Freddy's Dead : (not) The Final Nightmare (Part 6)

Freddy's Dead : (NOT) The Final Nightmare (part 6) title

AKA: Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6 : Freddy's Dead.

Tag Line : They saved the best till last...

Freddy's Dead : (Not) The Final Nightmare (Part 6) More like they saved the worst till last, and this was still not to be the final Elm Street film either. Starting afresh with a completely new cast, Freddy is still on the rampage in his home town and we are told that all the teens there are now dead and the adults are all going mad.

One teenage survivor (Shon Greenblatt) has escaped the town and made his way to the next city, where the local police find him wondering round in a daze suffering from amnesia. Believing him to be a homeless drug addict, he is taken to a youth rehabilitation hostel in the hope the psychologists there can discover who he is and where he came from.

There he meets Dr. Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane), who attempts to help him by taking him back to his home town to see if he can recall anything. Bad Idea! Stowing away in the back of the truck were some of the other kids from the hostel and after arriving at the town, Freddy proceeds to invade their dreams not only killing them, but actually sucking them into his reality and totally removing them from existence.

Only Dr Burroughs and one of the teens, Tracy (Lezlie Deane), survives and so together they head back to the hostel to try and work out how to combat Freddy. Fortunately one of the therapists there, "Doc" (Yaphett Kotto), specialises in dream therapy and thinks he has the answer. All they have to do is grab Freddy when they're asleep and then wake up, thusly bringing him into the real world where they can battle him (despite the fact it had already been tried in parts 1 and 2)

So, Maggie decides she is the one to do this and therefore sets the scene for the final confrontation which starts in the dream world and ends in reality, in an extremely dull, over-the-top 3D special effects sequence, which also attempts to show us how Freddy grew up and why he started killing children, after his daughter was taken into care (his daughter being none other than Dr Maggie Burroughs herself). Some excuse eh?

This film plain sucks, the killings are both predictable and boring and the emphasis of the film seems to be firmly on special effects sequences and not horror.

Overall marks : 3/10.

Other Information.

Alternate tag line "Raise your glasses please, it's Freddy's farewell performance!"
The music was composed and conducted by Brian May (NOT the guitarist from the rock band Queen), who also scored the music to the first 2 "Mad Max" movie's and the Chuck Norris film "Missing in Action 2".
Yaphett Kotto who plays "Doc" had previously played the part of Parker in the classic Sci-fi/Horror film "Alien" and had also starred in "The Running Man".
The film was cut for its UK theatrical and video release by 6s, to remove the sight of a ninja star being thrown. This scene was re-instated on the 2003 DVD after the BBFC finally passed it uncut.
Rock singer Alice Cooper makes an uncredited appearance as Freddy's adopted father and TV couple Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold make guest appearances as a couple who's children where killed by Freddy.
Johnny Depp, who appeared in the first film, also makes a guest appearance as a TV presenter during one of the dream sequences.
Producer Robert Shay makes a cameo appearance (under the pseudonym of L.E. Moko), as the bus ticket seller.
The theatrical trailers showed a scene that involved Freddy absorbing Carlo's soul after his head exploded. This scene did not appear in the final cut of the film.
There is a bootleg version in circulation in the US which is of an extended workprint. This contains an additional 20 minutes of cut footage and dialogue.
The end dream sequence and final battle were originally filmed in 3D. These effects were kept intact for its original UK rental and sell-through releases, which came packaged with 2 pairs of 3D glasses. Later VHS re-issues, and its initial DVD release came without the 3D effects. However the 3D version was issued again on DVD in 2003.