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

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Director: Stephen Hopkins

Screenplay: Leslie Bohem

Cast: Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger; Lisa Wilcox as Alice Johnson; Kelly Jo Minter as Yvonne Miller; Erika Anderson as Greta Gibson; Danny Hassel as Dan Jordan; Beatrice Boepple as Amanda Krueger; Whit Hertford as Jacob Johnson

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #132

After the cartoonish tone of The Dream Master (1988), it's a drastic change of pace for The Dream Child, turning into an atmospheric and moody film even in the context of a later horror sequel that's an abrupt change of aesthetic decision. As much as I appreciate the charm of the previous film, I was struck with delight by this change. Openly, it's a better sequel out of all the ones after Openly, it's a better sequel altogether from all the ones after Dream Warriors (1987) up to New Nightmare (1994) as, even if The Dream Master has the highest peaks in terms of memorable moments, I'm a sucker for this film's atmosphere more. All because of director Stephen Hopkins. A Jamaican born British-Australian director, Hopkins started as an assistant director on Russell Mulcahy's Highlander (1986), which explains the mist laden gothic look this film has, and especially its obsessive use of mood lighting.

His later career does hold recognisable films. Predator 2 (1990). The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). Not highly held films like Blown Away (1994), where Tommy Lee Jones attempts an Irish accent as a mad bomber, or the notorious 1998 adaptation of Lost in Space. And The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), a controversial but acclaimed TV movie which got a theatrical release in Britain about the complexity of comedian and actor Peter Sellers.  He was clearly alert and game about helming this Elm Street sequel as his debut, an Australian horror film Dangerous Game (1987), was the only other film beforehand this production, clearly taking advantage of this opportunity to put his own visual stamp on the material. It helps that the plot makes more sense to hang this style over, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) returning with the prospect of becoming a mother adding new issues in her life, both the acceptance of wanting to become a mother and that, as an unborn child is in a constant state of dreaming, it's allowed Freddy Krueger to return, feeding the child souls as his new heir against the mother's wishes. Moments of bombast, as a sequence with the protagonist's own womb with distorted digital noise, do stand out due to the gothic mood the film has. Even if it's the aesthetics of music videos of the time, it still has the right palette and tone to have raised the hairs on my neck and feel engaged.

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The Dream Child does however come with a caveat in terms of my enjoyment, that one wishes the dialogue to be muted. The script isn't picking up the pace the visual direction clearly is, full of bland exposition padding out sequences of a narrative involving the bones of Kruger's mother. Neglecting a far more interesting, if clearly underdeveloped, drama where the heroine's mental wellbeing to be a mother is under suspicion, as no one believes her fears about Kruger going after her. Kruger himself is utterly unbearable with his jokey persona by this point, much worse here than in The Dream Master due to the drastic change in tone surrounding him.At this point there's a contradictory discrepancy between the attempts at being more serious and the concept of Kruger himself having to be humorous, throwing out one liners instead of dialogue to bring a unnecessary levity. It's a waste of Robert Englund and undercuts the point of this as a horror film, not a horror comedy which would've allowed this tone to work (if the jokes had actually been funny) but meant in tone to be serious. It's because of this I suspect the low points of the dream sequences are also there. Whatever you think of the comic book dream, for example, it at least has a good style in monochrome and elaborate comic book illustrations, only with the issue that you also have Super Freddy too, a giant caped muscle man Kruger which is as bad as it sounds. The character, as a humorous figure, cuts through so much of the atmosphere that it's extremely jarring, especially as Hopkins is trying to push the film visual in fascinating directions, even depicting the ending conflict as a living M. C. Escher painting.

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The result because of this becomes a mixed bag. Conflicting emotions for me as I liked the film immensely but I cannot ignore the glaring issues. I hold the film higher than Part 4, or God forbid, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) but I realise the obvious issues with Part 5 too. Whilst a controversial choice, I can still appreciate a man melding into a motorcycle in one of the most memorable sequences or the darker tone of the film. There just the fact that, as was found in Freddy's Dead, Kruger the character was no longer the bogeyman of before but an extraneous and unfunny comedian, a fan favourite out of place of the films' themselves. This was released in 1989, year of my birth and arguably the moment where the eighties horror boom ends, where three major horror franchises were stumbling in terms of box office and went into identity crises in the nineties. Jason Voorhees was meant to go on vacation to Manhattan, New York but got stuck on a boat most of the length. Eventually he'd switch film companies and become a body swapping parasite before being shot into space. Michael Myers in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers did what he usually did, in a film in spite of poor music cues wasn't that bad, but that film didn't even get a British theatrical screening, whilst the franchise also jumped companies and didn't have another sequel until 1995, where somehow it's the once impossible to find Producer's Cut which is a more rewarding viewing experience.  After The Dream Child, the Elm Street series would go on to Freddy's Dead, a topic of another review but suffice to say the tonal schizophrenia that was taking place would led to the metaphorical equivalent of a car hitting a brick wall. 

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