Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Tuesday Knight, Danny Hassell, Andras Jones, Brooke Theiss, Toy Newkirk, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman.
Director: Renny Harlin.
As star Tuesday Knight's song "Nightmare" begins to play over the opening credits of A Nightmare on Elm Street:The Dream Master, I'm taken back to when I was twelve and saw my first horror films: this film and the previous film, part 3. You would think that part 3 would have resonated with a twelve year old a little better, considering the themes of empowerment, innocence and togetherness. But, somehow, part 4 worked better for me and it was one of the first horror films I would go on to buy with my own money. It's one of the films in my collection I will never part with. It's one of my favorite horror films, if not my favorite. Obviously, the film would be a sentimental favorite since, objectively, it's not exactly a work of cinematic brilliance. It's fun and colorful and strange, though, and it captured the imagination of twelve year old Nathaniel quite easily.
I think, in the end, the reason it resonated with me so much was the characters. There was this dramatic weight to them, even as high schoolers, that made them relatable and interesting. I became obsessed with Andras Jones doing bad karate in his garage, rocking out to Dramarama's insanely catchy "Anything,Anything" and his unbelievably amazing hair. I wanted to have that hair when I grew up. I STILL want that hair. Unfortunately for my twelve year old self, my hair would basically only last another few years before it started falling out. For a long time I would tout Andras as my hero ironically. Now I actually respect him, because he's kind of rad in real life. But Rick is a great character and he gives a good performance.
Also, I crushed hard on Lisa Wilcox. I still crush hard on Lisa Wilcox. One of my very first crushes.
So, that's some idea of why this film means so much to me. It isn't a whole explanation, and I have to actually talk about the movie itself at some point, so it will have to remain an eternal mystery.
Kristen-now played by Tuesday Knight-reunites with her old friends Kincaid and Joey, who remind her that, despite her terror, Freddy is totally dead. However, Kincaid's dog bites her and the wound arrives in reality: a bad omen. She then meets new friends Alice(Wilcox) and her brother Rock(Jones), who happens to be dating Kristen. Alice and Rick's Dad is an alcoholic, first seen mixing himself up a bloody mary. Then we're off to school to meet the rest of the cast. In no time we're introduced to the whole gang and get their basic personality types: Dan is an all-american jock, Rick is a carefree jokester, Debbie is a tough gal(but fears bugs), Alice is a daydreamer, and Sheila is super smart. That's all we need to know, and yet somehow they actually make an impression.
We establish that and we're off to bad karate. It really is super cool somehow. Think it's the hair. That and the Dramarama. Anyway, the real basis for the scene is to show that A)Rick knows karate and B)this is how he handles the stress of a drunken dick of a Father, a girlfriend with emotional problems, and a sweet but weak-willed sister. Alice then has a day dream where she tells off her Dad (and looks more grown up and vibrant, most importantly: an ideal self exists within her dreams).
Then, because this movie just says "screw elaborate pacing, let's just get on with it," we're off to the first death of the movie. Kincaid falls asleep and wakes up in the junk yard from the previous film and witnesses the random rebirth of Freddy...who comes back when a Dog pees fire on his grave. The best explanation for Freddy's return would have to be that, as Joey had suggested, constantly dreaming about Freddy would inevitably "stir him up again." The movie doesn't really care, though, which is part of it's power. The movie works similarly to Hellraiser III: it wants to revel in it's own strange premise, and take joy in the fantastic world it dwells in. Excess (without going overboard) is the name of the game, and director Renny Harlin is fully committed to that task. Kincaid doesn't last long under this new gameplan, though, and he's out as quickly as he's in. Good death, though: the movie at least allows him to get a decent shot in before his dispatching.
Joey is next, being taken out in an imaginative waterbed sequence. The sequence is only the second moment of full nudity in the series...it's weird how prudish the Nightmare films really kind of are. There isn't a LOT of real violence or blood, really: the imagination goes more into weird and fantastic visual terror. There's virtually no nudity. Even the profanity is mostly kept into inappropriate one-liners. Sure, there's the occasional cursing but not all that much, at least not to what it could be. Freddy could (and probably should, given the nature of his character) be saying a lot more racist and sexist things, but he doesn't. Sure, there's some but not a great deal. It's just interesting at all, considering how parallel it often runs with Friday The 13th, which is the opposite.
There's a subtle division towards the end of the first act beginning to set up the change over between protagonists (though I do wonder how Alice got through a whole day at school without somehow hearing that two of her classmates had died the night before...no matter how big the school is). They give us a scene of Alice hanging with her friends at the diner, remind us of her crush on Dan (who is one of my favorite horror movie love interests ever, but we'll get to that), and then she tags along for Kristen to give some exposition...well, okay, Rick transfers it to Dan for the sake of the audience. But it sets up the "Alice as understudy" element that drives most of the narrative moving forward.
No matter how many times I see it, it still amuses me greatly that Kristen outright cites the sudden death of her friends as the reason she's not eating, and her Mother dismisses it as fatigue. It's amazing.
Much like its direct predecessor, Dream Master doesn't screw around. It gives us enough exposition to be coherent, but it realizes that the money is Freddy. Freddy is who the audience came to see, so it jumps right into the nightmare sequences and death scenes at a rapid pace. Any scene around them is basically to give them weight, explanation or just developing characters in some small way. It really is something of a miracle of pacing.
