Elm Street: The Last Nightmare

Elm Street: The Last Nightmare is a 2019 American slasher film and a direct sequel to A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) that serves as a homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). The film is directed by James Wan and is written by David Leslie Johnson, who both collaborated on The Conjuring Universe.

The film stars Heather Langenkamp who returns to the series as Nancy Thompson. The film also stars Bailee Madison, Maude Apatow, Dylan Minnette, Skyler Gisondo, Claudia Lee, Logan Miller, Haley Lu Richardson, Jon Bernthal, Alex Wolff, John Saxon, Jonah Bobo, Isabela Moner and Robert Englund who also returns as Freddy Kruger.

The film was released on November 8, 2019 and was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema.

The film deals with Nancy Thompson, now a successful author of a self help book which forces the town of Springwood to forget about Freddy Kruger haunting everyone in their sleep. But a brutal act of violence concocted by a bullied teen resurrects Kruger, causing a domino effect of deaths to a group of high schoolers who caused the boy's humiliation as Nancy and her family including her teenage daughter join forces to stop him once and for all

The film received positive reviews from critics and fans of the original 1984 film who deemed it as the best sequel to the Nightmare series and praised Heather Langenkamp's tour-de-force performance as Nancy. As a result, Elm Street: The Last Nightmare became a major box office smash, grossing in over $455 million dollars, making it the highest grossing film in the series since 2003's Freddy Vs. Jason.

Plot

The film opens up on the ending of A Nightmare On Elm Street after Nancy defeats Freddy Kruger, Nancy slowly walks out of her house as police enter the scene of Marge's death and collapses on the lawn outside as the sun begins to rise. Elsewhere at a ranch house far from Springwood a few years earlier, a pregnant woman painfully gives birth to a baby boy who mysteriously but gorily claws it's way out of her stomach with a razor bladed glove similar to Freddy's glove, implying that Freddy is far from finished with Nancy.

18 years later in 2003, Nancy becomes a famed writer of a self help book titled "Forget About The Nightmares, Dream Of The Good Things" which became number 1 on the best seller list, causing everyone in Springwood to stop fearing him and think of him as an urban legend.16 years later in 2019, Nancy is now in her late 40's and had retired as a writer and became a guidance counselor at Springwood High School. She becomes a go to counselor for students like Casey Walker, the school's social butterfly and blogger. During one of her appointments, Casey tells Nancy about a dream she had about the ranch house from the film's intro but she woke up before having a chance to explore the house.

This concerns Nancy since she had a similar dream one night after retiring from her writing. During a spelling bee that night, Casey and her friends Abby Burroughs, Bailey White, Markie West, her boyfriend Danny Blake and Casey's boyfriend Trey Friar witness their close friend Jake Hearst winning the spelling bee.

Upon winning the spelling bee, Jake suddenly falls victim to a cruel prank that involves have red and green paint being spilled on him. Everyone but the group laugh at the prank but Nancy becomes uneasy due to the paint reminding her of her past. A livid but humiliated Jake storms out of the auditorium after swearing revenge against his aggressors who were revealed to be Trey's fellow football quaterbacks Marcus Daniels and Ricky Stevens who are caught and expelled by the principal.

Later that night, Nancy returns home and confides in her father Donald Thompson about Casey's dreams and the prank from the spelling bee and fears that Freddy might return but he tells her that her book made her town stop fearing Freddy and she should do the same. Meanwhile, the paint covered Jake arrives at the cemetery to commit suicide by slitting his wrists.

While doing so, his blood drips into the grave of Freddy Kruger and into his skeleton, causing spirit to rise from the ground. Freddy, now a powerful vengeful ghost to haunt the dreams of elm street once again after 35 years, possesses Jake turning himself into a monsterous version of himself and Freddy combined.

A now Freddy possessed Jake heads over to Marcus's house and begins to haunt his dream as payback for the prank. He possesses one of his football trophies and attacks Marcus who in turn wakes up to see his hated victim at the foot of his bed. When Marcus attempts to beat him up, Jake who is now wielding Freddy's glove slashes his cheek causing him to fall back onto the bed. Jake transforms into Freddy and slices open the skin on the arms and legs of Marcus, pulling out his tendons and tying them to the bed posts. Freddy then stretches the bed and Marcus to grotesque proportions until Marcus is ripped in half, killing him.

