After the rather dreadful second installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, it was a relief to discover that with this third film, the series is back on track again. Even though I don't know what exactly the future films of the series will hold in store for me, this was a genuinely exciting and entertaining slasher and a wonderful improvement after the second film. Close in tone and intensity to the first film, Dream Warriors actually manages to stand out of the genre even further thanks to its creative approaches, Robert Englund's scary performance, the fantastic cast featuring Laurence Fishburne, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson and the wonderful Priscilla Pointer among others, wonderful special effects and makeup work and an exciting ending.

I have to admit that I personally prefer this film over the first; it was more intense and the mental hospital setting really resonated with me this time (in contrast to the hospital setting of Halloween II, for example, which is a sequel that left me rather cold), even though I kind of missed the suburban setting of the first one. The characters, however, are well-drawn and make you root for them - which is part of what turns this into such a surprise for me since so many slashers fail to properly develop their central characters. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors checks every mark correctly and thus remains a classic in the genre.

1987 Ranked
Daily Horror Hunt #15 (September 2019) | Film 2/30 | Task #5: Watch a horror film with a song that features the title of the movie.