Temptation, Faith, and Strength through Christ: How to Be One of God's "Dream Warriors."

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
Happy Halloween! To conclude this blog's two- part Halloween special, I'll be looking at a great horror film sequel which was traditional Halloween night viewing for me for a few years before I discovered 'Trick 'r Treat' (Maybe I'll look at that gem next year); The 1987 film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.'
USUAL DISCLAIMERS!
There will be some spoilers in discussing the film, and the film obviously contains some graphic content (Violence, language, and a brief scene of nudity), so be careful before seeing it if you're squeamish or letting children see it.

(Credit for this image goes to the user Andrewjan on the Nightmare on Elm Street wiki at https://nightmareonelmstreet.fandom.com/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street_3:_Dream_Warriors_(film)?file=1987_poster.png)

First, though, a little backup on the storyline behind the films to prepare you for it; The 'Nightmare on Elm Street' films (The first of which, btw, was the very first film role for a then- unknown actor by the name of Johnny Depp) center around teens being attacked in their dreams by the evil razor- gloved Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), with the condition that if he kills them in their dreams, they die for real. In life, Freddy was a serial killer who killed dozens of children in the town of Springwood. He was eventually caught and put on trial, but the judge was forced to acquit him on a technicality. This infuriated the parents in the area, as they knew he did it and knew he'd do it again if not stopped. So, they tracked him down to an abandoned boiler room where he took his victims, and burned it to the ground with him locked inside, hence why he looks so horrifically burned. As he was burning, though, he offered his soul to a group of Aztec dream demons in exchange for their ability to enter people's dreams.  He quickly used this to continue his reign of terror, now worse than before through the newfound power he gained.

In 'Dream Warriors,' the third film in the series, we see Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), the teenage heroine from the first film, now return as a young woman who has just gotten her degree and some renown for her research into night terrors. She has just been hired to a local hospital, to intern in the teen Psych Ward, to work with teens there who all have sleep- related conditions, all stemming from them each having recurring nightmares about a boogeyman- figure (Guess who?).

The Psych Ward kids make for quite a colorful group; There's wheelchair- bound Dungeons & Dragons geek Will, troubled punk girl and ex- junkie Taryn, sweet but rather simple- minded aspiring actress Jennifer, artistic yet cynical Philip, antisocial hothead Kincaid, lovestruck and nearly- mute Joey, and the latest addition, Kristen (Patricia Arquette), who comes from a wealthy but rather neglectful home- life and who we soon discover has the ability to draw other people into her dreams.
Nancy quickly bonds with the kids, especially Kristen, and also starts to develop what appears to be a possible relationship with the other psychiatrist in the ward, the supportive Neil Gordon. Shortly after Nancy arrives, some of the kids die in what are believed to be suicides, but actually the work of Freddy. Nancy and Neil soon realize the these kids are the last of the Elm Street kids whose parents burned Freddy alive (And, indeed, I could definitely envision Kristen's mother as being among those who were there for his death), so he's out for payback. To help the kids better protect themselves from Freddy, Nancy teaches the kids through group hypnosis to channel their "Dream powers," special abilities that they possess in their dreams (Kincaid is incredibly strong in his dreams, Kristen becomes a master gymnast in addition to her aforementioned skill of bringing others into her dreams, and so on). In addition, Neil learns from a mysterious nun a little more about Freddy's backstory and that he can only be stopped for good if his remains (Which were buried in an unmarked grave by the parents) are properly consecrated. So, Neil eventually sets out to do this with help from Nancy's estranged father who knows where Krueger was buried, while Nancy herself and the remaining kids enter the Dream Realm to save one of them who's gone into a coma and face Freddy in an ultimate showdown.

