Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) by Kenneth B — 31 Oct 2015

Part 4 is a direct continuation of Elm Street 3 with Kristen, Kinkaid and Joey who survived the previous film providing the link. This isn't quite as seamless as it could have been though as it seems Patricia Arquette had become too much of a big a deal to reprise her role so she was replaced by Tuesday Knight. Not that this has a huge impact on this film as a whole.

The main theme of Part 4 then is one which was established in the previous instalment, which is Kristen's ability to draw people into her dreams. **SPOILER ALERT** Thus we have the device which prolongs Freddy's existence because once Kinkaid and Joey are dispatched Kristen is next and uses her power to draw our new heroine, Alice, into her dream and somehow passes this ability to Alice before she, Kristen, is killed. Kristen being the last of the Elm Street children.

So we have a theme not to dissimilar to Part 2 when Freddy wanted Jesse to kill for him. In Part 4 Freddy is reliant on Alice to bring people into the dreams for him. Despite the fact that all the Elm Street kids are dead it seems as though Mr Krueger isn't done yet. So really this sits somewhere between 2 and 3 in terms of theme and content.

It is by now that Freddy has really begun the descent into self-parody. Wes Craven surely would never have placed his boogeyman on a sunny beach wearing sunglasses! There is, it has to be said, a decent balance between the humour and the horror though and there is a solid laugh with the 'Well it aint Dr Seuss' quip.

The settings are still spooky and that tricycle is still eerie. NOES 4 is also quite restrained in terms of gore, it was only certified 15 in the UK It was only really the 'bug' death scene which was particularly graphic and that was in a rubbery prosthetic kind of way. NOES 4 isn't too much more than horror by numbers and it isn't scary, but it is still more imaginative than your average slasher sequel.