Saturday, July 28, 2018

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Jackfruit

     This one I think I could have tried much earlier, but I was unsure about whether I'd already had it before--I've done so many of these weird edibles, many with numerous names, that I sometimes get confused.  But, anyway, I saw these in the local Shop-Rite the other day and finally bought one.
     First up, there's the most popular name for this fruit.  Considering it's native to India, the moniker seems suspiciously English at first glance.  But, according to what I read, it's actually close to the original name.  When the Portuguese first learned of it, in 1498, they were told it was "chakka," a Malayalam word.  The Portuguese then altered it slightly to "jaca," and then this evolved into "jack" by 1563.  (Some claim it was named after the noted Scottish botanist William Jacks, but this seems unlikely.)  Whatever you call it, this plant has been cultivated by humans for the past 3000-6000 years.  Jackfruit is related to mulberry, figs, and breadfruit (see my January 27, 2018 post for more info on that fruit).  This tree needs a tropical lowland climate to thrive.  Now, it's been introduced to such areas throughout Asia, Africa, and parts of South America.  (In Brazil it's actually been too successful, as it's considered an invasive species.)  There's some drama about jackfruit, too.  It's the largest tree-borne fruit in the world.  Some individual specimens can be up to 90 cm long (about 35 inches), with a diameter of up to 50 cm. (20 inches), and weighing up to 55 kilos (120 pounds)!  Adult trees can produce 100-200 fruits annually.  It's also the state fruit of the Kerala and Tamil Nadu states in India, and is the national fruit of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
    As with a recent post, bamboo, the jackfruit tree is very versatile.  The wood is apparently termite-proof, so it's quite effective for housing construction, furniture, and even some musical instruments.  And, it's a very popular food.  The fruit can be eaten raw, or cooked.  Some dishes it's used in are curries, as a side, dried into chips (crisps), as a meat substitute for vegetarians, and in desserts such as cakes and custards.  The seeds are also edible, and are usually roasted.  Nutritionally it's an excellent source of dietary fiber, and has decent amounts of Vitamin C and potassium. One website I consulted claimed it was good for treating immune issues, skin problems, and heart ailments, but as usual, medical science has not confirmed these as of yet.  The fruit's flavor is often compared to that of mango, pineapple, and apple.
     The jackfruit I bought was a section, weighing a total of 1.18 pounds (.53 kilos).  It measured 7.5 inches (about 19 cm.) long, and about 4 inches (10.5 cm.) wide.  The outer skin was visible along the edge, and this was a brownish-green, and covered with small, mostly rounded spiky shapes.  The inner pulp was a yellowish-orange hue, and it contained four yellowish "pods," which were the edible fruit itself, and each with a largish white seed.  I'd been forewarned that jackfruit has a sticky, oily sap, so I wore plastic gloves while cutting it up.  (It turned out not to be that bad--maybe when they sectioned it up they also washed off most of the oil.)  I tried mine raw at first, and thought the texture was thick and chewy--I can see why it makes a good meat substitute for vegetarians.  I found the flavor to be rather bland.  Somewhat sweet, but not much.  I thought it tasted quite similar to cantaloupe.  Since I'm not a fan of melons, or melon flavor in general, this isn't an endorsement.  To be fair, the ripeness of the fruit makes a difference in its taste--maybe mine wasn't ripe enough, or was too ripe, I suppose.  Alas, after eating just a small portion, I noticed a slight tingling sensation in my throat, accompanied by a little stomach discomfort.  I'd read that people who are allergic to birch pollen might also be affected by jackfruit, and I might well be allergic to birch.  (Alternately, it could have been psychological, I guess, or a reaction to the fruit's rawness.)  In any event, because of this I didn't try jackfruit cooked, and mixed in with other foods as I'd originally planned.  I've had enough problems with allergic reactions in my lifetime, so I didn't want to have to go the hospital again!  So, all in all, I wasn't favorably impressed by this fruit, but clearly millions of people, especially in South and Southeast Asia, strongly disagree with my opinion.  Price-wise my jackfruit section set me back $2.94, to be exact.


     Also, I recently found out about another story acceptance, in Horror Bites Magazine.  It's due out in about 3-4 weeks, so more details to follow soon.