One of the only real problems I have with 'Dream Warriors' is that, while Nancy, Neil and the Psych Ward kids are all cool characters (More on that shortly), a few of the adults are real jerks, yet nothing bad happens to them. The worst offender in this regard is the head psychiatrist at the hospital, Dr. Simms. She comes across as so cruel, apathetic and unsupportive of the kids, trying to diagnose what she sees as the root of their problems without caring in the slightest about how they feel or what they are actually going through, and pooh- poohing all of Neil and Nancy's suggestions on how to help them. I honestly found myself wishing SHE would get butchered by Freddy instead of the kids! Yet, to the best of my knowledge, she survives and doesn't suffer any kind of retribution for how she acted. That didn't seem fair to me.

All that being said, I absolutely LOVED 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'! I'd say it is easily the best of the sequels (Not counting 'Wes Craven's New Nightmare,' a great film which is kind of a separate film with its own storyline rather than a straightforward sequel). The sequels got progressively worse, largely because they made Freddy Krueger increasingly less scary and more comedic. 'Dream Warriors' I think portrayed him in an excellent middle- ground balance between scary (He has a LOT of terrifying moments, such as one in which he attacks Kristen in the form of a hideous giant snake) and funny (He has a few darkly amusing one- liners that help to break the tension, including one for a scene involving a TV set that has become one of his all- time most popular lines from the series).
Also, as I said before, the Psych Ward kids, who come to be known as Dream Warriors, are all great characters. Usually in a horror movie with a group of teens, there's at least one teen who's really obnoxious and whom the audiences hope will die. That is not the case with the seven Psych Ward kids from 'Dream Warriors'; They're all interesting, likable characters who you want to see survive and destroy Freddy for good. A few particularly neat characters are Kristen obviously, Taryn (She could have made for a good spinoff movie, learning more about her backstory), and Joey. That likability, in turn, makes it that much sadder when some of them do die. When you see some of them weeping and mourning over the deaths of their friends, you almost feel like mourning alongside them as their grief and desperation spreads to you. Speaking of which, the death scenes in this were all great and very creative, especially the first one which is scary and quite disturbing yet fascinating to watch (Let's just say it's one which involves puppets). In addition, the set designs(Especially for scenes in an abandoned house that Nancy used to live in) and special effects (Especially for the aforementioned scene with Freddy as a giant snake) are all awesome.
As far as performances go, they're all very good for a horror sequel. Robert Englund plays Freddy as well as he always has. As I again said before, 'Dream Warriors' provided a nice balance between the terrifying, psychotic killer that we see in part 1, and the increasingly funny, almost cartoonish figure seen in the final sequels. Heather Langenkamp once again does a wonderful job with Nancy, who now appears to have more inner strength than before, and it's cool to see her reaching out to these kids who are going through pretty much the same thing she went through in the first film. As far as the actors playing the kids go, one particular standout for me was Rodney Eastman as Joey. Even though he only has a couple spoken lines in the movie due to Joey being almost completely mute, Eastman's facial expressions and body language are more than enough to convey the emotions he's  showing in each of his scenes. Lawrence Fishburne (Who at the time was early enough in his career that he was still referred to as "Larry Fishburne") also shines in a small but quite cool role as Max, a friendly orderly in the hospital. Lastly, the film's ending was great. Krueger's death had more of a sense of permanence/ finality to it than it did in any of the other sequels, and if the series had ended there, 'Dream Warriors' would have made a great final chapter to the series.


'Dream Warriors' is also a film with some surprisingly strong theological messages. One of the first is on the need for solid faith to confront evil and face hard times. When Neil first meets the strange nun at the funeral of one of the kids, she asks him what he believes in. Neil answers "Science, I guess," the nun responds, "A sad choice," and Neil concedes that it provides him with little to no comfort or strength in stressful times like this. Then, in a later scene, after telling Neil that Freddy can be destroyed by consecrating his remains, she points out that, "If your only faith is science, Doctor, it may be YOU who's laid to rest." Eventually, Neil sets aside his skepticism, and gains enough faith in God that his consecration destroys Freddy. The Biblical truth to be taken from this is obvious; Only faith in Jesus can give us the strength to endure the storms of life. Attempting to trust in lesser things for strength in such times (i.e. Technology, progress, drugs or alcohol, vain secular philosophies, etc.) will disappoint and fail. It calls to mind Isaiah 40: 29- 31, which says that "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."


