Nightmare on Elm Street 5 - Das Trauma

Some of the best, if not the best, special effects in the seven-part "Nightmare On Elm Street" series were featured in this movie. They are good and they are clever.

The teens in here are still annoying and profane but not to the degree they are in most of the "Freddy" films. There are some real "hotties" in here, too. The ridiculous part is that all these "teens" look about 25 years old (which they probably are). Robert Englund (Freddy) has some funny lines, as he did in a most of these movies and the movie is well-photographed.

My problem with the story, and almost of them actually, is the theology which has always been so stupid, but I tolerated it through all of the films. But here, to a show a book in the beginning of the film that says "Christian Mythology," is a real cheap shot and going too far. This pagan propaganda was heavy in this film, which is really only worthwhile for the inventive special-effects.

There are more screams and dreams as Part V of the Nightmare series rolled around, a story where Alice (Lisa Wilcox) finds Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) taunting the sleeping mind of Alice's unborn child and wants to be reborn into the world through the baby.

It's more of the screams, dreams and mangling with some gross and graphic scenes, especially that containing images of the "Dream Child." These gross-out scenes are supposed to make the movie scarier, but it does really wear out afterward as the series progresses. There is really not much character development, suspense and thrilling sequences. It's basically a continuation of the same "kids vs. the re-returning Freddy Krueger" element, with only the baby scenes offering a different plot device.

At 89 minutes, it is not an extremely long movie and you might get entertained by a few of the "Dream Child" plot scenes. Overall, it's a very average horror movie.

Grade C-

The series began suffering with the fourth movie, but this one really sent the series down hill. The acting is horrible. Only Robert Englund delivers a good performance. Not easy considering how pathetic this movie makes Freddy. Instead of the dark and scary villain, he's become a wise cracking jerk. The story is poor, making little sense. More details about Freddy's past come to light, but it really doesn't make a difference. The movie is also not very scary. The makers of this movie just opt for a lot of gore. The special effects try to fix the movie's many problems, but they don't. You'd think they would know when to quit, but yet another sequel followed. Thumbs down on this one.

Never mind Freddy's return is never explained, this installment has terrific effects, and style to burn with Robert Englund giving it his all, but this series is getting old fast. In this entry, Freddy (Englund) is trying to control the unborn child of part four's survivor and murdering all her friends in the process. The black and white sequence is a highlight. Unrated; Extreme Graphic Violence, Sexual Situations, Profanity, and Brief Nudity.

After the events of Dream Master, Alice and her new friends graduate from high school, but little does she know that Freddy Krueger has returned once again and plans to be reborn into the real world through her unborn son. The only person who can stop him is his dead mother and only Alice can free her spirit in order to defeat him once again.

The sequels to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, like I said before, has been hit and miss with Dream Warriors, Dream Master, and New Nightmare being better entries and others like Freddy's Revenge, and Freddy's Dead being weaker entries. Dream Child is another weak entry and while not exactly godawful, it lacks the elements to actually be a perfect dream.

Now there are some good things about Dream Child. The production design looks fine. It doesn't have the imaginative nature of Dream Master and Dream Warriors, but it does feel dream-like. The music score is once again haunting and fits the tone and atmosphere while Robert Englund did his best with otherwise lackluster material.

That being said, there are several problems with this fifth entry. The story isn't quite as imaginative and fresh and feels rather pedestrian, the pacing is very uneven, the writing is filled with one-liners from Freddy Krueger that aren't quite as funny, the direction is pretty drab, and the rest of the acting isn't that good. Lisa Wilcox did okay, but she wasn't as interesting as in Dream Master while the other characters are poorly-written due to their illogical decision making and while the death scenes are cool to look at, they do lack the spark that made the death scenes in Dream Master, Dream Warriors, and the original more memorable.

Overall, Dream Child isn't exactly godawful and has some good moments, but this is a dream that should've been better.