A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

October 21, 2022 7:21 AM

During a hallucinatory incident, young Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) has her wrists slashed by dream-stalking monster Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Her mother, mistaking the wounds for a suicide attempt, sends Kristen to a psychiatric ward, where she joins a group of similarly troubled teens. One of the doctors there is Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), who had battled Freddy some years before. Nancy senses a potential in Kristen to rid the world of Freddy once and for all.

Also starring Craig Wasson, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, Jennifer Rubin, Bradley Gregg, Ira Heiden, Laurence Fishburne, John Saxon, Brooke Bundy, Dick Cavett, Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Directed by Chuck Russell. Screenplay by Wes Cravenand Bruce Wagner and Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell.

72% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on HBO Max and Tubi. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

Between now and Halloween, I'm going to be posting all horror, all the time.

This is a banger... the single most fun slasher sequel from the original boom. It's just so much fun, the optimum level of actual scares with camp, 80's corniness with legitimately clever ideas, revisiting the character while still doing something new.

There's a reason horror nerds love this so much.

Score by Angelo Badalamenti!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:23 AM on October 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

This might actually be the first horror movie I ever saw (I was much too young, for sure), and it holds up so well. I watched it on HBO sometime in the last year, and it's just a real delight. It's easy to forget how much fun the good Nightmare on Elm Street movies are. It's funny, it's campy, it's gory. It really has it all.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:01 AM on October 21, 2022

I'm very much in the camp of "if it doesn't have Nancy, it's not a good Nightmare flick". When I was introducing the series to my oldest, we watched the first one, this one and New Nightmare. The teenaged characters are such broadly-drawn stereotypes, but it still works. And it sure helps that Patricia Arquette is playing Kristen.
posted by wabbittwax at 8:14 AM on October 21, 2022

When I did my Summer binge through watching the Nightmare movies for the first time, this was definitely the standout. Not particularly scary (I'd argue that none of the Nightmare movies are, but I might have just built them up too much in my head) but definitely the most fun and inventive.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:00 AM on October 21, 2022

I'm very much in the camp of "if it doesn't have Nancy, it's not a good Nightmare flick". When I was introducing the series to my oldest, we watched the first one, this one and New Nightmare.

This is exactly my take, the good ones are the ones that star Heather Langenkamp. (2 is also very good but different enough in its overall idea of what Freddy even is that I think of it as related but not quite the same.)
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:01 PM on October 21, 2022

I was 16 when this released and I saw it in the theater. I had rented the first two and was into the franchise. This one was kind of silly (I guess that all are kind of silly) but I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Maybe it's time for a rewatch.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:41 PM on October 21, 2022

Ah, this was a fave-rave when I was a teenager.
posted by praemunire at 5:48 PM on October 21, 2022

The video for the soundtrack song "Dream Warriors" also features George "Mr. Scary" Lynch rocking out on a fantastic skeleton guitar!
posted by wintermind at 1:40 PM on October 22, 2022

"In my dreams I'm the wizard-master!" was a long-term interjection in my circle of friends, usually while someone is describing some aspiration or goal. Instant classic. For a long long time I was CERTAIN that the girl who gets smashed into the TV at the beginning was Yeardley Smith.
posted by rhizome at 1:43 PM on October 25, 2022 [1 favorite]