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

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

IMDB rate: 5,4

Genre: Slasher

Today I've watched the fourth movie of A Nightmare on Elm Street which is The Dream Master. I'm trying to watch a movie everyday of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. Which means I first watch part 1 till 7, then I watch Freddy vs. Jason and after that I will watch the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

This movie is so incredibly boring. It's so slow and just a drag to watch. It's not even that it's that bad or something, but it is extremely boring. This movie is a bit the same as Freddy's Revenge (part 2), it was just not necessary to make. Part one and three were good. Part two was just terrible and this part is not that terrible, but it just doesn't have a real purpose. In my opinion they should have stopped after part three.

Following up the previous Nightmare film, the dream demon Freddy Krueger is resurrected from his apparent demise, and rapidly tracks down and kills all three of the surviving Elm Street kids. However, Kristen (who had the ability to draw other into her dreams) wills her special ability to her friend Alice before her demise. Afterwords, Alice soon realizes that Freddy is taking advantage of that unknown power she now wields to pull a new group of teenage children into his foul domain.

This movie is indeed a follow up for Dream Warriors, but it was a complete useless one. It's good that it isn't such a bullshit story like Freddy's Revenge, but it still was useless. Freddy was dead, and suddenly he rises because of dog pee? A bit weird... What I also didn't get was the part where Kincaid was at the car cemetery, it wasn't really clear if it was a dream or real life. If it was a dream, how did he came in a dream when Freddy's dead? If it was because of Kristen dragged him in, where was Kristen? If it was real life, how did he end up in a car trunk with his dog? Should have been explained better. 

In this movie it's a bit more focused on Freddy himself. There is not given any background information,  like in Dream Warriors, about him. He's still not the 'funny' guy that he will be in Freddy vs. Jason, but there are already more Freddy jokes than in the previous parts. It's all about the killing again instead of the story. I already mentioned in my previous review that the movies where it's all about the teenagers fighting Freddy have a whole better story. In this movie it's exactly the other way around, Freddy's fighting the defenseless teenagers, which is a boring story. Every story is the same in that case, because Freddy will mostly win (until the last one standing probably) and there will not be any variation in the storyline. Which is kinda boring. I suspect that Dream Child (part 5), and Freddy's Dead (part 6) will be the same way, but I can only judge that by the IMDB rates of course. I will find out when seeing them. The movie that I am exciting about is New Nightmare (part 7), it seems more like a funny movie, I think it's a nice concept so I can't wait seeing that one.

First thing that bothered me was the fact that Kristen was played by someone else (Tuesday Knight). I find it very frustrating when somebody you know from a previous movie is played by a different actor/actress. As you might know, Patricia Arquette played Kristen in Dream Warriors and I thought she played the part very well. I do think it was a good choice for not playing in this terrible movie, but still it's a bothering fact. Tuesday Knight's acting was so boring and plain. She talked very slow and hardly showed any emotions. I think she made the movie a lot worse than it already was. 

The other actors were not that bad. Lisa Wilcox is the main character in this movie and she plays her parts well. In this movie she's a girl that daydreams a lot, I thought there was a reason for that, but there never happened anything with it. Her brother is played by Andras Jones, he's a good actor but it's a shame he gets killed that easily. I hoped that the fighting scenes were good for something, but unfortunately he couldn't defend himself at the end.

You can also see Freddy without the burning wounds in this movie! It was nice seeing his real face for a few seconds. The ending was a bit rubbish and seemed a bit rushed. Freddy was scared to death seeing himself in the mirror... well... that could have been better. If that's also the case in the next movies, I hope the teenagers have mirrors with them...

There was not much blood in this movie.. in fact, every movie there seems to be less blood? Is A Nightmare on Elm Street going mild? Not much fake looking things in this movie, sure, there were a few ones, but they were not bothering.

It's not really necessary watching this movie. It's a follow up for Dream Warriors, but a useless one. Some people enjoy it, some don't. Suit yourself ;).

My personal rate: 5/10