Patricia Arquette Is Right About Her Nightmare On Elm Street Character (& Deserves Another Chance)
The A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise has seen various characters come and go, among them Kristen Parker, played by Patricia Arquette, and she’s right about one specific thing about her. Back in 1984, Wes Craven terrorized the audience with a one-of-a-kind slasher villain in A Nightmare On Elm Street. The movie introduces Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a child killer burned alive by the parents of his victims. However, that isn’t enough to stop him, and he returns to terrorize the children of his murderers where their parents won’t ever be able to defend them: their dreams.
However, if Krueger kills them in their dreams, they die too. One of his targets, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), goes to lengths to defeat him, but it’s not enough. The success of A Nightmare On Elm Street made way for a franchise with a total of nine movies (including a remake and a crossover with Friday the 13th), though Nancy wasn’t the Final Girl in all of them. The sequel widely regarded as the best is A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, led by Patricia Arquette, but she’s right about one element of her character, and she deserves another chance.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors’ Kristen Deserved A Much Better In-Dreams Superpower
She Could Have Been A Lot More Powerful
Despite A Nightmare On Elm Street’s ending not being clear about whether Nancy and the rest survive or not, Nancy Thompson returns in A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, but she isn’t the Final Girl this time. Directed by Chuck Russell, Dream Warriors follows teenager Kristen Parker, who is attacked by Krueger in her dreams. Krueger makes it look as if she has tried to kill herself in the real world, so her parents send her to Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital.
There, Kristen fights the orderlies who try to sedate her as she doesn’t want to sleep, which catches the attention of the new intern therapist: none other than Nancy Thompson. Nancy realizes that Kristen and other patients are being haunted by Krueger as they are the last of the Elm Street kids, but she also tells them a big discovery: they have powers in the dream realm. Kristen also has the unique ability to bring people, animals, and objects from the real world into her dreams, which is very useful in their mission to defeat Krueger.
Kristen’s gymnastics superpower is one of the silliest elements of Dream Warriors – luckily, Patricia Arquette is aware of that.
Once in the dream realm, Kristen has the power of professional gymnastics, which grants her great agility and thus allows her to flip off walls, make perfect landings, do flip kicks, and other aerial attacks. It’s well known that the A Nightmare On Elm Street sequels get increasingly silly, and Kristen’s gymnastics superpower is one of the silliest elements of Dream Warriors – luckily, Patricia Arquette is aware of that. Speaking to ComicBook, Arquette was asked if she would be open to playing Kristen in another Nightmare On Elm Street movie, and she gave a very specific answer.
Arquette asked if she could change her superpower as she never thought that in her dreams she would be a gymnast. Arquette said she could return to A Nightmare On Elm Street if she could have another superpower, suggesting maybe invisibility or being anti-gravitational. As the most important character in Dream Warriors, Kristen was given a very disappointing and boring power in the dream realm, even if it was useful to fight Krueger.
A Nightmare On Elm Street Completely Failed Kristen In The Dream Master
Kristen Got A Terrible Ending In A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Kristen survived the events of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and had the potential to be the new Final Girl in the franchise – unfortunately, she was wasted in the fourth movie. Directed by Renny Harlin, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a sequel to Dream Warriors, and as such, it sees Krueger reappearing in the dreams of the survivors: Kristen, Joey, and Kincaid. Krueger finishes off Kincaid and Joey, with Kristen feeling guilty. As the last of the Elm Street children, Krueger goes after Kristen and throws her into the boiler.
Kristen was played by Tuesday Knight in The Dream Master.
Kristen had a very disappointing ending in A Nightmare On Elm Street, and her potential as a Final Girl was completely wasted. Even worse is that The Dream Master establishes that, before she dies, Kristen transfers her dream power to Alice (the one of bringing people into her dreams, not the gymnastics one). Alice survived Dream Master and A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and her fate was left ambiguous as she didn’t return in the sixth movie. Alice ended up having the role that Kristen deserved and often appeared in extended media.
Could A Nightmare On Elm Street Kristen Retcon Happen?
A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Future Doesn’t Look Bright
Despite some of the biggest horror franchises coming back to life recently through reboots and legacy sequels, A Nightmare On Elm Street hasn’t been one of them. If A Nightmare On Elm Street returned with a new movie, it could either be a full reboot, a sequel to Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, or a sequel to any other installment that ignores the ones that came after. Through the latter, A Nightmare On Elm Street could retcon Kristen’s story and give her the time, development, and role she deserves.
However, the future of A Nightmare On Elm Street doesn’t look very promising. A second remake was reported to be in development in 2015, but in 2019, the film rights reverted to Wes Craven’s estate. The estate was reportedly working on a project to expand the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, but nothing has been officially announced. It’s unlikely that if A Nightmare On Elm Street continues it will retcon Kristen’s story, but at the same time, anything could happen.
Source: ComicBook.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
- Release Date
- February 27, 1987
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors continues the horror saga with young Kristen Parker being targeted by the dream-stalking Freddy Krueger. She is sent to a psychiatric ward, where she joins other troubled teens and meets Nancy Thompson, who aids in the battle against Freddy's terror.
- Cast
- Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, Jennifer Rubin, Bradley Gregg, Ira Heiden, Laurence Fishburne, Penelope Sudrow, John Saxon, Priscilla Pointer, Nan Martin, Clayton Landey, Brooke Bundy, Kristen Clayton, Sally Piper, Rozlyn Sorrell, Stacey Alden, Dick Cavett, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Michael Rougas, Jack Shea, Paul Kent
- Runtime
- 96 minutes
- Director
- Chuck Russell
