Review #48: A Nightmare on Elm St. 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Ronny Harlin (Director): Die Hard 2 (1990), Cliffhanger (1993), Deep Blue Sea, Mindhunters (2004), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), The Covenant (2006), Cleaner (2007)

Robert Englund (Freddy):

Lisa Wilcox (Alice Johnson): ANOES Pt 5

Danny Hassel (Dan Jordan): ANOES Pt 5

Nicholas Mele (Mr. Johnson): ANOES Pt 5

Brooke Theiss (Debbie): Just the 10 of Us T.V. series, Catwoman (2004)

Tuesday Knight (Kristen Parker): Nothing important

Ken Sagoes (Kincaid): ANOES Pt 3

Rodney Eastman (Joey): ANOES Pt 3, Caveman’s Valentine (2001)

Brooke Bundy (Elaine Parker): ANOES Pt 3, Explorers (1985)

Trailer:


Plot:

Well to their credit, they had to follow up the success of ANOES Pt 3: The Dream Warriors, but just like any rushed sequel, they didn't really put too much thought or effort into this one. The Dream Master is a very water down version of The Dream Warriors...but it was still better than it's sequels.

First of all, Kristen Parker who was played by Patricia Arquette returns and was re-casted by a far less superior, Tuesday Knight. Who the hell names their kid Tuesday? Especially a chick. Well Kristen returns and her dreams are now vacant of Freddy, but she “senses” that he’s around and coming back. It's her "spidey senses".

Kristen continues to pull in fellow survivors Joey and Kincaid into her dreams. They aren’t to thrilled about it. I wouldn't be either. They just spent years recovering from not being able to fall asleep, and once they do fall asleep, some b*tch f*cks with their sleep. Joey and Kincaid both bitch out Kristen for screwing with them but she warns them that Freddy’s coming back for them.

One night Kincaid falls asleep with his dog and finds himself in the junkyard where Dr. Gordon had buried Freddy’s remains and poured holy water on them to make them “sacred”. Kincaid’s dog, Jason…I wonder if that name is taken from some one else… hmmm…starts diggin’ up the grave. The dog then does his “marking of the grave” by pissing on the bones. And Boom! Freddy’s born again. So pissing on the holy water negates the “sacredness” of the burial. Reeeallly.

That’s got to be the dumbest but most ingenious way to bring someone back to life. Piss cancels holy water. I knew that Freddy would return somehow…he always does, but piss? Okay.

Freddy comes back alive and kills Kincaid and then starts his revenge tour on Joey and Kristen. But before he can take out Kristen, she “pulls” her best friend Alice into her dream and sends her “special ability” to Alice and then she gets killed. Wow. Talk about flipping the cast around. They just wiped out everyone from the last movie and introduced a whole new set of victims.

Now Alice has the ability to pull people into her dreams. Once Kristen dies, the remaining “last of the Elm Street children” are now dead. Freddy needs new victims. Now we have the last of the last of the Elm Street children.

Freddy starts to use Kristen’s Alice’s ability to bring others into her dreams as a way to find new victims. But as Alice’s friends die, she inherits a special trait from each of them along the way.

At the end of the movie in the final showdown, Alice now possesses different traits from all of her fallen friends. I.e. she turns into a smart, tough, strong super chick that confronts Freddy.

Through out the movie, there is a running sub plot of a person named the “Dream Master”. There are two guardians of dreams, one for bad dreams...guess who that is...and one for good dreams, the Dream Master. The Dream Master defends children against Freddy...the guardian of the dream world.

There is an old nursery rhyme of the Dream Master, and Alice knows it and recites it. Then...BOOM! Alice becomes the Dream Master during her showdown with Freddy. Alice defeats Freddy by “showing him his reflection through church stained glass” and then all the souls of all the children are released from Freddy’s body, leaving him powerless and dead. Pretty dumb, huh?

Dream Sequence Time:
Approximately 40 minutes 35 seconds
(Series total: 1 hr 57 minutes 55 seconds out of 340 minutes)

Freddy Puns:
18 (Running Total: 35)

Villain:

Freddy gets a fair amount of screen time in this film. This movie is kind of like his Revenge Tour. Freddy sets out and kills the survivors from Pt 3: The Dream Warriors. Mission complete!

Freddy continues to kill by using the abilities passed on to Alice. Freddy continues his wise cracking remarks and takes them to a new standard in this film. Through the first three films his pun total was 17. In this film he has 18. Unfortunately this is where the Freddy character starts to lose credibility in my book.

Freddy's kills are definitely coinciding with his smart ass comments. He says a clever pun and then the death happens that way. So much for him being a pure slasher villain. Now he's the Robin Williams of serial killers.

Cast:

First of all, I'm going to begin with the recasting of Patricia Arquette’s character with actress Tuesday Knight. I hate recasting of characters...period. It sucks. I rather the film makers not bring back the character.

It seems the big three franchises all do it at one point in the series. Friday did it several times with Tommy Jarvis, Halloween did it with Jamie, and now Nightmare with Kristen Parker. Not that her character was anything special or is iconic like the previously mentioned, but it still sucks.

The dudes that played Kincaid and Joey in Part 3 return for their demise in this one. Alice and her Kung-Fu brother Rick are new additions along with disposable characters in Dan, Sheila and Debbie.

