Written by William Kotzwinkle And Brian Helgeland And Ken And Jim Wheat
Directed by Renny Harlin
Freddy: "Welcome to Wonderland, Alice."
After a fantastic opening first and third movie and a very gay coded second movie, it's really around the fourth installment in this franchise where things take something of a turn. A turn that's the definition of divisive as it does start to feel like Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) might have outstayed his welcome.
Deciding to be free of the lingering elements of the previous movie, once again, Freddy's not dead but in desperate need to get some revenge and if you liked both Joey (Rodney Eastman) and Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), well they're dispatched of rather quickly, leaving only one remaining element for Freddy to take off the board.
The element being of Kristen, only this time she's played by Tuesday Knight, has developed a smoking habit as well as a nice new boyfriend in Rick Johnson (Andras Jones) and friend group. None of those things as well as her dream powers saved her from Freddy this time and the latter certainly took great pleasure in killing her off, but while Kristen didn't survive the first quarter of this movie, her powers certainly did.
Transferring over to Rick's sister, Alice (Lisa Wilcox), this franchise managed to find itself a new protagonist and outside of Nancy Thompson, it's a fair argument that Alice Johnson might be the most likeable protagonist in the franchise. She's a pretty solid character in this movie alone and the only newbie that's allowed any real development. Unfortunately everyone else introduced here only served one purpose.
The purpose being fodder for an increasingly vengeful Freddy who delighted in murdering Rick as well as Alice's best friends, Sheila (Toy Newkirk) and Debbie (Brooke Theiss). Even Alice's love interest, Dan Jordan (Danny Hasell) came close to death before the big final confrontation.
Speaking of which, the confrontation itself between Alice and Freddy was definitely the better part of the movie with an old nursery rhyme (the movie's subtitle) playing a role in Freddy's downfall this time around. However this movie did end on the obvious sequel hook note, making it clear that Alice and Freddy would meet again sooner than later.
- More useless parents with Kristen's mother drugging her and actually causing Kristen's last confrontation with Freddy. Alice and Rick's alcoholic father, Dennis (Nicholas Mele) was also mostly unsympathetic.
- This time we also got to see Robert Englund in drag as a nurse and Freddy's victims as toppings on a pizza for some truly wild sequences in this film.
- Standout music: Tuesday Knight's Nightmare and Go West's Don't Be Afraid Of Your Dreams.
- Chronology: A year since the events of the previous movie.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master definitely feels like the start of the franchise getting a bit too silly for its own good at times, despite a likeable new protagonist in Alice. Both this and the next two movies are in the bottom for me when it comes to this franchise.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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