Another VERY important theological point I took from 'Dream Warriors' involves two characters who I believe can be seen as Biblical allegories. First and most obviously, Freddy Krueger can be easily seen as representing Satan. He seeks to brutally kill and destroy all, especially innocent kids. He attempts to prey on the Psych Ward kids by using their fears, temptations, and other weaknesses (i.e. He lures Joey astray by magically disguising himself as a nurse that the boy had a crush on, goes after Taryn by exploiting her past as a recovering heroin addict, stalks Will using a blade- covered wheelchair that kind of symbolizes Will's fear of being crippled for the rest of his life, etc.). He seeks to consume his victims' souls to become stronger. He is defeated by Neil's faith in God, with the consecration burning a cross onto his forehead just before he vanishes. I could go on forever!
 Satan similarly seeks to steal, kill and destroy. Satan tries to prey on people by using their temptations, guilt, fear, and weaknesses. Satan desires to corrupt people and seize and torment their souls for eternity. Satan is foil in his attacks against us by our relying on our faith in God. I'd say the comparison is pretty clear.

The other allegorical figure I found in 'Dream Warriors' was Nancy. She, I believe, acted as a bit of an allegory for Jesus. She reached out to these troubled kids and teens, many of whom are misfits and outcasts for various reasons, and offered them hope. She helped them discover and develop powerful gifts to aid them against their enemy. The gifts she offered through their dream powers included the wheelchair- bound Will being able to walk again, and the nearly- mute Joey regaining his voice and using it to develop a "Sonic Scream" type of power that helped against Freddy. She dies in the end, yet through her heroic death helps to defeat Freddy (She uses her last ounce of strength to grab Freddy by the arm and plunge his own razor- glove into his chest, distracting him enough to give Neil enough time to perform the consecration in the real world). Even after her death, Nancy's legacy continues to strengthen others, as what she taught the Dream Warriors about discovering their dream powers and pulling others into their dreams to help them would continue to be important points in the following sequels, so that whenever Freddy returned, the next heroes would be able to stand against him and defeat him thanks to the foundation that Nancy helped set.
In much the same ways, Jesus reached out to people who were misfits and outcasts and offered them hope. He helps His children discover and develop spiritual gifts they can use in ministry and to stand against Satan. He, through His healing power, helped the lame to walk and the mute to speak. He died on the cross, yet His sacrificial death defeated Satan by breaking his power over us and giving us salvation. Even after His death and resurrection, Jesus continues to strengthen and empower people, helping His followers thousands of years later gain strength, peace, and hope, and discover their strengths through Him, so that whenever Satan and his demons return and try to bring more suffering and death to the world, Christians (God's own "Dream Warriors," in that sense) will be able to stand against him and defeat him.
Both of these allegorical comparisons can be summed up by Jesus's words in John 10:10: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
So, that sums up 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors,' an excellent film that I highly recommend, which teaches great lessons on faith and the natures of both our Enemy and our Savior.
That's it for this installment of the Nightcrawler Experience. Stay tuned in November when I finally bring in my look at 'Avengers: Endgame.' Until then, happy Halloween, and may God bless you all!

Hypocrisy and True Justice: A Look at a Phony Believer's "Fitting Punishment."

Hello again, and welcome to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
Unfortunately, my planned review/ look at 'Avengers: Endgame' will have to be postponed until November, so I can do my regular two- part Halloween edition. I can promise it'll be worth the wait, though!
In the meantime, I've got quite a "Treat" in store for you readers this time to help prepare you for the spookiest time of year:
Back in the Late 80's- mid 90's, the TV network HBO aired the cult- classic horror anthology series 'Tales From the Crypt.' Based on the EC horror and crime comics of the 1950s and directly adapting several of their stories, each episode had the terrifying yet hilarious undead host the Cryptkeeper (Voice of John Kassir) sharing with us a different tale of terror.

