Mr. DuLac’s review published on Letterboxd:
The man in my dreams... he's real, isn't he?
-Kristen Parker
This movie is like a damn time machine. I can't imagine anyone growing up in the 80s and not feeling transported back to the decade when watching this. It comes back from what was a clear stumbling block with Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, and delivers a film with more creativity, better special effects and a hell of a lot more fun.
While I understand why this is the favorite film of the franchise for a lot of fans, it's also the first step into it's demise however. It's where the studio consciously made an attempt at making Freddy Krueger cool and funny as opposed to the menacing bastard he was in the first film. As far as I'm concerned the original Nightmare on Elm Street still stands as the franchise's best film after almost 30 years.
Now just because Dream Warriors isn't my favorite of the franchise doesn't mean I still don't love this film with it's cheese and all. I love the continuity with the original having Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), now an adult, trying to help the teens of Elm Street who are now having dreams of good old Freddy once again. Having them all in a psychiatric ward is a nice change of pace instead of attempting to repeat the original film.
The film also does a surprisingly nice job of adding to the mythos of Freddy Krueger as it's where the line "the bastard son of a hundred maniacs" originated from. It's a surprisingly dark origin considering how the rest of the film takes a turn to being "cooler and funnier" then the original film. The film is also very creative in it's special effects while not pushing to far like some of the later sequels. Still creepy as hell seeing "children's souls" crying out from Freddy's chest.
Robert Englund is of course great as Freddy, even when uttering lines like "Welcome to prime time bitch!" while the film has arguably two protagonists. First you have the returning Langenkamp as Nancy and 18 year old Patricia Arquette as troubled teen Kristen Parker. Of course no one has ever claimed the acting in this film is outstanding, and the teens "dream powers" are cheesy as hell, but I love it. It's complete 80s, the good and the bad. How could anyone not love Arquette as well? Maybe it's just me.
