No More Mr. Nice Guy (1988) (TV)

... aka: Freddy's Nightmares: A Nightmare on Elm Street - The Series: No More Mr. Nice Guy
... aka: Freddy's Nightmares: No More Mr. Nice Guy
... aka: Freddy's Nightmares - The Series: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Directed by:
Tobe Hooper

After A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS (1987) broke box office records for independent productions only to have those records shattered a year later by A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER (1988), Freddy Mania had clearly reached its zenith by 1988. The facially-scared dream invader frequently hosted his own TV specials, appeared in music videos and was a regular talk show guest and there were action figures, toys, video games, t-shirts, books, posters, masks, model kits, magazines, comic books, dishes, pins, key chains, trading cards, Halloween costumes, albums of Freddy music... You name it and there was probably one you could get with Freddy's burnt mug on it. It's still amazingly weird to me how beloved and mainstream Freddy managed to get considering he was, ya know, a child murderer.

So it only goes without saying that Mr. Krueger's massive popularity would also spawn a syndicated TV series. The fourth Elm Street film was barely out of theaters by the time Freddy's Nightmares debuted on October 9, 1988. Robert Englund would serve as host and Freddy would sometimes, though not usually, figure directly into the stories themselves. There were 44 episodes in total over two seasons. As far as I know, Wes Craven had no direct involvement with the New Line TV-produced / Lorimar-distributed series, but they did manage to rope in another big genre name to direct this debut episode: Tobe Hooper. Hooper's career was decidedly not going well at this stage as he was fresh off the big-budget Cannon flops Lifeforce (1985) and Invaders from Mars (1986) and the belated, critically lambasted Texas Chainsaw sequel.

Visualizing much of what the film series only hinted at, No More Mr. Nice Guy is essentially an origin story. We start at the Springwood Courthouse as Freddy's trial is underway and the court is watching a slide show of all of the children, aged 4 to 8, the "alleged unholy aberration" has been accused of butchering. However, none of the evidence ends up meaning squat as Freddy was apprehended during an illegal arrest where he wasn't read his Miranda rights by arresting officer Lt. Timothy Blocker (Ian Patrick Williams). And so, even with all of the evidence in the world proving him guilty and two almost-victims in the room to testify that he tried to kill them, Freddy is unleashed back into the world. Even funnier, in lieu of the standard orange jumpsuit Freddy is wearing his trademark red-and-green striped sweater and holding his fedora in his handcuffed hands during the trial!

The case is personal for Lt. Blocker as he'd already spent two years hunting Krueger and his teen twin daughters; Lisa (Gry Park) and Merit (Hili Park), almost became victims themselves. Understandably, Tim's wife Sarah (Anne E. Curry) is pissed off and his girls are now terrified Freddy's going to come after them again. Prosecutor Michael Deeks (William Frankfather) and enraged parents meet outside of the courthouse after the verdict and decide to take matters into their own hands if need be. And it need be! Freddy immediately runs off to his hideout, a power plant boiler room, where his razor glove awaits and he plots a "little party" to celebrate his freedom once night falls. Considering how it's common knowledge where Freddy was hiding as the suburban lynch mob go right there at nightfall, I'm not sure how a killer's primary murder weapon, victim's clothing and other evidence was just left there by police, but... OK, well, I'll just stop thinking so much here.

While Lt. Blocker is at the station, Freddy stops by his house to kill the guard posted there and then terrorize his wife and daughters. One of the girls, Lisa, seems to have psychic abilities and pleads "You can't kill Freddy! You'll only make it worse!" Still, her father and the lynch mob finally corner Freddy is the boiler room and, because his daughter's lives are threatened, Blocker agrees to kill Freddy right then and there. He's covered with gasoline and set ablaze while laughing and shouting things like "You think you is gonna get rid of me?!" and "I am forever!" Turns out he's right and he's soon back as the nightmare slasher we all know and (some of us) love and promising that "Springwood's nightmares are just beginning!"

Since his little act of vigilantism, Lt. Blocker hasn't been able to sleep well. He keeps having Freddy nightmares and wakes up with slash marks on his face. His daughter Merit, who's been mute since she was almost killed, suddenly starts singing the "One, two, Freddy's coming for you..." song. He receives a creepy letter at work that spontaneously goes up in flames and is almost run off the road by Freddy's ice cream truck (?!) And then those who helped torch Freddy start turning up dead. Well, at least one of them does. Blocker has his deputy Gene (Porky's series star Mark Herrier) put Freddy's remains in the trunk of a junked car and weld it shut, but the body disappears. Or does it? Though Blocker stops being able to tell the difference between dreams and reality, Freddy finally shows up with an interesting new dental tool to finally put him out of his misery.