(Say hello to the Cryptkeeper; Handsome guy, isn't he? Credit for this image and the next one goes to SummerTaffy896 on the 'Tales From the Crypt' wiki at https://tftc.fandom.com/wiki/Fitting_Punishment?file=FPclosing.png)

 Sometimes the stories were supernatural, other times they were more grounded in reality. The show boasted a LOT of surprisingly heavy- duty talent, between actors like Kirk Douglas, Michael J. Fox, Demi Moore and Tom Hanks, and producers and directors like Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver and Richard Donner.
It could often get pretty graphic in terms of its violence, language, and other such adult situations, though my first exposures to it when I was younger were the edited- for- television re- airings of it they did on networks like Fox and Sci- Fi Channel.
Now, you might think that a show like this could not ever hold any kind of theological message, even for someone like myself who has at times found such messages in other such unlikely sources, and even though many of the episodes function as dark morality tales.
However, I was recently reintroduced to an episode that changed all that, known as "Fitting Punishment."
WARNING! There will be heavy spoilers for the episode in question, and it's an episode that can be rather graphic, so use discretion before watching it or letting children watch it.

 (Imagine this being said in the Cryptkeeper's trademark voice) Now, come a little closer, kiddies, and let's get started. RA HA HA HA HA HA!

(In keeping with the show's roots in horror comics, each episode featured a title card showing something from that episode rendered in comic book style; This image was found at https://tftc.fandom.com/wiki/Fitting_Punishment?file=Fitting-Punishment-tales-from-the-crypt-41326221-720-540.png)
In this episode from the show's second season, we meet Ezra Thorntonberry (Played by the late Moses Gunn), the director of an inner- city funeral home. He presents himself to his clients as an honest, good- natured, Godly fellow who will treat their deceased loved ones with the dignity and care that they deserve. However, it soon becomes clear that this is all just a facade, and Ezra is in fact a despicable, corrupt, greedy old hypocrite only concerned with making as much money as possible with as little effort or personal expense as possible. He secretly cuts corners left and right in his work to save money (i.e. He uses regular tap water instead of embalming fluid to preserve the cadavers, and orders cheap undersized caskets from Taiwan which he presents to his clients as being American- made with the best materials), and doesn't even have a problem with swiping gold teeth from the cadavers he operates upon.

 A person unfortunate enough to be brought into Ezra's life early in the episode is his teenage nephew, Bobby. A nice enough young man with an affinity for basketball, Bobby just lost his parents in an accident and was thus sent to live with Ezra, his only living relative. As further proof of the sort of person Ezra is, rather than expressing any kind of grief at learning his only sister died in a likely- horrific car crash, he instead says with a little smile, "Head- on, huh? Messy, I'll bet. That's good for business. Charge a pretty penny to make their loved ones look presentable." While Ezra initially is not keen on taking his nephew in, he realizes that he can use the boy for free labor around the funeral home and agrees.

Sadly, as you can probably guess, Bobby's bad luck at losing his parents doesn't improve any when he goes to live with his uncle. Ezra treats his nephew horribly, giving him a wheeled metal gurney for a bed, constantly referring to him as "Boy," and treating him like a slave. When Bobby makes an apparent mistake that costs the funeral home a customer, Ezra brutally beats him with a crowbar in a fit of rage (It is very difficult to watch, as you can guess), paralyzing him from the waist down. When the bills for Bobby's consequent medical care start piling up, Ezra flat- out murders the poor boy and makes it look like an accident. Then, as one more insult, the twisted old creep cuts off his dead nephew's feet so Bobby's tall body will fit into one of the undersized Taiwanese coffins for burial.

However, as is often the case in episodes of 'Tales From the Crypt,' what goes around comes around. Also as is often the case on the show, the restless dead don't stay dead for very long before returning to seek a little payback. The episode's title ends up coming to full fruition, as Ezra ultimately receives an extremely "Fitting Punishment" for his many evil deeds. The Cryptkeeper closes the episode by giving probably the funniest (In a dark way, typical for him) summation monologue I can ever recall him doing on the show.

