Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Demonic dream killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is revived and sets about taking out Kristen (Tuesday Knight) and her friends Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) and Joey (Rodney Eastman, presumably happy to have a speaking part this time), as well as new acquaintances Alice (Lisa Wilcox), Alice’s karate-obsessed brother Rick (Andras Jones), and their school friends Dan (Danny Hassel), Sheila (Toy Newkirk), and Debbie (Brooke Theiss). Brooke Bundy returns as Kristen’s frankly unsympathetic mother.

 

I didn’t like this 1988 Renny Harlin (“Die Hard 2”, “Cliffhanger”, “Cutthroat Island”) sequel when I first saw it, mostly because I had previously seen and liked “Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” very much, and well, something happens in this film that as a fan of the previous film, made me extremely mad. Seeing it again in 2017, not only does that issue not affect me in the slightest anymore, but I probably like this film a bit more now. A bit. I think it’s pretty flawed, with one rather poor decision in regards to who to focus the film on, being the chief drawback.

 

You see, this film tries to transition the protagonist focus from the previous film’s heroine Kristen (now played by Tuesday ‘Not Patricia Arquette’ Knight) to Alice (played by Lisa Wilcox). Wilcox is a vastly superior actress to the seriously awful Knight, but there’s little doubt that Alice is a far less interesting protagonist than Kristen. I kinda get it, though. **** SPOILER ALERT **** They wanted to move away from the last film and do their own thing as quickly as possible, by killing off the survivors of “Dream Warriors” and setting up Alice and her friends as our new protagonists. However, they should’ve kept Kristen, as bad as Tuesday Knight is in the role. Given that parts 3, 4, and 5 are effectively a trilogy of their own, it just makes no sense to me for this shift in focus, and it not only affects this film, but think of how much better subsequent “Elm Street” films could’ve been if they’d kept Kristen around instead of Alice. They could’ve stretched the character over into Part 6, and possibly kept the series going even longer, if you ask me, because Kristen really did seem to be a credible combatant for Freddy Krueger. Alice, by contrast is…boring. She seems comparatively easy pickings for Freddy, and I’m sorry, but to go from a “Dream Warrior” to “Buffy the Freddy Slayer” is just stupid. Kristen and her ‘dream’ abilities are what helped steer this series on a good path after the disastrous “Freddy’s Revenge”, and whilst it’s true that Kristen passes on her powers to Alice (who also gains the powers of her other slain friends…who don’t really have powers, so who cares?), Alice’s methods for defeating Freddy are otherwise incredibly generic and dumb. Basically, she just super beats the shit out of him. Sadly, it wouldn’t be the last time this series would go the ‘physical strength’ route with its protagonists, but for a nightmarish phantom like Freddy, it just doesn’t seem right to me. Here it’s cornball 80s bullshit. Alice wears jeans and a fucking studded wristband for crying out loud to show she’s a ‘tough chick’. Ugh, whatever. **** END SPOILER **** Neither this film nor the subsequent “Dream Child” would come close to matching “Dream Warriors”, which for me is the best of the “Elm Street” sequels by far.

 

The film starts well, despite Knight’s appalling performance, and the goofiest ‘cool’ kid of 1988 with Andras Jones’ wannabe “Karate Kid”. In fact, just about everything in the first 15 minutes is terrific stuff. However, once Freddy gets revived by flaming dog piss (literally, that’s not a joke), well…yeah. That’s when the trouble starts. Yes, the FX in the scene are good, but it results in a death that, although not as upsetting to me in 2017 as it was when I first saw it, still plays into a certain well-known horror movie cliché that is regrettable. The camerawork and use of shadow by cinematographer Steven Fierberg (“Secretary”, “10 Years”) is top-notch, though. The lighting in particular is excellent throughout. A later, really good-looking, MTV-inspired death also offers up pretty much the only decent one-liner in the film, too: ‘How’s this for a wet dream!’, though the operative word there is decent (the “Elm Street” remake recycles that line, by the way). ‘Nurse Freddy’ proves an amusing sight, but there’s a call-back to “Dream Warriors” with needles for fingers that I really don’t think the film needed. Without question the dumbest death scene though, involves the Freddy shark fin. That thing is just pathetic, and Freddy wearing sunglasses? Get fucked. The strangely named Toy Newkirk is involved in a particularly poor scene too, one that’s not only dumb, but features the worst FX in the film, too.

 

Most of the dreams/nightmares really do suck, as do the new characters. One character seems more 1983 than 1988 (and that’s a big difference, believe me), and is all Olivia Newton-John, circa “Physical”. Her death scene is at least the most violent of the lot, and is quite disgustingly well-done. One plus is that we get by far the best Freddy death ever, here. Although I have issues with the dopey 80s karate movie nonsense in the finale, Freddy’s actual death is memorably disgusting and well-done, so it’s a shame it’s not Kristen doing it to him.

 

Overall this isn’t as funny or imaginative as “Dream Warriors”, and significantly less scary, too. That film really did get the balance of horror and humour just right. This one, although better than I remembered it being, is really about on par with the subsequent “Dream Child”. They’re both really tame, albeit not quite as tame (or lame) as “Freddys Dead: The Final Nightmare”. This is quite clearly a Renny Harlin showcase, and I think that was its primary aim, to let Renny show off. In terms of visual style, it’s a definite success. I can’t deny that. The fact that the opening credits make such a big ballyhoo about the FX (with Kevin Yeager and Screaming Mad George among those credited), suggests that a particular emphasis this time around was on the FX work, and for the most part they are impressive for their time. There’s that one scene with Ms. Newkirk that disappoints, but the Elm Street house looks better (i.e. uglier) than ever and the rest of the FX/makeup/visuals are top-notch for 1988. Although the music score by Craig Safan (“Fade to Black”, “Stand and Deliver”, “Major Payne”) isn’t the series best, it still should be noted that this series generally gets the music down pat, better than most horror franchises. The soundtrack has some highlights, too, but is very uneven. In addition to Aussie pub rock legends Divinyls’ classic “Back to the Wall”, we also get numbers by Billy Idol and Blondie. Unfortunately, there’s also a few dud artists like ‘Vinnie Vincent Invasion’ (yep), Go West, and truly awful songs by The Fat Boys, co-star Tuesday Knight, and the unholy union between Sinead O’Connor and MC Lyte.

 

Good-looking, well-directed sequel features uneven acting, never quite gets the horror/humour balance right, and for me is an insufficient follow-up to what the previous entry built up. This one’s watchable, but pretty disappointing, though it was a pretty big hit at the box-office in the US. The screenplay is by Brian Helgeland (“Conspiracy Theory”, “L.A. Confidential”, “Mystic River”, “Green Zone”) and the pair of Jim & Ken Wheat (“The Fly II”, “Pitch Black”), from a story by Helgeland and William Kotzwinkle (the slightly underrated comedy “Book of Love”).

 

Rating: C+