1988’s A Nightmare on
Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, directed by Renny Harlin.
Starring Lisa Wilcox, Robert Englund, Tuesday Knight, Ken
Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, Danny Hassel, Andras Jones, Brooke Thiess, and Toy
Newkirk.
What is it about?
A year after the events of Dream Warriors, Kristin (now played by Lisa Wilcox), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), and Joey (Rodney
Eastman) are out of the psychiatric ward and back into high school with fellow
friends Alice (Tuesday Night), Rick (Andras Jones), Debbie (Brooke Thiess), and
Sheila (Toy Newkirk). Happy to focus on non fatal pursuits such as adolescent
dramas, the group begins to dream again about Freddy Krueger. As in the past
film, the characters have dream abilities, and further concentrate their powers
to fight the iconic gloved maniac of the dream world. Will any of them survive
Freddy’s attempts to rid Elm Street of teenagers?
Why is it worth seeing?
Fans of the Nightmare
series’ focus on the dream world’s fantastic horror of a disfigured icon Freddy
Krueger stalking his teenage prey will check it out, and Dream Warriors enthusiasts in particular will tune in to see if the
previous sequel’s unusually high quality continues- and find that it doesn’t.
Despite recruiting future action maestro Renny Harlin to direct (leading to
what is likely the most kinetic of the Nightmare
franchise’s films), Dream Master
drops the series back around the tier that Freddy’s
Dead inhabits.
There are strengths present. As in the previous film, Freddy remains as clever and sadistic as ever, always ready with a sharp quip, and to produce fatalities that continue its predecessor’s tendency to eliminate prey based off of their respective fears. He’s a long way from the quietly menacing figure in the first film. In the introduction of the character Alice, another “Final Girl” whom after a long period of trial and error, really boasts impressive moxie in facing her fears and using her abilities. Even more encouraging, is the relationship between her and her father (Nicholas Mele)- the series’ first positive portrayal of a parent (who in the past were typically portrayed at best as buffoons, and at worst sometimes the reason their teenagers suffer), which at times can be sweet. And Harlin makes scenes that really jump and explode, in a “dry” run to crowd pleasing entertainments such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger.
But Master is the first (but certainly not the last) Elm Street entry that feels as if it’s on auto pilot, merely riding a vehicle through an amusement park on grooves already established by previous films. The film’s choice to snuff out returning characters from previous installments (combined with Patricia Arquette choosing to not return to her role of Kristen), shows a level of cynicism that only increases the generic feeling of the installment. Master has been labeled as the “MTV video” of the series, but I feel like there needs to be a distinction made to that comment- it’s for the MTV video generation. It’s the most “high school” film of the series (which is saying something for a series exclusively about teenagers), with a group of kids actually hanging out at high school, going about their lives- before the wind machines start blowing fabric through long hallways of shadowy blue tinted scenes. Things get, creative. From Freddy showing his love for people pizza toppings, to animated numbers dancing around the screen, all it needs is Meatloaf declaring his manifesto for love while helicopters buzz behind him in slow motion. But there’s nowhere really to go- just how many times can we return to Freddy’s boiler room? It says a lot that the most effective nightmare sequence in the film is bloodless and has no fatalities, just an unlimited loop. But from the second a dog named Jason (ha ha?) urinates fire to bring Freddy back to life (he needs nitrogen people!), things feel arbitrary, or at least contractually studio obligated. It undermines the potency of the film’s final church scene, which is as empowering as it gets (after a comical “suiting up” montage- likely the first in horror movie history?). It all sets up a pattern of a franchise that can’t stop getting in its own way- maybe some dream therapy is in order.
There are strengths present. As in the previous film, Freddy remains as clever and sadistic as ever, always ready with a sharp quip, and to produce fatalities that continue its predecessor’s tendency to eliminate prey based off of their respective fears. He’s a long way from the quietly menacing figure in the first film. In the introduction of the character Alice, another “Final Girl” whom after a long period of trial and error, really boasts impressive moxie in facing her fears and using her abilities. Even more encouraging, is the relationship between her and her father (Nicholas Mele)- the series’ first positive portrayal of a parent (who in the past were typically portrayed at best as buffoons, and at worst sometimes the reason their teenagers suffer), which at times can be sweet. And Harlin makes scenes that really jump and explode, in a “dry” run to crowd pleasing entertainments such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger.
But Master is the first (but certainly not the last) Elm Street entry that feels as if it’s on auto pilot, merely riding a vehicle through an amusement park on grooves already established by previous films. The film’s choice to snuff out returning characters from previous installments (combined with Patricia Arquette choosing to not return to her role of Kristen), shows a level of cynicism that only increases the generic feeling of the installment. Master has been labeled as the “MTV video” of the series, but I feel like there needs to be a distinction made to that comment- it’s for the MTV video generation. It’s the most “high school” film of the series (which is saying something for a series exclusively about teenagers), with a group of kids actually hanging out at high school, going about their lives- before the wind machines start blowing fabric through long hallways of shadowy blue tinted scenes. Things get, creative. From Freddy showing his love for people pizza toppings, to animated numbers dancing around the screen, all it needs is Meatloaf declaring his manifesto for love while helicopters buzz behind him in slow motion. But there’s nowhere really to go- just how many times can we return to Freddy’s boiler room? It says a lot that the most effective nightmare sequence in the film is bloodless and has no fatalities, just an unlimited loop. But from the second a dog named Jason (ha ha?) urinates fire to bring Freddy back to life (he needs nitrogen people!), things feel arbitrary, or at least contractually studio obligated. It undermines the potency of the film’s final church scene, which is as empowering as it gets (after a comical “suiting up” montage- likely the first in horror movie history?). It all sets up a pattern of a franchise that can’t stop getting in its own way- maybe some dream therapy is in order.
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