A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel, Kelly Jo Minter
Directed by: Stephen Hopkins
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
1989

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Alice (Lisa Wilcox) begins having nightmares of the vanquished Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), but is shocked to discover they begin happening when she is awake! As her friends begin to die around her, she must search into Freddy's past to find the power to destroy him once more.

Review:

Tim: When we now talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, we have to understnad that we're automatically dealing with lower expectations. I pretty much expect these movies to be bad, so I'm always a bit surprised when I don't dislike them as much as I should. This movie, for example, is pretty flawed, but I still found some enjoyment from it.

The first 25 minutes are actually quite good and fairly scary. My biggest complaint about these movies is that Freddy Krueger turned into a joking moron, which makes it nearly impossible to be afraid of him. I spend most of these movies rolling my eyes about his stupid puns, instead of being nervous. This descent into comedy has really hurt these films. Luckily, this movie keeps those outbursts to a minimum. They are certainly there, and definitely hurt the movie- but not to the expect of some of the others.

I also really liked that this story explored the history of Freddy Kruger, including his conception and his birth. I really like when films explore the mythology of famous characters, and I enjoyed those scenes that depicted his history. Having his mother play a role in this movie was a brilliant stroke that I really liked. Stephen Hopkins does steer this movie a bit in the direction of respectability (to be fair, that destination is a long, long way off). This movie is still ridiculous and weak, especially at the end, but in between those goofy moments are flashes of what these movies could be.

This is the third film in the whole "Dream Warriors" subplot, but I was glad to see that it took a slightly different approach. Lisa Wilcox has really come into her own. In the previous film, she emerged as the heroine after the previous one died, but this is wholly her movie. I wouldn't say that she is a very good actress, but she does put in a good effort, and was mostly effective. The rest of the cast I won't mention, because it is a collection of terrible actors.

This movie does have a few gruesome scenes, but the cheesy special effects detract from the film more than they add. I like the idea that sometimes things don't make sense in this movie, because these films really embody the idea of a nightmare- and nightmares can be very scary, even if they don't completely make sense. I always like when this franchise gives us nightmarish, phantasmagoric images, and this film has a number of them.

While A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is better than some previous films in the series, it is still a long way from being good. This franchise took a turn toward the comedic, which ruined the potential of these films. The more films I see in this franchise, the more I see that these movies are really hit or miss- but the hits aren't anything special- just a slight improvement over the misses. I will say that while I liked certain aspects of this movie, this franchise is in desperate need of a change.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Scream trilogy, Halloween, Friday the 13th