Le Cauchemar de Freddy

The third sequel in the long-running series is set firmly in the world of the late 1980s: we're talking lame fashions, big hair, rubbery special effects and a rather uneven tone veering midway between comedy and horror. It's all about what's over the top, with everybody involved aiming to outdo the scares and FX of the previous movies, but in the end none of this can disguise the fact that by this stage the story was wearing very thin. This is nothing more than a supernatural slasher that virtually reprises the plot of the first three films in the series with different characters.

Of course, watching Robert Englund hamming it up will always be a guilty pleasure, and I have to say that the special effects are also pretty impressive. In the days before CGI, the FX team here went all out in creating bizarre and inventive death scenes, most notably a moment involving a giant cockroach. Freddy's resurrection at the outset is gratuitously silly yet somehow still works, paying homage to the old Chris Lee/Dracula resurrections in spectacular fashion. There are lots of able technicians working hard behind the scenes, including Howard Berger and Screaming Mad George, and in a film this reliant on special effects their diligence pays off.

It's hard to review this title objectively, because watching it makes me nostalgic for '80s cinema in all its tacky badness. But I think it's fair to say that this is one of the better sequels out there; it's not frightening in the least, but it is entertaining and it's one of few enjoyable Renny Harlin-directed movies in existence, along with DIE HARD 2 and DEEP BLUE SEA.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is directed by Renny Harlin and written by Brian Helgeland and Scott Pierce. It stars Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Andras Jones, Tuesday Knight, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman and Brooke Theiss. Music is by John Easdale and Craig Safan and cinematography by Steven Fierberg.

Freddy Krueger (Englund) is back again to finish off the last of the Dream Warriors, but when he enters the dreams of a new girl, Alice Johnson (Wilcox), he gets more than he bargained for...

In spite of part three being something of a return to form for the Elm Street franchise, it still signalled the point where Krueger as a character started to become more fun villain than a terrifying presence. By the time this fourth instalment rolled around, Krueger was iconic for sure, but also he was a marketing tool for merchandise, even getting his own spin-off TV show. Where once was this vile child murderer invading the dreams of children and killing them, now is a guy selling dolls and someone more known for a quip than a kill.

Dream Master follows the basic Elm Street formula, Krueger returns to kill more kids in their dreams. The methods range from the icky (insect) to the impressive (pizza), and the effects work is mostly enjoyable. The tying up of loose ends shows some modicum of thought in the writing, while the big finale is actually worth the wait. However, the acting away from a perky Wilcox is pretty poor and familiarity of formula does indeed breed contempt. It's just about above average as a whole, thanks in the main to the inventive kills, but as this third sequel coined it in at the box office, with that comes the basic fact that Kruegerville is a town built only for cash purposes. 6/10

This doesn't have the well-known cast of the previous Nightmare 3 movie but the special effects are still good.....each very different and some of them very funny. They make this perhaps the most entertaining entry in the series.

Memorable scenes include a junkyard, a water bed, a classroom, faces in a pizza, a girl bench pressing and faces coming out of Freddy's flesh. The storyline, however, features its usual dumb and ridiculous theology and has its usual share of unlikable obnoxious teens. Their parents weren't pictured as any better, perhaps worse.

In fact, the kids and parents are so bad you wind up rooting for Freddy to do them in. Perhaps that's the idea!

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!

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