Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

“
They Saved The Best For Last.

”— Tagline
***Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare*** (also known as ***A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead***) is a 1991 American comedy-horror slasher film and the sixth film in the *Nightmare on Elm Street* series. As the title suggests, it was intended to be the last film in the series; however, the success of the film prevented the series from ending (much like *Friday the 13th* parts four and nine). It is the sequel to *A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child* and is followed by *Wes Craven's New Nightmare*. 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

Set ten years from the present and from the fifth film, Freddy Krueger has managed to kill every child in Springwood, Ohio, though it is hinted that one child survived.

A teenager hoping to escape Springwood by plane is suddenly ejected from it and awakens in a house across from 1428 Elm Street, and he tries to make it to the border on foot. Freddy then uses the blunt force of a bus to send the teenager flying through the barrier between Springwood and reality, causing him to strike his head. Freddy then tells him to "be a good little doggy and go fetch!". The teen, called John Doe, awakens with amnesia and wanders into the city with nothing but caffeine pills and a newspaper article of a woman, Loretta Krueger, looking for any clues as to who he is. Police mistake him for a runaway junkie and deliver him to a youth shelter for troubled teens. At the shelter, he meets Maggie Burroughs, who examines him, and Doc; a resident psychologist who also tells Maggie to face her own problems with a recurring dream which is somehow linked to the article John brought in. Maggie's other charges are Carlos; who was physically abused, ending up with a hearing impairment, Spencer; a drug addict from a privileged family who rebelled against the controlling nature of his father, and Tracy; a girl who was sexually abused by her father. Maggie takes the shelter van to go to Springwood, and when a nightmare warns John to go back, he forces her to stop abruptly, revealing that Carlos, Spencer, and Tracy hiding in the back of the van.

In Springwood, they discover the town's adult population has gone insane, and that there are no kids. Maggie orders the three teens to return to the shelter while she and John investigate, but soon they become lost in a loop by some unseen force preventing them from leaving the town. At the school, they find the origin of the article and learn that Freddy had a child, who was taken away after Freddy's murder trial. At the local town orphanage, the matron recognizes John and Maggie and John suspects that he is Freddy's child, but Maggie doubts his suspicions as she recognized her as well. The teens enter an abandoned neighborhood after giving up trying to leave town and enter a house that reveals itself to be 1428 Elm. Carlos goes upstairs for some sleep and finds himself trapped in his old neighborhood, where he is attacked by Freddy disguised as his mother and has his hearing aid removed. After getting it back from Freddy, the hearing aid becomes a creature that amplifies all sound. Freddy then uses his claws on a chalkboard, causing Carlos' head to explode. His disappearance confuses Tracy who leaves Spencer to find Maggie. Spencer enters a drug-induced sleep and is pulled into a nightmare of a video game where his father and Freddy are the antagonists. Discovering Spencer bouncing around the house and running through walls, John forces Tracy to knock him out to enter his dream, she then follows through meditation, but they are too late and Spencer is thrown into a deadly pit before they or Maggie can stop him.

Unable to revive John, Maggie and Tracy take the van with him in tow, but Freddy manages to kill John by dropping him on a bed of spikes. As he lays dying, he tells Maggie that Freddy's child is not a boy. Returning to the shelter, Maggie finds her boss does not remember Carlos or Spencer, but Doc does as he can control his dreams. Maggie confirms her suspicions that she was adopted, but her mother does not know anything about her parents. She confronts Freddy in her dreams who confirms she is his daughter, and he used her to take him to a new town to kill children. His first target is the youth shelter, which exists on "Elm Street". Tracy has a nightmare where her father comes after her, but she turns on him, brutally beating him. Before Freddy can kill her however she wakes herself up by burning her arms on a stove. Doc also encounters Freddy and brings out a piece of his sweater when he wakes up, deducing that he can be dragged into reality. Maggie volunteers to go, receiving special glasses to see past Freddy's tricks. She witnesses his childhood, in which he grew up teased by his peers for his sociopathic tendencies, and killing his stepfather as a teenager, then witnessing his death where a trio of demons granted him his power to cross into the dream world before confronting him. She wakes up, but Freddy does not appear. As things appear to her as they did in her dream, she suspects it's not over yet.

Finding Freddy in a storage room, he appears human and begs Maggie for forgiveness before revealing he's kept his supernatural powers. Using the storage of weapons at her disposal, Maggie knocks Freddy's glove off and injures him badly, she puts the glove on and then stabs him with it. Tracy throws Maggie a pipe bomb, which she shoves into Freddy's chest and wishes him a "Happy Father's Day" before he laments "kids" and blows up. Maggie's dream glasses reappear and she proudly proclaims that "Freddy's Dead".

## Cast

* Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
* Lisa Zane as Maggie Burroughs/Katherine Krueger
* Shon Greenblatt as John Doe.
* Lezlie Deane as Tracy
* Breckin Meyer as Spencer
* Ricky Dean Logan as Carlos
* Yaphet Kotto as Doc
* Tobe Sexton as Teenage Freddy Krueger
* Cassandra Rachel Freil as Young Maggie/Katherine
* 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)
* Roseanne Barr as Ethel
* Alice Cooper as Mr. Underwood (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; his screenplay was about how Freddy had become seen as such of a low threat that teenagers were now taking sleeping pills just so they could mess with him. A police officer then was to go into a comatose state, thus permanently being in Freddy's realm. 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 3D. The effect was eliminated for the VHS and television releases - with the notable exception of the UK and French rental version and the US Laserdisc version. The DVD box set, released in 1999, includes 2 pairs of 3D glasses to use with the reinstated effect.

## Reception

### 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*. After its initial run, the film grossed a total of $34,872,033 in the United States, making it the fifth highest grossing film in the series.

### Critical response

Reception from critics and fans of the franchise towards the film was generally negative. It currently holds a 21% rating on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews. *Austin Chronicle* wrote, "Freddy Krueger [...] has devolved from the horrific, ill-defined phantasm posited in the original film into a bland and annoyingly predictable boogeyman loved by kids everywhere."

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

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released September 24, 1991 by Warner Bros. Records. While not included on the soundtrack, the song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly is featured in the film.

1. Goo Goo Dolls – "I'm Awake Now"
2. Junk Monkeys – "Everything Remains the Same"
3. 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. 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 3D 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.

**Films:** *A Nightmare on Elm Street* • *Freddy's Revenge* • *Dream Warriors* • *The Dream Master* • *The Dream Child* • ***Freddy's Dead*** • *New Nightmare* • *Freddy vs. Jason* • *A Nightmare on Elm Street* (2010)
**Characters:** Freddy Krueger • Nancy Thompson
**Comics:** *Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash* • *The Nightmare Warriors*
**Music:** "Dream Warriors" • "Are You Ready for Freddy" • "Nightmare" • "A Nightmare on My Street" • "Freddy Kreuger" • "I'm Awake Now" • *Freddy's Favorites* • *Freddy vs. Jason* (score)
**Miscellaneous:** *A Nightmare on Elm Street* (NES game) • *Freddy's Nightmares* (episodes) • *Never Sleep Again* • *I Am Nancy* • *Jason Goes to Hell* • *Mortal Kombat* (2011)
**Related topics:** *Friday the 13th* • *Mortal Kombat* • *Evil Dead*