Saturday, July 21, 2018

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Zima. Yes, You Read That Correctly, Zima

     A month or two ago I got a blast from the past.  In the beer/alcohol section of the Food Lion supermarket somewhere in North Carolina (I can't remember exactly which town) I saw some Zima.  After laughing a bit to myself, I was gripped with the urge to revisit this 1990's phenomenon.  But, alas, they were only selling it in 6 packs, and I wasn't that curious, or oddly nostalgic, so I didn't buy any.  But, the other day, I saw it again, here in Vermont.  And this time it was available in single bottles, in the make-your-own-6-pack section at the local Shaws grocery.  So this time a bottle of it came home with me.
     I'm guessing younger readers might not remember Zima, so I'll include a slightly more extensive backstory than usual.  In the early 1990's, for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, the U.S. experienced a "clear craze" for beverages.  Tab Clear, Crystal Pepsi, and Miller Clear Beer are just a few examples of this.  Also, beer companies were looking to horn in on the wine cooler market by creating a non-beer alcoholic beverage of their own.  One of these, Coors, put out a "malternative" beverage, as they're sometimes known, in 1993.  The Zima name was taken from the word for "winter" in some Slavic language.  (I know that's vague, but I couldn't learn what particular Slavic language, or sub-dialect it's actually from.  Any information from Slavic language speakers would be appreciated.)  Coors was quite generous with their marketing budget for this new drink, as $50,000,000 was spent in the first year.  And, initially it was very successful.  Nearly half of all American beer/wine/liquor drinkers reportedly tried Zima at least once.  Sales were brisk, and in 1994 Zima sold over 1.4 million barrels, a decidedly respectable total.  Alas for Zima, though, something was happening.  Some of the beverage's biggest fans were young women rather than men.  And since men were seen as (and at that point were) the more enticing, lucrative marketing demographic, this wasn't a positive situation.  Comedians like David Letterman perpetuated this idea, that Zima was....girly.  Coors started to panic.  In 1995 they introduced a Zima Gold flavor, which was amber colored and designed to taste like bourbon, to try to woo back male drinkers.  This failed miserably, not even lasting a year.  Commercials for Zima were geared heavily towards men, often incorporating sporting themes.  This didn't work either--sales continued to plummet, to an average of 600,000 barrels a year in the late 1990's.  Which wasn't that great, but not terrible, either.  Much to my surprise (I'd forgotten all about it by this time) Zima kept on chugging along, selling its mediocre but still profitable amounts.  New flavors were also introduced, like tangerine, citrus, pineapple, green apple, and blackberry.  It achieved some success as a light summer beverage, but by now it was firmly equated in the public eye as a drink for women.  Coors was even accused of intentionally marketing it to high school students (who in the U.S. are below the legal drinking age), helped by (incorrect) rumors that students could drink Zima and get away with it, since it wouldn't show up on breathalyzers.
     But what finally killed Zima was labels, and taxes.  Utah changed its rules so that bottles had to mark their alcohol content percentage in large letters.  California announced that malternatives like Zima would begin to be taxed as spirits, rather than as a beer.  Both of these were cost prohibitive, so Zima was axed in 2008.  And although surely some drinkers were disappointed, there wasn't any rioting in the streets or anything. An articles from 2008 noted that a petition demanding a return of Zima attracted only 53 names, a tad short of the 1,000,000 they wanted.  (There was one major exception to this--Zima was still sold in Japan after 2008, and still currently is.)  However, in time for the 4th of July in 2017, MillerCoors decided to bring Zima back, on a limited basis.  (I obviously completely missed this.)  It sold well enough for them to try it again in 2018.  So that's where we are today.
     Back in 1993 or 1994 my friends and I were not immune to the Zima advertising campaign.  I vaguely recall trying it, and thinking that it tasted something like 7UP, or Sprite, only a bit watered down.  So, not horrifically terrible, but not very good, either.  I don't consider myself a macho, "man's man" kind of guy at all, but in this case my reputation was safe, as I went back to drinking beer and some liquors that I actually enjoyed.  (And in the past 10-15 years or so this has blossomed into beer snobbery, as even semi-regular readers will probably recall.)
     But here's what I thought in 2018.  My new bottle read "refreshing citrus beverage," but I think it's still the regular, original flavor.  The color of it was clear, and there wasn't much of a detectable odor, either.  And my second time drinking Zima, after 24-25 years, resulted in me thinking it was....kind of like weak 7UP or Sprite.  It wasn't a drain pour or anything, and it wasn't excruciating like say, Cave Creek Chili Beer (see May 20, 2012 post), but it was far from tasty, too.  It was rather like a light beer (Zing!  I never get tired of criticizing one of the most popular of "beers," quotation marks to signal my disdain for it).  I have no plans to have it again.  Maybe in another 24-25 years if I'm feeling nostalgic again.