Pretty much anyone could have guessed that a significant budget downgrade and TV limitations wouldn't bode too well for the whole Elm Street formula. The film series is heavily dependent on special effects because they deal with the unpredictability of nightmares. Those sequences with Freddy doing what he does needed to be as vivid, bizarre, crazy and reality-bending as possible. They needed to be good enough to at least partially cover for some bad acting, poor plotting and corny / silly dialogue. And all of those increasingly more elaborate fx that were highlights of the series cost a decent amount of money. 

This episode is basically what happens when you make a Freddy movie with no fx budget. You're mostly just left with the bad acting, the average plot and the corny dialogue ("Freddy's hoooome!"). They do what they can with colorful lighting to try to give this a dreamy feel, and there's one amusing Freddy moment at the end in the dentist's office, but it's not really enough. Still, if you're a die hard series fan, you'll want to see this simply for the origin story. It's kind of interesting to compare what goes on here with the bits of info given out in the films. Also interesting that this episode had its own follow-up within the TV series titled "Sister's Keeper," which was directed by Ken Wiederhorn, was the seventh episode of Season 1 and featured the surviving members of the Blocker's family.

While Wes Craven wasn't really involved with this series, the phrase "No More Mr. Nice Guy" was plastered all over his next release, Shocker (1989). It was the film's tag line, on most of the posters, a part of the actual title in some countries, the name of the theme song (a cover of the 1973 Alice Cooper hit of the same name by Megadeth) and the name of the soundtrack album. Weird.

In the U.S., this and only four other episodes were released to home video (one episode per tape) in 1991 by Warner. The other episode releases were "Freddy's Tricks and Treats" (S1E4), "Lucky Stiff" (S2E6), "Dreams That Kill" (S2E11) and "It's My Party and You'll Die If I Want You To" (S2E12). However, in the UK, Japan and several other countries, most of the first season episodes were released. In 2003, Warner issued a 3-episode DVD release in the UK titled Freddy's Nightmares: Volume 1, which contained the first three episodes (this, "It's a Miserable Life" and "Killer Instinct"). Poor sales of that canceled future releases, though the series still airs occasionally, most notably on the Chiller Network starting in 2007 and the El Rey Network starting in 2015.

★1/2

Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A (1988)

... aka: Le cauchemar de Freddy (Freddy's Nightmare)
... aka: Nightmare 4
... aka: Nightmare 4 - Il non risveglio
... aka: Pesadilla en la calle del infierno 4 (Nightmare on Hell Street 4)
... aka: Rémálom 4. - Az álmok ura (Nightmare 4 - Lord of Dreams)
... aka: Terror på Elm Street 4 - Freddys mardröm (Terror on Elm Street 4: Freddy's Nightmare)

Directed by:
Renny Harlin

The previous entry, DREAM WARRIORS, did things quite a bit differently than the first two films. For starters, the mysterious and ambiguous phantom figure that started the series was given a family history. We didn't know very much about Freddy at all over the course of the first two films but by the time Warriors was over we certainly did. Perhaps too much! To make a long story short, Freddy's mother got tag-teamed by a hundred or so nuts in an asylum and one of those psychos knocked her up and is thus Freddy's father. Part 3 also saw an increase in the amount of witty one-liners Freddy was given. While he'd throw out an occasional dark-humored line in the first two films, by #3 virtually everything out of his mouth was meant to elicit a laugh and he seemed unable to murder anyone without first doing a brief stand-up comedy routine.

Finally, Part 3 added a strong religious angle to the works that was not prevalent in the previous ones. Religion did not factor at all into Freddy's Revenge from what I recall and, while the original features one scene of Freddy being repelled by a crucifix while the heroine slept, he ultimately wasn't stopped by religious artifacts nor divine intervention. It was entirely up to Nancy after learning she could bring him out of the nightmare world (where he's immortal) into the real world (where he's not). But Part 3 piled on the religion thick and heavy to the point where the doctor hero was being coached by a ghost nun about having faith and then filling an empty whiskey bottle with holy water so he could consecrate ground in which to bury Freddy's remains. Seeing how Part 4 opens up with a biblical quote from Job 4: 13-14, I was expecting more of the same. Thankfully, this one backs off that a little bit, though Part 5 would more than make up for it by virtually wallowing in it.