The next day, the news of Marcus's death hits Springwood hard with sorrow and fear with the town thinking either Freddy has returned to haunt the dreams of innocents or a copycat killer is invoking fear into Springwood. As a result of Freddy's control over him, Jake becomes a more confidant but arrogant version of himself which catches the eye of Alice Mitchell, Marcus's girlfriend and the person who thought of the prank.

Meanwhile, Nancy is interviewing students about Marcus's death with Alice letting slip that the prank was her idea and an angry Nancy sends her to the principal's office to be expelled. Casey is the next student to be interviewed and tells Nancy that she had another dream about the ranch house and that she finally got the chance to explore the house but finds a man in one of the bedrooms with Marcus who is being killed by that same man with the same features as Freddy. When Freddy killed Marcus, he caught Casey witnessing his act of murder and tries to go after her but she woke up screaming. This concerns Nancy as she realizes that Freddy had indeed returned and sends Casey away to interview the next student.

On the verge of being expelled, Alice falls asleep in the principal's office but is awakened by pained and tortured moaning and turns to see the possessed Jake posing as a bloodied but undead Marcus. He lures Alice to the girl's locker room where she gets locked inside the showers where she gets scalded to the brink of death. A dying Alice tries to escape but sees Jake through the mist with four blades tearing through his fingertips. Armed with a bladed hand and telekinetic abilities, Jake proceeds to brutally slash Alice to death all the while telekinetically throwing her all over the room.

Nancy finishes up interviewing the students and calls Donald about Casey's dream along with her belief that Freddy is haunting Springwood again but she is rebuffed by her father saying that Marcus's death was an isolated incident. During social studies, Casey falls asleep in class only to wake up seconds later to find the classroom covered in blood and gets freaked out, flees the classroom only to find herself in the ranch house only be pursued by the Freddy influenced Jake.

Casey is chased into the basement which turns out to be the boiler room where Jake corners her but fights against Freddy's control screaming at Freddy's spirit that Casey is his friend and she wasn't responsible for the prank that humiliated him.

Cast

• Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson: The survivor of the first film. Some time after the first film, she became a successful novelist and her book "Forget About The Nightmares, Dream Of The Good Things" became an overnight sensation and was placed on the best seller list. After retiring from her career, she became a guidance counselor at Springwood High School.
• Bailee Madison as Casey Walker: The new protagonist of the film and Springwood High's notorious blogger.
• Skyler Gisondo as Trey Friar: The boyfriend of Casey Walker.
• Jonah Bobo as Jake Hearst: A classmate of Casey who gets pushed to the boiling point due to a prank pulled on him, causing him to resurrect Freddy's spirit before being possessed. He serves as the secondary antagonist of the film.
• John Saxon as Donald Thompson: The retired police chief of Springwood who is Nancy's father and now living with Nancy.
• Jon Bernthal as Lee Burroughs/Robert Kruger: The sheriff of Springwood police and the father of Abby who holds a secret to Freddy's past.
• Robert Englund as Freddy Kruger: The film's antagonist
• Haley Lu Richardson as Bailey White: Marcus's ex-girlfriend and the most popular girl at Springwood High
• Alex Wolff as Danny Blake: An artisitc fanatic and Markie's boyfriend.
• Isabela Moner as Markie West: One of Casey's friends and bloggers who fears syringes and needles
• Logan Miller as Marcus Daniels: Jake Hearst's bully and Bailey's ex-boyfriend
• Claudia Lee as Alice Mitchell: A student of Springwood High who becomes the second victim of Freddy after playing a part in the prank.
• Maude Apatow as Abigail "Abby" Burroughs: Casey's best friend and the daughter of Sheriff Lee Burroughs
• Dylan Minnette as Ricky Stevens: Marcus's second in command and boyfriend to Abby

Trivia

• David Leslie Johnson originally developed the script as a second remake to the original 1984 film but due to the success of Blumhouse's Halloween (2018), he decides to rewrite the script into a direct sequel to the first film and a homage to both A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).
• The deaths were written to pay homage to the death scenes from the other sequels of the franchise.