***Spoilers*** Now on the fifth installment of the Krueger series, The Legend of Elm Street brings the story full circle and picks up ten years after the events of The Slasher from Elm Street, as well as the day after the interrogation in A Tale from Elm Street.The film opens with Freddy Krueger (Roberto Lombardi) and his lawyer (Christian Chase) on the steps of the police station addressing the media upon Freddy's release. Lombardi plays it sympathetic until the very end when he flashes an evil glance at the cameras! Incidentally, this is the same location from the 1984 Wes Craven film! Freddy then retreats to his boiler room where he breaks down over the loss of his wife and daughter. The angry parents of Springwood show up and seal the fate of their children by burning Freddy to death in a stunning fire gag scene. In the afterlife, Freddy is then visited by Phantom Selista (from Notarile's "Phantom Faye" series!) who gives Freddy his glove which begins his transformation into the dream demon. Way better than those floating amoeba things in the original series, plus it's fun that Selista is introduced into Krueger! We then fade into Mikey's mother, Mary (Jessica Buda) in a session with her therapist, Dr. Johnson (Shannon McDermott), who both participated in the burning of Freddy. The doctor hypnotizes Mary and she falls asleep...What follows in pure magic! After seeing her son Mikey in the park with Freddy, she tries to stop his abduction only to confront a now horribly burnt Krueger who taunts her. Mary then unwittingly gives Freddy his revenge plan (which I won't spoil here) before attacking her in her dream.This is by far the best film in the series with an incredible script, wonderful cinematography, special effects and fantastic direction by Chris R. Notarile. I especially appreciated the original take on the makeup and that a mask of Robert Englund was not used! Jessica Buda, Shannon McDermott and Christian Chase all shine in their respective roles and I believed their performances. High praise! If there was ever any doubt who should carry on the Krueger role, that doubt has now been erased. Roberto Lombardi is brilliant as Freddy and brings his own style to the role both in and out of the makeup. New Line Cinema should be breaking Mr. Lombardi's door down trying to get him cast in their new Elm Street reboot!

In case everyone's wondering how exactly Freddy Krueger (superbly played with terrifying menace by Roberto Lombardi) got the idea to get revenge on the parents responsible for burning him alive by going after their children, this terrific short answers that particular question in a truly chilling way: It turns out Krueger got the idea from angry mother Mary (a strong and convincing performance by Jessica Buda) after confronting her in a dream.Once again writer/director Chris R. Notarile does an ace job of presenting Krueger as one extremely mean, nasty, and above all scary piece of work: This isn't the watered-down wisecracking Freddy of the sequels; instead we've got the hideously ugly and repulsive reptilian fiend of the bloodcurdling first film. Lombardi totally nails Krueger's foul, evil, and vindictive nature with unsettling directness and never resorts to doing a simple Robert Englund impression. The first-rate grotesque burn makeup certainly makes a world of difference. Moreover, the use of such songs as Doris Day's "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and even Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is both inspired and effective. The artful inclusion of a fair share of Charles Bernstein's original score rates as another nice touch. Further highlighted by an incredibly intense fire gag, this one is essential viewing for Freddy Krueger fans.