After 1985’s A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge became a fairly limp sequel to the surprisingly successful original film, the series clearly required a jolt. 1987's A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors provided exactly the kick needed to jumpstart the franchise and it remains one of the better films in the series.

Warriors picks up where Revenge probably should have started: with the further adventures of the first film's protagonist, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). Actually, the story doesn't truly focus on her, as she doesn't enter the tale until it's already well underway.

However, Nancy becomes a prime participant in the activities and her engagement is crucial for the movie. By contrast, Revenge almost seemed to function in its own special universe.

This sense of continuity adds a connection lacking in Revenge and it immediately makes Warriors a more compelling and stimulating film. This is the true follow-up to the original after the preceding aberration, and though Warriors never delivers a truly great picture, it remains one of the best of the series.

Teenager Kristen (Patricia Arquette) finds herself terrorized in her dreams by our old buddy Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). When Kristen’s injuries get mistaken for a suicide attempt, her uninvolved mother Elaine (Brooke Bundy) checks her in to a mental hospital where she winds up grouped with other teens who have serious sleep disturbances.

Since the staff at the hospital can’t figure the cause, eventually grad student Nancy enters the picture and gets down to business. Inevitably, the specter of Freddy haunts the lot and they strive to fight back against the nocturnal threat.

Warriors succeeds because it doesn't attempt to replicate the exact formula of the first film. Revenge came across too much like a weak remake of the original and its attempts to deviate from the "rules" seemed misguided at best.

Unlike that picture, Warriors clearly functions within the same universe as the first movie. It also makes a strong name for itself on its own.

Actually, I think a valid comparison between the two films views the first Nightmare as similar to Alien while Warriors expands the plot ala Aliens. The first projects in both series stayed with a fairly small, claustrophobic focus, but the sequels in question broaden the horizons and take the stories into new realms.

While Warriors doesn't deviate to the degree from the original as much as we see in Aliens, it does incorporate some similar themes. That feels especially true since this movie casts Nancy as a scarred survivor who becomes a mother/protector to others.

Not in a million years do I think Warriors is one-tenth as good as Aliens, but it works well for part of this series. Actually, I used to love Warriors but my passion cooled over the decades.

Part of that stems from the fact it seems awfully dated. The movie’s corny music and outfits did not age well.

Despite that factor, Warriors remains a fun and splashy entry in the series, and director Chuck Russell manages to keep the action light and engaging. Notably, this film marks the first appearance of the glib, wise-cracking Freddy who would become so famous.

In the first two movies, he felt much more blunt and serious, but now he turns into the Henny Youngman of the slasher set. It feels tempting to knock this aspect of the film because of the excessively comic tone that would appear in later efforts.

However, I shouldn't fault Warriors due to problems with its successors. Within this environment, the comedy works well and adds spice to the affair.

Although I don't consider A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 to bring us a great film, it remains light and frothy fun. The movie goes for a more action-oriented feel than the first two pictures and it largely succeeds in that realm, factors which make it one of the better horror flicks of the 1980s.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though not a visual showcase, the scan appeared to replicate the source accurately.

Sharpness worked fine. Overall delineation seemed solid, with only a few minor instances of softness along the way.

Grain seemed natural, and I saw no print flaws. I witnessed no issues with moiré effects or jaggies, and edge haloes remained absent.

Warriors went with a largely natural palette, albeit one that leaned blue at times. The colors appeared well-represented within those choices and HDR gave the hues a nice bump.

Blacks seemed fine as a whole, and shadows showed reasonably solid clarity. HDR gave whites and contrast extra emphasis. This turned into a positive reproduction of the production.

For most of the film, the remixed Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Warriors appeared to be the least active of the first three pictures. Had the soundfield not come alive during the film's third act, I probably would have given it a lower rating than I did.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the track made much better use of the surrounds at that time and created a more satisfying sound experience. For the most part, spatial use felt somewhat limited, but the final third formed a nice soundstage.

Not that the first two-thirds of Warriors felt unimpressive, as the soundfield opened up the music pretty well and added some useful development of effects. The track simply didn’t create a particularly involving auditory setting until late in the story.

Audio quality worked nicely, as dialogue sounded consistently natural and clear. Effects showed fairly appealing fidelity and crispness, with only a little distortion along the way and with decent to good low-end.

The synthesizer score appeared pretty broad and rich as well. The track provided a largely good experience given its age and budget.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? The Atmos mix replaced a DTS-HD MA 5.1 and offered a moderately more involving soundscape, though I didn’t think it reinvented that wheel to a substantial degree.

The UHD’s visuals offered a nice step up thanks to superior delineation, blacks and colors. I felt happy with this release.

Under Behind the Story, we get seven featurettes. This domain includes "Fan Mail” (0:52), “Onward Christian Soldiers” (9:07), “Snakes and Ladders” (6:10), “Trading 8’s” (4:15), “That’s Show Biz” (2:06), “Burn Out” (3:44), and “The House That Freddy Built” (0:44).

Across these, we hear from screenwriters Wes Craven, Frank Darabont and Bruce Wagner, line producer Rachel Talalay, director Chuck Russell, Elm Street 2 director Jack Sholder and actors Dick Cavett, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon.

The segments look at development and story/characters, effects, cast and performances, and various scene specifics. We get a good array of notes here.

We also get a music video for Dokken's “Dream Warriors”. It mainly mixes movie shots with band material, though it does so in a more creative than usual manner – and tosses in a short Freddy cameo unique to the video at the end.

Note that the BD included the film’s trailer but the 4K UHD dropped it.

Among the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, Dream Warriors remains one of the best. While dated and cheesy at times, it still manages to become a fun horror adventure. The 4K UHD brings good picture and audio along with minor supplements. This turns into the best release to date of an enjoyable movie.

Note that as of October 2025, this version of Dream Warriors appears only as part of a Nightmare on Elm Street “7-Film Collection’. As implied, it also includes the original 1984 movie as well as the franchise’s five other sequels.