Director: Rachel Talalay
Cast: Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, Shon Greenblatt, Yaphet Kotto
Have I Seen it Before: Never. Pretty sure about that one.
Did I Like It: And that’s where I’ll open with something kind of sort of nice about this last—lies—entry in the house Wes Craven built, which subsequently built New Line Cinema. Where A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) blended together into one giant stew of mediocrity punctuated by occasionally interesting creature effects. This one is certainly distinctive, and incredibly difficult to confuse with other films in the series.
That’s partly because it really, truly goes out of its way to suck.
I’m not sure if it is the hoary shots set up for a 3D presentation which would have been all-but-useless outside of the film’s opening weekend in 1991, or if it is the weird melange of cameos which drift in and out of the movie, but either of those elements certainly don’t help me forget the other. The 3D scenes are only even in the film’s climax, but when it does start down that path. Wikipedia tells me the theatrical cut had Maggie/Katherine (Zane) inexplicable don her own pair of 3D glasses before battling her (spoilers) father. That might have added some camp value, but then just having things (including Englund’s head) flying toward the middle of the camera isn’t exactly the film walking so Avatar (2009) could run.
Speaking of camp, let’s dwell a bit on those cameos. If ever you were to need a nexus between Roseanne, Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper, and Johnny Depp (who is apparently either playing himself, or his already dead character in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) now residing in Hell, not that you or I care) in Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, then this film might be the one for you.
Hey, look at that. I found one more nice thing to say about the movie. Other than that, though…