Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Rachel Talalay directs. Declan Quinn behind the camera. Brian May scores. Janice Hampton cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 189 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.
• 335 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 4Part of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Directed by Rachel Talalay, shot by Declan Quinn. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Brian May. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Janice Hampton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Lisa Zane and Robert Englund and Shon Greenblatt carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "They saved the best for last.".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0101917 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Classified under 23 themes, including "amnesia", "dreams", "nightmare", "sadism".
• 12Released under 40 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Declan Quinn

Original score

Brian May

Editing

Janice Hampton

Production design

C.J. Strawn

Costume design

Nanrose Buchman

Makeup / hair

Dayne Johnson

Sound

Robert Appere

Stunt coordinator

Dan Bradley

Runtime

89 min · 1h 29m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$10,000,000

Box office

$34,872,033

Return

349% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

23% 🥫 Rotten

Metacritic

39/100

IMDB rating

4.7/10 · 55,191 votes

MPAA

R

Part of

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

A slasher film series revolving around people who are stalked and killed in their dreams by Freddy Krueger.

• 
  A Nightmare on Elm Street

  1984
• 
  A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

  1985
• 
  A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

  1987
• 
  A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

  1988
• 
  A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child

  1989
• 
  Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

  1991 · this one
• 
  Wes Craven's New Nightmare

  1994

Also by

Rachel Talalay

• 
  Whistler

  2006 · ★ 10.0
• 
  To Have & to Hold

  1998 · ★ 9.5
• 
  Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials

  2023 · ★ 8.6
• 
  Sherlock

  2010 · ★ 8.5
• 
  Wildfire

  2005 · ★ 8.4
• 
  Riverdale

  2017 · ★ 8.4

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Every Town Has An Elm Street - 4K Movie Clip

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Ear cleaning gone wrong

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Ear Check and Cut

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Freddy Krueger's Daughter Revealed

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Johnny Depp's Trippy Comeback

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Andre Gonzales2023-04-17
  ★ 8/10

  They finally figured out how to make freddy bleed. They bring him out of their dreams. Will this be Freddy's final death?

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  New Line Cinema

  US

Key crew

• CharactersWes Craven
• Executive ProducerMichael De Luca
• ProducerRobert Shaye
• ProducerAron Warner
• EditorJanice Hampton
• Stunt CoordinatorDan Bradley
• Production DesignC.J. Strawn
• Art DirectionJames R. Barrows
• Set DecorationRebecca Carriaga
• Costume DesignNanrose Buchman
• Makeup ArtistDayne Johnson
• Makeup ArtistLouis Lazzara
• Set DresserLester Poser
• Sound Re-Recording MixerRobert Appere
• Sound Effects EditorRichard Burton
• Sound Effects EditorJeff Clark
• Sound Effects EditorEd Fassl
• Sound Re-Recording MixerJeffrey J. Haboush
• Sound Re-Recording MixerTimothy A. Hoggatt
• Supervising Sound EditorHari Ryatt
• Supervising Sound EditorBruce Stubblefield
• StuntsMarian Green
• Property MasterR. Vincent Smith
• Casting DirectorJane Jenkins

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• amnesia
• dreams
• nightmare
• sadism
• psychopath
• supernatural
• halloween
• ohio
• sequel
• alternate dimension
• murder
• memory loss
• psychologist
• memory
• slasher
• killer
• disfigurement
• duringcreditsstinger
• woman director
• nightmare becomes reality
• halfway house
• supernatural horror
• suburban gothic

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1991-09-13R

Also known as

International titles

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: The Final NightmareUS
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's DeadUS
• Viimeinen painajainen Elm Streetillä: Freddyn kuolemaFI
• Painajainen Elm Streetillä 6: Freddyn kuolemaFI
• Freddy's Dead: The Final NightmareUS
• Pesadilla final: La muerte de FreddyES
• Rémálom az Elm utcában 6.: Freddy halála: Az utolsó rémálomHU
• 猛鬼街6CN
• Freddy - Chapitre 6 - La Fin de Freddy - L'Ultime CauchemarFR
• La Fin de Freddy : L'ultime CauchemarCA
• Pesadilla en la Calle Elm 6 La Muerte de FreddySV
• Freddy's Dead - The Final NightmareUS
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead: The Final NightmareUS
• Freddy 6FR
• Nightmare on Elm Street 6 - Freddy's FinaleDE