Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
The following production notes are from the film's original theatrical press kit.
Release Date: September 13, 1991
On November 9, 1984, the nightmare began in the town of Springwood, U.S.A. when the innocence of Elm Street was violated for eternity. The Springwood PTA ignored their children's claims that an evil man named Freddy Krueger was the Dream Monster responsible for the mysterious and often violent death of their friends. The PTA knew the Krueger name, and they knew he was a killer once. They also knew that Freddy Krueger was killed in a vigilante action that many of them participated in: how could he possibly be responsible for the inexplicable terror plaguing the Springwood's youth?
With Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, they've saved the best for last. Evil dreamstalker Freddy Krueger is dispatched forever in this thrilling, final installment of the phenomenally successful Nightmare series. The trademark striped sweater, fedora, and metal rapier hand are gone for good, and Freddy's fire-scarred countenance along with them.
The following production notes are from the film's original theatrical press kit.
Release Date: September 13, 1991
On November 9, 1984, the nightmare began in the town of Springwood, U.S.A. when the innocence of Elm Street was violated for eternity. The Springwood PTA ignored their children's claims that an evil man named Freddy Krueger was the Dream Monster responsible for the mysterious and often violent death of their friends. The PTA knew the Krueger name, and they knew he was a killer once. They also knew that Freddy Krueger was killed in a vigilante action that many of them participated in: how could he possibly be responsible for the inexplicable terror plaguing the Springwood's youth?
With Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, they've saved the best for last. Evil dreamstalker Freddy Krueger is dispatched forever in this thrilling, final installment of the phenomenally successful Nightmare series. The trademark striped sweater, fedora, and metal rapier hand are gone for good, and Freddy's fire-scarred countenance along with them.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
The following production notes are from the film's original theatrical press kit.
Release Date: October 14, 1994
When Wes Craven began dreaming up his New Nightmare, he knew he wanted to make a movie about 25 to 30 year-olds and how they as parents see Freddy. "Since the audience that saw the first Nightmare is now that age, I wanted to make a movie for them," he explained.
After Craven targeted his audience, the script began to take on a life of its own. "I thought that it would be interesting to break through the 'fourth wall,'--to jump outside the paradigm of the story and into the actual world of the filmmakers, the actors, the writer, the special effects team and the world in which they live. With them we could show how the spirit of Freddy could be freed by the story not being told."
To add to a familiar dimension to his filmmaking journey, Craven began the complicated task of reuniting several original Nightmare cast members including Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, and Nick Corri.
The following production notes are from the film's original theatrical press kit.
Release Date: October 14, 1994
When Wes Craven began dreaming up his New Nightmare, he knew he wanted to make a movie about 25 to 30 year-olds and how they as parents see Freddy. "Since the audience that saw the first Nightmare is now that age, I wanted to make a movie for them," he explained.
After Craven targeted his audience, the script began to take on a life of its own. "I thought that it would be interesting to break through the 'fourth wall,'--to jump outside the paradigm of the story and into the actual world of the filmmakers, the actors, the writer, the special effects team and the world in which they live. With them we could show how the spirit of Freddy could be freed by the story not being told."
To add to a familiar dimension to his filmmaking journey, Craven began the complicated task of reuniting several original Nightmare cast members including Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, and Nick Corri.
FREDDY-FACT: September 12, 1991 was proclaimed "Freddy Krueger Day" in Los Angeles.
"…will scare the daylights out of you!" - New York Daily News
"The most popular cinematic maniac since Darth Vader." - Newsweek
"…will scare the daylights out of you!" - New York Daily News
"The most popular cinematic maniac since Darth Vader." - Newsweek
One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You
Three, Four, Better Lock Your Door
Five, Six, Grab Your Crucifix
Seven, Eight, Gonna Stay Up Late
Nine, Ten, Never Sleep Again...
Three, Four, Better Lock Your Door
Five, Six, Grab Your Crucifix
Seven, Eight, Gonna Stay Up Late
Nine, Ten, Never Sleep Again...
Time and time again, the recurrent and inexplicable terror of Freddy Krueger has gone to battle in the unconscious dream world of Springwood's youth. With each apparent defeat, and with each renewed sense of security, there lies the uneasy threat of Freddy's nocturnal return to Springwood.
Now, with all the children gone, and the entire community of Springwood completely repressed by the controlling influence of Freddy's evil spirit, it's time to end his reign of terror. It's time for a real battle with Freddy Krueger. Not to drive him back or to control his strength. Not to become more powerful than he is, but to put an end to him. Once and for all, it's time for The Final Nightmare.
On Freddy's timely death, the embodiment of this American pop icon, Robert Englund commented, "It's finally time for me to hang up Freddy's glove. While I've enjoyed developing Freddy's character to icon status, I think it's time for me to move on, I am extremely pleased that so much effort has gone into The Final Nightmare, making it, I believe, the most outstanding installment yet."
