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

• Watchable in a style-before-substance way.

  StormSworder2005-05-19

  Freddy, who survived being destroyed be the 'dream master', is now attempting to be reborn through the dreams of Alice's as-yet unborn baby. Alice starts having nightmares concerning Freddy's mother, his place of conception and what he looked like before he was cremated by avenging parents. The '5' I have given this film is only so high because of the dark, imaginative special effects, the atmospheric soundtrack and because of Robert England who is at his wisecracking best (even though the comic-book portrayal of Freddy leaves the film abut as scary as an episode of Postman Pat. Everything else about this film stinks, from the lousy, couldn't-care-less acting to the often tedious storyline and the irritating characters. Reviews at the time of this film's release claimed you needed an IQ of less than 20 to enjoy it. Perhaps they were being generous.

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• * * out of 4.

  brandonsites19812002-05-30

  Never mind Freddy's return is never explained, this installment has terrific effects, and style to burn with Robert Englund giving it his all, but this series is getting old fast. In this entry, Freddy (Englund) is trying to control the unborn child of part four's survivor and murdering all her friends in the process. The black and white sequence is a highlight. Unrated; Extreme Graphic Violence, Sexual Situations, Profanity, and Brief Nudity.

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• Creepy and Underrated Sequel

  claudio_carvalho2009-03-30

  On the day of her graduation in Springwood High School and after having sex with her boyfriend Dan Jordan (Danny Hassle), Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox) has a dreadful nightmare with Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple) on the night that she was mistakenly locked up in the asylum with one hundred maniacs and then with Freddy Krueger's rebirth. During the night, while Dan is in the graduation party in a swimming pool with their common friends Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter), Mark Grey (Joe Seely) and Greta Gibson (Erika Anderson), Alice calls him and Dan leaves the party and drives his truck to meet Alice at her job. However he is attacked by Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and crashes against a large truck instantaneously dying. The shocked Alice goes to the hospital and finds that she is pregnant of Dan's son. When Greta is killed by Freddy during a dinner party, Alice becomes intrigued since she was not sleeping in both occasions; therefore Freddy could not have used her dreams to reach Dan and Greta. Sooner Alice concludes that Freddy is using her baby's dreams to kill her friends, and she decides to seek out Amanda to learn how she could defeat and destroy Freddy Krueger. "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child" is the fifth part of this classic movie and is a creepy and underrated sequel. This is the movie of the franchise that uses the greatest number of impressive gruesome special effects. The deaths are very creative, like the one in the comic book or the attack of the motorcycle and one of the scariest scenes is when Alice is dressed like Amanda and surrounded by the crazy guys in the saloon of the mental institution. The beauty of Lisa Wilcox gives a great contrast with the ugliness of the beast Freddy Krueger. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "A Hora do Pesadelo 5: O Maior Horror de Freddy" ("The Hour of the Nightmare 5: The Greatest Horror of Freddy")

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• More of A Soap Opera Than Horror.

  jmcgee3212005-04-13

  Not saying this is a bad movie like most people say, but if you look at it real closely; you will see this installment has the most drama than the others. Besides PART 7. Director Stephen Hopkins and (female) writer Leslie Bohem provide a great dramatic story with perfect comic timing by FREDDY KRUGER(Robert Englund). Alice(Lisa Wilcox) and Dan(Danny Hassell) have been living like king and queen since the battle with FREDDY. All of that is about to change, because FREDDY is using their unborn baby, Jacob(Whitby Hertford), dreams to kill those close to her. The only person who can help her is the rest of her remaining friends and FREDDY's mother, who body has been missing since the birth of FREDDY. Now the plot sounds like an average horror movie, but it's not. What most people complain about is how slow moving it is and not few people are killed like the other installment. This movie not about that at all, it's more on the human side than horror. Of course, you have those excellent one liners from FREDDY. So watch if your in for a horror/drama.

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• What happened?!

  Smells_Like_Cheese2003-11-11

  A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child, the fifth installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series and the worst sequel ever in the series, even worse than A Nightmare on Elm Street 2. I was lucky enough to get the Nightmare on Elm Street DVD box set for my birthday and I watched all the sequels. The dream child was the worst without a doubt, I was surprised too since they were doing so well with the last two sequels. But I guess they just lost the charm, the story was just ridicules and I wasn't happy with where it went. Alice just became more annoying, she's not Nancy or Kirsten, so her carrying this film on her own didn't work for me. Freddy is also loosing his scare, this was just getting a bit silly. Alice is back and she's carrying a child, she couldn't be happier with her life. But Freddy is also back and he's not going to be too light on her since she defeated him so easily in the fourth movie. But anyways, he wants her child and to be born into the world again. Did you ever wonder if Freddy had parents too? Well that's what A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child investigates and Alice soon finds out what Freddy's childhood was like and that maybe that's the one thing that can defeat him. A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child is just all in all a bad movie and an insult to the series. I don't think anyone could be happy with this sequel. Just the story was really silly, I mean it could have possibly worked, but once again, it was just executed the wrong way. I know that if you're looking to see the sequels for the Nightmare on Elm Street series, you should watch it, but I really wouldn't recommend it, it's not worth it, at least in my opinion. 3/10

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