Editorials
What a Rush! ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 3’ Turns 30 Today!
Today is a very special day because I turn 28 today! I jest, of course, it’s actually the 30th anniversary of what is arguably the best entry sequel in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (seriously though, it is my birthday). Dream Warriors is lauded by fans of the franchise as being one of the very best horror sequels ever made, and rightfully so. Hell, some would argue that it’s one of the very best sequels ever made, horror or otherwise. Let’s celebrate this film together, shall we?
***SPOILERS for a 30-year-old film to follow***
The road to Dream Warriors was a bit of a complicated one. After all, it wouldn’t have been the same were it not for a certain film. 1985 saw the release of the franchise’s most controversial entry, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. While the film was a box office success (it grossed nearly $30 million on a $3 million budget), critical and audience reception was mixed to say the least. While it was technically a direct continuation of the franchise, it was not exactly the film fans were wanting to see. Not only was Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) MIA, but the tone of the film took a much darker and sinister tone than the original film. Not that Wes Craven’s original wasn’t dark and sinister, but there was just something off-putting about Freddy’s Revenge (it ranks above Freddy’s Dead and Dream Child for me, but it’s still one of my least favorite entries) that didn’t sit well with audiences.
Series creator Wes Craven never wanted his original film to have sequels, because he didn’t think it was capable of spawning a franchise (boy, how wrong was he?), but the commercial success of Freddy’s Revenge convinced him to return to the franchise. Interestingly enough, Wes Craven’s original concept for the third installment of the franchise was to have Freddy Krueger enter the real world and stalk the actors in the franchise. As many of you know, this idea did not come to fruition until 1994, when Craven wrote and directed the seventh installment in the franchise, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. After his meta idea was rejected, he wrote the first draft of the script for Dream Warriors with Bruce Wagner, which you can read here. Craven was unable to direct the film so New Line Cinema brought in Chuck Russell, who re-wrote the script with his buddy Frank Darabont. Russell would go on to direct the exceptional remake of The Blob whereas Darabont would go on to direct pretty much every great Stephen King adaptation known to man. The final product of Dream Warriors is significantly different than the film Craven envisioned, but that doesn’t make it any less great.
The importance of Dream Warriors to the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise can’t be emphasized enough. This was the film that began featuring a more comedic Freddy Krueger. Whereas the iconic villain had the occasional joke and one-liner in A Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy’s Revenge, this was the film to really lay the groundwork for the Freddy that many people know and love today. It branded him the bastard son of a hundred maniacs, giving him the backstory that many were craving for (that particular backstory, interestingly enough, was not in Craven’s original script).
Dream Warriors would be nothing if it wasn’t for the cast. While Roger Ebert may have thought that the film never generated any sympathy for its characters, I must respectably disagree. Character development may not have been at the front of the four screenwriters’ minds, but they most definitely (along with the actors) created a wonderful cast of characters that have been ingrained in moviegoers minds for three decades. The return of Heather Langenkamp, who was sorely missed in Freddy’s Revenge, has a lot to do with the success of Dream Warriors. Despite being in just two of the films in the franchise (I’m leaving out New Nightmare since her character isn’t Nancy in that one), Nancy Thompson is the heart and soul of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and bringing her back helps make Dream Warriors have the impact that it does. How Ebert felt nothing when Freddy kills her is something I will never understand.
The supporting cast of teenagers are all equally likable. Though they are all stereotypes, they are probably the most memorable characters out of any of the other characters in the franchise. Only Bradley Gregg’s Phillip gets the short end of the stick, as he dies before any truly distinguishing characteristics can be established (all we know about him is that he likes puppets and he sleepwalks). But from Jennifer Rubin’s badass Taryn to Rodney Eastman’s demure Joey, the characters all make lasting impressions and each get their moment to shine (I always had a soft spot for Penelope Sudrow’s Jennifer…..she just wanted to be on TV!). This makes it all the more upsetting when (SPOILER ALERT) the survivors all get unceremoniously killed off in the first half of The Dream Master, but c’est la vie.
