ANOES 5: The Dream Child (1989)

"It's a Boy." - Freddy Krueger 

"...Picture Time! Come get immortalized, parents and brats."

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) brings back survives Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel). This movie is a horse of a different color. I'm going to try to explain the plot as best I can, but I'm warning you, it's going to sound comical. Alright, Alice gets pregnant, she starts having nightmares about Freddy again and she finds out that Freddy is an entity that lives inside her. As each of her friends are murder, Freddy feeds the souls to Alice's unborn baby so he can reborn again? Yeah, like I said, it's bizarre. I get all the symbolism of motherhood, and the fear of being a new mother, but I mean come on. This is taking it a little too fair, in my opinion.

"Hey it's just a little blood, guy." 

Now let's talk about the characters. There are a few new faces in this film for Freddy to slaughter. Speaking of, his death toll sucks in this one. He only kills 3 people; which is significantly less than the previous films. You're slacking, Krueger. Anyway, all the characters appear to be stereotypical characters. There is the model Greta (Erik Anderson), the nerd/comic relief Mark (Joe Seely), and the very level headed/rational Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter). Once again, they are all disposable, aside from Yvonne. She is the only one who actually makes sense in this movie. She is a strong character, much like Alice. I am glad that she survives until the end, simply because of her strength and unwillingness to let Freddy get to her. With that being said, my fans have expressed that too many people survive in this movie and i'm going to say that yes it is true; however, there is also a very limited about of characters in this film regardless.

"It's a Boy!!"

Now onto the special effects. Each death scene was amazing, however, the NPAA, was constantly taking a hatchet to each graphic/gory scene. I believe this was around the time that Friday the 13th franchise was suffering the same fate with the NPAA and needing to create a substantial amount of edits. Yeah this was an ongoing trend in the 80s. There was just a huge shift where they couldn't show  too much gore/graphic violence in horror films; due to the fact that so many horror movies were coming out during this time. Yeah the NPAA had a huge issue with graphic violence during the 80s; but they didn't have an issue with nudity. You could have as much of that as possible, but once you start decapitating the nude people thats where they drew the line.

I mean check out the baby Freddy puppet to the left; that is freaking terrifying and really well made. This was a puppet that they created for the beginning sequence while Alice was, I want to say, day-dreaming. Because this was a dream but she was awake heading to work while it was happening. This leads into Dan's death sequence.

"Yee Haw. This boy feels the need for speed." 

It's probably one of the coolest deaths in the whole franchises. He’s trying to reach Alice at the diner, and he finds a motorcycle. Not to go blow by blow for the scene, but basically he’s driving the bike, and soon he starts morphing with it. The one thing I hate about this scene is that every frame cuts right before anything happens. I’ve seen the cut and uncut version. The uncut version is not even as bad as they made it out to be. It would be considered TAME by today’s standards. However, it’s still regarded as one of the best scenes in the Nightmare franchise, in my opinion. Also while they were filming this scene, bystanders actually stopped to see what was going on during Dan’s crash scene; on a count that his make effect looked so real.

"Bon appetiti...Bitch" 

They go from there to Greta’s which is downright disgusting. Backstory, Greta is a model, and she is constantly getting badgered from her mother on what she can and can’t do; which also applies to her food. She is a sort of trapped in a never-ending hell. So how do you think Freddy kills her? With food and it’s as stupid as it sounds. Freddy feeds her to death. This scene also went on longer, as towards the end Freddy feeds herself to herself. I’ve seen the uncut version and it’s best that it was cut out; because it was absolutely disgusting. The scene is already graphic and gross enough. 

"Told ya comic books was bad for ya!!"

Finally, Mark, whose death was fitting yet abrupt. He’s a comic book nerd and he dies in a comic book. This scene is visually amazing, simply because they scaled back the background, and put the actor in very bright clothing. This made it look colorized and it was very fitting since it gave it a retro comic book view. They even turned Freddy into a comic book villain named “Super Freddy.” It was just a very interesting scene and a lot of the effects were done in camera. This scene really reminds me of like a modern day DC or Marvel movie. I swear if either of those companies made this movie, this is what it would look like. No joke. 

"Put your pedal to the metal, Dan."

Aside from the amazing special effects, there were so many problems with this film. The first being that they had a movie release day before they had a script. The movie got off the ground in November/December 1988 and was to be released in August 1989. Scenes were being filmed while other sets were being built. Scripts were different everyday, so the actors stopped memorizing their lines. This is the reason the movie has so many plot holes and it hardly makes sense. However, it gives a tiny bit more backstory of Freddy; but it’s something that could have expressed more in either parts 3 or 4. Also the LAST line of official dialogue was “It’s a boy” and that was said at the BEGINNING of the film. So, you can imagine how tough it was for cast and crew to create this film. Another interesting fact is that the Mark character was supposed to survive, however decided at the last minute to kill him off; which the actor didn’t know until the next day. His death was done in camera and in post, so he didn't really need to be present for the death. He walked into the set, sees the other actors crying and he asked what was going on; and a producer said he died last night. 

"Kids...always a disappointment."

Thankfully director Stephen Hopkins (Lost in Space, The Ghost and the Darkness) was able to make this film very visual to substitute for the fact that they were lacking a strong script. He had a great vision when it came to the architectural aspects. It is disorienting at times with the different angles, spinning rooms and even the multiple staircases at the end. He made you feel like this was an actual nightmare. This film was actually a nightmare to film, director, and just to work on. It put the cast and crew under a lot of pressure; which is why I believe it was a tremendous failure.

I do enjoy the visual aspects of this movie, like at the end when they are in this weird funhouse. There were a bunch of stairs that were twisted every which way and even upside. It made the whole room feel very disoriented. Similar to how you feel when you are waking up from a bizarre dream, like stuff stops making sense and there is no logic. This is how I felt about the ending of the movie.

Now the good thing about this film is that in recent years more people have taken a closer look at it. They, like myself, appreciate it for its visual aspects rather than just a horror movie. Thinking back on it, it's not bad by any means and it's fitting for the franchise. As someone who has seen this franchise on more than 10 occasions, I can tell you that it’s a good movie and I recommend it!! Aside from the plot holes and confusing backstories, the special effects are pretty good for 1989. It was after this movie that they realized, Freddy’s Dead. They have exhausted every possible idea for the franchise, so they knew they had to kill him off one final time. I’m glad that we got a final nightmare and they didn’t just end it, like so many movie series these days.

IMDB: 5.2/10 || Rotten Tomatoes: 32% 

Anyway, next time we will explore Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare; which to be honest is my personal favorite and the FIRST nightmare I saw back in the late-late 90s.


Sleep Tight,
A Nightmare on Movie Night