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

“You are what you eat”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It is a pain when franchises overstay their welcome because we start forgetting what made them special. I honestly felt this way when it came to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.


PLOT


The 1989 film takes place a year after the previous film where Alice Johnson is now dating Dan Jordan (Danny Hassel). Shortly after having sex, she has a nightmare of being Amanda Krueger, the nun that was assaulted in an asylum by multiple patients that led to her son Freddy being conceived. The following day, she celebrates her high school celebration with Dan and her new friends: reluctant aspiring supermodel Greta Gibson (Erika Anderson), comic book fan Mark Gray and Yvonne Miller, part time hospital volunteer who has a hobby of swimming. On her way to work the next day, she finds herself in the asylum to see not only the birth, but also rebirth of the child killer himself who intends to continue his reign of terror. When she calls Dan of what happened, he rushes to her only to fall asleep on the road. This allows Fred to take control of his vehicle, fatally crash into oncoming traffic. Just as Alice sees the impact, she faints. And as she wakes up being told by Yvonne her boyfriend is dead, but is also finds out she's pregnant with his baby. She then has another dream of a boy named Jacob (Whit Hertford), which she later confirms through Yvonne it was a dream because there's no children's ward in the hospital she works at. She does try telling the rest of her friends of what's been going on, but Yvonne is the only one who chooses not to believe compared to the others. As predicted, Freddy continues his killing spree by force feeding Greta in her sleep, causing her to choke in front of her mom and company in the midst of a dinner party. He then tries targeting Mark until Alice wakes him up in time. When she later has an ultrasound, she senses Fred's trying to use her baby, Jacob, as a conduit to attack everyone when she's awake and feed him his victims to make him like himself. She then gets confronted by Dan’s parents who don’t seem her fit to raise the baby, but her dad Dennis (Nicholas Mele) defends her that she’ll be a good mom without their help. She later does research with Mark that Amanda hanged herself hanged around the time of her son’s trial and her body was never found, leaving her soul trapped in its earthly resting place. Knowing she can help defeat Fred, Alice goes back to sleep hoping to find her in the dream world. This only gives the slasher another opportunity to attack her friends again. He starts off with transforming Mark into a cartoon drawing to chop him into pieces and tries drowning Yvonne until Alice intervenes again. After saving her friend who officially believes her, she goes back to sleep to continue confronting her rival , who has in fact been hiding within her every time she’s slept. However, she is able to pull him out from within. When Yvonne finds Amanda’s remains at the asylum, the latter’s spirit is able to join the fight and encourages Jacob to use Freddy’s power against him. It works as it would allow his infant form to be absorbed by his mom Amanda to seal her son away for good. The film ends in a time lapse taking place a few months after Jacob’s official birth, where Alice enjoys a picnic with her dad and Yvonne, but there is another child nearby reciting Freddy’s nursery rhyme.


THOUGHTS


Boy what a left turn this one was because this ain’t even close to being scary, but just plain weird. I like to believe Director Stephen Hopkins felt he was on the mindset he was making something fun, but with this one also suffering from constant changes in the script, there isn’t exact consistency which is definitely not a good sign no matter how optimistic you want to be in making something. Like before, the big merits that people are going to give due credit is the makeup/special effects we come to see. The effects company KNB EFX definitely succeed in maintaining the grotesque appearance you expect from Fred that allows Robert Englund to chew up the scenery that it’s always gonna be his charm that’ll keep him creepier than other slashers. With that being said, seeing other things like Baby Freddy or Super Freddy (Michael Bailey Smith) and Merging Freddy (Noble Craig) push the boundaries of shock value. While it can be traumatizing seeing someone force fed, which is indeed some kind of nod of discussing body dysmorphia, but then it feels pretty out of pocket for a cartoon drawing to get shredded into pieces. The one scene that gave most chills in comparison was when Fred controls the vehicles to kill Dan because distracted driving is just as much of a common accident these days compared to now. Another thing I can give credit to is the whole point of the movie saying there is a danger to controlled parenting and if we don’t take a step back, we’re just gonna make the same mistakes our parents did that troubled us. I do catch on to that due to how assertive Lisa Wilcox has to express Alice in order to maintain the growth she gained, but it can be a stretch of a journey due to seeing more characters die that we don’t really care about. I got nothing against Yvonne since Kelly Jo Minter made her most practical of friends and Joe Seely shows off Mark as the outgoing one, but they’re just as easy written as Greta and everyone we saw die in The Dream Master. Hell, it doesn’t even feel earned to see Dennis imply his own growth because there’s not enough time with him either. The only other supporting player I was interested with was Amanda Krueger. If Fred’s backstory was gonna keep this franchise alive for a little longer, this was the way to go and I was impressed with how Beatrice Boepple was able to portray her as the remorseful angel who knew her curse of a son had to be stopped. Even though it wasn’t the end of him yet, her efforts went a long way since Alice would be left alone from then on. Having said that, there are still some other things I didn’t like upon rewatching. For instance, why doesn’t Alice take any medication that keeps her from sleeping? Maybe that would’ve affected her baby, but it’s a surprise she didn’t think of this before finding out she was pregnant. I mean she could’ve offered any to Mark if she wanted him to live, which makes it crazy it never came to mind. Personally, Dan should’ve either waited til morning or taken meds of his own that would’ve kept him awake for the drive because doing neither was bound to set him up for death. I don’t want to sound stupid when I ask this, but do truck drivers really wear fedoras or was that supposed to be a visual gag for Alice when Dan dies? I mean my dad was a truck driver and he never met anyone in his line of work wear that, which is why it surprised me in a different kind of way. Also, that dinner party is way too calm seeing Greta choke which may be the point, but is still fucked up. Lastly, I can’t stand how it takes so long for Dan’s parents to talk to Alice about the baby. There’s no reason for them to not keep in touch after his funeral. If they really cared, they would’ve not waited so long to express their worries. If you can still ignore these issues, then you can still appreciate The Dream Child for all its supernatural absurdity of a slasher flick.