    Therefore, if you're one of the few folks who liked Zima before, here's your chance to have it again.  The website for it has a "Z 2K" jokey theme to it, encouraging customers to stock up on it before it's discontinued yet again.  I do like the name of a Zima based cocktail I just learned about--Nox-Zima, which is our beverage of note mixed with schnapps.  And I suppose if you're a guy, and a stereotypical "bro" type meathead mocks you for being effete, or girly, for drinking it, you can point out that Zima has a higher alcohol content (5%) than most light beers (which run from 2.4% to an average of about 4.2%), so who's the bigger wuss?  Answer--you both are!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist one more jibe at light beer's expense.)






















Saturday, July 14, 2018

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Bamboo

     Since I'm back in Vermont, I've also been back into one of their grocery store chains--Shaws.  And recently Shaws came through with something else that I've never had, bamboo.  So I picked up a can posthaste.
     Bamboo has the reputation of being an incredibly fast growing plant, and this is totally deserved.  Some species can grow up to 36 inches (91 cm.) in only 24 hours, or about 1 mm. every 90 seconds!  Or almost fast enough to see it actually growing.  This plant is also freakishly strong.  Its tensile strength (essentially, being pulled apart) is equal to that of some kinds of steel, and its compressive strength (basically, being pushed together) is higher than wood, brick, and concrete.  Bamboo needs hot temperatures to grow, so it's limited to tropical and warm temperate regions across the globe.
     This plant is also remarkably useful for humans.  It can be made into construction material, furniture, rafts, charcoal, chopsticks, and pens, to name just a few.  It's even possible to make weapons out of it--spears, bows, and even swords, of a sort.  And while the concept of it as food is strongly associated with giant pandas (and the smaller red pandas), humans can eat parts of it as well.  It's sometimes combined with other meals, stir-fried, boiled, and pickled.  Its sap can be made into soft drinks or fermented into wine.  (Mountain gorillas sometimes ingest naturally fermented bamboo sap as a mood-altering substance as well.)
     There is a huge downside to bamboo though--it can be very toxic.  Both topically, and when eaten.  The former sometimes affects harvesters, who can get allergic reactions ranging from rashes, to swollen eyelids, to breathing problems.  And the bamboo shoots, the only part of the plant which is edible, are very dangerous if not prepared right.  This involves a process which includes cutting away the fibrous exterior, and then boiling the shoots for several hours.  If this isn't done properly, a toxin in bamboo will be converted into deadly cyanide in the human digestive system.  So it's nothing to mess around with!  Canned bamboo is safe, as it's been prepared correctly, but fresh shoots are no joke.  Don't eat them unless you know what you're doing.
     The company that made my shoots was Dynasty.  I wasn't able to learn much about this business online, but it appears to be Thai, and have begun in 2012.  Other products offered are mineral waters, nut butters, chocolates, cookie/biscuits, pasta, teas, coffees, sauces, and spices.  The distribution company was JFC International, which is headquartered in the U.S., and is owned in turn by Kikkoman.
     The can I bought was 5 ounces (142 grams), and cost about $1.60.  My shoots were grown in China.  These shoots were yellowish-white in color, and rectangular in shape, about 1 cm. by 5 cm (or about .4 inch by 2 inches) in size.  They reminded of pasta pieces.  On the advice of online commenters, I did rinse the pieces thoroughly in water.  However, as usual, I wasn't keen on cooking them, so I had a bit right out of the can, and some mixed in with a 3 cheese zita marinara frozen microwave meal from Smart Ones.  The texture was crunchy, and a little bitter.  Not much taste, really, even in the marinara sauce.  I wasn't impressed.  Although, to be fair, I would try these again, at a restaurant.  Maybe cooked up right, with a bunch of veggies and meat, bamboo would taste alright.  Also, thinking about it, it's possible I had them in Chinese meals in the past.  I don't recall them tasting that distinctive, though, but I guess better than what I had yesterday.
