The Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare introduced Dream Demons, Craven's original, simple tale of a killer attacking teens in their dreams had become absurdly convoluted.
However, one draft of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare managed to undo a lot of the franchise’s biggest issues, wrapping up Freddy Krueger’s story in a way that fit the tone of the movie while also making sense in of story. As proven by The Horror Syndicate’s detailed breakdown, Michael Almereyda's rejected script for Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare could have tied together the overarching story of the series by reintroducing some heroes last seen in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as well as looping back in the former Final Girl Alice Johnson from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.
Michael Almereyda's Nightmare on Elm Street 6 Explained
The plans for Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare changed a lot during production, but the sequel was always intended to be the end of Freddy Krueger. Director Rachel Talalay commissioned screenwriter Michael Almereyda to come up with a fitting conclusion to Freddy’s story, and the writer delivered his draft of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Although some stray elements of this script made it into the finished movie — including the memorable opening sequence and Freddy's abusive stepfather — the plot of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare jettisoned almost all of Almereyda's ideas. This choice was a shame since the screenwriter’s take on the material offered a fitting ending for the franchise.
While it didn’t include any of the many big-name celebrity cameos that Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare ended up featuring, Almereyda's script did feature some appearances that were more appropriate and fitting for the slasher series. By bringing back the heroes of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and turning them into the Dream Police, the draft managed to connect the canon of the earlier sequels to the story of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Meanwhile, by making the movie’s hero into Alice Johnson’s son, this version of the sequel’s story tied in with the plot of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, too. These links were lost in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, a standalone finale for the franchise.
Nightmare on Elm Street 6’s Dream Police
In Michael Almereyda's Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare script, three of Freddy’s most memorable victims make a comeback. Joey, Taryn, and Kincaid, three of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3's "dream warriors" from the title, return to save the movie’s hero from Freddy Krueger numerous times, although it is a while before the script reveals who these masked of the Dream Police are. While they can’t kill Freddy themselves, since they are already dead, Joey, Taryn, and Kincaid can fight and frequently temporarily defeat the villain. This is an ingenious use of the existing characters since fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors long argued that the cast of the sequel was underutilized and barely got a chance to use their much-hyped dream powers.
Nightmare on Elm Street 6 Would Have Ended The Series Right
Michael Almereyda's Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare would have been a redemption of sorts for Taryn, who never even had the opportunity to get into a knife fight with Freddy despite the pair both wielding blades as their signature weapons. This vetoed version of the sequel could also have given Dream Master Alice a fitting death scene since, although the Nightmare on Elm Street 5 heroine dies early on, she does so protecting her son from Freddy. In contrast with the completed cut of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, wherein the nameless hero is revealed to not be Freddy’s son in a predictable red herring, Almereyda's script gave its lead character a truly tragic origin story in the opening scene.
The ending of Almereyda's Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare script brought back the most important abandoned element of Freddy’s character. While Alice Cooper does appear as Freddy’s abusive stepfather in the finished movie, his role is limited to a corny, ill-considered cameo appearance. However, earlier drafts of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels would have fleshed out Freddy’s childhood abuse and shown how it was these experiences that made him a monster. A Nightmare on Elm Street’s woeful 2010 remake almost addressed this with its original cut twist, but Almereyda's Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare could have captured Freddy’s sympathetic side with its version of the character’s death.
How Freddy Originally Died In Nightmare On Elm Street 6
Michael Almereyda's Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare ended with the hero’s love interest, Karen, taking advantage of her dream power, which was the ability to take the form of another person. She transformed into Freddy’s abusive stepfather, Mr. Underwood, and terrified Freddy, reducing him to a cowering shell of his formerly ferocious self. Before revealing herself, Karen tore the souls that Freddy fed upon out of his chest as the villain froze in terror. It was a dark, surprisingly sad insight into Freddy Krueger’s missing backstory that depicts the villain as a scared, helpless abuse victim beneath his sneering sadistic veneer, and a fitting end for the beloved franchise villain.
Why Almereyda's Nightmare On Elm Street 6 Could Never Happen
Unfortunately, Rachel Talalay’s dislike of Michael Almereyda's script was not the only thing that stopped this early version of the movie from becoming a reality. The ambitious storyline is filled with large-scale set pieces that would have required a huge budget — then unheard of for a horror movie sequel — and the plot also required the return of numerous actors, which would have been hard to pull off since many of them had moved on to other projects in the interim. Unless the creators of the final Nightmare on Elm Street movie were willing to reunite the cast of earlier sequels, Almereyda's Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare would always have been an impossible yet potentially perfect ending to the series.
