Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A

Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A

Released: 1988

MPAA Rating: R

Genre: Slasher

Nuts and Bolts: Even crosses and Holy water can’t keep Freddy down for long. He’s back and ready to rip through the dreams of Elm Street’s last group of teenagers. Things are looking bleak and only the Dream Master can stop him this time!

Summary: We begin the film from the perspective of the three surviving characters from Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Kristen Parker is having nightmares again and she finds herself back at the ruined remains of Nancy Thompson’s house. Again she sees the annoying little girl riding around on her tricycle. (We discover in this movie that the little girl is actually a younger version of Alice Johnson, whom will be introduced later.) Kristen gets scared and believes that Freddy may be coming back. She pulls Joey Crusel and Roland Kincaid back into her dream, but they pretty much tell her to get a grip. Freddy’s dead and he’s not coming back.

Later the following evening, Kincaid goes to sleep. In his dream he finds himself locked in the trunk of a car in the junkyard where Freddy’s remains were buried. Using his super strength dream power, Kincaid bursts out of the car and leaps to the ground. Like Kristen, Kincaid has the ability to pull others into his dream. His sleeping dog, Jason pads over to him and in a scene that makes utterly no sense at all, he pisses a stream of fire onto the ground where Freddy’s bones are buried. The earth splits open and hellish red light spills out. Freddy’s bones re-connect themselves and flesh and blood grows over the remains. The fully recomposed Freddy leaps from the ground and attacks Kincaid. Freddy has some unfinished work that needs to be done. Freddy’s claws stab through to Kincaid’s heart.

The following day, news about Kincaid’s death circulates about Springwood High School. As Kristen ponders the possibilities of Freddy’s return, we meet a new gang of idiots. First there is Alice Johnson, a soft-spoken waitress with subtle dream weaving abilities; then there is her brother Rick. Rick is the wild one of the two and spends most of his time practicing martial arts in his own dojo. There is also Dan Jordan, the school brick. Not much to say about this clown. We also have Sheila. Sheila is the brainiac who does everyone’s homework. She is also a chronic asthmatic. Rounding out the cast is Debbie. Debbie is the athletic hottie who prefers spiked collars over gold necklaces. She also has an irrational fear of bugs. Her pal Sheila even went so far as to create a home made ultra-sound generator so that she can keep bugs away from her. (Pay attention here, this comes into play later on.)

Despite Kincaid’s death, no one really seems to take great notice. That night, Joey is the next to go. He is lying in his waterbed listening to music when he falls asleep. We all remember that Joey’s libido ran amuck in the last film, and this one is no different. Joey hears a sound and pulls his bed sheet away to reveal a beautiful naked woman floating in the water inside of his mattress. Joey ogles her at great length, but before long Freddy attacks him and Joey is pulled inside of the mattress. Later that evening, Joey’s mother comes into the room looking for him. She pulls the blankets back to see her son drowned inside of the transparent mattress. Bye bye piggy.

Kristen is convinced that Freddy Krueger killed Kincaid and Joey. She confers with her boyfriend Rick and his sister Alice. Alice and Kristen have become rather close and Alice tells her that if she ever suffers from a nightmare, then she should dream herself into a happy place. (Kinda cheesy isn’t it?) Alice makes reference to an old nursery rhyme that imbibes power to a person known as the Dream Master.

That night, Kristen has dinner with her mother. Elaine Parker is concerned that her daughter is not sleeping well and pours sleeping pills into Kristen’s drink. Kristen reacts violently when she discovers this and retreats to her room. She tries to call Alice on the telephone but the drugs overtake her.

During dreamtime, Kristen takes Alice’s advice and places herself in a ‘happy place’. She is sunbathing on the beach. But this doesn’t stop Freddy who uses his claws like a shark’s fin and swims through the water and up onto the land. Freddy changes the vista and both Kristen and he find themselves in the basement of the Thompson home. While Kristen battles Freddy she inadvertently pulls Alice into her dream. Freddy chucks Kristen into a blazing furnace. Before her soul gets absorbed into Freddy’s collection plate, she shunts a portion of her life energy into Alice. Alice absorbs not only Kristen’s dream power, but a portion of her personality as well. Alice wakes up and Kristin dies.

The following day, Freddy stalks his next victim. The asthmatic, Sheila falls asleep in class during an exam. Freddy appears before her and literally sucks the air right out of her body. What makes this scene so fucked up is that this is actually Alice’s dream that we are experiencing. Since Alice sits right next to Sheila, Freddy pretty much has his pick of the litter. This makes Sheila piggy #4.

Meanwhile, Rick is having a difficult time dealing with his sister who now knows that Freddy Krueger is the killer. He tries to help but since he is still recovering from his girlfriend Kristen’s death, this is nearly impossible. Rick encounters Freddy in his own nightmare, which takes place inside of Rick’s dojo. Rick holds his own fairly well against Krueger and even succeeds in knocking his glove from his hand. But Freddy turns himself invisible and beats the stuffing out of Rick. A gut full of sharp blades later and piggy #5 becomes worm food.

Now its time for Freddy to after Debbie. Alice collects Dan and reveals to him the scope of what is now occurring. Dan partially believes her and the two jump into Dan’s truck to go save Debbie. But Freddy isn’t taking any chances with these two troublemakers. He places them in a time loop where they unconsciously keep repeating the same scene over and over. He places them in a time loop where they unconsciously keep repeating the same scene over and over. He places them in a time loop where they unconsciously keep repeating the same scene over and over. (Ya get the picture?)

Alice finally snaps to, and realizes what is happening. Keeping her mind straight she races to Debbie’s house. At this point, Debbie has been lifting weights on a workout bench. Taking a break, she eases back and dozes off on the bench. In her dream however, she is still lifting weights. Freddy appears and applies massive pressure upon the top of the dumb-bell. Debbie can’t push back the extra weight and her arms snap in half, dangling at her sides. Now Freddy decides to have a little fun. Knowing how much Debbie hates bugs, Freddy slowly transforms her into a giant cockroach and slaps her into a roach motel. Piggy #6 has left the building.

Realizing that they are too late to save Debbie, Alice and Dan return home. Later on, Alice has a nightmare where she finds herself slurped into a movie screen. In the ‘film’ she is transported to the diner where she works and sees herself as a withered old maid. Freddy arrives to torment her and presents her with a large pizza. Rather than sausage and pepperoni, the toppings consist of the heads of all the souls that Freddy has collected over the years. Waking up, Alice now realizes something very important. She is the Dream Master. As such, she can harness the abilities of all those whose lives she touched. In one of the stronger sequences of the film, Alice adorns her body with various mementos of her late friends. These items include: Rick’s headband, Debbie’s spike bracelet, Sheila’s ultra-sound thingie and so forth and so on. She decides it’s now time to confront Freddy.

Dan almost becomes Krueger’s next victim, but as his body is being ravaged by Freddy, he is taken to the hospital where the paramedics work to save him. Meanwhile, Alice enters the dream world. Both Freddy and she appear in the remains of an abandoned church. Freddy lunges after her, but Alice avoids his blows by way of Kristen’s athletic prowess. She then uses Rick’s martial arts skills to beat Freddy around. As Freddy is left staggering, Alice activates Sheila’s ultra-sound gun and blasts a hole through Krueger’s body. Even this doesn’t slow Freddy down. As a last ditch effort to stop him, Alice picks up a pane of broken stained glass and holds it before him. Apparently, one of the abilities of the Dream Master is to force a nightmare demon to look at the reflection of his own evil and have that evil reflected back on to him. As Freddy is spiraling about in the glow of his own reflection, all of the souls that he had collected over the years rebel against him. They tear themselves from his body and begin to rip Freddy apart. Once again, Freddy appears to go down for the ten count.

In the aftermath of all of this, Alice and Dan get together. Which works out nicely for our little Dream Master, since she carried a torch for the jock ever since the beginning of the film. As they walk away from the Springwood High School parking lot, Alice thinks she sees Freddy’s reflection in the water fountain.

Acting/Dialogue: This one is pretty much hit or miss whereas the acting goes. Lisa Wilcox does a bang-up job as Alice and she excellently illustrates the subtle evolutions that Alice’s character takes throughout the course of the film. Most of the other actors do a decent enough job but there is nothing there that really endears you to any of the characters. Tuesday Knight produces an abysmal performance as Kristen. Whereas Patricia Arquette handled the character with great pathos, Knight comes off as really wooden. Completely unconvincing and equally unforgivable.

Gore: Typical Freddy Krueger fare. Most of the gore involves stab wounds from Freddy’s claws. The most invigorating moments include the scenes wit Freddy re-forming himself, Debbie turning into a cast member of A Bug’s Life and the groaning faces of all the souls scratching to claw their way free of Freddy’s body.

Guilty Pleasures: There’s a really attractive naked blonde floating about under Joey’s waterbed. We also see one of Freddy’s soul-minions sporting a pretty nice rack. (Rack supplied by Linnea Quigley) We also get to see Tuesday Knight in a bikini, which is about the only good thing she brings to this movie.

The Good: Director Renny Harlin tries to imitate a lot of the style used by Wes Craven in the first Nightmare. Now that’s not totally a bad thing mind you. Renny gives us some visually stunning sequences most of which are strongest in the first half of the film.

The opening dream sequence works very well as we see a little girl in front of the dilapidated Thompson house making a Freddy Krueger chalk drawing on the sidewalk. (The chalk drawing will appear again in that miasma of monkey piss known as Freddy’s Dead.) This portion of the film really leads you to believe that there is a greater significance to the Thompson house than we are initially led to believe. What exactly that significance is is anybody’s guess.

Despite the overwhelming stupidity of Freddy’s rebirth, there’s a lot of good stuff here. The FX used to show Freddy’s body re-morphing itself is really well done; especially the part where we see his dried out eyes filling up with fluid and becoming whole again. Visually, its one of the film’s strongest points. There’s also a really nice shot of Kincaid stranded in the junkyard. As he’s spinning around wondering what the fuck is going on, the camera pulls back farther and farther until all we see is a very small view of the junkyard.

I really liked the way that Harlin fleshed out the character of Alice Johnson. In the beginning, she is this quiet little door mouse. One of the stronger character-building scenes involves a moment where she is hanging photographs of her friends onto her bedroom mirror as part of some collage. Her brother Rick enters and says something along the lines of “That kind of defeats the purpose of a mirror. You keep doing that and you won’t be able to see yourself.” Alice replies, “I don’t want to see myself.” Later on in the film, Alice’s character does a complete reversal and she has accepted her position as the Dream Master. She rips down all of her photos and clears her dresser. After adorning herself in items left behind by her late friends, she looks at her reflection in the mirror and says “Fucking A!” Note: This was a phrase uttered by Kincaid shortly before his death and is included here as a way of showing that Alice has absorbed Kincaid’s outspoken personality.

Actually the whole theme of reflections plays pretty heavily throughout the entire movie. In a nightmare realm Alice sees a reflection of her own possible future wherein she is an old haggard maid still pouring cups of coffee at the diner she works at. We also see Freddy’s reflection on the side of Debbie’s dumb-bell shortly before he kills her. As such, Debbie becomes the reflection of her greatest fear. As mentioned in the summary, Freddy is defeated by the reflection of his own evil and we even see the foreshadowing of his eventual return when we see his face reflected in the schoolyard fountain. All in all, I think Harlin made good use of metaphor here and it’s just subtle enough as to almost be elusive.

It seems that each of the Nightmare movies chooses to showcase one particular character-death above all others. Renny Harlin stays in line with this tradition and we get to see Debbie slowly transforming into an icky sticky insect. The special effects during this sequence are really well done and I think just about everybody who watches it will find themselves more than a little grossed out.

