A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Stephen Hopkins

Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Kelly Jo Minter, Danny Hassel, Erika Anderson

From: New Line Cinema

To state it simply, I felt like watching a horror film last night and it ended up being this one... one with a poor reputation and it was deserved, although it does have memorable moments. Read about it in my Letterboxd review below: 

I was in the mood to watch a horror film last night and I hadn't watched a Freddy movie in about 4 months so I figured I should continue to watch them in order; I rated 4 as average and well, 5 isn't as good as that, despite some interesting ideas. The story... it was definitely hampered by the movie being rushed into production; they started filming even before the script was finished, which is usually a bad idea. It involves Alice from The Dream Master returning, and she is pregnant. Freddy kills Alice's new friends and their souls feed the unborn baby... really, it makes as much sense (none) explaining it as it does in the movie. It's best not even trying to start making sense of it.

I can't say the movie is awful; it's just not good. It's a shame as the darker themes of the movie are fine with me (even if Freddy is still a jokester comedian spouting goofy one-liners) and the Gothic themes are pretty cool. Heavy topics like abortion and adoption are brought up; it's not really developed but I don't fault the attempt to do so. They just should have had more time to develop the story, and take better advantage of the splatterpunk influence... various authors of the hardcore horror genre were brought in and what was used of the guys they hired wasn't extensive.

What helps make this watchable is the deaths. I have no idea why the unrated cut only made it to VHS and Laserdisc as it should be out in the modern formats. The R rated version truncates all the deaths and it's unfortunate as the edited kills just aren't the same, even though they're still cool. The most memorable one is the first one, where a character rides a motorcycle and the bike becomes part of him, a la Tetsuo: Iron Man, which I did see once a long time ago and it is as bizarre as everyone says it is. The effects from KNB are pretty good, especially considering the time constraints. There are some nice sets and some nice setpieces, the M.C. Escher one being the standout to me, although the black and white comic book inspired death of Mark (and what incredibly bad outfits he wears!) was creative too.

If it wasn't for those moments, I would rate this quite low. I don't blame the cast or crew for how this turned out overall.