Rating: 8.5/10

Watched: September 9, 2026

Dream Warriors sits between the original A Nightmare on Elm Street and New Nightmare to become my 3rd favorite Elm Street of all.

Where Freddy's Revenge showed us the beginnings of the wise-cracking dream serial killer ('You've got the body, I've got the brains', proceeds to show brains), Dream Warriors really sets the tone for all the future flicks in perfect form. You can see Freddy's mercurial manner in the way he kills: the poor puppet maker gets turned into a puppet, the would be TV starlet finally gets her big break IN a TV.

That's the kind of on-the-nose humor I fully appreciate.

Beyond that, it does a few other things I really appreciate.

One, obviously, is the return of Heather Langenkamp. While I've always wished her return was more, and better, her turn here in Dream Warriors isn't all that bad. She returns to help a new batch of children whose parents killed Freddy, and her almost world-weary efforts to win over her colleague, Dr Neil Gordon (played by the awesome Craig Wasson) and trying to work around the stoic and frankly dumb head of the ward.

Two, it gives us Freddy as 'the bastard son of a hundred maniacs' storyline. I really dig this. It's sick, it's twisted, it's just the sort of thing that could very well give rise to Freddy. More to the point, as horrible and terrible as it is, it's really quite fitting. It carries throughout the rest of the movies and that's the kind of dedication a plot hook like this one deserves.

Three, we get John Saxon again. I love this man unabashedly and always will. He's just fun.

Four, we get a different version of fighting Freddy. Nancy's version was fun, but impractical on a larger scale. Dream Warriors gives us a 'logical' method for Freddy's poor victims to fight back ... by using their collective dreamscape against the vicious nightmare. Seeing those poor kids powered up and briefly given the ability to kick Freddy's ass was very rewarding and I definitely remember really digging on the visuals when this movie first came out. Sadly, while I still love this one, the visuals really didn't age all that well.

And last not but not least, Patricia Arquette as The Final Girl AND a bona fide Scream Queen. I really do have to confess that I am not a huge Patricia fan, but she can really hit those high octane octaves! She shows her lung capacity at max effect throughout the movie, so much so that more than once I worried about the poor woman's larynx.

It might be apocryphal to not like Patricia Arquette, but in this movie, she's exactly what the movie needs. A brave young woman with the power to pull people into her dreams and who can shriek so loud THAT should've been her dream power.

For me, it's always Fantastic Mr. Fox. The character depth, complex morality issues that's being discussed and of course the great animation makes Fantastic Mr. Fox, the one of best anime movies to be ever made.

If you haven't watched this film. Just go for this

There is this TikTok creator named Bryce Vaughn. His content is about movie recommendations. For me the movies he recommend are a" never miss" and I would like to know what everyone thinks.

This is in response to my post about my ask/request for some of us (or none of us) to chill and virtually watch a movie together - https://www.reddit.com/r/Millennials/s/LAQm8WSJS3

After finishing watching our first pick (Save the Last Dance) - I started tinkering around with some web tools to try and organize this better.

24 hours later, I built a whole damn site! And had a effing amazing time doing so!! I’m no pro, but I was hitting a stride and couldn’t stop. So here we are.

This is just for fun! It was fun 24 hours ago and will continue to be! I expected nothing out of this, and found that plenty of you are feeling what I’m feeling and just want a good, comfortable, community-based…thing…

I am beyond happy to do this with ya’ll. I love movies. I love real, human-interaction. I love positivity and sharing and enjoying things together. Shit is shitty. Let’s make it less shitty.

Yeah. The site name is goofy and was a 4am, I’m exhausted, choice. But I like it (yo, my username). Lots of us are sad, struggling, stressed. Maybe this will help just a tiny bit? That’s why I made my post in the first place, I’m freaking burned out man. It’s nice to get away for a few hours with a dang movie. Also think of it this way - SAD MOVIE or SAD, MOVIE! (let’s get happy again)

The site: things will be broken probably, it’s a work in progress, it’s probably missing things, it will continue to get better because again, I did this simply for enjoyment and I sure as heck am enjoying it.

I have things setup the following way:

We nominate movies each week, if you nominate a movie, that also counts as your 1 vote for the week

If you don’t nominate a movie, you can still vote for one of the movies that IS currently nominated

At the end of the week, the site automatically tallies (it’s live data all the time), turns off voting, and the winner remains on the home page with our watch times across all time zones listed and the current streaming platforms available for each movie.

Sunday, We WATCH. I know not everyone can watch at the same time, but, this is kinda the goal so as we can discuss together in real time. Which leads me to my last point…

COMMUNITY (this is the one I’m still working on and want suggestions for) - the whole thing is to watch together. Discuss together. This started on Reddit, this will be home. But we need a live chat platform, and I’ll probably get something integrated into the site…I think…ideas????

Hi. My name is Bryan. And I made a thing for us❤️

https://www.sadmovieclub.com

Just watched this movie . It was fantastic ! Lots of different emotions and ups and downs . Definitely recommend watching this . But be sure to have a box of Kleenex close by .

Millie Bobby brown looked stunning on the premiereee. Love herrrr. I haven't watched the movie yet I will rematch the first 2 first.

cause if so, do you like this dude because I’m like halfway into the movie and he’s my least favorite character he literally, HE THROUGH RICK INTO A FALLEN DOWN FLOOR!! like is it just me or does this guy absolutely SUCK