Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

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

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rachel Talalay
Produced by	Michael De Luca Michael N. Knue Robert Shaye Aron Warner
Written by	Characters: Wes Craven Story: Rachel Talalay Screenplay: Michael DeLuca
Starring	Robert Englund Lisa Zane Shon Greenblatt Lezlie Deane Yaphet Kotto Johnny Depp Lisa Wilcox
Music by	Brian May
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Editing by	Janice Hampton
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	September 13, 1991 (1991-09-13)
Running time	89 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11 million
Box office	$34,872,033 (Domestic)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) is a 1991 American slasher film. It is the sixth – and as the title suggests, intended to be the last – film in the series of films featuring Freddy Krueger. However, the success of the film prevented the series from ending (much like Friday the 13th parts four and nine). Another film, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, was produced following this film. The character of Freddy Krueger then returned in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason. This was New Line Cinema's first film released in 3-D.

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 A 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 the previous Nightmare movies during the end credits.

Plot

In 1999, ten years have passed since the fifth film; Freddy Krueger has returned and succeeded in killing nearly everyone in the town of Springwood, Ohio, excluding Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox) and her son Jacob, who are revealed to have moved away between this film and the previous film.

The only surviving teenager, known only as "John Doe", finds himself confronted by Freddy in a dream and is knocked past the town of Springwood's city limits by Freddy. The city limits serve as a barrier that Freddy cannot cross, and the hole John makes when he goes through the barrier closes as soon as Freddy touches it. However, when John goes through the barrier, he hits his head on a rock and does not remember who he is or why he is outside of Springwood.

Meanwhile, at a shelter for troubled youth, Spencer, Carlos and Tracy plot to run away from the shelter. Carlos was physically abused by his parents, resulting in a hearing disability, Tracy was raped by her father, and Spencer was a stoner. John, after being picked up by the police, becomes a resident of the shelter and a patient of Dr. Maggie Burroughs. Maggie notices a newspaper clipping in John's pocket from Springwood. In an effort to cure John's amnesia, she decides it would be best to go on a road trip to Springwood to jog his memory. Tracy, Carlos, and Spencer stow away in the van in their effort to escape the shelter, but are discovered when John has a hallucination and almost wrecks the van just outside Springwood.

Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos, after unsuccessfully trying to leave Springwood, decide to rest at a nearby abandoned house, which transforms into 1428 Elm Street (Nancy Thompson's/Jesse Walsh's/Freddy Krueger's former home). Meanwhile, John and Maggie visit Springwood Orphanage and discover that Freddy had a child. John believes he is the child because Freddy allowed him to live. Back on Elm Street, Carlos and Spencer fall asleep and get killed by Freddy. Tracy is awakened by Maggie, but John, who went into the dream world with Tracy to try to help Spencer, is still asleep. Maggie and Tracy decide to take him back to the shelter. However, on their way back, Krueger kills John in his dream, but not before revealing that Krueger's kid is a girl. As John dies, he reveals this information to Maggie. Tracy and Maggie return to the shelter, but they discover that no one remembers John, Spencer, or Carlos except for Doc, who has learned to control his dreams. Maggie remembers what John told her and discovers her own adoption papers, learning that she is Freddy's daughter.

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, abused by his foster father, inflicted self-abuse as a teenager, and murdered his wife. Freddy was given the power to become immortal from fiery demons. After some struggling, Maggie manages to pull Freddy into the real world.

Maggie and Freddy end up in hand-to-hand combat against one another. While Maggie continues to battle Freddy she uses several weapons confiscated from patients at the shelter. Enraged by the knowledge of what he has done, she disarms him of his clawed glove. Eventually, Maggie stabs Freddy in the stomach with his own glove while she is close to him. Tracy then throws Maggie a pipe bomb. After she impales Freddy to a steel support beam she throws the bomb in his chest. She says "Happy Fathers Day" then kisses him and runs. As she runs away from the impending explosion, Freddy looks into the camera and says "Kids", after which he explodes. The three dream demons are then seen flying out of Freddy after the pipe bomb kills him, unable to revive him in the real world. Maggie then smiles at Tracy and Doc and says "Freddy's dead.", then the scene fades to black and the credits roll.

Cast

• Lisa Zane as Maggie Burroughs
• Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
• Shon Greenblatt as John Doe
• Lezlie Deane as Tracy
• Breckin Meyer as Spencer
• Ricky Dean Logan as Carlos
• Lisa Wilcox as Alice Johnson (archive footage)
• Yaphet Kotto as Doc
• Tobe Sexton as Teenage Freddy Krueger
• Lindsey Fields as Loretta Krueger (as Lyndsey Fields)
• Johnny Depp as Guy on TV (as Oprah Noodlemantra)
• Tom Arnold as Childless Man (as Mr. Tom Arnold)
• Alice Cooper as Freddy's Father (uncredited)

Production

In the original script of the film, 15-year-old Jacob Johnson (son of the previous installment's main character, Alice Johnson) was the major character while many of the "Dream Warriors" would return to aid Jacob in defeating Freddy after he kills Alice. This idea was later trashed and rewritten into the final script. Peter Jackson also wrote a screenplay, but it was not used. Jackson's script was said to be called ' A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Lover', and the supposed concept was that Freddy had become so weak in the dream world that teens made a game out of going into the dream world and beating up Freddy. But when Freddy regains enough power to take a boy's father hostage in the dream world, the boy must go there one last time to save his dad. In the final draft of the film, Alice and Jacob are seen briefly moving away from Springwood during the montage at the end of the film.

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.

Release

Box office

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 grossing film in the series).

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released September 24, 1991 by Warner Bros. Records.

1. The Goo Goo Dolls - I'm Awake Now
2. Junk Monkeys - Everything Remains the Same
3. The Goo Goo Dolls - You Know What I Mean
4. Johnny Law - Remember the Night
5. Chubb Rock - Treat 'em Right
6. Iggy Pop - Why Was I Born? (Freddy's Dead)
7. Johnny Law - Hold Me Down
8. The Goo Goo Dolls - Two Days in February
9. Young Lords - Give Me a Beat
10. Fates Warning - Nothing Left to Say

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 the Internet Movie Database
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare at AllRovi
• 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