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Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #3
Virtual Terror
The three-dimensional poster Keith buys as part of a Virtual Reality package becomes a omen of an impending evil, leading him into a future he may be powerless to change. Original.
- GenresHorrorYoung Adult
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 24, 2018
Remember those Magic Eye posters? They were a mess of colours, but if you stared at it long enough, a picture would form. That's the basis of this story, in which Keith buys one such poster called "Mysteria". It has a strange effect on him, and he starts to see faces in the poster that he recognises -soon before they are murdered!
This book was much better than the previous title, with an original story and some inventive murders. Of course, it's much too short to explore its story in any great detail, but it certainly displays some creativity. Once again, it's disappointing that it all turns out to be the work of Freddy Krueger. This book's original ideas deserved to have it's own original resolution. More information about "Mysteria" would have been welcome, as the antagonist of the story, rather than it just being a way for Freddy to kill more teens. But it's a decent, if short and thin, horror story.
This book was much better than the previous title, with an original story and some inventive murders. Of course, it's much too short to explore its story in any great detail, but it certainly displays some creativity. Once again, it's disappointing that it all turns out to be the work of Freddy Krueger. This book's original ideas deserved to have it's own original resolution. More information about "Mysteria" would have been welcome, as the antagonist of the story, rather than it just being a way for Freddy to kill more teens. But it's a decent, if short and thin, horror story.
December 30, 2019
Freddy seems to be targeting jocks lately as two stalwarts of the wrestling team and their girlfriends get embroiled in a murderous, blood-drenched drama. Keith, the captain, found a magic eye poster that at first only gave him headaches and seizures. Later on he began getting terrifying visions off it and it's up to him to stop them from materializing before Springwood gets mired in another wave of tragedies.
Seriously though, I don't understand why Keith decided to keep that poster if it has brought him nothing but pain. It's just normal to get turned off by something that brings you ill luck. I kinda understand why he was loathe to throw it away later - maybe he just wanted warnings of disasters to come - but before that? Is it all really as simple as him wanting to decode the hidden image at the risk of getting migraines, blackouts, and accidents again?
Nightmares are Freddy's stock in trade, and kids in Springwood facilitate Dream Exchange sessions to share their terrors and hopefully gain a measure of relief, whether they believe the legends about him or not. The exchange scene where our characters recounted their nightmares was perfectly executed. I like how prescient they were without giving too much away.
The twist at the end was pretty neat too. I was just wondering because in the previous two books,
Overall this was a pretty good ride. I'm rating this 7/10 or 3 stars out of 5.
Seriously though, I don't understand why Keith decided to keep that poster if it has brought him nothing but pain. It's just normal to get turned off by something that brings you ill luck. I kinda understand why he was loathe to throw it away later - maybe he just wanted warnings of disasters to come - but before that? Is it all really as simple as him wanting to decode the hidden image at the risk of getting migraines, blackouts, and accidents again?
Nightmares are Freddy's stock in trade, and kids in Springwood facilitate Dream Exchange sessions to share their terrors and hopefully gain a measure of relief, whether they believe the legends about him or not. The exchange scene where our characters recounted their nightmares was perfectly executed. I like how prescient they were without giving too much away.
The twist at the end was pretty neat too. I was just wondering because in the previous two books,
Overall this was a pretty good ride. I'm rating this 7/10 or 3 stars out of 5.
June 24, 2022
Read this via audiobook yesterday to start Scary Sleepover Weekend early and I REALLY had a great time with this.
It felt like watching a cheesy episode of Goosebumps but with much better characters. An evil haunted Magic Eye poster and a number of grizzly kills. There was a twist to this that I didn't see coming because I didn't think we'd get any type of twist in a silly YA title like this, so I was pleasantly surprised.
The characters were all pretty likable and had more to them then I was expecting.
Easy Breezy Beautiful.
It felt like watching a cheesy episode of Goosebumps but with much better characters. An evil haunted Magic Eye poster and a number of grizzly kills. There was a twist to this that I didn't see coming because I didn't think we'd get any type of twist in a silly YA title like this, so I was pleasantly surprised.
The characters were all pretty likable and had more to them then I was expecting.
Easy Breezy Beautiful.
December 14, 2014
9, 10, never look at Magic Eyes again! If you love Freddy Kreuger and the mall then this is absolutely the book for you. But don't take my word for it!
