A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

When “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3” came out in 1987, Freddy Kruegar had launched and started to become a household name.

This was in part thanks to his character’s progress which saw him become more of an anti-hero than a slasher villain.

Unlike the first film he was only an evil incarnation – a child murderer killing in the dreams of the parents who killed him – by the third movie Freddy was saying one-liners and making people scream with laughter rather than fear.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master,” released in 1988, continued this pattern by giving an even more one-liner saying, enjoyable Freddy, with a fear value taking another joke as a result.

Chris Scullion said in his review, “However, as a shameless Nightmare On Elm Street devotee, I’m not fussed in the slightest. Hey, if you want objectivity, visit the BBC.”

Picking up right after the last movie, “The Dream Master” starts with the surviving characters Kristen (Tuesday Knight), Joey (Rodney Eastman) and Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) released from the therapy houses they were staying at returned to their families in Springwood.

However, Kristen is worried, and not just because she’s not reprised by Patricia Arquette, who became pregnant and had to be replaced. She’s been having dreams about Freddy’s house again, and is sure he isn’t completely dead yet. After all, why would this movie have been made then.

Scullion said, “Sure enough, ol’ Scarface himself returns through the oddest method I think I’ve seen in a slasher film: Kincaid’s dog (Jake), who’s in his dream with him, urinates fire on Freddy’s remains, bringing him back to life.”

Nonetheless, now he’s back Freddy has unfinished business: killing those three survivors. Kincaid is first and Joey soon follow but just as Freddy’s about to kill Kristen, she uses her special power to bring her friends into her dreams, pulling new character Alice, played by Lisa Wilcox, into her dream. Are you following?

As she dies, Kristen tries to send Alice her dream-pulling powers, but Freddy gets in the way and steals them instead. Using Alice’s dreams, Freddy now has a way of finding and killing other kids, starting with her other friends.

There is, however, a twist that develops as the film goes on. Alice has her own special power she didn’t know about: as her friends die in her dreams, she gains their abilities.

For instance, when kung fu student Rick, played by Andras Jones, dies, she gains his kung fu skill. Scullion admitted, “Look, I know, this isn’t exactly Argo.”

Scullion continued, “The first and third Nightmare On Elm Street films are widely regarded as the best of the bunch, but I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the fourth one too. Part of this is because its dream sequences are perhaps the most imaginative in the series.”

One specific memorable scene starts with Alice falling asleep at the theater and being dragged into the screen, where she is in a shabby diner and meeting an old version of herself, who cooks a pizza which has little screaming heads as meatballs.

Another intelligent trap is Alice and her new boyfriend Dan (Danny Hassel) in an endless loop - the classic déjà vu dream everyone has – while her friend Debbie (Brooke Theiss) is turned into a human cockroach and killed. Scullion admitted, “All fairly bizarre stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.”

By this point the series had gotten to the point where the actors’ performances weren’t really so important, since it was known that one man alone had all the pressure put on them to carry the film.

As you might have guessed, Robert Englund once again is the star as Freddy Krueger. Scullion said, “Ditching the dark side of the character almost entirely (well, other than the fact he kills teenagers), Freddy’s got more one-liners than a Stewart Francis gig.”

Joey falls asleep on his water bed and dreams that a supermodel is swimming around naked inside it. Out comes Freddy who kills him, asking, “How’s this for a wet dream?”

Another unfortunate friend, Shelia, played by Toy Newkirk, suffers from asthma. When she falls asleep during a test, Freddy becomes her teacher and asking, “wanna suck face?” He proceeds to give her kiss that sucks all the oxygen out of her body, suffocating her.

It’s strange set-pieces like this that set the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise different from other slasher franchises in the 80s, which were limited to at least some point of realism.

The films of “Friday the 13^th” and “Halloween” kept horror fans satisfied with so much bloody murders, but Jason could never turn invisible and have a kung fu fight with someone, and Michael Myers could never turn into a doctor to kill someone in their subconscious while they’re sedated at a hospital.

All of that is perfectly supported with some fantastic pre-CGI special effects, especially Freddy’s disgusting death scene where the souls of the kids he’s killed come out of his chest and rip him to shreds.

Scullion said, “I fully appreciate that A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is bloody ridiculous. I appreciate that the stars (Englund excepted) couldn’t act their way out of a mugging and I appreciate that it’s about as scary as dropping a crisp.”

Scullion ended his review by saying, “But more than that, I appreciate that the film, like the rest of the series, relishes in the freedom Wes Craven’s original idea gives it and the sheer imagination on display. And I love that it’s clearly having a good laugh with it, with a sense of humour that’s contagious.”

I know this is a bad movie, but it’s an enjoyable kind of bad. I will say check this film out, but bear in mind that it’s a step down from the first and third movie. Don’t miss this one, even though I know the story doesn’t make a lot of sense and the graphics and kills will most likely make you hurl.

Alright everyone, look out tomorrow when we look at an underwhelming entry in “Elm Street-a-thon.” I think everyone knows why I say that, but you’ll have to wait and see in this year’s “Halloween Month.”