A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - Patricia Arquette

Taglines: If you think you’ll get out alive, You must be dreaming.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 movie synopsis. Picking up where the original Nightmare left off, Nancy has grown up and become a psychiatrist specializing in dream therapy. She meets a group of children at a local hospital facing Freddy Krueger, the same demon she once encountered in her sleep.

One of them is Kristen, who has the power to draw other people into her dreams. Working with a male doctor assigned to the case, Nancy helps the kids realize their special abilities within the nightmare world. When Freddy captures one of her charges, she leads a rescue attempt into Krueger’s domain, in hopes of putting his spirit to rest once and for all.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 American slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell, written by original creator Wes Craven and co-written by Bruce Wagner, and starred Craig Wasson, Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and Patricia Arquette in her first role. It is the sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and is followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Kristen Parker, a young girl, dreams of herself in an abandoned house on Elm Street, where she is chased by serial killer Freddy Krueger. She wakes up and goes to the bathroom, where she is again attacked by Freddy, who slices her wrist with a straight razor. Believing her to be suicidal, her mother has her sent to Westin Hospital, run by Dr. Neil Gordon, where she fights against the orderlies who try to sedate her, for fear of falling asleep.

She is eventually calmed by intern therapist Nancy Thompson, who recites part of Freddy’s nursery rhyme and earns her trust. Nancy is introduced to the rest of the patients: Phillip, a habitual sleepwalker, Kincaid, a tough kid from the streets who is prone to violence, Jennifer, a hopeful television actress, Will, who is confined to a wheelchair after a suicide attempt, Taryn, a former drug addict and Joey, who is too traumatized to speak.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - Jennifer Rubin

Later, Kristen is attacked by Freddy again and unwittingly pulls Nancy into her dream with her, allowing them both to escape. Kristen reveals she has had the ability to pull people into her dreams since she was a little girl. Over the next two nights, Freddy throws Phillip off a roof in what looks like a suicide attempt and kills Jennifer by smashing her head into a television that she was watching.

In their next group session, Nancy reveals to the remaining patients that they are the last surviving children of the parents who killed Krueger many years ago. Nancy and Neil encourage them to try group hypnosis so that they can experience a shared dream and discover their dream powers.

In the dream, Joey wanders off and is captured by Freddy, leaving him comatose in the real world; Nancy and Neil are fired. Neil is informed by a nun, Sister Mary Helena, that Freddy is the son of a young nun who was accidentally locked in a room with hundreds of mental patients who raped her repeatedly and that the only way to stop him is to lay his bones to rest. He and Nancy go to her father Don to discover where the bones are hidden but he is uncooperative. Nancy rushes back to the hospital after she hears Kristen has been sedated, while Neil convinces Thompson to help them.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Nancy and the others again go through group hypnosis so they can reunite with Kristen but are all separated after Freddy interrupts them. Taryn and Will are killed while Kristen, Nancy, Kincaid and Joey find one another. Freddy senses that his remains have been found and possesses his own skeleton to kill Thompson and incapacitate Neil. He returns to attack the others but Joey uses his dream power voice to send him away.

Thompson appears before Nancy to tell her that he is “crossing over” but he is revealed to be a disguised Freddy, who stabs her. As he is about to kill Kristen too, Nancy rises from behind and uses Freddy’s own claws to stab himself. Neil awakens and consecrates the bones, finally destroying him. Nancy dies in Kristen’s arms. At Nancy’s funeral, Neil sees Mary Helena again, when he tries to follow her, he instead finds her tombstone, which is that of Amanda Krueger, Freddy’s mother.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Movie Poster (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Directed by: Chuck Russell
Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Larry Fishburne, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund, Jennifer Rubin, Rodney Eastman, Penelope Sudrow
Screenplay by: Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner
Cinematography by: Roy H. Wagner
Film Editing by: Terry Stokes, Chuck Weiss
Costume Design by: Camile Morris
Set Decoration by: James R. Barrows
Art Direction by: C.J. Strawn, Mick Strawn
Music by: Angelo Badalamenti
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: February 27, 1987

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