A Nightmare On Elm St. 4: The Dream Master

CAST

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

Plot

Once again Freddy returns to torment young teens in
their dreams! That's right...Freddy is back! And he plans
to pick up where he left off. His goal is to gain the souls
of the last of the Elm St. kids. Kristen also returns, along
with her ability to bring others into her dreams. By now she
has learned how to use her gift fairly well. She ends up giving
her gift to Alice once she realizes her own demise is inevitable.
Alice also has a secret...can her secret help her defeat Freddy?


Review

A Nightmare on Elm St. 4: The Dream Master was released August 19, 1988. It was directed by Renny Harlin and Produced by Robert Shaye and Rachel Talalay. Starring Robert Englund who continues to reprise his role as the razor gloved nightmare maniac known as Freddy Krueger. Kristen Parker, now played by Tuesday Knight along with her two friends Joey and Kincaid have all been released from the institution and have been trying to carry on normal lives as teenagers going to high school and doing what makes teens "teens". But soon Kristen starts to feel a very familiar eerily sense that Freddy is coming back soon. And of course no one believes her. And she cant tell her new friends of her troubles, at least yet anyway. But as luck would have it Kincaid wakes up one night to find himself locked in the trunk of an old car in the very same junkyard Freddy was previously buried in the last film. Starting to sense Kristen may in fact be right about Freddy's imminent return, Kincaid starts to panic. He spots his dog acting freakishly weird digging and sniffing around the area Freddy was buried. The dog takes a hot piss, literally and the ground starts to quake and open up. Freddy's bones reconstruct themselves, complete with burnt flesh and all! And POOF! Freddy's indeed back! Kincaid meets his demise as well as Joey that night. Joey is once again tricked into believing a beautiful woman wants him, this time inside his water bed. Freddy bursts thru killing Joey. The next day at school, Kristen realizes that the two must be dead when she sees their seats are empty in class. She freaks and decides she has no choice but to confide in her new friends. But they don't believe her until its to late. Kristen eventually meets her demise, but not before she is able to gift Alice with her ability to bring others into her dreams. After every death that takes place Alice receives her friends strongest ability. But Freddy gets their souls. Alice is determined to take Freddy down and set all the souls free that Freddy has held captive for so long. During the battle between the two, it looks as if Freddy is going to put an end to Alice. But then Alice quickly remembers the rest of the Dream Master nursery rhyme that her mother taught her when she was a little girl. As she repeats the lines of the Dream Master rhyme, she grabs a piece of reflective debri and Freddy sees his reflection! It is at this time that all the souls start to turn on Freddy and begin to release themselves from this evil monster that has held them all captive for so long. Freddy can no longer hold them and use them to be powerful. Once all are released Freddy goes down like one of his own helpless victims. Freddy has been defeated by Alice and the power of the Dream Master! Is he gone forever? Not hardly, its Freddy! Nightmare on Elm St. 4: The Dream Master was supposedly the second highest grossing Elm St. movie other then Freddy Vs. Jason. Nightmare on Elm St. 4 was quite different from what we are used to with an Elm St. movie. Which that could be why this movie gained so many mixed reviews. Nightmare 4 is most notable for when Freddy decides to take on a new role as stand up comic/crazed killer. I never could get used to that whole new wise crackin Freddy. Sure he came off with some funny shit. But that's not why we watch Nightmare movies. If we wanted comedy, we would turn on the comedy channel. So the funny Freddy never appealed to me much. And one of the biggest reasons why i lost enthusiasm for the franchise. But don't get me wrong, i love the movies, just some more then others. And i can completely show respect to Freddy Krueger as one of the most original iconic killers in horror movie history. I just think some people took the franchise down a few wrong paths. The films seemed to rely more on fancy special effects more then anything else after a while. Not that its a bad thing. But i always felt there was great potential for the series if it just stayed true to its original roots. Anyway, part 4 wasn't a complete mess. It had its moments. And we got a new female super hero, Alice! Alice was seen as the new "Nancy" to many. And i thought the soundtrack was pretty good, that is for its time. The Fat Boys featured Robert Englund performing "Are you ready for Freddy" and included Freddy rapping. There is even audio of Nancy from the first film saying "don't fall asleep". The video is on the 1999 box set bonus DVD. I thought this video also played on the first ever VHS release as well. Vinnie Vincent Invasion performs "Love Kills" on the soundtrack to. Tuesday Knight sings the song "Running from this Nightmare" that's played at the start of the film. But don't worry, Freddy wont be gone for long! You can find him in the next sequel!

RATING: 3/5

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