     I'll end on a ghoulish note.  Another thing that springs to my mind when I hear the word bamboo is its alleged use as a natural torture/killing device.  Specifically, victims were supposedly tied down securely over several budding young bamboo plants, and when they grew, rapidly, as is their nature, the plants would grow into, and then through the unfortunate person, eventually killing them.  The television show "Mythbusters" did an episode about this back in 2008.  Obviously they used a ballastics gel "human" instead of the real thing.  The bamboo did indeed grow through the "person" in only a few days, indicating that this horrific method of painful execution is plausible.  Although, it should be said, this doesn't mean that this actually happened.  Rumors hold that this was done in Thailand (nee Siam), Sri Lanka (nee Ceylon), and Japan, but definitive historic (or other) evidence is lacking.  So it may be a Far Eastern version of the iron maiden--a fiendishly effective and evil idea, but not one put into actual practice.  In short, a hoax, or more kindly, a myth.
   





















Saturday, July 7, 2018

Underrated Horror Gems--"A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors"

     I realize the reaction of many horror fans to this post's title is probably disbelief or even scorn--the Nightmare on Elm Street series has had 8 films in it, and then one remake, so it was enormously successful.  And acclaimed too--the main villain, Freddy Krueger, is iconic, one of the most famous and popular alongside Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Pinhead, etc.  But hear me out.  While Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (from here on abbreviated to NOES 3) was critically acclaimed, and made back nearly 10 times its budget, I still don't think it's received its just due.  Because it's a rare horror movie sequel that's on par with its original, probably on the list of the very best, like Dawn of the Dead/Day of the Dead (the originals, obviously), Hellraiser 2, Halloween 2, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Evil Dead 2.  Especially in a series that had more than its share of duds, the third one really stands out.  As usual, I'll start with a brief spoiler-free synopsis, then move on to a longer, spoiler-rich one, followed by a discussion of some of the movie's strengths, themes, and some cast and crew info.
     Kristen Parker has a major problem.  She's afraid to go to sleep, because a scary figure is haunting her dreams, which are getting dangerously, impossibly real.  After one such attack she's admitted to Westin Hospital, which has a psychiatric ward full of teens who inexplicably are suffering the same torments.  Psychiatrist Dr. Neil Gordon is at his wit's end, as no conventional techniques appear to be helping.  Then a young hotshot psychiatric grad student, who specializes in dream disorders, comes to work at the hospital.  It's actually Nancy Thompson, the heroine of the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street."  She tells the teens about Freddy Krueger, the deceased child killer who's somehow able to enter people's dreams, and even kill them for real.  Alas, Freddy starts to kill the teens one by one.  Aided by a mysterious nun, and Nancy's estranged policeman father Lt. Donald Thompson, Dr. Gordon comes up with a plan to thwart Freddy once and for all.  The teens and Nancy, for their part, do battle with Freddy using their own unique dream skills.  Will they be successful, or will Freddy just continue to up his body count?
     (SPOILERS AHEAD UNTIL MARKED AT BEGINNING OF PARAGRAPH)  After showing an anti-sleep quote from Edgar Allen Poe, the movie opens with Kristen Parker.  She's fighting to stay awake, late at night, and also building a paper mache and popsicle stick model of a scary house from her dreams.  When her mother returns from her date, we learn that Kristen's nightmares are bad enough to require psychiatric treatment.  Kristen falls asleep, and dreams of a mysterious figure with a burned face, armed with blades on one of his hands, who chases her through a large version of her dream house and a boiler room.  After a fake wake up, the sink faucet handles become Freddy's hands and grab and slash her wrists.  Kristen's mom witnesses Kristen cutting her own wrists in reality, prompting her to take Kristen to Westin Hospital, a psychiatric center for troubled teens.
     Kristen freaks out when the hospital staff tries to sedate her, but she's comforted when Nancy Thompson suddenly arrives and completes the creepy child's rhyme that Kristen was chanting.  Dr. Neil Gordon talks with Nancy, who's a psychiatric grad student already respected as a dream expert.  He explains that all of the teens at the ward suffer from the same delusion, that a "boogie man" is out to get them, and can do so in their dreams.  Next we meet a couple of these teens.  Phillip is a sleepwalker whose hobby is making puppets.  Kincaid is a discipline problem, who's often thrown into solitary for his violent outbursts.  Joey is shy and completely mute.
     Kristen then has another awful dream with the weird villain, once again set in the usual dilapidated house.  Just as the figure has changed into a giant snake and is about to eat her, she calls for Nancy.  Nancy, who's also fallen asleep at home, is somehow pulled into Kristen's dream.  She attacks and temporarily defeats the snake man, who appears to recognize her.  The next morning Nancy talks to Kristen, who reveals that she's had the power to bring other people into her dreams since she was a child.
