Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) by Richard D — 24 Jul 2018
Freddy comes back and kills the 3 original Elm Street kids left over from the third film (Patricia Arquette does not return as Kristen. Tuesday Knight takes over the role.) Somehow Kristen passes on her ability to pull other people into her dreams to her brother's girlfriend, making her the hero of the film as well as the person drawing new kids into Freddy's dream traps.
Somehow she takes on the attributes of her friends when they die, and she becomes powerful enough to kill Freddy. So much is just unexplained here. It's not clear why Freddy comes back to life (a dog pisses fire on him in a dream, but that's not exactly an explanation).
It's not clear how one girl gains the abilities of other people when they die. It's not even clear in this film how people end up in dreams. Most of the time, they just are in a dream now ... so there.
It's not a terrible film. Freddy here is more mean and less jokey, and I like that. Some of the effects by Screaming Mad George are great ... kudos to the dream where a girl turns into a cockroach.
Almost everything about this film is really thin though. The plot is under explained. All the characters are defined by one broad characteristic (one girl exercises, one has asthma ... that's all you'll ever learn about them).
It's still probably the third best film in this franchise.
This review of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) was written by Richard D on 24 Jul 2018.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master has generally received mixed reviews.
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