Dream Master Freddy Krueger, as portrayed by Englund, has become a horror film phenomenon. Audiences flocked in ever-increasing numbers to each of these horror-fests and identified with the teenagers who fought to the death to vanquish Freddy.
As Rolling Stone noted: "The A Nightmare on Elm Street films are helping define a new timely vision of horror: the horror that is buried inside, that dense, dark web of troubled history and garbled fears and desires that help us make up our internal lives. This horror is so internalized that it can only visit the characters in those moments when they are most susceptible to their own private complexities - in their dreams."
New York Times critic Caryn James noted: "You never know when the teenagers will wake up from a nightmare, terrorized but alive. That eerie slide between dreams and reality--and the teenagers' power to pull their friends into their nightmares--is just the kind of twist that allows filmmakers to redefine a genre."
Critics have suggested that Freddy's "blatant contempt for authority and his penchant for sarcastic wit" hold great appeal for moviegoers. "It feels good to hate Freddy because he's done so many thoroughly despicable things without the teeniest bit of remorse, cracking sarcastic jokes all the while," said one writer.
If Freddy's sarcastic, murderous style earned him notice as a classic horror villain, it also prompted psychologists nationwide to express concern about Freddy's evergrowing popularity.
One clinical psychologist in Southern California noted, however, that for all of Freddy's terrifying qualities, he provided teenagers with a valuable service...of sorts. "Freddy Krueger is the king of scary movies. Kids often get obsessively involved with horror-related subjects because...going to a horror film is one of the new highs they have in life to jack up their metabolism."
With this last, and best, Nightmare, those pulses will surely quicken again...for the last time.
"Ghoulishly ingenious!" - Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Now, with all the children gone, and the entire community of Springwood completely repressed by the controlling influence of Freddy's evil spirit, it's time to end his reign of terror. It's time for a real battle with Freddy Krueger. Not to drive him back or to control his strength. Not to become more powerful than he is, but to put an end to him. Once and for all, it's time for The Final Nightmare.
On Freddy's timely death, the embodiment of this American pop icon, Robert Englund commented, "It's finally time for me to hang up Freddy's glove. While I've enjoyed developing Freddy's character to icon status, I think it's time for me to move on, I am extremely pleased that so much effort has gone into The Final Nightmare, making it, I believe, the most outstanding installment yet."
Dream Master Freddy Krueger, as portrayed by Englund, has become a horror film phenomenon. Audiences flocked in ever-increasing numbers to each of these horror-fests and identified with the teenagers who fought to the death to vanquish Freddy.
As Rolling Stone noted: "The A Nightmare on Elm Street films are helping define a new timely vision of horror: the horror that is buried inside, that dense, dark web of troubled history and garbled fears and desires that help us make up our internal lives. This horror is so internalized that it can only visit the characters in those moments when they are most susceptible to their own private complexities - in their dreams."
New York Times critic Caryn James noted: "You never know when the teenagers will wake up from a nightmare, terrorized but alive. That eerie slide between dreams and reality--and the teenagers' power to pull their friends into their nightmares--is just the kind of twist that allows filmmakers to redefine a genre."
Critics have suggested that Freddy's "blatant contempt for authority and his penchant for sarcastic wit" hold great appeal for moviegoers. "It feels good to hate Freddy because he's done so many thoroughly despicable things without the teeniest bit of remorse, cracking sarcastic jokes all the while," said one writer.
If Freddy's sarcastic, murderous style earned him notice as a classic horror villain, it also prompted psychologists nationwide to express concern about Freddy's evergrowing popularity.
One clinical psychologist in Southern California noted, however, that for all of Freddy's terrifying qualities, he provided teenagers with a valuable service...of sorts. "Freddy Krueger is the king of scary movies. Kids often get obsessively involved with horror-related subjects because...going to a horror film is one of the new highs they have in life to jack up their metabolism."
With this last, and best, Nightmare, those pulses will surely quicken again...for the last time.
"Ghoulishly ingenious!" - Janet Maslin, The New York Times
After his team was in place, Craven began the task of recreating Freddy. "He's silent and scary, fast, and powerful. We kept a lot of the things that were originally Freddy, but we made them different and much more scary. I found great pleasure in being able to put Freddy back where he belonged - in the arena of the truly frightening villains of cinema."
"The original A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by an extraordinary series of unnoticed stories in the Los Angeles Times." recalls Craven. "A young immigrant male, early 20's, usually from Southeast Asia, a son, would have a severe nightmare where he would wake up screaming. The next day he would tell his family that it was the worst nightmare he'd ever had, and he had been terribly shaken by it. The next night when he went to sleep - he died. Six months later I looked in the paper and there was another very similar story. I clipped it out, put it with the other one. Then the third one appeared about a year and a half from the first one, this time in Northern California. And the elements were the basis for the film." The rest is horror history.