One cannot mention Dream Warriors without discussing its magnificent special effects. This is the film that put the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise on the map when it came to special effects (though The Dream Master may take the cake when it comes to that subject). The Freddy Snake, the Freddy TV, Taryn’s gaping track marks and Phillips veiny marionette strings are all examples of the creativity that was employed to make the film. Special makeup effects sequences director Greg Cannom was at the top of his game with Dream Warriors, and his work is easily a series highlight. Contrary to what Ebert thought though, the characters made the film, not the special effects (though they played a huge part in its success).
You also have the theme song, which was written and performed by heavy metal band Dokken. Released on February 10, 1987, “Dream Warriors” was a huge hit for the band, but they decided to take six months off before unleashing the album “Back for the Attack”, which became their most successful album (it reached number 13 on the charts). Is it possible that the success of “Dream Warriors” have an impact on the success of “Back for the Attack”? Maybe (probably).
Dream Warriors didn’t actually face that much controversy like the Friday the 13th films did at the time. Since it wasn’t as graphic as many of the Friday the 13th entries and many of the deaths were fantastical, the film was under less scrutiny. That being said, the Australian state of Queensland did ban the film because of Taryn’s death scene. There was a more conservative idea about drug use in that state, hence the ban, but it was abolished just three years later.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors opened in the number one spot with $8.8 million the weekend of February 27-March 1, 1987. It was kicked out of that spot the following weekend by Lethal Weapon, but still managed to gross gross $44.7 million on a $4.5 million production budget during its entire theatrical run. That made it the highest grossing film in the franchise at the time and the 24th highest grossing film of 1987 (The highest grossing film? Three Men and a Baby with $167.7 million). Those stellar box office returns put a sequel immediately into production, despite the fact that Dream Warriors was intended to be the final film in the franchise. That sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master would surpass Dream Warriors‘ box office gross and earn $49.3 million, making it the highest grossing film in the franchise until Freddy Vs. Jason came out in 2003. That film grossed $82.6 million, becoming the highest grossing film in both the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises.
We should all be grateful that Dream Warriors was made. Were it not for the success of that film, we probably wouldn’t have had any other A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Sure, none of the sequels we did get ever matched the quality of Dream Warriors or the first installment, but they all have their merits (except Freddy’s Dead…just don’t tell John Squires I said that). Movies like Dream Warriors are why I love the horror genre. It’s just that special. Where does Dream Warriors fall in your ranking of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films? Do you love it? Or do you think it’s overrated? Let us know in the comments below!
Auteur Filmmaking is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days in reference to big name directors like Quentin Tarantino and even Wes Anderson, but the truth is that film is a collective medium, and no one person can be responsible for every single aspect of a particular production. However, the smaller a film’s budget, the bigger the individual impact of every creative decision behind it – and the easier it becomes to identify a genuine auteur.
This isn’t necessarily a judgement of value, as blockbuster filmmaking comes with its own challenges and a good movie remains a miracle regardless of how big the crew is, but I’ve always been more interested in soulful b-movies produced by handfuls of passionate artists than blockbusters backed by creative armies.
That’s why I love exploring low-budget franchises that never left the hands of their original creators, as you really get to know the artists involved with these flicks and can accompany their evolution over a period of time. With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to join me in this multi-part series as we look into a vampire saga helmed by one of the most fascinating auteurs of the 1990s. Naturally, I’m referring to Ted Nicolaou’s criminally underrated Subspecies!
The Birth of an Unlikely Horror Franchise
A proud graduate of the University of Texas’ Film program, Nicolaou got his start in the industry as a sound technician working on Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. From there, the filmmaker would go on to work for notorious indie producer Charles Band, the founder of both Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions. According to Nicolaou, Band would usually contact him with an offer to direct a feature after more prominent filmmakers, such as the late, great Stuart Gordon, had already refused, meaning that his projects tended to have lower budgets and more inexperienced crew members.
