A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master: Review By T.Clark

I "LOLed."

Alice kicking Freddy's ass with martial arts moves. Debby turning into a c*ckroach. All those souls clawing through Freddy. They made me laugh(but that last one was pretty cool). Clearly this series is taking a turn for the comedic horror route. It's not terrible, but Dream Master is a weak sequel to a movie that redeemed this series after Part 2 sucked major ass. It's still fun, though, never really alienating the viewer with awfulness...like the kind seen in Part 2.

Part 4 sees Freddy returning once again to finish off the last of the "Elm Street Children." Once that's taken care of, he uses Alice, who has gained Kristen's powers to bring people into her dreams, to kill some more kids. The concept is cool, but there's a lot of places where this movie went wrong and some where it went right.

First off, there's the bad. Where's Dr. Gordon? He was a worthy male protagonist that offered a different perspective in a series that builds itself on its poorly acted teenage victims. All the other survivors from the first movie show up. I realize that it's because Freddy holds a personal grudge against them because their parents killed him, but he should be a lil' ticked off with Gordon, too. He's not even mentioned. At least Nancy gets a little surprise nod when her gravestone is shown(why it just so happens to be there among all of Freddy's other victims is beyond me, but at least they showed it).

Also, why didn't Patricia Arguette return as Kristen? It was weird seeing another person in the role, especially someone who doesn't make me think of Kristen one bit. The rest of the cast is what's to be expected from a slasher series acting wise. Their development as characters isn't any better. Unlike Part 3, they don't all have unique qualities that make them likable, and unlike Part 1, they don't handle their situation in a way that I can take them seriously. There's also obvious mistakes. A double is clearly used when Alice is practicing with the nunchucks. It's like they didn't even attempt to make the person look like Alice, even if it is from behind...Different hair color and style.

Now for the good: Robert Englund steals the spotlight with his performance as Freddy. He's more witty than ever. He makes even the most lame and corny quotes sound great. If not for him, this movie would have tanked. There's also some memorable death scenes that deserve to be seen. Some are pretty out there, but they prove that Nightmare is the most creative slasher you can find. I guess the good outweighs the bad when you think about it, but it's fun and there's enough good things to not absolutely alienate the viewer...like Part 2.