September 16, 2015
This one was so much better than the first two! It was just like the movies not so much like the cheesy TV show
June 24, 2012
A complete waste of time.
August 29, 2017
Oh dear.
A new writer takes over for the last four novels of the run and begins immediately with a sad attempt to mimic the jokey Krueger from the movies and it falls so flat that one has to wonder if the real reason a lot of these books are rare is because people threw them into the trash after reading them. The concept of using magic eye posters to bring Krueger into the real world is a fascinating but cheesy conceit that I can't decide if I love or cannot stand. In either case, the book does throw in one mighty twist at the end that I had to go back and see if it made sense, but it wasn't a dealbreaker.
But part of this is that it copies the ending from the previous book outright. Which is quite a flaw that the editor of the line should have called more into question or resolved. Instead, it looks a bit lazy. But not the worst book in the world, but the intro and outros should have been dropped.
A new writer takes over for the last four novels of the run and begins immediately with a sad attempt to mimic the jokey Krueger from the movies and it falls so flat that one has to wonder if the real reason a lot of these books are rare is because people threw them into the trash after reading them. The concept of using magic eye posters to bring Krueger into the real world is a fascinating but cheesy conceit that I can't decide if I love or cannot stand. In either case, the book does throw in one mighty twist at the end that I had to go back and see if it made sense, but it wasn't a dealbreaker.
But part of this is that it copies the ending from the previous book outright. Which is quite a flaw that the editor of the line should have called more into question or resolved. Instead, it looks a bit lazy. But not the worst book in the world, but the intro and outros should have been dropped.
February 15, 2022
Vitual image posters are enlarged photographs that have hidden images, a trip taken in your mind. Keith obtains one through a seizure brought on while looking into it but still takes it home. Keith has a feeling this poster is attacking him. The teens of Springwood have a dream exchange and tell each other their dreams, obviously their dreams are more violent than other kids due to the presence of Freddy. Keith will see people in the poster before they are killed. Car jumper leads electrifying one, another hung up and stadium lights shrivelling her body to an old women, and heavy metal biting into another nearly severing her head, her white running shoes soaked in blood. Cut ear to ear showing a bloody smile. Freddy will get someone to do his killings for him and Freddy even getting the claw end of a hammer in his skull. Probably the best so far in this series.
July 29, 2023
Full review at:https://www.jackreacts.com.au/freddy-...
Snippet: This has been my favourite Tale of Terror so far, which is saying something because I really enjoyed the first two! Going into it, I was hoping for some kind of continuation of Alicia’s and Chip’s story because I was appreciative of the lore being built, but this one went a different route and while reading the book I honestly didn’t miss them. This was more of a slasher than the first two and the whodunnit aspect was stronger.
The deaths were creative and half were a surprise too, which I love...
Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)
Snippet: This has been my favourite Tale of Terror so far, which is saying something because I really enjoyed the first two! Going into it, I was hoping for some kind of continuation of Alicia’s and Chip’s story because I was appreciative of the lore being built, but this one went a different route and while reading the book I honestly didn’t miss them. This was more of a slasher than the first two and the whodunnit aspect was stronger.
The deaths were creative and half were a surprise too, which I love...
Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)
October 14, 2021
“Before him was a rectangle of color labeled ‘Mysteria’. He remembered now: The poster had ‘attacked’ him.”
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Revisited Freddy Krueger’s Tales of Terror: Virtual Terror (the third in the series) by David Bergantino … this is one of those books that is so bad it is utterly marvelous. Published in 1995, it has aged about as well as you would expect (the main lynchpin to the plot is a Magic Eye Poster), the plot is fairly see-through and the characters are two dimensional at best… but it was still just campy enough to still be entertaining as hell.
.
Revisited Freddy Krueger’s Tales of Terror: Virtual Terror (the third in the series) by David Bergantino … this is one of those books that is so bad it is utterly marvelous. Published in 1995, it has aged about as well as you would expect (the main lynchpin to the plot is a Magic Eye Poster), the plot is fairly see-through and the characters are two dimensional at best… but it was still just campy enough to still be entertaining as hell.
September 18, 2021
Seriously, why weren't there more of these books? This was so good!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2025
A very enjoyable, gory and sometimes creepy novel.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews