Full Review: Nightmare on Elm St (5): The Dream Child (1989)

People in the Movie:  Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox

Director:  Stephen Hopkins   

Pigeonhole:  Horror / Teen Slasher

The Basics: Freddy Krueger (Englund) is back to terrorize and kill even more teens, while continuing to spout off one-liners.  He is using the dreams of Alice’s (Wilcox) unborn child to “attack”, and Freddy also wants to be re-born into the “real-world”.  Maternal issues are abound as we also learn more about Freddy’s mommy.

Recommendation: If you are a fan of the series, you should see it, so you can say you watched it.  As a standalone (meaning if you had not seen any of the prior Nightmares) you would be lost. “R” rating is for violence, language, and brief nudity.

My Take:  To at least focus on the positive, the special effects are entertaining and more eye catching than the prior Nightmares.  The overall tone also feels darker than some of the preceding films; the filming was done with filters on the cameras giving it a more somber look.  The acting, on the other hand, is worthless, the story seems full of holes, and seems driven purely by the FX and waiting for the next kill and/or one-liner.  And one item that somewhat bothers me - the body count is not that high- considering the fact this is a fifth installment of a series.  

**spoiler alert** Alice and Dan (Danny Hassle) having survived Nightmare 4 are now graduating high school, and a couple.  That is short lived – Dan gets killed in a traffic accident/ Freddy attack (one of the interesting FX scenes). 

Alice is pregnant and is dreaming about Amanda Kruger, Freddy’s birth mother.  We later learn that Amanda, of course, will become the key to destroying Freddy this time.  The audience is given a little more about Freddy’s past, which does add to the Freddy Krueger mythology, but that’s about it on the story side. 

Several of Alice’s friends are dispatched; one my favorites is the comic geek vs. Freddy in a comic drawn story that appears to be unfolding with the events of the movie, it reminded me a little of the Ah-Ha video “Take on Me”.  But as I noted earlier, the story is somewhat of a mess.  Alice comes in contact with a young boy named Jacob, that we find out is like an avatar of her unborn son (I couldn’t figure it out, either), and it is Jacob along with the soul of Freddy’s mother who was formerly trapped at the now abandoned Westin Hills Sanitarium (Nightmare 3) who must take away Freddy’s power in the final battle this time.    

Alice survives, which is a first in the Nightmare series: a main character surviving more than 2 movies.

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  Robert Englund has stated this is his least favorite of the Nightmare series … The movie is not actually called Nightmare on Elm Street 5, it is referred to throughout as Nightmare on Elm St: The Dream Child.  That is of little consequence, everyone calls it number 5.