The Cannon Cruisers

Happy Halloween, Cannon Cruisers! Randy here! For our second annual Halloween Spooktacular, JD and I take another Non-CANNON-ical break from the Cannon Catalogue for Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). We skip Freddy's Revenge and pair these two together because of Craven's involvement and because, at the time, we saw them as a story that worked surprisingly well as a two-film arc. This was also my first real introduction to Freddy Krueger.

What surprised me most about the original was how restrained Freddy is compared with the character he eventually became. I even came away thinking it could work as a pretty good gateway into horror for someone who normally avoids the genre. Dream Warriors is much bigger and stranger, but JD and I both keep coming back to how naturally it continues what the first movie started. That also gives us plenty to talk about as Freddy begins turning into the wisecracking horror icon everyone remembers.

Content Warning: This episode contains strong language and discussion of horror violence, drug use and mental health themes.