Le Cauchemar de Freddy

Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) directs Dream Master, the fourth entry in the franchise about a maniacal dreamstalker named Freddy Kruger. The entry is extremely passable and enjoyable.

The survivors of Dream Warriors are still haunted by memories of Freddy Kruger. But Freddy isn't quite dead as he picks up his glove and takes up where he left off...with vengeance. The only flaw in his plan: a shy outcast named Alice who harbors powers that will enable her to do battle with Kruger as she assumes qualities of past Freddy victims.

Although some of the more interesting characters are sacrificed first, the Nightmare franchise proves to be deeper and more original than any other slasher series around. Some inventive deaths and imagery on display as Robert Englund devours the scenery as Freddy.

"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 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

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.

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