    At a group session, directed by Neil, Dr. Elizabeth Simms, and Nancy, more teens are introduced.  Will is a wheelchair-bound fan of a Dungeons and Dragons-type fantasy game.  Jennifer's goal is to be a television actress.  Taryn is an ex-drug addict.  Later that night, Neil and Nancy go out to dinner.  Nancy asks if the kids can be put on Hypnocil, an experimental dream suppressant drug, which Neil refuses.  Meanwhile, Phillip falls asleep, and we see his dream.  The monster man leads him to an open window by using Phillip's tendons and ligaments as macabre puppet strings.  Phillip is thrown to his death in view of the other patients, while in reality it looks like a suicide.  Simms reacts to this event by proscribing sedatives for all the patients, and locking their bedroom doors at night, which causes an uproar.  Neil manages to convince Simms to allow the teens to take Hypnocil.  However, the next night Jennifer falls asleep, and in her dream the villain takes over TV host Dick Cavett, and then comes out of the television to lift Jennifer into it, killing her for real.  While at the funeral the next day Neil sees a mysterious nun appear, and she introduces herself as Sister Mary Helena.
     During another dinner date Nancy tells Neil about Freddy Krueger, a deceased child killer who's the person terrorizing the teens.  She tells the surviving teens about Freddy at an unofficial group meeting the next day.  Neil and Nancy decide to hypnotize the entire group at once.  Kristen pulls everyone into the same dream, only they don't realize it at first.  A pretty nurse entices Joey to leave the room, and she begins to seduce him.  However, it's Freddy in disguise, and he binds Joey to a bedframe over a hellish pit with disgusting pieces of tongue.  At the same time the kids demonstrate their dream powers to Nancy and Neil.  Kristen is a skilled gymnast, Kincaid has super strength, Taryn is an exotic knife fighter, and Will is a magical wizard.  This dream is interrupted by Simms, who fires Neil and Nancy when she finds out what's been going on, and now that Joey is in a coma in real life.
     As Neil is leaving Westin, he sees the strange nun again, in a closed off wing of the hospital.  When he follows her, she reveals the details about Freddy's origin.  A young woman was working in this wing many years ago, which then housed the worst of the criminally insane.  She was grabbed and hid by these patients, and accidentally locked in with them over a long holiday weekend.  When found she was barely alive, having been raped constantly.  The nun refers to Freddy as the "bastard son of a hundred maniacs," and that the only way to stop him is by burying his remains on hallowed ground.
     Neil and Nancy visit Nancy's dad, Lt. Donald Thompson, at a seedy bar, as Nancy thinks he's the only one who knows where Freddy's remains are.  The Thompson reunion is short and tense.  Nancy leaves after she gets an emergency call from the teens--Kristen has been sedated and put into solitary.  Nancy visits the teens, and together they all manage to be pulled into Kristen's dream.  Meanwhile Neil convinces Donald Thompson to take him to Freddy's remains, which are in an old abandoned auto wrecking yard.  In the dreams Freddy is able to separate Taryn, and then Will from the others.  Each fight back with their powers, but are eventually murdered by Freddy.  Nancy, Kristen and Kincaid go through a weird door, and find Freddy about to kill the still-suspended Joey.  Their fight with him goes badly, but then Freddy abruptly disappears when Donald and Neil retrieve his bones.  Somehow Freddy is able to make his bones come alive, and he manages to kill Donald and knock out Neil.  Back in dreamland Freddy grabs Kristen and the others, only to be thwarted when Joey is finally able to scream out, saving his friends.  They think their ordeal is over.  Donald appears to them, explaining he was killed, and embraces Nancy.  Only it's Freddy once more in disguise--he mortally wounds Nancy.  She manages to stab him using his own knives before he's able to kill Kristen, though.  Then, back in the wrecking yard, in reality, Neil comes to and throws holy water on Freddy's remains, causing Freddy to disappear entirely.  At the funeral for Nancy Neil notices Sister Mary Helena one final time.  She disappears by a gravestone, which reads that it is for Sister Mary Helena/Amanda Krueger--she was Freddy's mother.  Finally, a light comes on in the model house while Neil sleeps.  Is Freddy going to return?
