I put off writing this review for a long time as it is arguably the worst entry into the series (except for maybe Freddy vs. Jason and the atrocious remake - but more on that later) and by far my least favourite, as everybody's favourite dream killer hacks his way through yet another batch of sleep deprived teenagers to get to his daughter, a social worker for said teenagers, in order to make his way out of Springwood (whose population of children he has successfully slaughtered) and into the consciousness of a new town to terrorise.
Yes, they waited until the 'final' instalment of the franchise to reveal that before (or whilst) he became a serial child killer, Freddy was a family man with a wife and child; a set-up which simply falls flat, firstly because it was always heavily implied that Freddy had been forced to lurk in boiler rooms due to his social outcast role in the community - so this revelation just comes out of nowhere - and secondly, because although I feel the series had already become somewhat lacklustre before this movie, the characters in Freddy's Dead are so unbelievably dull, which equates to a very anti-climactic 'send-off' for this horror icon.
I can't help but feel that the movie would've packed more of a punch if they'd found a way to bring back characters from previous movies in the series to defeat Freddy for a 'final' time.
I've always been fairly generous when judging the Elm Street series as even after the movies themselves stopped being 'scary' I've always given props to the creativity of the visuals and ideas (i.e. the idea of the teenagers having dream powers and abilities suited to their personalities), but all of that is just gone in this movie; none of the characters have any interesting traits, powers or abilities and after having watched Freddy's Dead again recently, for the purpose of writing this review, I did enjoy the sequences where the John Doe character keeps finding himself in situations where he is falling through the sky but this is completely overridden by the cringe worthy video game/power glove sequence.
Oh, and the movie attempts to explain the origins of Freddy's powers which is not only incredibly lame but unnecessary.
(You've probably noticed that I've written the word 'final' in quotation marks; that's because I like to think Freddy's REAL send-off came out just three short years after this movie's release...)
Yes, they waited until the 'final' instalment of the franchise to reveal that before (or whilst) he became a serial child killer, Freddy was a family man with a wife and child; a set-up which simply falls flat, firstly because it was always heavily implied that Freddy had been forced to lurk in boiler rooms due to his social outcast role in the community - so this revelation just comes out of nowhere - and secondly, because although I feel the series had already become somewhat lacklustre before this movie, the characters in Freddy's Dead are so unbelievably dull, which equates to a very anti-climactic 'send-off' for this horror icon.
I can't help but feel that the movie would've packed more of a punch if they'd found a way to bring back characters from previous movies in the series to defeat Freddy for a 'final' time.
I've always been fairly generous when judging the Elm Street series as even after the movies themselves stopped being 'scary' I've always given props to the creativity of the visuals and ideas (i.e. the idea of the teenagers having dream powers and abilities suited to their personalities), but all of that is just gone in this movie; none of the characters have any interesting traits, powers or abilities and after having watched Freddy's Dead again recently, for the purpose of writing this review, I did enjoy the sequences where the John Doe character keeps finding himself in situations where he is falling through the sky but this is completely overridden by the cringe worthy video game/power glove sequence.
Oh, and the movie attempts to explain the origins of Freddy's powers which is not only incredibly lame but unnecessary.
(You've probably noticed that I've written the word 'final' in quotation marks; that's because I like to think Freddy's REAL send-off came out just three short years after this movie's release...)