Nightmare on Elm Street 4

The stage curtains open ...

For whatever reason, this 4th installment in the Elm Street series is my personal favorite. Maybe it's because it was directed by Renny Harlin who has a certain flair for action sequences. Maybe it's because I adore Lisa Wilcox and her character Alice, and the fact that she kicked some butt. Maybe it's because the supporting cast of teens really seemed like a tight knit group of friends having fun making this movie. Maybe it's because of the amazing visuals we were treated to. I don't know why exactly, but I absolutely loved "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 - The Dream Master".

Having survived the events of the 3rd film, Kristen has formed a new circle of friends and is back in school with a boyfriend. Sensing that there is something wrong, she finds herself back in Freddy's nightmareland and he draws upon her power to pull in "fresh meat" so that he can start all over again. Alice, her best friend, is the silent, recluse type who is doing her best to hold things together at home. As the friends around her begin to die, she assumes their individual powers, sheds her fears, and faces Freddy for a winner-takes-all battle.

The transformation of Alice in this movie was the compelling story line, and the final confrontation delivers all the goods. Behind tight direction and good editing, we are given some outstanding visuals and memorable scenes. One of which was the movie theater scene where Alice is sucked into the silver screen. The acting in this one was a bit better than the previous installments, and this bunch of teen friends were people I actually cared about.

I highly recommend this movie at a very strong 8 stars out of 10. It is my personal favorite in the series - maybe because it's the perfect blend of everything I mentioned earlier. And as such, it still holds up pretty well since it was first released in 1988. "The Dream Master" is a winner.

Freddy is resurrected from the dead when a dog takes a pee on the ground in the scarp yard in which he was buried! That kind of sets the tone for the fourth instalment. When this first came out on VHS I was blown away by the special effects & it quickly became my second favourite in the franchise, after the first film. This was mainly due to the special effects (impressive at the time) and gimmicky way in which people die. However, 30 years on and in my opinion the film has lost some of that initial positivity, I know think that part 3 is a far better movie. There were splashes of humour in part 3 but it still managed to also be a dark, scary horror film. But in Dream Warriors Freddy is now more of a comic, spouting corny one-liners, which is something that I personally wasn't so fond of. The special effects are the real star here. It's still a fun movie to watch but I think it was the point where the series started to go down hill. Linnea Quigley has a nice little topless part as one of the souls coming out of Freddy's body, worthy of a freeze-frame!

The original 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' is still to me one of the scariest and best horror films there is, as well as a truly great film in its own right and introduced us to one of the genre's most iconic villains in Freddy Krueger. It is always difficult to do a sequel that lives up to a film as good as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' let alone one to be on the same level.

While the best of the sequels from personal opinion is the third, the fourth one is another one of the series' better sequels. Like the third film it is not on the same level as the original, a very difficult feat, but it does have enough of what is a large appeal of the original and why it works so well. Not perfect, but a lot of very good things.

'The Dream Master' is not without its flaws. With a couple of exceptions, the acting is largely wooden (while not the worst offender as such, Tuesday Knight is no Patricia Arquette) and the beginning rock song is really cheesy and feels out of place. The story at times gets a little silly.

However, Lisa Wilcox is a winning lead and Robert Englund continues to terrify as the iconic character that epitomises "what nightmares are made of". 'The Dream Master' is to me the second best directed sequel, courtesy of Renny Harlin, giving a potentially clichéd premise freshness and imagination.

Special effects are neatly executed. The humour is darkly comic and very funny and there are some wickedly cracking one-liners. The scares are aplenty and they are legitimately creepy with some cool deaths (the water bed one is a strong example) and amazing dream sequences thrown into the mix. Alice being flung into the on-screen action from the cinema balcony is one of the series' most marvellous highlights.

It's a beautifully photographed film, particularly the dream sequences, and is the most unique-looking 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' sequel with its European art-horror visual style. The production design is both dream-like and nightmare while the music is suitably haunting.

Overall, good sequel and one of the series' better ones. 7/10 Bethany Cox

"Nightmare on Elm Street 4" is one of the best entries in the series. Okay, the first is considered a classic, maybe because it had a feeling of poetic surrealism that is indeed lost here. But, come on, it is the FOURTH Freddy film, did you REALLY expect it to be scary? Freddy delivers indeed too many puns, however some of them actually hit the mark. After all, the quality of a slasher film doesn't depend exclusively on how "serious" and "vicious" the killer is - he was more serious in "Part 2", which was an embarrassment, he was less serious in "Part 3", which was an imaginative, entertaining film. As for "Part 4", it has way-above-average acting, a polished look (just compare it to some early "Friday The 13th" cheapies) and some gruesome, stunning visual effects. Above all, the movie exploits more possibilities about the links between reality and dreams than the "classic" original did. It is worth seeing.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, the fourth installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. I was lucky enough to get the boxed DVD set of Nightmare on Elm Street series and I just finished all the sequels and while the fourth isn't a bad sequel or continuation of the story, it was pretty silly. It was cool to continue on with the dream warriors who were clever enough to defeat Freddy in the third Nightmare on Elm Street. But Freddy's back and he is more ticked off than ever and you know that's not good. But while the story was a good idea, the way it was executed, I wasn't really that into it, just the acting I think is what killed it for me. The way the movie was made was what made it feel like it was more of a cheesy TV show like on the Sci-fi Channel than an actual movie.

We start off where the third installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series left off, the kids from the hospital are now grown up and are all on their own. But they are quickly killed off by Freddy hoping to get Kirsten back to help them, but they are too late. But when Kirsten finds a girl, Alice, she finds out that Alice has the same powers as she does. She has the ability to pull other people into her dreams and of course Alice is scared to find out how to use her powers, but she may just have to use them since Freddy is now after her and other kids too.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was a good enough sequel, but it just could have been better. I liked it, but so far it's not my top favorite sequel. Again, we've got some very cool deaths, don't think I could choose one, I think the water bed one was very cool. But once again, I don't wanna spoil it. Of course if you wanna see the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, this is recommended, but as a horror movie on it's own, it's OK.

6/10