Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (sometimes known as simply A Nightmare on Elm Street 6) is an American slasher film, released in 1991. As the title suggests, the film was intended to be the last in the series of films featuring Freddy Krueger, wherein the character would be killed off. However the success of the series prevented it from ending like Friday The 13th part 4, and part 9 another film, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, was produced. The character then returned in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason and might continue on.

Robert Englund reprises his role as Freddy Krueger; Lisa Zane, Yaphet Kotto, Breckin Meyer, Shon Greenblatt, Ricky Dean Logan, and Lezlie Deane also star. Additionally, several well known actors make cameo appearances in the film, including Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, Roseanne Barr, and Tom Arnold.

Plot summary

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has somehow managed to kill nearly all of the children and teenagers in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio. The only surviving teenager (known only as John Doe throughout the film) finds himself wandering the streets with no memory of who he is and with a mysterious article about a woman named Loretta Krueger.

Meanwhile, at a shelter for troubled youth, Spencer (Meyer), Carlos (Logan) and Tracy (Deane) all plot to run away from their troubles (Carlos is abused by his parents, Tracy was sexually abused by her father, and Spencer simply doesn't want to conform to his father's lifestyle). After a brief talk with Spencer, and explaining to the police that Tracy doesn't like to be touched, psychiatrist Maggie Burroughs (Zane), has a discussion with shelter professor "Doc" (Kotto) about his "dream therapy". Maggie then notices a strange photograph of what looks like ancient ruins of people holding up three serpent-like creatures. Doc explains that the creatures are known as "dream demons" and that they search for the most twisted (insane) mind in the world and give that person the ability to bend the line between dreams and reality.

"John Doe" ends up at the shelter where it is revealed that he hasn't slept in weeks. Maggie asks him where he came from, but he doesn't know. All he remembers is that he is the last survivor and, if he falls asleep, he won't wake up. That night, after studying the article on Loretta Krueger, Maggie falls asleep and ends up having a dream about a little girl with red ribbons. John Doe tries not to fall asleep by singing "99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall" (much to the annoyance of those around him). However, he falls asleep as well and ends up having a nightmare about his memory being locked in a padded room.

The next day, Maggie asks John about what his dream was about. It turns out that they were dreaming about the same thing. Thinking that it might help spark some long-lost memory, she suggests that they both head to Springwood. Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos sneak onto the van and head there as well. But, when they arrive there, they realize that something is wrong. There are no kids, and the adults are acting very weird. Maggie heads off with John to find out about his past while Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos head off to find a way out of town.

After encountering an insane teacher, Maggie and John find out that Freddy Krueger had a child that was taken away from him. John himself begins to suspect that he is Freddy's child, explaining why he has not been hurt.

Tracy, Spencer, and Carlos, meanwhile, are having little (make that no) luck finding a way out of town. No matter which way they turn, they always end up driving in circles. Exhausted, they decide to simply rest at a nearby abandoned house. The only problem is... it happens to be 1428 Elm Street (the very house where the previous Nightmare On Elm Street films occurred). Carlos ends up falling asleep, but he quickly ends up in a nightmare in which Freddy replaces his hearing aid with one that amplifies Carlos' hearing so much that pins falling onto the ground causes him intense pain and Freddy dragging his claws against a chalkboard that makes his (Carlos') head explode.

Freddy's next victim is Spencer, who passed out on a couch while watching a broken television after smoking a joint. Spencer's nightmare begins with a parody of This is Your Brain on Drugs public service announcement featuring Johnny Depp, who is ultimately knocked out after being hit by a frying pan by Freddy. Spencer ends up being sucked into the TV while "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is playing and discovers he's in a video game. John and Tracy both fall asleep to try to save Spencer, but fail due to Freddy having a Nintendo-style "power glove". Tracy is awakened by Maggie, but John is still sound asleep, so they decide to take him back to the shelter. John has a nightmare in which he encounters Freddy. But, Freddy has a nasty secret for him. It turns out that he was simply using John to get to his daughter. Freddy then kills John by making him fall on a bed of spikes. Before he dies, he tells Maggie that Freddy's child was not a boy.

When Tracy and Maggie return to the shelter, they realize that no one remembers John, Spencer, or Carlos except for Doc who can somehow control his dreams. Upset, Maggie remembers what John has told her and discovers some adoption papers in her house. That night, she falls asleep only to encounter Freddy Krueger. Freddy then tells her a horrifying secret, that Maggie is really Kathryn Krueger, Freddy's daughter. He explains to her that he killed all those kids because Maggie/Kathryn was taken away from him. But, since there are no more kids in Springwood, he wants to start all over again in the shelter claiming that "Every town has an Elm Street". He then tries to give both Tracy and Doc nightmares, but both manage to evade him (Tracy wakes herself up by burning herself and Doc isn't fooled by Freddy's tricks.)

Doc discovers that Freddy may be able to be pulled into the real world, and theorizes that he can be killed in reality. Maggie decides that she'll be the one to enter his (Freddy's) mind and pull him into the real world. Once in the dream world, she puts on a pair of 3D glasses (the theatrical version of the film was in 3D) and goes into Freddy's mind. There, she finds out that Freddy was teased as a child, inflicted self-abuse as a teenager, and murdered Loretta Krueger (his wife) in front of his own daughter. After some struggling, Maggie manages to pull Freddy into the real world.

Both Maggie and Freddy end up in hand-to-hand combat against one another after Freddy tries to get Maggie's sympathy by telling her that she knew that it wasn't his fault he ended up the way he did. However, Maggie continues to battle Freddy, enraged by her knowledge of what he has done. By throwing weapons slid under a fence to her by Tracy, including knives, throwing stars and a crowbar, she pins Freddy to a wall. She then picks up Freddy's infamous glove, and Freddy tells her to put it on and that he'll teach her how to use it. However, instead of giving in to her father's wishes, Maggie stabs Freddy in the stomach and then sticks a pipe bomb in his chest, causing him to explode. Maggie manages to evade the blast and tell both Doc and Tracy that Freddy is dead.

Notes

• The last ten minutes of the film are in 3-D. The effect was eliminated for the VHS release, although the DVD box set, released in 1999, includes a pair of 3-D glasses to use with the reinstated effect.

• Breckin Meyer's film debut.

• Despite the fact that one of its taglines was "they saved the best for last," the film was considered by many fans as one of the worst, if not the worst, film in the series, possibly due to its non-relation to other films in the series (no characters from the previous films, other than Freddy, are featured or even mentioned), unnecessary cameo appearances, unnecessary 3-D effects, product placement (especially for Nintendo), and a bad plot.

• 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 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. ^* (PDF)

• It is debatable when the movie takes place. While the previous film, The Dream Child took place specifically in 1989, Freddy's Dead takes place, vaguely, "ten years from now." The most logical answers would be in 1999, ten years after Dream Child, or in 2001, ten years after the film was made. However, the events of Freddy vs. Jason, which take place in 2003, throw the entire timeline off because Springwood was suddenly populated with children again.

• A 16-year-old Jacob Johnson, the son that was born to Alice Johnson in the previous installment, The Dream Child, was a major character in the original script. In this first draft of the film, Alice, now in her thirties, was killed by Freddy. Taryn, Joey, and Kincaid from Dream Warriors 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 original script and that the rewritten version "saved the day." ^*

External link

• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare at The Nightmare On Elm Street Companion

A Nightmare on Elm Street | New Line Cinema films | 1991 films | 3-D films | Sequel films | Horror films

La Fin de Freddy - L'ultime cauchemar | Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare