A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is about the return of a familiar villain with a routine grudge. Six years after the events of the first Nightmare dream-dwelling demon Freddy Krueger targets a group of kids in a mental health institute. They figure out that they are all being haunted by the same monster and band together to exterminate the evil. Oh, and before I forget, introducing Patricia Arquette and featuring “Larry” Fishburne. Yes, that Larry Fishburne.

With ever enlarging title lengths the Nightmare series seems to turn into a joke. The genuine horror is substituted for terrible acting and plots that spiral out of control. Almost like an incoherent dream, ironically. At least with Dream Warriors the creative kills somewhat partially save the rest of the movie. My favorites include the puppet strings sleepwalk, “Welcome to primetime, BITCH!”, and giant snake Freddy. However, the best parts were all in the first third of the movie and the finale could more accurately be described as a dud firework fizzling out. Dream Warriors leaves me with little to fuel my enthusiasm for watching any of the sequels. I’m predicting they will all be cookie cutter copies of this film, with elaborate kills padded by nonsensical filler and terrible one-liners.

THWIP!

3 diverse and politically correct groups of dream “warriors” out of 5

★★★☆☆