A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

“Now there’s a face, only a mother could love!” – Freddy Krueger

Well here we are on yet another slasher sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. This movie is considered by many as the second to worst of the franchise and I agree. This movie tries to get some horror back into the franchise but fails at it miserably. But first I will tell you what I think works well in this movie.

For this movie they went with a darker setting all around. The lighting is darker, the tone is darker, the subject matter of teen pregnancy, and abortion options. But darker subject matter and lighting is not horror it’s just dark. But I do like that they have Freddy get a little scared to show how dark they are trying to get. To actually show that Freddy is afraid of something shows the audience that he has a weakness and that he is not truly eternal. It’s also the only time we ever see him truly afraid. I think the scene where Freddy tries to move through the doorway and see him afraid of his mother and show fear for the first time. I think is the best shot of him and this film. After all what could frighten the boogie man?

Now for what doesn’t work lets open the shit damn. After growing up in Springwood for years and 26 murders thus far you would think that more than three characters would believe that something was killing off teenagers in this town after a while. Nope one girl won’t hear it until she finally gets attacked and all of the parents seem to be completely baffled. Even though just the year before their little group got slaughtered mysteriously? Then of course there is the plot of using Jacob’s dreams to create a back door. They really couldn’t come up with a better idea or just say screw it we are bringing Freddy back like Dream Warriors or Dream Master. I would’ve accepted that more than the baby dream angle. The rest of the movie plays out like the others. A final confrontation with Freddy were he tries to trick them and at the last second they seem to triumph. Except something tells us at the end that this isn’t the last of Freddy he’s just locked away for now. That is another thing that bothered me about this movie was that Lisa has lived through two movies and beaten Freddy semi-easily with only having emotional damage done and zero physical. She lasted longer than Nancy or Kristen but still couldn’t really kill Freddy. The problem with this movie and the other bad sequels seems to happen though in most movie franchises that change directors and writers every movie. They really can’t decide on how to either kill Freddy or keep characters fresh and entertaining. The only person that really worked on all of the movies and that kept this franchise going was producer Robert Shaye. I have to admit though he did a decent job considering he didn’t write any of these movies but still did his best with what he had.

Well that is all I got for this sequel. Check me out next time when I review the supposed “end” of the nightmare series Freddy’s Dead the Final Nightmare. Or as I like to call it Looney Tunes with no cartoons. Until then this cinephile is out.