A few years ago I decided to try and watch all the Elm Street films. I'd only seen the original so I bought the box set and made a first attempt at it. As you may know (see my review from awhile back) I never got past Part 2 - the ineptitude and outright ridiculous campy gayness was so monumentally awesome I knew they could never get any better than that.

4 years later and it's time to try again.

There is a definite improvement here. It's very clearly a proper sequel as opposed to the cash-in of the second one. I like how it touches on a lot of the original's themes and manages to introduce a some decent new characters that aren't all just typical cannon fodder.

The budget is high which allows some great practical effects that hold up today. The death by TV is brilliant and so is the phallic Freddy snake bit. A film like this really holds up well when it's been built with a lot of affection and consideration. It's pretty cool that Frank Darabont helped write it too. Not as good as the original (OBVIOUSLY) but much better than I was expecting.