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Film: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Year: 1988
Director: Renny Harlin
Writer: Brian Helgeland, Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat
Starring: Robert Englund, Rodney Eastman and John Beckman
Review:
If you had a chance to read my review of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street you know that it terrified me as a child. I did get the pleasure of seeing this sequel on the big screen as they did an event for the 30th anniversary of the film. I’ve also now watched my Blu-ray copy as well for this most recent watch.
Synopsis: Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) returns once again to terrorize the dreams of the remaining Dream Warriors, as well as those of a young woman who may be able to defeat him for good.
Now I will admit, growing up I got a box set of the VHS tapes for all of the films in the series. Back then I enjoyed all of them, including this one. It impressed me then that series always is trying to do something new. Coming off of Dream Warriors, we start off with their leader Kristen (Tuesday Knight) having a nightmare of Freddy’s house. There is a little girl outside of it drawing. She tells Kristen that he isn’t home. Kristen has the ability to pull other people into her dreams, which she does here. She brings the other two Dream Warriors, Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) and Joey (Rodney Eastman). They are upset with and tell her to leave Freddy be as he is dead.
All three of them go to the same school and Kristen has a boyfriend. His name is Rick (Andras Jones) and he’s into karate. She is also friends with his sister, Alice (Lisa Wilcox). This other teen is quiet and daydreams a lot. Her self-esteem is low and a good touch is showing this through a mirror in her room. It is covered with pictures of friends and loved ones. Also in their circle is Debbie (Brooke Theiss) who is into fitness and Shelia (Toy Newkirk) who is smart. I find it interesting that this film has such a diverse group of friends as it ties back in later. There is also Dan (Danny Hassel) who is a jock that Alice and Debbie have eyes for.
This film wouldn’t be a Nightmare on Elm Street without Freddy. He is brought back to life when in a dream. Kincaid ends up in the junkyard from the previous film. His dog is with him and he urinates on the consecrated ground. It comes out as fire. This is one of my biggest problems with the film. I don’t like this idea, because this happening in the dream world shouldn’t have any effect on him coming back. He was buried in the real world and I think that something should have happened there for him to come back. It just felt like the first idea they had, they ran with. This dream sequence is cool though.
As Freddy picks off this small group, Kristen accidentally brings Alice into the dream world. She comes face to face with Freddy. Before this, Alice brought up there is a rhyme about a Dream Master. It is supposed to be a way to control them while asleep. When Kristen is killed by Freddy, Alice absorbs Kristen’s power to pull people into her dreams. She also takes on elements of Kristen’s personality as well. This brings up something I like about this film. I’ve brought up Alice’s mirror. It is from this point that with each death and as she absorbs strengths of her friends, she clears parts of the mirror. This is signifying her confidence as well. In an odd way, she finds herself through her friends.
Something else I like is the distinct dream sequences we get that capture each person and what their interests are. I won’t go into each one, but I thought they were good. One is when Alice and Dan are trying to help Debbie and they are caught in a time loop. I am a big fan of time travel movies and things like this happen in dreams. I thought it was a good touch for sure.
Another aspect I picked up on was that the main character being named Alice and trying to do things in a dream world is a callback to Alice in Wonderland. There is also a moment where producer Robert Shay who is lecturing a class. Through what he is teaching we learn there are two dream gates, one good and one bad. I thought this ends up a good tie-in to Freddy and the Dream Master.
I think that’s enough for the story so let’s go over to the acting performances. There is an elephant in the room with Kristen being played by Knight. There were contract issues in getting Patricia Arquette. Knight was fine in taking over the role though. She has a good look and a fun fact is that she sang the opening song. I liked seeing Sagoes and Eastman return. The only gripe there is that they kill them off so quickly. One of the best performances would be Wilcox. She comes off as shy in the beginning and the growth of her character was good. Jones, Hassel, Theiss and Newkirk were good as the rest of the friend group. Then of course, I couldn’t do this without talking about Englund. This is the film that took the comedy from the last film and turned it up even more. I’m not the biggest fan of it as I think it’s a little too much. His delivery of one-liners is good though. The rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. Starting with the effects, I thought what we got was great and they surprisingly still hold up well. It does get repetitive with deaths, but there are still interesting ones. My personal favorite from the film and it still makes me cringe is the one that happens to Debbie. There are more computer graphics that doesn’t necessarily hold up. The karate fight scene isn’t great either. I do think that the cinematography does help. The dream sequences seemed real and would be terrifying to. They do some different things for each character that correlates to them. That’s a great touch. Then over to the soundtrack. This one feels like the era. I have a soft spot there. The use of dreams in them was a good touch. Also using the classic theme, variations of it and Knight singing the opening song adds to it as well.
In conclusion, this isn’t as good as I thought growing up, but that’s not saying it is bad. It does good things and I like building from the dream warrior concept. I appreciate once again having a strong female lead. There is a bit under the surface that I appreciate with allegories and themes. The acting is good. Wilcox and Englund leading the way, but the rest the cast is solid. I thought that the practical effects were good. Did have slight issues with things here and there, including how they bring Freddy back. The soundtrack, cinematography and bringing the dream sequences to life are positives for sure. This one is more comedy than the previous ones, but I still think this one is solid and would recommend if you like the series.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10