A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Proving there's no rest for the wicked, the unspeakably evil Freddy Krueger is again resurrected from the grave to wreak havoc upon those who dare to dream. But this time, he faces a powerful new adversary!


As her friends succumb one by one to Freddy's wrath, telepathically gifted Kristen embarks on a desperate mission to destroy the satanic dream stalker and release the tortured souls of his victims once and for all.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was a movie I was looking forward to watching after viewing Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors. Nightmare 3 was a powerhouse movie, and I have to say that Nightmare 4: The Dream Master was lacking, I'm not saying that I didn't like the film, I'm just saying their were certain things about it I didn't like or agree with. I was surprised that after killing Nancy and her father in part that they wouldn't more or less start over in the next film, withing the first half of the film Kincaid, Joey and Kristen are all killed off, which completely wipes the slate clean and also completely severed any connection to the previous films, which I think hurt the storyline and the main aesthetic of the movie.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master begins not long after the events of Nightmare 3, carried over from Dream Warriors is Kristen(which is not played by Patricia Arquette)Kincaid and Joey and they are all beginning to have nightmares once again. Freddy returns in Kincaid's nightmare where from what I seem to understand is from Kincaid's dog Jason and his magical piss of fire. Kristen is the final Elm Street kid which means for Freddy that his revenge is almost complete, but Freddy just enjoys killing too much to give up, so in order for Freddy to continue killing he causes Kristen to call Alice (which is Kristen's closest friend ) into her nightmare, which causes a link between Kristen and a new set of kids, but before Kristen dies she passes her dream power on to Alice (which in hindsight Kristen probably shouldn't have done), which now makes it possible for Freddy to continue to kill since now Alice can pull anyone into her dreams, making them all vulnerable to Freddy and his razor claws. Alice who begins the film very quiet, soft spoken and all about scared person, starts to change and grow stronger and more confident after every death, she begins to take traits from her fallen friends.

Nightmare 4: The Dream Master, was quite good, good things to say are that Robert Englund was great in this film, no other person could Freddy Kruger they way he does and he really is the main person who has kept the franchise worth returning to time after time again. Alice is also a good character in this film that I liked, she starts off very weak, she doesn't seem like she would be the person to make it to the end of the film, but as time goes by she grows stronger and really pulls through. Also in this film Freddy's "dream world" is not in this, director Renny Harlin makes it more of alternate or parallel reality to ours, which gave a fresh feel, instead of tread old ground again.

Now onto the what I didn't like about this film, the main thing I did not like was that Patricia Arquette did not play Kristen, I find that when their are sequels are a series of films, it's nice to have the same actors reprise their roles from the previous film, it makes the believability of the world that these films create more credible, and when you take someone out and replace then with someone else it just throws a wrench into your imagination and completely screws up the aesthetic of the film, in the Nightmare series every character who has returned whenther it be a small or large was played by the same actor/actress who originally played them. Also the explanation of Freddy coming back was extremely weak, since their was a specific ritual to keep him buried, I seriously doubt a dog taking a fire piss on his grave is going to make him return.

It did though have some decent kills, some a little cheesy and campy, but what do you expect, Kincaid his death is quite simple Freddy just stabs him with his claws. Joey his death is reminiscent of Glenn's(Johnny Depp)death in the original nightmare, Joey is sucked inside of his bed, this time it being a waterbed and drowning. Kristen dies by getting burned alive(which was pretty weak compared to what she went through in the previous film). One gets the life literally sucked out of her, another goes down while karate fighting Freddy, and another get her arms broken while working out and then turns into a giant bug(which is her worst fear) and wind sup inside of roach motel that Freddy then squeezes and kills her inside of it. Their wasn't a large amount of effects in the film, but the ones their were, were done quite well.

This is really the new start to a two parter in the series, since 1 and 3 go together and then 4 and 5 go together, all the rest completely throw away anything that has happened in any of the other films and did their own thing, 5 is kind of a odd film, a lot may not like it, unless you what to own the series or just want to have the 4 and 5 storyline, this installment may not be for you, it takes a new twist on the dreams and Freddy's mythos...

...which you will learn about in my next review, which will also be the 3rd and final installment in this 3 part review series.