     As I mentioned earlier, there have been 8 Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and 1 remake, to date.  Therefore, along with Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees (11 films, plus 1 remake), and Halloween's Michael Myers (8 movies, with 1 more due out later this year, plus 2 remakes), Freddy is among the more successful, longer "lived" slasher movie villains.  But there are two major differences between Freddy and Jason/Michael:  For one, their murders take place in the real, physical world, while Freddy's (well, most of them--sometimes the edges are blurred) take place within the dreams of people.  (Freddy Vs. Jason, which has both these titular villains, also probably has some exceptions to this, but you get the idea.)  The second major difference is that Freddy actually has a personality; Michael and Jason don't speak, and typically kill their prey as quickly as possible.  Freddy, meanwhile, speaks frequently, and seems to enjoy the hunt much more.  He often plays a cat and mouse game with his victims, and even seems to let them go sometimes.  Why not, when they have to sleep, and therefore be vulnerable again, sometime very soon?  He also uses the dream setting to concoct more elaborate, weird, and often ironic deaths for his victims.  These features are one of the main reasons why the Nightmare on Elm Street films are my favorite of this bunch.  I really enjoy Halloween and its first sequel a lot (and some of the sequels, to varying degrees), and the first Friday the 13th is good, but overall the Elm Street movies are more interesting and entertaining, to me.  There is a catch though--Freddy has to successfully walk the line of being entertaining and amusing, yet still remain dangerous and frightening.  And I think NOES 3 is the apex of this.  He has his witty quips after some of the kills ("Welcome to Prime Time, Bitch!" and "What a rush!" and "Sorry kid, I don't believe in fairy tales!") but he's still scary, still horrific.  Alas, the subsequent sequels made him a little overly quippy, and not nearly as disturbing and eerie.  #6 (Freddy's Dead, the Final Nightmare) was particularly egregious in this regard, as Roseanne and Tom Arnold appear, and there's a lame video game themed kill.  (Note: #7 in the series, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, bucked this trend, and was more grim and scary, and I don't know about Freddy Vs. Jason as I haven't seen it.)
   Another issue I sometimes have with horror sequels is when they explain too much, to the movie's detriment.  This is particularly common in remakes and prequels, I find.  For example, I find Halloween much more chilling when a normal suburban kid just starts killing his sister and other teens for no apparent reason, as opposed to learning that he had a crappy childhood, with neglect and abuse from parental figures, and was also the frequent target of bullies.  In NOES 3, we do get a tidbit about Freddy's back story, but it's brief, and disturbing--hearing how he was the "bastard son of 100 maniacs" (while biologically impossible) is a nasty, yet chilling sort of explanation for why Freddy is like he is.  The strange character of Sister Mary Helena/Amanda Krueger was an effective addition to the movie--she provides a compelling explanation for the villain, plus a way to triumph over her unholy son (at least temporarily--no horror movie villain stays dead if more box office money can be made!).
     I also liked the subversion of expectations in NOES 3.  Obviously I'm kind of mocking the most recent Star Wars sequel a bit here, but in NOES 3 it worked.  The typical horror movie trope, especially with slashers, is the Final Girl, who is the only survivor, who beats the villain, if usually temporarily.  But in NOES 3 we get a surprise--along with Final Girl Kristen two of the other teens, males even, survive.  You can even kind of include Dr. Gordon, since he also battled Freddy.
     Having Heather Langenkamp back as Nancy Thompson was another good attribute of the movie.  Especially after the previous film in the series, the dismal A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.  (Which is interesting on another level, though--the screenwriter (eventually) admitted that the subtext in the movie was all about how the main character was struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality.  Which, I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't pick up on when I saw it for the first time in the mid 1980's.  When I rewatched it as an adult, I laughed at how obvious this was--sort of a horror version of Top Gun's screamingly obvious homoeroticism.)  Nancy is a great heroine in the original NOES--smart, brave, and industrious.  She asks the right questions, researches how to construct booby traps, etc.  (Discounting the admittedly kind of stupid ending, after she apparently defeats Freddy.)  She had a welcome return.  And I was glad to see that she became a successful dream researcher even as a young grad student.
     Because much of the activity takes place within dreams, that means the set pieces and scenery are therefore much more imaginative, and to my mind, more interesting and entertaining than a typical slasher horror movie.  NOES 3 has several of these, and correspondingly effective special effects to enhance them.  Some examples are the grotesque Giant Snake Freddy that threatens to consume Kristen, the bizarre "hanging door into nowhere" entrance to the boiler room/Hellscape, Freddy's exposed torso made out of children's screaming faces and souls, and his transformed "heroin needle fingers" when he kills Taryn.
