10 Reasons Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Is Secretly The Best Freddy Film

9. The Setting Is Even Better Than The First

Look, nobody is going to argue that for a movie called Nightmare On Elm Street, the natural place for it to happen is bloody Elm Street. However, moving away from the neighbourhood was a welcome choice after two movies, so long as it was to an effective new environment - and it was. The psych ward setting is a big factor in driving the story. It adds a stifling atmosphere where the characters' control over their sleep habits is taken away, making antagonists out of the staff who want to sedate them for their own good. And let's not forget the quiet room. The meetings between the patients do a fine job of putting across the collective paranoia that permeates the first act. They also provide a perfect vehicle for reinserting Nancy in a way that draws on the events of the original. The mystery about the nightmares is renewed within a clinical environment, and along comes the real expert. The setting works so well with this story that it could almost have been used in the original; where would you figure a group of teens with haunted dreams would wind up? Asking a doctor for smoking privileges, that's where.