A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
Lisa Wilcox as Alice Johnson
Danny Hassel as Dan Jordan
Brooke Theiss as Debbie Stevens
Andras Jones as Rick Johnson
Tuesday Knight as Kristen Parker
Toy Newkirk as Sheila Kopecky
Rodney Eastman as Joey Peterson
Ken Sagoes as Roland Kincaid






Many have called A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master the "MTV" movie and it's easy to see why. Of all the entries in the franchise, this one is most centered on trying to reach a broader audience and less about trying to be a horror film. Freddy is a form of entertainment now. He's no longer scary and he constantly makes cheap puns about his victims. With Renny Harlin at the helm, the editing is fast and frenetic and the film plays more like music video than a movie.

The film picks up where the last left off. Freddy's dead, but as has been proven multiple times in this franchise, all he needs to come back is someone's fear. There are some that complain about the dog peeing on his grave to bring him back, but that's just Freddy's sense of dark humor. He was already on his way back and thought "desecrating" his grave would be funny. The film then kills off the heroes of the last film and switches to a new cast halfway through the film.

Normally this change would be jarring, but one of The Dream Master's strongest qualities is the chemistry and personalities of its cast. These are likable people who quickly grow on you, in spite of their various quirks, which are only there to give Freddy something to use against them. It also spends time building them up while saying goodbye to Kincaid, Joey and Kristen. Lisa Wilcox gets the most focus as she is set to become the film's heroine, and frankly I've always thought she's the best final girl in the franchise.

Alice is a daydreamer, but through the various tragedies and bonds she experiences in her life, she becomes stronger and a better character. In the course of two films she actually becomes one of the most well-rounded characters in the entire franchise, which is more noticeable over the course of the declining quality of the sequels. The rest of the new characters all are less developed, but their deaths still invoke a sense of tragedy due to Wilcox's reaction and performance.

This movie does resort to too much comedy, and it's not even funny. Freddy delivers bad pun after bad pun, as the film is not even trying to make him a person to be scared of anymore. Robert Englund even dresses up in drag for one gag. You know the character is going downhill when he shows up on a beach wearing shades. It also tends to rush from dream sequence to dream sequence as this movie is more about the jokes and special effects than anything else. That said, there are some impressive special effects, particularly the death of Debbie who is turned into a cockroach by Freddy.

Overall, The Dream Master is not scary in the slightest, but it's still an entertaining enough sequel with some creative special effects and strong character work. The next two movies are when things really get bad.

Score: 7.0