RW298 - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

In this episode of our A Nightmare on Elm Street Rewatch, Cory and Nathan find out if they're playing with power as they discuss "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare."

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

The song "Why Was I Born? (Freddy's Dead)", written for the film, was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song. 

Cameos

Johnny Depp: in a television commercial, about 42 minutes in.

Alice Cooper: Freddy's abusive father.

Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold: (At around twenty-three minutes) The childless couple.

Robert Shaye: (At around seven minutes) Selling bus tickets in a booth.

Peter Jackson's original screenplay for Freddy's Dead saw Freddy aging and growing weak within the dream world. The teens of Springwood would have drug-fuelled slumber parties for kicks, and enter the dream world to beat him up.

This is the first film in the franchise that does not include the little jump rope girls singing Freddy's rhyme. 

New Line Cinema's first film in 3-D.

On September 12, 1991, a day before the U.S. release of the movie, Los Angeles declared it Freddy Krueger Day. 

A sixteen-year-old Jacob Johnson, the son that was born to Alice Johnson in the previous installment, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989), was a major character in the original script written for the movie by Michael Almereyda. 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 (1987) 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 replacement script by Michael De Luca "saved the day". De Luca also said that he was surprised he wasn't asked to write the screenplay in the first place, since he had done a similar last-minute re-write on A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989). John Doe was supposed to be Jacob from the previous film. It was made vague when they couldn't secure the return of Lisa Wilcox. In earlier versions of the script, Freddy absorbed the entire town of Springwood into the Dream World before moving onto the next town, with the Dream Police chasing after him. 

According to Alice Cooper in Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010), he stated that he gets asked to be in films all the time but they always want him in make-up as his onstage persona. He agreed to be in this film not only because he was a fan of the franchise, but also if he could play his character as Freddy's father as himself without his usual Alice Cooper look. 

The director, Rachel Talalay, got really sick toward the end of the filming schedule. They couldn't delay production to wait for her recovery. According to Shon Greenblatt, "Aron Warner actually directed the last several hours of the filming of the movie," including the final scene between Freddy and John Doe. 

They did not have Nintendo's permission to mock the Power Glove. 

The last ten minutes of the film are in 3D. To cue the audience to put on their 3D glasses, Maggie is seen to put on her 3D glasses in the film. The effect was eliminated for the VHS and television releases, with the exception of the UK and French rental version and the US Laserdisc version. The DVD box set released in 1999 reinstated the 3D effect and included two pairs of 3D glasses. 

As a publicity stunt for both Freddy's Dead and the comic storylines that were still being released around the film's cinematic release, New Line Cinema held a mock funeral for Freddy Krueger at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, including attendants from the film series such as Alice Cooper, Lezlie Deane, Shon Greenblatt, Ricky Dean Logan, Breckin Meyer, Tobe Sexton, Lisa Zane, Lisa Wilcox and Whit Hertford. Andy Mangels and Rachel Talalay were among others present. On encouragement by New Line Cinema, the Los Angeles mayor at the time, Tom Bradley, declared September 13 to be 'Freddy Krueger Day', but this move was heavily criticized by for glorifying a mass murderer, with Robert Englund adding that "we have to separate crime reality from movie escapism"

What's Next?

Next week we'll reach a new level of fear with "Wes Craven's New Nightmare."

Contact Us:

Send in your feedback to TheRewatchPodcast@gmail.com

Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter @RewatchPod or Instagram