While "Fitting Punishment" is not my favorite episode of 'Tales From the Crypt' (That honor goes to the Season 4 episode "What's Cookin'," which featured Christopher Reeve as one of a pair of struggling restaurateurs who save their business by, shall we say, changing up the menu of what they serve), it's still pretty high up there on my list. The story is good and creepy, the music was extremely well- chosen as it ranged from a kind of somber Dixieland jazz for the scenes involving the funeral home and Ezra's work in it to then becoming more soft and mystical near the end, and the performances from the various actors are all great. Ezra makes for one of the vilest and most intentionally easy- to- hate characters the show has ever produced, but generally in an amusing way that makes you eager to see him ultimately get what he deserves. It also gets points for being the only episode of the series with a completely African- American cast.

There were definitely some theological messages to be taken from "Fitting Punishment." The first and foremost would be on hypocrisy and false faith. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 that ""Not everyone who says to Me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!'". Ezra in this episode was pretty much the embodiment of that sort of person. He may have been able to present himself outwardly as a righteous and Godly man, but this seeming piety was only skin- deep. He frequently misquotes Scripture, and much of his pseudo- pious prattling consists of things that aren't even in the Bible at all! For instance, he at one point justifies his practice of using water instead of embalming fluid by pompously saying, "Like the Bible says, 'A penny saved is a penny earned,'" a quote which was actually first said by Benjamin Franklin. Then, of course, there's obviously the fact that the crooked ways Ezra runs his business and the heartless things he does to his nephew are hardly in keeping with one who really walks with the Lord. The Bible makes it clear that people of faith are to conduct their business with honesty and integrity, and treat their family with compassion, especially those like Bobby who have already gone through so much hardship. Simply going to church and saying some impressive- sounding words doesn't make a person a Christian any more than standing in a garage would make them a car. There are many people out there who are skilled at playing religion and claim to know Jesus, yet whose hearts are far from Him. I must appeal to all of you to make sure that you truly have Jesus as your Lord and Savior in your hearts and let your lifestyles be a reflection of this, and not become self- righteous, hypocritical phonies like Ezra.

Another Scriptural lesson to be taken from this episode is on not associating with ungodly people. Near the end of the episode, shortly before Ezra meets his well- deserved end, his assistant Clyde, whom he treated almost as badly as he treated Bobby, abruptly resigns. The reason Clyde gives for why he quits is because he knows full well that Bobby's death was no accident, and while he doesn't have enough substantial proof to get the authorities involved, he can't in good conscience bring himself to work for someone as immoral and frankly evil as Ezra another minute. The Bible frequently points out that believers should not associate with people who are known to be unrepentantly wicked. In 1 Corinthians 5:11, it says "But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler- not even to eat with such a one." In Psalm 26:4-5, the psalmist says "I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked." We need to be careful to not connect too closely with people who we know are deeply involved in sinful, ungodly things. Such people can become really bad influences on us, and hinder both our Christian witness, and our personal relationship with God. Bad friends can easily lead good people astray and bring a lot of trouble down on them. For a personal example, when I was in college, the leader of the local fraternity at one point approached me with the offer to join. Something about the way he presented things set off a bit of a red flag for me, so I didn't accept his offer and politely avoided him afterwards. That ultimately proved to be a wise decision for me, as a year later, that fraternity was forcibly shut down by the university when details of a highly inappropriate hazing ritual came to light. Had I joined the fraternity and connected with its members, my reputation would have been damaged along with theirs when that happened. I'm not saying completely shun everyone who isn't perfect in every way, as we all have sinned, just to recognize that there are some people in our lives who we need to steer clear of and not associate with due to the corrupting influence they can have on us and our faith.

So, that's my look at "Fitting Punishment," a great episode of a classic show and an equally great cautionary tale about having a true Christian faith, not being religious frauds or hypocrites, and avoiding those whose ungodly lifestyles can lead us astray.
With that, I wrap up this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Come back on the 31st when I'll hopefully have part 2 of this year's Halloween special ready for you. Until then, may God bless you all!