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

“It’s a boy!” – Freddy Krueger

Five years, five films – and the Nightmare franchise was seriously running out of momentum. But, to be fair, despite the oversaturation of an annual film release, and the mass marketing of Freddy Krueger merchandise, New Line still had some pretty creative ideas in an attempt to keep the series fresh – he was, after all, their number one star at the time, and in those pre-mega budget Lord of the Rings producing days, New Line was fondly known as “The House That Freddy Built.”

But despite the creative ideas shown in part five, I have very mixed feelings about the movie. I always have, since the first time I watched it. It seems lacklustre. Freddy’s makeup has changed slightly again, simplifying it, to what appears to be a mask rather than a series of prosthetic appliances, and despite there being only three “kills”, the killings seem more contrived and, well, frankly, silly – especially one. More on that later.

I’ve mentioned in my previous Nightmare reviews that we’re in a trilogy here, now this is the final part. As you’ll recall, meek Alice (Lisa Wilcox) has inherited the ability to draw people in to her dreams, and became the Dream Master, defeating Freddy in an abandoned church. As the film starts, Alice is in a relationship with Dan (Danny Hassel), carrying on from the previous film. When she gets up out of bed one morning to go to the shower, she finds herself in an asylum, a filthy run-down place, where the inmates wander freely. She’s now dressed in a nun’s habit, among them. We see two orderlies hurry a headcount, then lock up and leave – with Alice accidentally locked inside as the lunatics, including a sinister looking Robert Englund close in on their prey.

Attending her high school graduation with her friends (some new ones she made as the last lot, with the exception of Dan were wiped out in the last film) all is looking good – until she’s several hours late for her shift at the diner with no idea what happened save for a return vision/nightmare of the asylum with the nun who was gang raped giving birth to a deformed baby who escapes the delivery room and flees to the old church where Alice last defeated Freddy. There, the baby finds Freddy’s remains and is “reborn”. Meanwhile, Dan dies in a nightmare at Freddy’s hands. Alice has no recollection of being asleep, and Dan is definitely toast in a road traffic accident outside the diner.

Let’s process this – we know that the nun giving birth is Amanda Krueger, mother of Freddy. We’ve previously heard that Freddy was conceived as a result of her being gang raped by hundreds of lunatics after being accidentally locked in with them over a holiday weekend. (Question – so the lunatics were just left to fend for themselves? No security or guards? Nobody feeding them? Second question – nobody at the convent missed one of their own and thought to ask?)

Then, there’s the disfigured baby, who looks like a newborn Freddy. Freddy’s disfigurement is a result of his burning by the parents of his child victims. He wasn’t born that way. Why is he shown as such?

This is part one of the great faults in the film, it’s very disorienting but then, I guess dreams are. But as Alice doesn’t have to be asleep to have a nightmare, it’s sometimes hard to follow what’s going on and why. Until the explanation. Which is genius.

Alice is pregnant with Dan’s baby. Babies can dream. So, Freddy is using the dreaming foetus to get to Alice and her friends, and is also using Alice’s power to pull people into her dreams or those, evidently of her baby, to feed off. That’s a stunningly original premise, and kudos must be given. But as Freddy is working his way through her few remaining friends, we see one, a girl on a constant diet being groomed for a modelling career by her vapid mother, fed her own insides until she dies, and a would-be comic book artist drawn into his own comic strip, turned to paper and shredded. That’s just plain silly and doesn’t work on any level.

In the end, it’s Alice who has to face Freddy – but not alone. The spirit of Amanda Krueger has been released, and also at hand is Jacob – or a vision of Jacob because he hasn’t been born yet. (See what I mean about this one being a tad confusing?). Freddy has been trying to claim Jacob as his disciple. And the souls Freddy has been collecting, have also been feeding Jacob. Ultimately, the ghost of Amanda convinces the vision of Jacob to use his powers against Freddy, thus defeating him.

A really brilliant idea, a creative new direction, but all in all – the result was not equal to the sum of its parts and Freddy was losing his grip on audiences. This concluded the trilogy and presumably, Alice is still alive and well.

As for Freddy…