A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
Directed By: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel, Kelly Jo Minter, Erika Anderson, Joe Seely, Whit Herford
Subgenre: Slasher
Well, we are on the fifth Elm Street movie in six years, and anytime you rush production like that, you have the possibility of some pretty terrible movies. I think parts 5 and 6 are the lowest points of the franchise. Freddy is just not frightening at all. His one-liners are ridiculous and the death scenes are just as bad.
Alice returns in this installment, along with her boyfriend Dan, but soon starts to dream of a young Amanda Krueger. About the only redeeming part of this movie is the beginning, where we learn hwo Freddy came into this world. His mother was a nun at an asylum for the criminally insane that was accidentally locked in overnight. She was repeatedly raped, making Freddy the bastard son of a hundred maniacs.
Alice has some pretty disturbing dreams involving giving birth to a demonic “mini-Freddy” which gives the audience some very heavy handed foreshadowing. Boyfriend Dan makes an early exit as Freddy causes him to fuse to his motorcycle and crash into another vehicle. This was a pretty decent scene, but the transformation was a little too long. It reminded me a bit of Tetsuo though. We find out that Alice is pregnant with Dan’s child, but who didn’t see that coming?
Anyways, Alice discovers that Freddy is using the unborn child to infiltrate the dreams of Alice and her friends. Not sure how that really makes sense, but OK. Freddy does his thing, taking out the friends in short order with the most ridiculous fight/death scene involving aspiring comic artist mark turning into a Punisher-style hero to take on Freddy, who promptly morphs into “Super Freddy.” Yeah, bulging muscles and everything. This one ranks up there in the absurd Freddy moments list.
The ending duel involves Jacob, Alice’s unborn child, the ghost of Amanda Krueger, Alice and of course Freddy. The ending is pretty bland, at least as far as I am concerned, but by now, the franchise is boring me. It’s about time to take the franchise in a different direction or end it. Up next Freddy’s Dead, but don’t be fooled into thinking that is the last movie in the series.
Cenobite Me 