Anyway, Alice witnesses Kristen's death and takes over as the heroine, immediately showing more adulthood(and better hair and skin) upon waking. There's actually a really well acted and developed scene between Alice and Rick: Rick, unlike most other horror movie boyfriend characters, blames himself for not being there enough for Kristen, showing genuine signs of grief. I mean, you don't see a lot of genuine grief in horror films anyway, but this one really shows two characters who have a close relationship mourning the death of someone they were both close to.
The quiet does not last long, though: Sheila is next. Sheila is smart and has Asthma, so of course she dies of asphyxiation during a physics test. As simple a line as that is, though, it's actually a pretty effective scene. The set design makes the floor of the classroom look like a pit using a pretty basic optical effect, and a tight frame gives it a claustrophobic effect: very few nightmare sequences in the series take that kind of time to create that sort of visual effect for the viewer. Then, Sheila is deflated in another simple but arresting effect.
In Never Sleep Again:The Elm Street Legacy they make the connection that Rick's look in the post-Sheila death scene inspired the look of Buffy character Angel. I totally buy it. His hair and long black trench coat...they do look an awful lot alike.
I guess this as good a time as any to discuss how much I like the character of Dan. He's played by the handsome and earnest seeming Danny Hassel, but that isn't all of it. Dan, confronted with all the weirdness, actually just kind of shrugs and says "Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense," He also sticks up for his friend Rick, which is always something I like in a character. Everything about Hassel's performance suggests that Dan is a stand up guy and, in a simple but not stupid trait, is willing to accept a bizarre explanation if it best explains unusual events. It doesn't hurt that Rick says "If I'm next, watch your back" five minutes before he actually dies (on the toilet, no less). I figure that kind of accuracy, I'd believe in "Dream Monster," too.
Rick's death scene always seemed kind of extraneous. I was never convinced he even needed to die at all, except to give Alice more motivation, I suppose. I think the movie may have been weirder with him in it for the rest, but...I mean, they could have pulled a Joey and had him in a coma or something. Instead we get a really awkward shadowboxing scene that Freddy doesn't even really show up in...and Freddy kinda just wins without any real typical Freddy bluster. It's mostly a disappointing scene, especially considering he was one of the most well-rounded and interesting characters in the series run. But I suppose that's why he had to die: gives the movie more of an emotional hook.
To drive home the "Alice gains special abilities of her dead friends"(which is a cool superpower to have if you don't particularly like your friends that much) we have her rocking out to Dramarama and swinging a pair of nunchucks. She wants to get together with Dan and Debbie, her last two remaining allies, but Drunk Dad doesn't want her to. Despite knowing that Freddy will inevitably strike at them if she sleeps, she goes upstairs and takes a nap. Nice going, Alice.
I really do think Alice, and obviously Lisa Wilcox by extension, is one of the most beautiful women ever to walk the planet earth. The character was a big part of my crush (it's more than physical, you guys) in general: something about Alice in particular really captured my young heart. I think it's the combination of strength and shyness, the niceness coupled with being capable. Plus gorgeous.
Great gags with the movie theater and the soul pizza. Both of those images are so very captivating. The pizza scene has more importance than that, though: it's also the first time that Alice and Freddy actually have something akin to a conversation. The villain makes sure the hero knows what's at stake now, which acknowledges her as his new adversary in the eyes of the viewer. Plus he needs to terrify her into summoning other friends...and Debbie gets the short straw. It's probably for the best that Debbie dies here, though: I think she's probably be pretty pissed if she knew Alice chose the guy she had a thing for over her...or that Alice didn't summon, like, some guy at school she barely knew. Nope, Alice summoned her only remaining best friend to die a horrible, painful, humiliating and demoralizing death. Poor Debbie.
Really, from the perspective of the victim, Debbie's death probably is the most traumatic of the series. Not only is there her fear of bugs, but the horror of transformation in general...being confronted with these things would have to be beyond any sort of...I mean, seriously. What a terrifying, cruel and unusual death. It's almost too much for the series...but it's so fantastic visually that it's pretty much forgivable. I had a hard time watching it when I was a kid, though.
After a car accident puts Dan in surgery and, as such, into Freddy's crosshairs, Alice goes home and has a "getting badass" montage, taking accessories and mementos of her dead friends and making them into weapons and armor to face Freddy once and for all. It's a pretty cool little moment.
Dan doesn't end up being much help. No sooner are he and Alice together, Dan is forced out of the fight, leaving Alice and Freddy one on one. It had to be like that, though: what was Dan really going to do here anyway? Not that that point really matters, considering the point would have to be Freddy up against The Dream Master, who has similar powers to himself. As I said earlier, it would have been weird if Rick had somehow survived as well...there really wouldn't be a decent place to fit him into the narrative. The fight itself is appropriately epic in its scope: Alice uses all the powers of her friends and her own inherent goodness to do battle but slowly exhausts them all and finds that Freddy is, as one would expect, ostensibly omnipotent within his own environment. However, Alice ultimately channels a greater power through herself, dismantling his very makeup and causing his emprisoned souls to tear their way out in yet another excellent (and a little gross) effect. Alice believes Freddy to be defeated, and gets together with the dreamy, major league hunk Dan.
But what was that reflection in the water....?!
Final Thoughts: It's far from the greatest horror movie ever made. It's simple, it's a little silly, but it's imaginative, visually arresting, and filled with interesting and engaging characters (even if they exist for an absurdly short amount of time), and excellent performances. Plus, it never ceases to make me happy on a personal note. I love this film.
Final Rating: (Critically) Three Stars. (Personally) A Billion Stars.
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