     I did notice one other theme in this film--its anti-science/psychiatry bent.  Dr. Simms represents rational science and psychiatry, and although her intentions are presented as good, she's actually actively harming the kids, and leaving them vulnerable to Freddy.  Only when Dr. Gordon embraces the supernatural, and religious, is he able to help save some of the teens.  In one of his talks with Sister Mary Helena, she asks what his faith is, and when he replies that it's science she comments that this is a poor choice.  I don't mean to make too much of this--it is a plot point in a movie that features a supernatural entity that can enter people's dreams, so it makes sense in the context of the story.  But I did take note all the same.  And I emphatically disagree with this opinion in reality, while admitting it's correct within NOES 3's worldview.  This is probably why it's Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley's favorite slasher horror movie.  (Please, no angry comments, just a little joke about their faith.) 
     (END SPOILERS--SAFE FOR EVERYONE TO READ) NOES 3 was directed and co-written by Chuck Russell.  He's best known for co-writing/executive producing "Dreamscape" (1984), co-writing/directing an odd good remake, 1988's "The Blob," as well as directing "The Mask" (1994), "Eraser" (1996), "The Scorpion King" (2002) and "I Am Wrath" (2016).  Aside from Russell and series creator/horror movie legend Wes Craven, another of the co-writers later became quite famous.  Frank Darabont is probably best known for directing movies based on Stephen King books, like "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), "The Green Mile" (1999), and "The Mist" (2007), as well as developing/co-writing/directing the first season of "The Walking Dead."
     Of the cast, one of the most famous, Lawrence Fishburne, played the small role of orderly Max Daniels.  Fishburne is notable for TV's "Pee-Wee's Playhouse, as well as acting in "Apocalypse Now" (1979), "The Color Purple" (1985), "Boyz in the Hood" (1991), "Event Horizon" (1997), "The Matrix" series ((1999-2003), "Predators" (2010), "Batman V Superman" (2016), and "John Wick 2" (2017), among others.  Also famous is Patricia Arquette, who played lead Kristen Parker.  Arquette was also in such films as  "Ed Wood" (1994), "True Romance" (1995), "Human Nature" (2001), "Boyhood" (2014, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), and on television programs like "Boardwalk Empire" and "Medium."  Two of the other most famous actors in the film were television host Dick Cavett and actress/celebrity Zsa Zsa Gabor, in tiny cameos as themselves.  Otherwise, Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger, is noted for being in "Eaten Alive" (1976), "Dead & Buried" (1981--also the focus of a blog post, see February 24, 2016 post),  "Urban Legend" (1998), television's "V", as well as all the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series films save the remake.  Heather Langenkamp (Nancy Thompson in Nightmares 1, 3, and as herself in 7), acted in such films as "Cabin in the Woods" (2012) and the upcoming "Hellraiser: Judgement" (2018).  She also co-owns a special effects company, and in that capacity has worked on such movies as the "Dawn of the Dead" remake (2004), "Cindarella Man" (2005), and "Dead Silence" (2007).  Craig Wasson played Dr. Neil Gordon in NOES 3, and is otherwise most notable for "Ghost Story" (1981), "Body Double" (1984), "Malcolm X" (1992) and "Akeelah and the Bee" (2006).  Jennifer Rubin played Taryn--see my recent post on "Screamers" (April 7, 2018) for more about her.  Finally, Lt. Donald Thompson portrayer John Saxon is arguably best known for "Joe Kidd" (1972), "Enter the Dragon" (1973), "Cannibal Apocalypse" (1980), "Tenebrae" (1982), "From Dusk Till Dawn" (1996) and, like Heather Langenkamp, the first and seventh "Nightmare" movies.  The rest of the cast had shorter, or more obscure careers.
    In closing then, fans of classic slasher movies, or new ones, I guess, will probably appreciate "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors."  It's not the usual lame retread of the original, it actually stands out as a more than credible continuation of Freddy's story.  Check it out.
     Incidentally, the opening quote of the movie is actually a lie, or at least a mistake.  There's no evidence that Edgar Allen Poe said anything like, "Sleep.  Those little slices of death.  How I loathe them."  Some posit that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said this, although proof is lacking.  The most credible mentioning of something like this, "I don't sleep.  I hate those little slices of death." is in the 1959 movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth," written by Walter Reisch and Charles Bartlett.  Oh well!