Whatever you do, don’t…fall…asleep. AfterFreddy Krueger (Robert Englund) invades the dreamscape, you will be wishing for sleep paralysis instead. Some might fear him, but there’s a better chance many more adore the gallows humor and one-liners he has at the ready when facing a victim. DirectorWes Craven, king of the horror genre, created a new monster in 1984’sA Nightmare on Elm Streetthat one movie couldn’t contain. Freddy, the dream-dwelling, razor-gloved killer is a pop culture icon because ofcountless appearances in movies, TV, and merchandise. That’s what the third entry in theElm Streetseries wanted to do: tap into the fun aspects the previous two movies hadn’t committed to, turning its villain into the main star. Among the many props used to bring a victim’s nightmares to life, one was deemed too dark to be seen on screen. The series was trying to figure out the direction to go and how dark or fun the story should be, and the special effects got pulled into this struggle.
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Original Final Girl, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), returns to help as Freddy attacks a new group of teens admitted to a psychiatric hospital.A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriorsis looked at as one of the best installments, and as the subtitle states, these teens band together to take on the undead Springwood Slasher haunting their dreams. They’re the dream warriors! With such an emphasis on the dark fantasy elements, the movie was going to need special effects and props to yank audiences into these new nightmares. DirectorChuck Russell, sharing screenwriting credit with directorFrank Darabont, wanted to have more fun and see how imaginative this series could be. The opening toDream Warriorsshows this approach, and it’s where the doomed prop was meant to be used.
Kristen (Patricia Arquette) washes down coffee grounds with a can of soda in order to stay awake, but she loses the fight. Soon, she wanders through her dream, getting drawn to Nancy’s old, decaying home. She finds a little girl, who she tries to protect from the approaching danger. This isn’t an innocent child, however,it’s a scare from Freddy Krueger. The girl is alive one moment and then dead the next. Kristen looks down to see what she’s carrying, screaming in terror when her eyes see what is in her hands. Chuck Russell tasked special makeup effects artistMark Shostromto create a puppet for this moment, and it’s safe to say, the director’s request was odd in how curtly he told Shostrom to look for inspiration. “Think Auschwitz,” Shostrom remembersbeing told in a Bloody Disgusting article, and Russell got what he asked for.
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Shostrom did as he was told, going to do research at the Simon Wiesenthal museum to pull inspiration from the body horror of the Holocaust. After ten weeks, Shostrom presented the puppet he finished to uncertain and uncomfortable reactions from Russell and cinematographerRoy H. Wagner. It was Russell who suddenly worried the puppet’s “emaciated” appearance in the movie would offend Jewish audiences. His two-worded instructions for Shostrom didn’t leave much room for anything else. The design of the little girl that Kristen realizes she’s holding in her arms, is of a skeletal, shriveled little body. It was mechanical and could be animated. Shostrom’s hard work was cut, however, andhe didn’t expect the reluctance, describing how, “I spent ten weeks making it, we need to film it. AndRachel Talalay, the production line producer, said ‘We need to film this.’ But Russell didn’t budge, and someone in props instead threw together the charred skeleton that we see in the final film within minutes.” The puppet’s design might have been inspired by what Shostrom researched, but it in no way offensively uses any imagery from the concentration camps, in location, or clothing. It does dig into fears that exist in the real world, something director Wes Craven strived for when making his horror movies, especially in the originalA Nightmare on Elm Street.
InNever Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, a retrospective documentary on the whole series, Craven explains how variouselements of Freddy Krueger came to him, to get a primal response from those watching the movie. Talking about the killer’s red and green sweater, Craven explained that he read an article that stated those two colors were for eyes to see next to each other, and, naturally knew those had to be the colors. For the clawed glove, to differentiate it from other knife-wielding slashers, Craven thought, “What’s the earliest weapon that mankind might have been afraid of, and it would be, well, a weapon of an animal.” From an optical effect to ancient predators, Craven had an analytic approach to finding the scares in one of his most famous movie monsters. While he had a hand in writing an early script forDream Warriors, Freddy’s third outing was in Chuck Russell’s hands, not Craven’s.
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Shostrom didn’t criticize the director but argued that Russell was under pressure, as it was his directorial debut. Along with producers, a young cast, and an effects-heavy production, Russell had a lot to deal with. He wanted to stray away from anything too dark, bringing in Freddy’s wisecracking personality, which Robert Englund contributed to as well. At one point, Freddy invades the dreams of Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow) and knowing her aspirations of acting, he plans to help her out. “Welcome to primetime, bitch!” Freddy barks out (an improvised line from Englund), slamming her head into a TV, electrocuting the girl. What goes against Russell’s worries about Shostrom’s puppet and in avoiding a too-disturbing movie, is just how darkDream Warriorsactually is. Characters have terribly bleak fates.
Fellow patient Phillip (Bradley Gregg) is strung up by Freddy like a marionette puppet by his tendon strings, for a squirm-inducing practical effect. This goes into what Freddy’s plan is this time around. He stages most of the deaths as suicides, which is how Kristen lands in the hospital after Freddy’s claws slash one of her wrists. What is even more offensive is how the hospital’s staff casually rebuffs suicide as a “cowardly” act. There’s also the plot revelation that explores the origins of Freddy, revealing he was born from his mother’s horrific sexual assault, or as the movie puts it, “The Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs.” And then, there’sFreddy Krueger, the franchise’s icon, having a past as a child killerwhich the movies are never sure how to tackle.Dream Warriorsleans into dark humor, but it can’t ignore the “dark” part of it.
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Russell second-guessed himself in the end, with the puppet of the little girl having since been lost to time. From the Bloody Disgusting article, Shostrom remarked, “I’ve never in my life experienced anything like that because at the very least take an hour, put it on film and decide later when you’re not frazzled by shooting three units and the day before Christmas. But they didn’t even film it.” And it wasn’t the only prop the director was hesitant about. When Kristen is nearly swallowed by a snake-like creature with the face of Freddy, special effects technicianKevin Yagherwas tasked with creating it. Like Shostrom, Yagher had to deal with issues on his prop, only his didn’t get cut. InNever Sleep Again, he explains how Russell was worried about how much it looked like a penis, although Yagher said how the phallic imagery was agreed upon in prior meetings. Russell had set painters change the color, avoiding flesh tones. Another effect, just as sexual, didn’t make it into the finished movie. When a nurse seduces one of the patients, her nude body is exposed while her face transforms into Freddy’s. This changed into the nurse spitting out tongues to tie up her prey.
Dream Warriors, in wanting to leave out the sexual elements of the first twoElm Streetmovies, had a surprise for audiences. The bandDokkenperforms the song, “Dream Warriors,” giving Freddy Krueger a music video and sending him off into celebrity stardom. The fourth installment to the series,The Dream Masterin 1988, would release the same year Freddy went on to host his own horror anthology series,Freddy’s Nightmaresfor two seasons. There was a rush of merchandise in a toy line, comic books, and costumes, all celebrating Robert Englund’s horror villain. A fire killed Freddy Krueger, but an afterlife on and off the screen is where he made a name for himself, diminishing his fear factor to gain popularity.
