A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4 : The Dream Master

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4 : The Dream Master title

Tag Line : Are you ready for Freddy?

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4 : The Dream Master Well now, after Freddy Kruger was laid to rest at the end of part 3 there was no possible way they could bring him back and make any more sequels right? Wrong! The films had made too much money for the distributors to let things stop there and so, like so many other horror sequels before this, we are fed some excuse as to why the killer in question just might not be as dead, shortly before he pops up and starts wiping out the members of the cast.

Picking up on the theme started in part 3, with the surviving members of the previous films being bumped off to make way for some new characters, the film subsequently re-introduces us to Kristen (played this time by Tuesday Knight [who?]), Kincaid and Joey (played by their original actors Ken Sagoes and Rodney Eastman) just before they get killed by Freddy, when he is resurrected after the holy ground he's buried in is un-holied by a passing dog who pisses on his grave (you what???)

After finishing off the previous lot, Freddy (Robert Englund again) then turns his attention to the new characters in the film. In particular young Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox), who for some strange reason seems to be acquiring her former friends talents (and bad habits) after each one gets killed.

Each killing quickly becomes as predictable as the next, with each of Alice's friends starting to nod off, then quickly snapping awake again (signalling to us that they're actually asleep) before Freddy pops up and, following a brief struggle, they end up getting killed. Ultimately though, Alice manages to use the powers she's acquired to defeat Kruger (at least until the next film) which she does in a most unfathomable manner during the films climax, which really makes you wonder what the hell is going on (God this film is sooo 1980's).

Directed by Renny Harlin, this is about on par with part 3. As far as sequels go it's an OK film, its relatively enjoyable and the hard rock soundtrack is kind of cool, but in the general horror movie stakes there's nothing really outstanding to recommend it, unless your a die hard fan of the series then you'll probably love it.

Overall Marks : 5/10

Other Information.

Alternate tag lines, "Terror beyond your wildest dreams" and "Pure evil never dies".
Director Renny Harlin is probably better known for his work on action films like "Die Hard 2" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight".
Patricia Arquette was unavailable for filming, so the part of Kristen Parker went instead to singer Tuesday Knight, who also performed the intro song "Nightmare".
The films budget was $13 million.
For the original UK release the BBFC cut 56s out of the film, to remove a scene where a character is using nunchukas. The film was later passed uncut in 2001 for a DVD release.
The soundtrack to this movie was predominantly Hard Rock based, and featured the likes of Billy Idol, Love/Hate, and Vinnie Vincent's Invasion. The latter group also released a music video to coincide with the movies release entitled "Love Kills", which featured excerpts from the film. Rap Group "The Fat Boys" also contributed a track entitled "Are you ready for Freddy", which featured the vocals of Robert Englund. To my horror, upon re-listening to this song, I discovered the music had been sampled and re-used for the song "Turtle Power" from the Ninja-Turtles movie (no-kidding, listen to the two tunes and you'll hear what I'm talking about).
Horror B-movie actress Linnea Quigley (from Return of the Living Dead) has a very small role as one of the soles in Freddy's chest.
During Alice's dream in the movie theatre, in the original release of the film you could hear the dialogue from the film in the background. In the newer versions re-issued in 2001 only the piano music from the film can be heard. Despite the fact you can see the characters mouths talking on the screen in the background, plus the lines they would have said are still displayed in the subtitles.
Producer Robert Shaye makes a cameo appearance as one of the lecturers (under the pseudonym of L.E. Moko).
When Alice goes into the theatre, there is a poster for the film "Reefer Madness II: The True Story". This was New Line Cinema's first motion picture success