By the end of Dream Warriors, a bunch of beds at the local psychiatric hospital had opened up as the majority of the remaining Elm Street children, descendants of the lynch mob who hunted down and set child killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) ablaze, were killed. Now only three remain: the still meek but no longer mute Joey (Rodney Eastman), the loud, foul-mouthed and "funny" Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) and the resilient Kristen. All three think they can rest easy now that Freddy's remains have been put to rest on consecrated ground, but Kristen's nightmares have started up again and she suspects Freddy will be back to try to finish the job he started.

Viewers will immediately note the absence of Patricia Arquette. I've read multiple sources state she didn't reprise the Kristen role because she was pregnant. I don't recall Arquette ever saying that herself but let's do a little math here. Filming began on April 4th, 1988. Arquette's son was born January 3rd, 1989. There's a window of almost exactly 9 months between the two. So either Arquette found out she was pregnant a few days after it happened and bailed at the last possible second or someone just made up the pregnancy excuse. Seeing how the Kristen role is much smaller here and it's common knowledge Arquette didn't have the best of times on the Elm Street 3 set, it's far more likely that she simply didn't want to do this. Either way, she's been replaced by another blonde named Tuesday Knight, who also performs the opening credits theme song "Nightmare."

Though he's skeptical of Kristen's claims at first, Kincaid becomes a believer once he's dreamed into the junkyard containing Freddy's remains and his dog pisses fire (?!) on the ground, causing it to crack open and Freddy's bones to reassemble all by themselves. Unfortunately he won't live long enough to pass on this info to his endangered friends. Now back to "life," Freddy kills him and then heads right on over to Joey's house to give him a "wet dream" by putting topless Playboy Playmate Hope Marie Carlton inside his water bed. But Joey's hope he'll get some Hope is short-lived once Freddy jumps out of the water and slashes him to death.

Now with Kristen the last of the Elm Street children alive, she makes sure to pass on some vital information to her core group of friends before Freddy picks her up and tosses her into a furnace. She also passes on her "power" to pull people into dreams to her mousy friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox), who will soon have her hands full beyond school, working double shifts at a soda fountain and filling in for her dead mother by catering to her drunken asshole of a father (Nicholas Mele). Is it just me or are Elm Street parents the absolute worst parents ever?

Not content with just getting revenge against those who killed him, Freddy's now planning on branching out. After all, he's got plenty of vacant space on his soul chest. Alice, her brother Rick (Andras Jones), who was also Kristen's boyfriend, Alice's "major league hunk" love interest Dan (Danny Hassel), big-haired workout enthusiast Debbie (Brooke Theiss) and asthmatic nerd Sheila (Toy Newkirk) all become targets. Each time someone dies, Alice is given a special new talent from the victim, whether that be intelligence, strength or martial arts skills. Where she'd already inherited Kristen's ability to pull others into her dreams is where the problem lies as Freddy just uses that against her to strike out at new victims she lures to him.

The acting is the worst yet for the franchise, most of the characters fall flat (what they attempt to do with Alice is more interesting in theory than in execution) and both the plot and the newly added dream mythos get a bit too muddled, but Harlin's flashy direction and the special effects do their best to distract. Some of the fx highlights include Alice being pulled right off a movie theater balcony into a black-and-white movie, a human face pizza (likely a jab at critics frequently describing Freddy's face as one), a gory bit where a girl is transformed into a cockroach, Freddy sucking all of the air out of a victim and a spin through a tunnel of human souls. The finale takes place in a church for some reason (I guess because the stained glass looks cool), where the souls of Freddy's victims eventually rip his body apart. As usual, the ending is left wide open because they already knew they'd be making another one. Or five.

The cast includes Brooke Bundy (again) as Kristen's bitchy mom, "L.E. Moko" (producer Robert Shaye) as a boring teacher and Linnea Quigley as a soul in Freddy's chest. Among the big names on the fx crew are Kevin Yagher, Screaming Mad George, Howard Berger, R. Christopher Biggs, John Carl Buechler, Steve Johnson and Hoyt Yeatman.

Made on a 13 million budget (more than what it cost to make the first three films combined), The Dream Master became the biggest Elm Street hit yet. It was the #1 movie in America for three straight weeks, broke a record for the biggest opening weekend for an independent production, was the highest grossing horror film of the year and went on to earn nearly 50 million dollars, making it the 19th highest grossing film of 1988 and the highest grossing slasher film of the entire decade. It is also among the Top 10 highest grossing genre films of the entire decade.

Englund / Freddy received his own hour-long MTV special to promote the film and there was also a tie-in Fat Boys music video ("Great Ready for Freddy") featuring Englund as well as a 50-minute The Making of a Nightmare on Elm Street 4 tape hosted by Englund. As soon as this left theaters, Freddy was back on TV again hosting his very own syndicated series Freddy's Nightmares, which would last until 1990.

★★