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Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Play trailer Poster for Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare R 1991 1h 30m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
23% Tomatometer 40 Reviews 32% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
Murderous ghoul Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has slaughtered every last child in his hometown. He ventures on to a new location, scouting fresh young victims to hack up with his finger blades. He arrives in a small town in which his long-lost daughter, Maggie (Lisa Zane), works as a therapist for troubled youths. He attempts to recruit her for his dastardly pursuits, but she has other ideas. Father and daughter meet for a bloody showdown that will determine Freddy's fate once and for all.
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Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

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Critics Consensus

Reducing the once-terrifying Dream Reaper into a goofy caricature, this joyless climax will leave audiences hoping Freddy stays dead.

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Critics Reviews

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Steve Murray Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sep 23
The special-effects slaughters are infrequent and only quasi-inspired. Go to Full Review
Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly 01/27/2019
C-
The joke is on the filmmakers: By taking the finality out of death, they've already robbed the horror genre of its giddy sting. Go to Full Review
Kim Newman Empire Magazine 04/05/2010
2/5
The one interesting idea -- what would a town be like if all the teenagers in it had been slaughtered in five movies? -- is thrown away with a few cheap jokes. Go to Full Review
Grant Watson Fiction Machine Oct 4
3/10
Other films in the series have varied in quality and innovation, but have remained broadly entertaining. This is the first time the production team developed a film that was, for all sensible intents and purposes, unwatchable. Go to Full Review
Brian Bisesi Horror Movie Club Podcast Sep 25
3/5
The Final Nightmare deserves more credit for exploring the most interesting avenues of the Elm St. franchise since Dream Warriors, but some utterly silly choices squander its otherwise dark tone and blunt the impact of Freddy’s grim backstory. Go to Full Review
Patrick Cavanaugh The Wolfman Cometh Sep 11
2/5
Some satisfying moments for longtime fans of the franchise and the way it pays off elements of the mythology, though it's otherwise another forgettable entry into the long-running series. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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John B. @rjcartoonist69 Nov 12 In what was promised as “They Saved The Best For Last” this proposed finale goes out with a whimper rather than a bang & all of what made Freddy scary back in ‘84 has transitioned into a goofball of a ghoul… See more Obi-wan K Oct 26 Thank god its over. See more Rafael S Oct 2 The second worst film in this franchise, it could be a thousand times better, but it's not trash. See more Stephen C @bob25009 Sep 29 Success in 1.5 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The USA grossed over $34,000,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dubbed and subtitled in worldwide studios!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See more DanTheMan 2 Sep 18 They saved the worst for last. Almost playing like an ill-advised and completely half-assed parody of its own franchise, Freddy's Dead is a chaotic headscratcher, reducing the once-terrifying Dream Demon into a blandly annoying and goofy Looney Tunes caricature. A kinetic, jumpy, tonally confused, starry-eyed mess of a film that proves to be a hysterical fever dream of bad choices. Nothing about it makes any sense; not the title, nor the baffling attempt to make Freddy Krueger a sympathetic figure, nor the frantic pace and incompetent editing. The sheer audacity of Rachel Talalay directing this and then later going on to helm one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Modern Doctor Who is outrageous. So much of the film is shot in an exceedingly flat, murky, and downright unimaginative manner; gone is the surrealist edge, arthouse aesthetics and wacky creativity; it feels like a poorly plotted joke delivered with all the comedic timing of a slowly sinking ship. It all leans so hard into Freddy's pop-culture status that it's easy to forget that once upon a time, he was terrifying. Gone is the sinister, burn-scarred child-murderer who haunts our nightmares. Instead, we get Freddy in full-on prankster mode, almost like the franchise decided that if Freddy's fame as a pop icon couldn't be topped, it might as well lean all the way into it. At least Robert Englund is still having fun despite the horrendously groan-inducing dialogue he's been given; he's the only one who is, while the rest of the cast stand around wide-eyed or, in Breckin Meyer's case, sporting an actual war crime of a haircut. Ultimately standing as a curious relic of a franchise that had long since traded scares for laughs, Freddy's Dead proves that even the most fearsome villains can be defanged by their own fame, an explosive attempt to throw everything at the walls without a care in the world, landing with more of a yawn than a scream. See more Munchie A Sep 13 Underrated. The premise is really good. It starts with Freddy having finally won and wiped out the entire town’s children. The protagonists are pretty forgettable but face some interesting situations in the aftermath of the boogeyman finally winning. There are some really bad production decisions in this movie but they add to the camp. The way Freddy comes back in this one fits established lore and keeps continuity. We get new lore that impacts events in Freddy Vs. Jason. See more Read all reviews
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

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Movie Info

Synopsis Murderous ghoul Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has slaughtered every last child in his hometown. He ventures on to a new location, scouting fresh young victims to hack up with his finger blades. He arrives in a small town in which his long-lost daughter, Maggie (Lisa Zane), works as a therapist for troubled youths. He attempts to recruit her for his dastardly pursuits, but she has other ideas. Father and daughter meet for a bloody showdown that will determine Freddy's fate once and for all.
Director
Rachel Talalay
Producer
Robert Shaye, Aron Warner
Screenwriter
Wes Craven, Rachel Talalay, Michael De Luca
Distributor
New Line Cinema
Production Co
New Line Cinema
Rating
R (Horror Violence|Drug Content|Language)
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 13, 1991, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 1, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA)
$34.0M
Runtime
1h 30m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Dolby Stereo
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