10 One-Off Horror Movie Villains Who MUST Return
9. Franklin Harris - Bad Dreams
More than a handful of films have borrowed from A Nightmare on Elm Street over the past 40 years, ranging from overt copycats such as Mahakaal and Dream Demon to more subtle, original, and recognizable mimics such as Wishmaster and Brainscan.
1988’s Bad Dreams lies somewhere in the middle in several respects, particularly in relation to 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
Primarily, it stars Jennifer Rubin, who played Taryn White in Dream Warriors, as traumatized heroine Cynthia Weston. Additionally, its central plot – the surviving member of a New Age cult recuperates in a mental hospital while being stalked by the burnt visage of the organization’s predatory leader – easily evokes the third entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street catalog.
Regardless of its derivatives, Bad Dreams is a surprisingly compelling and inventive supernatural slasher because of antagonist Franklin Harris’ unnerving design, chillingly realistic backstory, and playfully macabre antics. He’s as much a second-rate Freddy Krueger as he is a uniquely creepy and colorful villain, taunting Weston in flashbacks and modern encounters as he viciously murders everyone around her.
Given that Weston has another vision of Harris after she’s ostensibly beaten him, the door is wide open for the scarred maniac to make his return in a satisfyingly penned and practical effects-heavy legacy sequel.