The plans for Subspecies began almost immediately after the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, with screenwriter David Pabian turning in an initial draft of the film after a Romanian producer contacted Band and explained that Romanian tax incentives could cover the cost of film production there so long as Full Moon took care of the post-production process. Since Stuart Gordon was unwilling to travel to Romania, Ted Nicolaou ended up taking over the picture.
However, while the financial incentives meant that this Romanian-American co-production could look and feel much more expensive than it really was, with Nicolaou scouting for locations in advance and selecting real castle ruins to be featured in the movie, the director was soon faced with an incredibly difficult shooting process. In interviews, Nicolaou would later describe the experience as something of a nightmare, with language barriers and the generalized distrust of capitalist outsiders sabotaging many of the team’s plans for the film.
In fact, the script, which had already been altered by Band, ultimately had portions of it rewritten by both Jack Canson and Nicolaou himself in an attempt to adapt the story to their unique limitations.
Radu Is One of Horror’s Greatest Underrated Villains
In the finished film, which was released directly to video in 1991, we follow a pair of American anthropology students, Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and Lillian (Michelle McBride), as they reunite with their Romanian colleague Mara (Irina Movila) in her native land. The group intends to study the folklore surrounding the secluded town of Prejmer, but their research is cut short by the return of Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) – the evil son of a vampire king (Angus Scrimm) who had previously established a truce with the region’s human residents. It’s now up to Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) to protect the girls from a fate worse than death as the power-hungry vampire seeks to control a magical artifact known as the Bloodstone.
Right off the bat, you may have noticed that the film’s premise sounds decidedly old-fashioned when compared to other vampire movies from around the same time. While the 1990s saw the rise of cool-looking bloodsuckers with badass elements borrowed from Westerns, as well as the sexy aristocrats of Anne Rice’s stories, Subspecies has a lot more in common with Nosferatu and the Hammer Horror series than any of its contemporaries.
This is both a blessing and a curse, as the film falls victim to overly familiar genre tropes while also standing out as a rare example of a ’90s vampire flick that isn’t afraid to flex its muscles as a Creature Feature. In fact, I’d argue that the presence of age-old clichés is a small price to pay when confronted with one of the most compelling vampire antagonists in all of cinema.
Named after Vlad the Impaler’s real-life brother, Anders Hove’s Radu is such a fascinating character and the main reason why Subspecies is still worth watching 35 years later. From his animalistic mannerisms to the joy he feels in simply existing as a chaotic creature of the night, and that’s not even mentioning the iconic makeup that almost certainly inspired the undead from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Radu is a hypnotic presence harkening back to a time when audiences didn’t mind purely evil villains that couldn’t be redeemed through tragic backstories or sex appeal.
Gothic Atmosphere on an Indie Budget
Of course, the film’s Romanian setting and authentic art direction do a lot of the heavy lifting whenever Radu isn’t around. From the masked festivals of the village to the visually interesting selection of local extras, Subspecies’ multicultural elements help it to stand out when compared to similar flicks from the ’90s.
That being said, Nicolaou’s unique eye for special effects and exciting action sequences – as well as Vlad Paunescu’s excellent cinematography – make the movie a delight for fans of expressionist cinema and old-timey gothic horror. While the crew is obviously dealing with limited resources, many of the flick’s blemishes (such as the odd stop-motion demons that serve Radu) end up feeling more like charming idiosyncrasies than actual flaws.
I’d argue that the only real issue here is pacing, as there are long stretches of film where the protagonists are simply bumbling around without realizing what’s really going on around them. Thankfully, the gorgeous visuals and surprisingly effective soundtrack usually make up for this. Besides, how can you dislike a movie where shotgun shells are loaded with rosary beads and our lead vampires duke it out in a dramatic swordfight that would feel out of place during the golden age of Hollywood?
Your overall enjoyment of Subspecies will mostly depend on whether or not you find low-budget corner-cutting and janky practical effects charming rather than distracting, but I know I’ll keep coming back to this Full Moon feature again and again in the future.
That being said, while this first movie is worth revisiting by its own merits as the birth of an indie horror icon, I’d like to invite you to join us as we look into the cult sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II soon.
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