The Bad: Okay let’s start from the top. First off is Freddy’s rebirth. Kincaid’s dog Jason urinates a gout of flame onto Freddy’s grave, splitting the earth and resurrecting the nightmare man. This is just fucking stupid. Now I realize that as you move along in your series it becomes more difficult to come up with new and exciting ways by which to bring your main villain back to life. But Christ on a crutch couldn’t you do a little bit better than this? In my most drunken stupor I could come up with a thousand better ways to bring Freddy back to life. Plus, this completely invalidates the integrity of the ghost of Amanda Krueger from Dream Warriors. She stated that the only way to stop Freddy was to bury his remains in hallowed ground. I guess she was way off the fucking mark on THAT one wasn’t she? Dumb-ass ghost should shut the fuck up if she doesn’t know what she’s talking about! Maybe she should’ve warned Neil Gordon to keep pyro-pissing pooches away from the grave or else everything will be for naught. It would have been the decent thing to do. Regardless, Freddy is now back in the saddle thanks to the efforts of Spuds Mackenzie. It’s a really bad sign when you begin to see examples of laziness in the first five minutes of the movie.

Now we come to the character of Kristen. First off, Patricia Arquette no longer plays her as she did in Dream Warriors. This time it is rock-n-roller Tuesday Knight portraying Kristen Parker. Now admittedly, Tuesday is a bit easier on the eyes than Arquette is, but this chick couldn’t act her way out of a traffic ticket. In this film, Kristen becomes a smoker. Now it is an unwritten rule somewhere that unless it’s an illegal depressant of some kind, characters in horror movies DO NOT smoke! Hmmm. Smells like a plot tool to me. Sure enough, halfway through the film we see Alice lighting up a Marlboro. She quickly realizes that she doesn’t even smoke and distinguishes it. This was done for the sole purpose of illustrating that Alice had absorbed part of Kristen’s soul. Another problem I had with Kristen was the apparent lack of her dream powers. Remember, not only did she have the ability to pull others into her dreams, but she was also supposed to be a kick-ass gymnast. Maybe if Renny Harlin reminded her of this, her ass might not have gotten chucked into the furnace. The only similarity between this character and the one in Dream Warriors is the name.

The one thing that really irked me was that Renny Harlin decided to kill off the surviving teens from Dream Warriors. I really didn’t see the point to this, as it would have been just as compelling to maintain Kristen as the new ‘Nancy’ character. The deaths of Kincaid, Kristen and Joey are just one more thing that helps to invalidate the climax of the third film.

Now we come to the topic of Freddy’s humor. Once again, this film takes us one step closer to damnation where Freddy’s one-liners are concerned. In part 3 at least, it appeared as if the director’s forged a great death scene and then coined a humorous remark to punctuate the scene after the fact. But here, it seems more like the screenwriters thought of the jokes first and patterned the death scenes in order to fit the joke. The one-liners aren’t quite as bad as they become in parts five and six, but they definitely do not accentuate Freddy’s character here.

This film’s biggest flaw is that it really doesn’t do a lot to make the characters likeable. Even Alice is sort of a washed up version of Nancy Thompson and Kristen Parker. Although Alice may be the most powerful of Dream Warriors, she doesn’t inspire the same pizzazz that the other two scream queens did. The rest of the cast is fairly forgettable and they are really little more than archetypes with nametags. None of them really bring anything unique to the table.

Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Master is a decent enough flick I suppose, but since this is the fourth installment, it fails to offer us anything that we couldn’t have gotten in the first three movies. In this, the pizza pie scene likely makes for the most accurate metaphor when analyzing this film. Nightmare 4 is the same old pizza. They just changed the toppings.

Great Lines:

“How sweet. Fresh meat.” --Freddy upon noticing that Kristen has pulled Alice into her nightmare.

“Rick, you little meatball!” --Freddy referencing the Rick Johnson pizza topping.

“How’s that for a wet dream?” --Freddy just before he kills Joey with the waterbed. Another example of a great death being wasted on cheesy one-liners.

"No mother, you just murdered me. Take THAT to your thereapy class! --Kristen yelling at her mother after being given sleeping pills.

Overall Rating: 6 out of 10 severed heads.

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