Released in 1989, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is a film that is by no means careful about what it wants to do. With four movies in, the Nightmare in Elm Street series had its original classic, a nonsensical sequel (albeit one that has later gained appreciation for its queer themes), a fantastic part three in Dream Warriorsand then standard but solid fare in the fourth episode, The dream master. Financially, the movie franchise made more with each new installment.
In what is a rarity for long-running horror series everywhere, The dream child continues the story of the heroine of the previous film, Alex. Getting the main character pregnant gives the story the excuse to have Freddy Krueger as a stand-in metaphor for the struggles of young single mothers and the fear of parenthood, while maintaining the shaky status quo and general mindset of the time. relation to abortion in the late 1980s.
Inadvertently, with this entry, the series feels like it’s grown up. The makeup caked on Robert Englund’s face was made to look older than before, and the film witnessed traumatized teens turning into traumatized adults.
Freddy Krueger is living the dream
The visuals are generally some of the best in the series, even from the opening shot where two bodies bump into each other while having sex. Sweaty curves and distinctly human features are illuminated by a blue moonlight as Jay Ferguson’s creepy schoolyard-esque synth plays, descending rapidly and becoming more powerful and attacking.
On a second look, you realize that these two bodies are those of Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and the soon-to-be-dead Dan (Danny Hassel, who also returns from the previous film) – in the process of conceiving the “Dream Child” that Freddy will use to inflict so many tortures.
A small army of 61 individual artists are credited to the effects team, with another 12 on makeup (The living DeadGreg Nicotero’s is credited in both). Aside from Freddy’s obligatory fabulous make-up (which we’ve grown so complacent about, but has always been truly groundbreaking), now-defunct techniques such as matte paintings are used for the film’s larger shots, and dream child must surely be one of the last films to see the now outdated but always impressive art process.
Elsewhere, this is a movie that leans toward big great sets like the dirty, dilapidated wings of an insane asylum, or even MC Escher’s fame Relativity print. Watching Krueger chase people down a series of gravity-defying staircases is truly one of the highlights of the entire series, with the attention to detail in creating the world’s environment (and exactly what Krueger can do) doesn’t go unnoticed.
Practical Effects in Nightmare on Elm Street
Saddle up all that on top of crisp 2D animation, puppetry and even stop motion and the whole kaleidoscope of what can be done with effects without ever coming across as over the top, or worse, rubbery. As rushed as this production was, the quite literal fingerprints of those behind the scenes are all over the dreamy but nightmarish world of Elm Street. Without almost never showing their hand, each of the crew’s actual hands-on effects remains impressive and a reminder of how missed it is in current productions both large and small.
From the first scene, including a shapely Freddy Krueger, there’s a recall to the very first time we met him in 1984’s A nightmare on Elm Street in the alley, his arms stretched out to an impossible length for his clawing hand to scrape the metal railings.
Looking back at that very first intro in the original, one is always rightly greeted with mocking astonishment that anyone could find this particular depiction of pipe cleaner limbs scary at all. But here (also in Freddy’s introduction), it’s the same trick, with only one of Krueger’s arms being inhumanly long. And not only does it remind us that there is literally next to nothing this constant antagonist can do, but it acts both as a fedora’s tip to its original roots, and a single middle claw all the way to its origin as an example of how far the effects have really progressed in just five years.
In the womb of the dream child
Take the moment when it is confirmed that the baby in Alice is also dreaming. It really gets under the skin that Freddy Krueger, the pedophile turned cosmic villain, is doing everything he can to terrorize this young woman. And in a world of crazy 80s practicality effects, they really pack a punch to support this reality.
Physically transported to the ultrasound machine, we are surrounded by red blood cells. They run like a waterfall around the human child (a puppet stands in it) as the images fill the screen in such an immersive and almost 3D experience as a physical version of 2001: A Space Odysseys final images.
Seen in detail in the very embryonic sac, the fetus floats peacefully, undeveloped, completely innocent. It’s visceral, in every sense of the word. Inside with the child, Freddy siphons the souls of Alice’s murdered friends through the fallopian tube and into her child, while an entire scene is devoted to the thing hidden inside the girl – and the villain holding her. That’s just one example, without mentioning the segment where a character turns into a motorcycle right before your eyes, or the disgusting Freddy Krueger kid (also puppet show).
You sneeze you lose
However, if a chapter in Nightmare in Elm Street, this is really the unfortunate point where the series starts to make its villain through the ages a joke that we no longer laugh at. In the documentary Never sleep againoriginal story writer John Skipp summed up the movie perfect:
“[It was] very interesting visually, but I think a lot of those things were attempts to cover up the fact that they took all the soul and intelligence out of the story.”
Despite all of the film’s (really brilliant) special effects, some really gimmicky moments overshadow the film, and certain moments just don’t work at all. Take when the dopey comic book fan Mark positions himself as the hero he continues to portray in an attempt to defeat Krueger, which also turns the villain into “Super Freddy”… a square-jawed blocky monster that moves like a tank. Before that, a then 40/41 year old Robert Englund would unfortunately ride a skateboard.
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The dream child the title makes no sense either. Despite not being born yet, Alice meets the child who even helps her take Krueger down… A sign of things to come, sure, and the logic of this series is always open to seesaw, but it’s still becoming kind of misshapen and never really addressed, despite being so important to the storyline.
Everything is accompanied by some sort of pun or zinger, and it dilutes the fear that this character is really all about. It must be said that this is also the point where Freddy just starts calling everyone a “bitch”, quickly recalling: Rick & Morty‘s direct parody “Scary Terry.” It also doesn’t help if the film in general – while still looking grotesquely beautiful and technically very impressive – isn’t scary at all, and sometimes amounts to a sluggish viewing experience.
wake up call
The dream child charted the mid-range in a downward decline for Mr. Krueger and the series as a whole. With an extremely rushed production (with actors openly stating that there were instances where a scene was not given any direction), constantly changing script pages, and a trimmed, tamer version of the film to fit the ratings, The dream child was ultimately met by a poor critical response and was the lowest grossing film in the series at the time of its release.
Next dream childthe series was one movie away from original creator Wes Craven returning to reclaim his characters in the self-referential Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Doubling, his like-minded meta horror movie scream disregarded Nightmare in Elm Street all things considered (except two minutes into the running time, when the soon-to-be-deceased Drew Barrymore flippantly ruled that the first film was good “but the rest was crappy”).
Actor Robert Englund recently returned to our screens in the latest (and decidedly very Nightmare in Elm Street theme) Weird stuff, and reminded us how impressive an artist he is when given the scariest material to chew on. Elsewhere, this month only sees horror icons Michael Myers in his finale Halloween endsthe doll in dungarees returns in Chucky Series 2, and another outing for Pinhead and Hellraiser show that the hunger for these characters still thrives when done right.
Halloween kills producer, Blumhouse’s own Jason Blum, poked the bear and believed he could bring Englund out of retirement for yet another Nightmare, with the CEO negotiating that if anyone could do it, it was him. Comes full circle, even The living Dead recently their very own Freddy Walker sneaked into the show like a neat Easter egg and cut very deep for the fans.
Still watching The dream child today it holds everything together pretty well. And with the recent Roe V Wade statements, a film brave enough to tackle abortion in the late ’80s is even more relevant today, if only as a relic of past sensibilities — and an unfortunate continuation. of it in today’s time. Will we ever see one again Nightmare in Elm Street? That’s uncertain, but we could do a lot worse than what we have here.