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

[baumer]

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[baumer]

When people think of the great horror films of the past, one name instinctively comes to mind. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. This film embodied all that horror stood for and all that it should be. Wes Craven created a character so surreal, so heartless and so deleterious to those that he haunts, that Fred Frueger became an icon in the industry. Nightmares that could kill you? Now there is a novel idea.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 was just sheer garbage and although Nightmare 3 was a little better, it still continued that downward spiral that every NOES has taken since 1984. The third sequel, while a little better, really offers nothing to assure us that this is the same franchise that scared us so thoroughly almost 20 years ago.

What makes this film better than some of the others is that it has an almost passable story and it tries diligently to further the legend that is Fred Krueger. When this film concentrates on Freddy's past, his mother's past and how he was fathered by 100 bastard maniacs, it is actually quite intriguing. And that only stands to reason because that is how the first one hooked you in. It had dark alleys, lots of blood and a plethora of dead bodies but it also went to great pains to explain what was happening and why. It was also darker and had little or no comedy. So in part 4, we are teased with the continuation of the Krueger legend, only to disappoint us by disregarding every rule and every nuance that Krueger abided by or followed dogmatically in the first. Just one brief example is how he dies in the film. In the third picture, Freddy inhabits a hall of mirrors as he terrorizes Nancy and company. In this one, he is killed because he can see his own reflection in a mirror. Where is the linear consistency in this? Does Robert Shaye not read every script before the cameras start rolling? And can someone please explain to me how it is that a dream dog can urinate on Freddy's bones and this miraculously resurrects the child molester? Could they not think of anything more plausible than urine?

I am not sure how NOES became as cult as it did. I am not even sure what the appeal is to everyone. What I do know is that Freddy used to scare me. He used to do everything in his realm of hieratic existence to taunt, scare, belittle and murder you. Now he just appears when he feels like it, tells a few jokes and then slices you in two. And herein lies the problem.

Freddy isn't scary anymore. Freddy doesn't make you want to turn the lights on or have people over the watch the film with you. Freddy amuses.

Nightmare 3 improved on the second one and in some cases the fourth backtracks to it's roots and infuses the Krueger legend with some new angles. It's just too bad the film can't stay on that path and finish that way. As it stands, this really isn't much of a film and I only recommend watching it just to remind you how good we really had it when Wes Craven was writing and directing a film that would delight all the horror film purists.

5.5 out of 10--- Better than the third and fifth but still cannot be mentioned in the same breath as the original.

[ddddeeee]

Awful, a 90 minute music video. There's no decent filmmaking to be found here at all.

 

The title song is awesome though.