A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1988

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master was the first truly average entry in the series. No longer was Freddy Krueger an ominous presence to be feared, but rather a wisecracking jokester that just happened to enjoy carving up teenagers during their sleep. That being said, even at their worst the Nightmare on Elm Street movies were usually of a higher quality than the average horror film. As long as you don't bemoan the loss of the Freddy we all loved to fear, and accept this and the following entries for what they are (comedic-horrors), you'll probably find this to be an enjoyable view.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master was the first of the series to feel forced. Freddy Kreuger's saga could easily have been concluded on a high note in Dream Warriors, but the bottom line is Kreuger became a box office sensation so there was no way New Line Cinema was going to let this cash cow go. But although the magic was gone, there was still some fun to be had.

In the previous movie, the Dream Warriors succeeded in defeating Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), but when Kristen Parker (now played by Tuesday Knight) begins having nightmares about him once again she begins to suspect he's not really dead. The other surviving Dream Warriors refuse to listen to her, insisting that he was indeed destroyed. As they start getting picked off by Freddy, they discover perhaps they should have listened to Kristen the first time.

If you'll recall in the previous movie, Kristen discovered an inherent power to draw others into her dreams. During one of her nightmares she accidentally sucks her best friend, Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox), into her dream. With the fall of Kristen all the original Elm Street children are killed and Freddy's long-standing goal has been achieved, but for whatever reason he's not satisfied and he is now able to torment Alice and her friends due to Kristen's accidental introduction. It's now up to Alice to carry on the fine tradition of trying to save those close to her and defeat Freddy once and for all.

Why would Freddy want to continue killing teenagers even after his revenge on his original Elm Street killers has been achieved? Who knows… maybe slaying people in their dreams becomes addictive after a while. Why would Freddy suddenly have the ability to kill Alice's friends too, even though they were never sucked into his world via Kristen, the original Dream Warrior? Ummm… hrmm… well hey, why are you even asking these questions? When you're a sequel looking to cash in on a villain's popularity, you don't need to be logical. You just need to provide people with plenty of blood and scares.

But look… even if this was a forced sequel it's still pretty enjoyable. The new actors that are introduced to the story aren't necessarily gifted, but they don't let us down either. Tuesday Knight provides some nice eye candy, to be sure, but she also sings a fantastic 80's song called Running From A Nightmare, which you can hear during the ending credits. I doubt you're reading a movie review to hear me rave about music, though, so I'll quickly move on.

In the end, the storyline and series really suffered from the overexposure of Freddy Krueger as well as the decision to make him the equivalent of a demonic class clown in order to better appeal to the MTV generation. That being said, director Renny Harlin did succeed in incorporating some great special effects and some creative scares and kills, so despite my disappointment with the direction the series took I still found it fairly fun and would therefore recommend it to horror fans.

Movie Rating: 7 stars

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