Fun fact: This is my 1,000th blog post. Hurray for me?
It’s crazy to look back at a time in filmmaking like the 1980s when horror franchises would pump out another 90 minute installment within a year of the prior release. I think the last time a franchise worked under such a grueling quantity mandate was the Saw franchise. Seven films (before last year’s cash grab) and they didn’t even get funny! There was still money to be made with a trilogy within the Saw franchise where it’s revealed that creepy unicycle riding puppet is actually a dwarf serial killer in a mask played by none other than Phil Fondacaro.
For better or for worse I can’t stop reminding people of this Tales from the Darkside episode where he was supposed to be a demon and they just slapped some red paint on him and combined that with leather pants, a gimp collar and plastic horns.
With every entry these slasher franchises tend to do one of two things. They’ll either forget the survivors of the last film or kill them off in order to replace them with the next film’s group sacrifice. Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master decided to go with the second option which was by far the absolute worst way to go about things since the previous film, Dream Warriors has the most beloved group of characters among fans in this franchise. I mean the balls this franchise had getting rid of three of their Fonzies and replacing them with a bunch of Pinky Tuscaderos. There’s a reference for the kids.
Upon release Nightmare on Elm Street 4 obviously had fans by the wallet since it was the highest grossing Freddy film until the long awaited Freddy vs Jason. On top of that you had Freddy’s Nightmares, a Freddy hotline, Freddy toys and the list of merchandise goes on and on. The people behind this franchise really took notes watching George Lucas and his money train when it came to pimping Freddy out like he was the hottest gal in a mini skirt who could suck golf balls through a garden hose in the middle of Times Square.
Even with the baggage of fueling an annual horror franchise, Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master has many redeeming qualities about it that make it a fun horror film worth revisiting thirty years later. It’s been awhile since I personally saw the next installment but if I’m to believe fellow horror fans, The Dream Master is a film worthy of sweeping all five major categories at the Academy Awards compared to The Dream Child. In reality it’s probably a mixed bag, sure you gotta deal Whit Hertford, a child actor so creepy he makes John Franklin from Children of the Corn look cuddly, but you also have that fucking sweet black and white A-Ha comic book sequence.
Holy FUCK! This image makes me realize this might be THE horror film that created that “black people always gotta die first in a horror film” rumor. Other than Tales from the Hood and something like Scream 2 that parodies that stereotype, I can’t think of any other horror film where a black character is dropped first.
The main reason that The Dream Master is so redeemable and watchable with all of its flaws is that the visual styling of this film really captures that colorful 1980s cocaine imagination happening during this time. I think the Nightmare on Elm Street series from about Dream Warriors to The Dream Child were all very effective at capturing the colorful surreal imagery popularized by music videos in rotation on MTV during this time period, but the peak of this heightened surreal creativity could possibly be The Dream Master, although that puppet sequence in Dream Warriors has me second guessing who holds the crown.
Towards the beginning you get a taste for the direction this film is about to go when the camera zooms up and away from Kincaid screaming in a junk yard to reveal this Earth like globe where the entire planet within this dream world is one gigantic junk yard. From that moment at the beginning of the film to the end of it where the setting is this church with multiple colors coming in the building from stained glass windows, The Dream Master is a visually stunning film that puts a lot of low budget horror to shame. This film costed $13 million which doesn’t sound like a lot until you take into account horror tends to be a genre that pinches every penny until all the oxygen is sucked out of Abraham Lincoln. The amount of money they put into it is incredible and shows on the screen. I have to imagine people getting burnt out on the Friday the 13th franchise was a result of having their minds blown by the visual direction of Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s hard to go back to a one note summer camp after having your mind blown with a visual style that sometimes feels like Salvador Dali mixing with Herschell Gordon Lewis.
The Dream Master is a film that really lets loose when it comes to humor. I know a lot of people prefer their Freddy Krueger deadly serious as he shows off his claw and says “this is god” but I’m always up for a fun time within a very macabre setting. This 4th installment towards the beginning shows Freddy Krueger being resurrected by a dog pissing a stream of fire and really sets a tone for how insane things are about to get. Later on a victim somehow finds themselves shoved into their waterbed in the real world and one dream features a Jaws reenactment with Freddy Krueger’s claw swimming through the water, going on land to destroy a sand castle and once the cloud of this collision dies down, Freddy Krueger slips on a pair of sunglasses like we’re about to begin an episode of CSI: Miami.
“If there’s anybody who should’ve taken sunscreen more seriously……….it’s me.”
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
This is also the film in the franchise where everybody was falling asleep at all hours in the most awkward places. I think the funniest one is Rick falling asleep on the toilet just before gym class. If a bowel movement takes that much energy out of you, go see a doctor. The last thing a family wants is to find a loved one going out like Elvis Presley in his jumpsuit/deep fried banana peanut butter sandwich days.
My favorite comically ridiculous moment overall is a dream that features the actor who plays Freddy, Robert England dressing in full drag as a nurse before he then morphs into Freddy Krueger.
While there’s a lot of humor in this film, there’s also a great deal of quality unsettling horror that’s tends to be lost this deep within a franchise. People can talk about how goofy and comical Freddy Krueger is in this film, but anybody who says they watched this film as a kid and weren’t disturbed by the sausage pizza scene where Freddy pretty much sticks his claw through someone’s head and eats it is out of their fucking minds. Finding the horror in food is always effective and it certainly was with me because for a number of years I couldn’t look at sausage pizza without feeling my stomach about to send up a mouthful of bile.
Ranking deaths within the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is a tough order. There are so many great ones and it’s hard to not just follow in agreement with what everybody else says instead of listening to what your heart says. Phillip’s death in Dream Warriors could possibly be the best one with his veins being used as puppet strings, but holy shit I am in love with Debbie’s death in this film. Her arms are bent while bench pressing, roach arms grow out of the wounds and she is soon transformed into a roach within a roach motel trap before Freddy kills her with one simple squeeze that shoots out a vomit inducing amount of roach guts. Could the time Freddy Krueger drew a little inspiration from Franz Kafka be the greatest kill in the franchise? Possibly.
Freddy fucking Krueger drawing inspiration from one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Such a highbrow supernatural killer.
What I don’t think can be debated about The Dream Master is that this film without a doubt overall has the best soundtrack in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. I love Dokken, but there are multiple tracks in this film that are so great. The first one you hear is from the actress replacing Patricia Arquette, Tuesday Night singing the moody and melodic Nightmare that gets you excited and pumped for this latest installment. Later on in this film we see this actress/musician cruising to a great track from the Divinyls, Back To The Wall. Fatal Charm from Billy Idol scores Joey’s wet dream and the film concludes with Sinead O’ Connor’s sexually stimulating I Want Your Hands On Me. I think the Fat Boys technically did the film’s theme song depending on who you ask, but the true theme song of this film is Dramarama’s Anything Anything which scores Rick’s karate montage in the garage. I don’t remember every single track from the rest of the Nightmare on Elm Streets, but I have a hard time believing that from beginning to end there’s a better one than The Dream Master.
The Dream Master for some is seen as a potential dip in quality from the loudly championed Dream Warriors but comparing the level of quality throughout the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to fellow horror icons, I think it’s just nitpicking to say that The Dream Master isn’t a film worthy of revisiting. It’s arguably the most visually stimulating entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and with all of the things that work in this film, I think it easily outbalances out any shortcomings. Overall, a very fun installment worth revisiting during the most macabre time of year.
It's Emilio Amaro's Blog 