A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) marks Chuck Russell’s directorial debut and is an American fantasy slasher film. It takes place a year after the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and follows the story of Kristen Parker. Despite having already awoken from her nightmare, she finds herself in another one where Freddy Krueger is chasing her. In this terrifying dream, he attacks her in the bathroom and makes it appear as though she has slit her wrist in reality. Concerned for Kristen’s well-being, her mother has her admitted to Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital under the care of Dr. Neil Gordon. Kristen, who fears falling asleep, resists being sedated by the orderlies and instead tries to fight them off. It is here that she meets Nancy Thompson, a new intern therapist who uses part of Freddy’s nursery rhyme to calm and befriend her.

Later on, Nancy is introduced to the other patients under Dr. Gordon’s care: Phillip, a sleepwalker; Kincaid, a streetwise teenager with a violent streak; Jennifer, an aspiring actress prone to self-harm. One night, Freddy attacks Kristen in her dreams, but she unintentionally brings Nancy into the dream world with her, enabling them to break free. It turns out that Kristen has possessed this ability since childhood. In the next two nights, Freddy causes the death of Phillip by throwing him off a roof and Jennifer by brutally slamming her head against a television. During their next group therapy session, Nancy reveals to the remaining patients that they are ‘the last of the Elm Street kids’, the only surviving children of those who united and burned Krueger alive many years ago. Both Nancy and Neil suggest trying group hypnosis as a means to share a dream experience and unlock their own dream abilities.