If there's one thing a long-running horror franchise needs, it's sequels that build on the established world, or at least take it to new terrifying levels. With "A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child," director Stephen Hopkins attempted to go back to the franchise's darker roots - a step back from the direction of the previous film, "The Dream Master" - one that unfortunately brought the momentum of the franchise, which was still of great quality and doing increasingly better at the box office, to a screeching halt. RELATED: 17 Horror Movie Villains Who Were Totally In The Right 17 Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday If there's one thing this movie has going for it, it's some of the kills - including a brutal death-by-tree sequence that's definitely worth checking out. Instead of serving as a cool continuation to Tommy's story, it really undermines the last film, depicting the character as a skittish, mostly mute shell of himself that isn't a whole lot of fun to watch.
The film does, however, follow an adult Tommy Jarvis - who we were introduced to in the last film - now grown up and completely insane as a result of his earlier experience with Jason. Rather, "A New Beginning" leads us onto the idea that Jason's been revived, only to reveal that the killer is actually a copycat. But you'd think Hollywood could've mustered up some plot to bring back the iconic killer.
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Part of that could be because the fourth film was supposed to be the last in the series - as it killed Jason Voorhees - and closed the door on the main plot. "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning" (the fifth film in the franchise) is a bad new beginning. Could we not have seen Jason murder at some of the more iconic New York City hotspots? Nope, because that would make for a good movie. And When He Does It Looks Like One of the Seinfeld Sets." Seriously, New York, apart from a couple scenes in Times Square, looks incredibly fake in the film, and is relegated to dark alleyways and boring rooftops. "Jason Takes Manhattan" should be called "Jason Takes Forever to Get to Manhattan. Think again! An incredibly slow outing, and probably the worst of the "Friday the 13th" sequels (even though it does snapshot a late '80s New York that had a Michael Keaton "Batman" advertisement in Times Square), "Jason Takes Manhattan" has a cast of truly forgettable characters and a series of bland deaths that don't really do anything to elevate the franchise or what makes Jason Voorhees so terrifying. You'd think throwing Jason Voorhees in New York City could be fodder for some great horror material, and a solid refresher for the franchise.
RELATED: The 15 Greatest Movie Monsters Ever 19 Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan If there's one good thing that can be said about this movie, it's the quote from Nietzsche at the beginning, followed by the ode to Freddy's "Welcome to Primetime, Bitch!" one-liner from the much, much better third "Nightmare" movie, "Dream Warriors." The film is a solid example of how far not to take Freddy's humor, and what kind of detriment having boring protagonists is for a "Nightmare" movie.
Embodying the worst of Freddy Krueger, the film undermines and makes a mockery of the character - letting us know as much the first time we see him in the film, when he appears in what looks like a "Wizard of Oz" homage. Even the presence of a young Breckin Meyer (who dazzled us years later in "Rat Race") and the lovely Lisa Zane (a solid musician, and sister, in her own right) couldn't save it. "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" is one terrible way to have ended the core "Nightmare On Elm Street" film series.