Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
File:Nightmare6.jpg Movie poster
Directed by	Rachel Talalay
Written by	Characters Wes Craven Story Rachel Talalay Screenplay Michael De Luca
Produced by	Michael De Luca Michael N. Knue Robert Shaye Aron Warner
Starring	Robert Englund Breckin Meyer Lisa Zane Shon Greenblatt Yaphet Kotto Ricky Dean Logan Lezlie Deane Tobe Sexton Johnny Depp
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Edited by	Janice Hampton
Music by	Brian May
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	September 13 1991
Running time	89 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$34,800,000 (domestically)

"Freddy's Dead" redirects here. For the song by Curtis Mayfield, see Freddie's Dead.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street 6) is an American slasher film, released in 1991. As the title suggests, the film was intended to be the last in the series of films featuring Freddy Krueger, wherein the character would be killed off. However the success of the series prevented it from ending (much like Friday The 13th part 4 and part 9). Another film, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, was produced. The character of Freddy Krueger then returned in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason.

Robert Englund reprises his role as Freddy Krueger; Lisa Zane, Yaphet Kotto, Breckin Meyer, Shon Greenblatt, Ricky Dean Logan, Lezlie Deane, and Tobe Sexton also star. Additionally, several well known actors make cameo appearances in the film, including Johnny Depp (whose screen debut was in the original Nightmare On Elm Street), Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold and Alice Cooper. Iggy Pop sings the movie's title song, which plays over a montage of scenes from all six Nightmare movies (at that time) and the end credits.

Box office

The film opened in 1,862 theaters making $13 million its opening weekend. The domestic gross is $34.8 million.

Plot summary

Over the years, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has returned and succeeded in killing nearly all of the children in the town of Springwood, Ohio. The only surviving teenager, known only as "John Doe" (Shon Greenblatt) throughout the film, finds himself confronting Freddy and being deliberately thrown through an invisible barrier into the outside world. He finds himself wandering the streets with no memory of who he is.

Meanwhile, at a shelter for troubled youth, Spencer (Breckin Meyer), Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan) and Tracy (Lezlie Deane) plot to run away from the shelter. Carlos was physically abused by his parents, Tracy was sexually abused by her father, and Spencer simply does not want to conform to his father's lifestyle. John, after being picked up by the police, becomes a patient of Dr. Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane). Maggie decides to take him to the town that is mentioned in the article he was carrying. Tracy, Carlos, and Spencer stow away in the van, but are discovered when John has a hallucination and almost wrecks the van just outside of Springwood.

After encountering the adult inhabitants of Springwood, Maggie and John find out that Freddy Krueger had a child that was taken away from him. John begins to suspect that he is Freddy's child, which, to him, would explain why he has not been hurt. Meanwhile, Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos, after unsuccessfully trying to leave Springwood, decide to rest at a nearby abandoned house, which transforms into 1428 Elm Street (Freddy's,Jesse's,Nancy Thompson's former home). Carlos and Spencer fall asleep and fall prey to Freddy. Tracy is awakened by Maggie, but John, who went into the dream world with Tracy to try and help Spencer, is still asleep. Maggie and Tracy decide to take him back to the shelter. Freddy reveals to John that he was using him to get to his daughter, and then impales John on a bed of spikes. Before he dies, John tells Maggie that Freddy's child was not a boy. When Maggie and Tracy cross the Springwood town limit, the barrier shatters.

Tracy and Maggie return to the shelter, but they discover that no one remembers John, Spencer, or Carlos except for Doc (Yaphet Kotto), who has learned to control his dreams. Maggie remembers what John told her and discovers her own adoption papers. That night, she falls asleep and encounters Freddy. He tells her that she is really Katherine Krueger, Freddy's daughter. He explains to her that he used her to escape Springwood and now wants to start his killing spree in a new town.

Doc discovers Freddy's power comes from the "dream demons" who continually revive him, and that Freddy can be killed if he's pulled into the real world. Maggie decides that she will be the one to enter Freddy's mind and pull him into the real world. Once in the dream world, she puts on a pair of 3-D glasses — the theatrical version of the film was in 3D during the climax — and goes into Freddy's mind. There, she finds out that Freddy was teased as a child, inflicted self-abuse as a teenager (Tobe Sexton), and murdered his wife, Loretta Krueger (Lindsey Fields), in front of his own daughter and was given the power to be immortal from fiery demons as he was burning due to the parents who burned him with molotov cocktails. After some struggling, Maggie manages to pull Freddy into the real world.

Both Maggie and Freddy end up in hand-to-hand combat against one another after Freddy tries to earn Maggie's sympathy. Maggie continues to battle Freddy, enraged by her knowledge of what he has done. Eventually, Maggie stabs Freddy in the stomach with his own glove, and then sticks a pipe bomb in his chest, causing him to explode. Maggie manages to evade the blast and tells both Doc and Tracy that Freddy is dead. This is the first movie in the Nightmare series to end without hinting that Freddy may still be alive.

Production

The last ten minutes of the film are in 3-D. The effect was eliminated for the VHS and television releases - with the notable exception of the UK rental version and the US Laserdisc version. The DVD box set, released in 1999, includes 2 pairs of 3-D glasses to use with the reinstated effect.

Deleted Scenes

There were a number of scenes cut out for timing, which included an introduction to Lisa Zane's character, Freddy absorbing Carlos' soul and more of John Doe's dream at the center, as well as a few other things. Some of these scenes can be viewed during the television airings.

Writing

A 16-year-old Jacob Johnson, the son that was born to Alice Johnson in the previous installment, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, was a major character in the original script. In this first draft of the film, Alice, now in her thirties, was killed by Freddy. Taryn, Joey, and Kincaid from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors also returned as the "Dream Police." In the script, Taryn was the "Blade Cop", Joey was the "Sound Cop", and Kincaid was the "Power Cop." Director Rachel Talalay has stated that she greatly disliked the original script and that the rewritten version "saved the day."

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson caught the eye of New Line with his splatter films and was approached to write and direct part 6. Jackson penned a script called "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Lover", which was not used.

Casting

The film marked the silver screen debut of Breckin Meyer.

Reception

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare made $12,966,525 in the opening weekend, which was the highest opening weekend for the series until the release of Freddy vs. Jason. A final box office total tallied $34,872,033 in the US (making it the fourth highest grosser in the series). It has a 13% favorable reviews on Rottentomatoes.com.

Comic spin-off

Innovation Comics published a three issue comic adaptation of the film. An alternate version of the third issue was published in 3-D in order to recreate the effect also used in the film. The series was also published in the trade paperback format. Innovation followed the adaptation with A Nightmare On Elm Street: The Beginning. The three issue mini-series served as a direct sequel to Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, as Maggie Burroughs continues to have nightmares of her father, Freddy Krueger, following the events of the film. Traveling back to Springwood with Tracy, another survivor from the film, Maggie researches Freddy's life leading up to his death at the hands at of the Springwood parents. Only the first two issues of the series were released before Innovation Comics declared bankruptcy, leaving the third issue still unpublished and the story incomplete. Series writer, Andy Mangels, has since made the original script for issue number three available on his website.

External links

• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare at IMDb
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare at Rotten Tomatoes
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare at Box Office Mojo
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare at The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion
• A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning original script, courtesy of Andy Mangels's website.