1989’s A Nightmare on
Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, directed by Stephen Hopkins.
Starring Lisa Wilcox, Robert Englund, Kelly Jo Minter, Erika
Anderson, Danny Hassel, Nicholas Mele, and Beatrice Boepple.
What is it about?
Set 1 year after the events of the last Nightmare, survivors Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel)
become pregnant. Alice begins to have nightmares about the baby being born as
Freddy Krueger, as Freddy hatches a plan to leave the dream world and manifest
himself in the real one. Will Alice be able to use her maternal instincts to
avoid losing custody of her child to a demonic monster?
Why is it worth seeing?
Dream Child
represents the bottom tier of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, a low point that actually may not be the lowest point
of the series- a low water mark indicating New Line Cinema’s intentions for the
franchise. Its lack of quality in terms of story, coherence, and overall
cynicism makes it a clumsy and confusing slog. Of all the sins in cinemaland,
perhaps the most egregious is making 90 minute films that feel like they drag.
Some strengths working for it is the return of Dream Master’s protagonists, played by Lisa Wilcox and Danny Hassel
(as well Nicholas Mele), fans of Freddy will not be disappointed by some of his
creative choices in taking care of his favourite demographic group, and there’s
even a (rather weak) argument that this film tries to tackle both maternal and
pro choice themes. But, oh boy, is this a chore.
With a script by Leslie Bohem, it’s hard to say if they fully decided to embrace the dream logic of auteur David Lynch- but it definitely starts to feel like something out of Lost Highway, as the movie shifts in and out of consciousness and struggles to follow any of the rules that the previous 4 movies (generously) set out. I’d like to say that concretely trying to map out the story would energize (or at least motivate to complete) one’s viewing of the film, but it is just so unabashedly bat shit lazy that it’s frustrating- if you’re actually still watching.
Similar to the previous film, the character of Alice and a few of her friends make protagonists worth cheering on, and her relationship with her father (fighting through sobriety) is a nice touch. So is Robert Englund playing multiple roles, giving some exposure to him displaying more depth. But as viewers struggle to understand what is going on before launching into another Freddy kill sequence (now completely out of the shadows and auditioning for Open Mic night), it only reinforces that less is more and Freddy is always more potent as a shadowy dream figure who is always the next sleep away… Although I’m not sure, I think at one point Freddy tries to convince a young child (who hasn’t actually been born yet) why becoming him is the bees’ knees. It’s clear that Freddy, who can be memorably iconic at times, is a poor salesman, and needs to work on convincing unborn children in the dream world why giving up their life/future life to become him in reality is such a great proposition. Maybe get into multi level marketing instead?
Some of the effects are compliment worthy (there’s a memorably horrific motorcycle/human fusion, and a comic book metaphor that works), but others are just plain embarrassing. The director, Stephen Hopkins, has openly talked about not enjoying his time on the film, citing its issues due to not enough budget and the MPAA cutting some of the movie’s more graphic scenes, and it makes a little sense (Hopkins would give a far more solid showing later on Predator 2). In showing things such as a Escher-esque steps sequence, it displays the studio’s preference for showcasing effects work and a continuing insistence that Freddy, and not the more human teenagers combating him, are the star of the series. If that’s the case, hopefully the guy doesn’t get a talk show- he’d probably get cut.
With a script by Leslie Bohem, it’s hard to say if they fully decided to embrace the dream logic of auteur David Lynch- but it definitely starts to feel like something out of Lost Highway, as the movie shifts in and out of consciousness and struggles to follow any of the rules that the previous 4 movies (generously) set out. I’d like to say that concretely trying to map out the story would energize (or at least motivate to complete) one’s viewing of the film, but it is just so unabashedly bat shit lazy that it’s frustrating- if you’re actually still watching.
Similar to the previous film, the character of Alice and a few of her friends make protagonists worth cheering on, and her relationship with her father (fighting through sobriety) is a nice touch. So is Robert Englund playing multiple roles, giving some exposure to him displaying more depth. But as viewers struggle to understand what is going on before launching into another Freddy kill sequence (now completely out of the shadows and auditioning for Open Mic night), it only reinforces that less is more and Freddy is always more potent as a shadowy dream figure who is always the next sleep away… Although I’m not sure, I think at one point Freddy tries to convince a young child (who hasn’t actually been born yet) why becoming him is the bees’ knees. It’s clear that Freddy, who can be memorably iconic at times, is a poor salesman, and needs to work on convincing unborn children in the dream world why giving up their life/future life to become him in reality is such a great proposition. Maybe get into multi level marketing instead?
Some of the effects are compliment worthy (there’s a memorably horrific motorcycle/human fusion, and a comic book metaphor that works), but others are just plain embarrassing. The director, Stephen Hopkins, has openly talked about not enjoying his time on the film, citing its issues due to not enough budget and the MPAA cutting some of the movie’s more graphic scenes, and it makes a little sense (Hopkins would give a far more solid showing later on Predator 2). In showing things such as a Escher-esque steps sequence, it displays the studio’s preference for showcasing effects work and a continuing insistence that Freddy, and not the more human teenagers combating him, are the star of the series. If that’s the case, hopefully the guy doesn’t get a talk show- he’d probably get cut.
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