Though ten years have passed since Craven first visited Elm Street, Craven's New Nightmare was familiar territory. "I had been thinking about this project for a long time and I could feel the film asking to be born. I just stopped fighting it. It's good to get it out of my system - this is one of those healing nightmares. It's about children and love. It's about terror persisting. And it's about dealing with things that are painful but have to be dealt with. I like that kind of story."
Production began in the fall of 1993 utilizing locations in and around Los Angeles, including the New Line Cinema offices on Robertson Boulevard. Virtually unhampered by rain or any of innumerable variables that could set a production schedule behind, the cast and crew felt blessed as they neared the end of the shoot.
But within days after the team created their own earthquake in L.A.'s historic Rosedale cemetery, life imitated art when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern California. Sadly, several crew members lost their homes. The production was set back only two days, but the crew realized their depiction had been hauntingly real. Footage of the earthquake's actual aftermath appears in the film.
Production designer Cynthia Charette and her team of craftspeople and decorators worked for over two months with carpenters and plasterers to create the eerily fantastic 25x40x100 foot set that represents hell over the millennia. "We began with the concept that evil has been there since the beginning of time," says Charette. "We started by studying the history of hell through such works as Dante's Inferno and the writings of the Roman poet Virgil, among others. We found a parallel in each ancient civilization that was represented by entering hell through an opening and landing in water."
Since the history and mythology Charette studied heavily featured the number 7 in its descriptions of hell, she created a room with 7 openings, each leading into a lower, more vile part of the underworld. "It should look as if it begins as a Pompeiian ruin, growing more primitive with each room as though you are stepping further back in history until the final place is more like ancient Mesopotamia."
The finished product is perhaps the best Nightmare yet says Craven. "There is an ancient entity that is evil and storytellers over the centuries have giving in different names. In our time, one of the names given it was Freddy Krueger. Yes, Freddy died in the last film and he's still dead. Just because you stop Freddy doesn't mean you stop evil, you just free it up. I think that's an important lesson."
"The original A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by an extraordinary series of unnoticed stories in the Los Angeles Times." recalls Craven. "A young immigrant male, early 20's, usually from Southeast Asia, a son, would have a severe nightmare where he would wake up screaming. The next day he would tell his family that it was the worst nightmare he'd ever had, and he had been terribly shaken by it. The next night when he went to sleep - he died. Six months later I looked in the paper and there was another very similar story. I clipped it out, put it with the other one. Then the third one appeared about a year and a half from the first one, this time in Northern California. And the elements were the basis for the film." The rest is horror history.
Though ten years have passed since Craven first visited Elm Street, Craven's New Nightmare was familiar territory. "I had been thinking about this project for a long time and I could feel the film asking to be born. I just stopped fighting it. It's good to get it out of my system - this is one of those healing nightmares. It's about children and love. It's about terror persisting. And it's about dealing with things that are painful but have to be dealt with. I like that kind of story."
Production began in the fall of 1993 utilizing locations in and around Los Angeles, including the New Line Cinema offices on Robertson Boulevard. Virtually unhampered by rain or any of innumerable variables that could set a production schedule behind, the cast and crew felt blessed as they neared the end of the shoot.
But within days after the team created their own earthquake in L.A.'s historic Rosedale cemetery, life imitated art when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern California. Sadly, several crew members lost their homes. The production was set back only two days, but the crew realized their depiction had been hauntingly real. Footage of the earthquake's actual aftermath appears in the film.
Production designer Cynthia Charette and her team of craftspeople and decorators worked for over two months with carpenters and plasterers to create the eerily fantastic 25x40x100 foot set that represents hell over the millennia. "We began with the concept that evil has been there since the beginning of time," says Charette. "We started by studying the history of hell through such works as Dante's Inferno and the writings of the Roman poet Virgil, among others. We found a parallel in each ancient civilization that was represented by entering hell through an opening and landing in water."
Since the history and mythology Charette studied heavily featured the number 7 in its descriptions of hell, she created a room with 7 openings, each leading into a lower, more vile part of the underworld. "It should look as if it begins as a Pompeiian ruin, growing more primitive with each room as though you are stepping further back in history until the final place is more like ancient Mesopotamia."
The finished product is perhaps the best Nightmare yet says Craven. "There is an ancient entity that is evil and storytellers over the centuries have giving in different names. In our time, one of the names given it was Freddy Krueger. Yes, Freddy died in the last film and he's still dead. Just because you stop Freddy doesn't mean you stop evil, you just free it up. I think that's an important lesson."