  Austin Chronicle writing, "Freddy Krueger [...] has devolved from the horrific, ill-defined phantasm posited in the original film into a bland and annoyingly predictable boogeyman loved by kids everywhere." Kim Newman from Empire Magazine mourned that, "The one interesting idea -- what would a town be like if all the teenagers in it had been slaughtered in five movies? -- is thrown away with a few cheap jokes."

Above:   Director Rachel Talalay (middle) with cast at Freddy's "funeral"

Although Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is the final installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, Robert Englund would return as the iconic horror antagonist again for New Nightmare (1994) and he would play the role for one last time in long awaited match-up Freddy vs. Jason (2003). With this last film, marked the end of Englund's involvement in the Nightmare on Elm Street films, with Jackie Earle Haley playing the character of Freddy for the 2010 remake, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Although the reboot holds the record for the highest grossing Elm Street movie, at over $115 million worldwide, it also received the lowest reviews of the franchise as well, with Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter criticizing the acting and calling it "lethargically lifeless" and criticized Haley's portrayal of Krueger, saying, "Even with his electronically deepened voice and a pointless amount of backstory, there's just no replacing Englund".

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   21%

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