The Dream Master's character Debbie is played by Brooke Theiss. Brooke also goes on to star in a little television show called “Just the 10 of Us”. Just the 10 of Us also stars Nightmare alumni Heather Langenkamp (Nancy in part 1,3 & 7) and JoAnn Willette (part 2).

You may or may not remember that television show. It was a spin off of “Growing Pains”. Coach Lubbock, who was Mike Seaver’s (Kirk Cameron) P.E. coach in the “Growing Pains” series, moves his family of ten to California. The show also included Melrose Place hottie Jamie Luner (pictured right). The show lasted 3 seasons. Rob Zombie favorite Sid Haig made a couple special guest appearances.

SFX/Gore:

Along with the higher Freddy Pun count, we get a higher body count. Six. Yep…six. Only one more than the previous high. Jason killed more in Jason X than Freddy has through 4 films (28 to 19). How can we have labeled Freddy as a “slasher”? Maybe it’s not his fault, but he film makers.

The Dream Master's special effects are pretty decent, although I see a start to some pretty grossed out exaggerated kills on the horizon. My favorite kill of the movie: Joey in his waterbed. It was a pretty cool sequence and...a good way to go out...in your sleep. Sorry, The Dream Master did not have that many good kills.

TNA:

Once again we get a token titty shot complements of Joey’s dream. Man if it wasn’t for this kid, the series would really be struggling in the TNA department. So what do they do…kill him. I'm just saying, they better make up for it.

The Dream Master had five hot chicks (Shark Factor) and a chick named Tuesday supporting a swimsuit on a beach. Also, Freddy gets some himself as he “sucks face” with a chick but that was to kill her. The film's Debbie and “Just the 10 of Us” co-star Brooke Theiss pictured right. It's an elder version of her, but she still looks good!

T.Gun's Take:

Wow. The Dream Master was pretty weak at the end. I wasn't a big fan of the whole “Dream Master” deal. I thought that ending was...was kind of gay. At least to comfort my feelings, I know Freddy returns after that crappy death. Even when it came out, I knew that Freddy wasn’t gonna go down like a puss with that ending. On the horizon...clean slate.

There were a few gripes that I had about the movie. First of all, Kincaid, Joey and Kristen go out like bitches. Where did their “dream abilities” go? Kincaid was supposed to be super strong in his dreams. Instead he’s whining like a bitch for Kristen in the middle of the junkyard as Freddy knocks him off. Grow a pair and try to take him on.

Joey…well I don’t know what his ability was. Last film he spoke for the first time to break glass. Okay I understand why he died, but it still was crappy. After all, Joey's the only one to bring us a good amount of TNA to the franchise. I hope they replace him with another horn-ball.

Now onto Kristen, if you have the power to “pull” people into your dreams, then why not keep pulling people in as a "buffer zone" when confronting Freddy? I would be summoning anyone I could think of as cannon fodder to combat Freddy. The neighbor, the dick head at school, the dog, etc., etc. The simple logic of pure numbers will get you to survive the night. And what happened to her gymnast skills in the dream world? Did they just throw that out the window?

Let’s stay on the topic of Kristen. First of all, as I mentioned before, I don’t like recasting characters. When I was younger, I didn’t notice the difference. I really didn’t pay much attention to details. But now...I notice and it blows big time.

Patricia Arquette for Tuesday Knight (pictured right). Hmm, let me see here…who would I choose? Someone who could act vs. someone who could...sing. Sing? Yep. She sugn the theme song to the movie. Everyone remembers those bad 80’s theme songs as they start the movie.

Well The Dream Master's crappy theme song is courtesy of Tuesday Knight. It sounded like complete sh*t! It's just some more kindle to my fire of hate. Yes. I'm drinking the "Hate-o-rade" on this film. Funny, because the next two Nightmares I have an I.V. of it.

Okay, moving off the topic of Kristen, my next eye gouger is on Kung Fu Ricky. What the hell was that? Alice’s brother Rick, is some sort of Kung Fu wanna be. The movie shows clips of him in the garage practicing his moves to horrible 80’s movie songs blasting on the radio. Probably Tuesday Knight's songs.

Ricky's supporting the “karate kid” headband and the garage walls are draped in decoration with flags from Japan. Talk about stereotypical karate practices. As we all know to come and learn, Ricky eventually gets pulled into the dream world. Guess what he does when he gets pulled into a dream vs. Freddy? ♫ Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting ♫

The Dream Master decided to finally give in to the idea of the dream world. It spent at least half of the film in Lala land. Approximately 40 minutes of the 87 available was spent into Freddy's domain. I like to point out that this is also a warning sign for…bad writing.

The Dream Master is probably the last tolerable Nightmare on the block for a while. The franchise peaked with the last movie and is falling rapidly starting with this one. The Dream Master is entertaining for the first 3/4's of the film, but then hits the stupidity wall.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened August 19, 1988 and made $45.1 million at the box office ($12.8 million opening weekend)
-Highest grossing Nightmare film (outside of FvJ)
-Ellie Cornell (Rachel in Halloween 4 & 5) auditioned for the role of Alice
-Tuesday Knight (Kristen) performed the theme song to the movie