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Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master, 1988
Kristen (Tuesday Knight), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), and Joey (Rodney Eastman) are all that survive of the Dream Warriors from the third film. But Freddy isn't as dead as they'd hoped and he comes raring back. Falling in his sights are Kristen's friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and her brother Rick (Andras Jones), along with Alice's crush, Dan (Danny Hassel).
I mean, the picture above says it all. I was hoping to watch the third film tonight, but it is the only one not available on any of my streaming services. What I got was the fourth film, a movie that has fun ideas here and there but struggles to find any kind of coherent tone and shortchanges its most interesting characters.
The most frustrating thing about this film was that I actually cared about most of the characters. This is maybe the most likable group of teenage protagonists I've seen in a slasher film in a good while. I genuinely liked Deb (Brooke Theiss), the weight-lifting tough chick who would rather watch [i]Dynasty[i] than do her trig homework. I liked her easy friendship with Sheila (Toy Newkirk), the brilliant nerd (SIDENOTE: Brilliant Black nerd girl, a character whose presence actually made me check the date the film was made). Rick and Alice, who both deal with their father's alcoholism following their mother's death, are likable as well.
Unfortunately, in its haste to move from one one-liner cracking death to another, the film almost never gives the characters a chance to breathe.
The film's strength and weakness, as is typical with many a slasher, lies in the creativity of the kills. And it's a mixed bag, to be honest. There are a lot of incredibly obvious set-ups (like Sheila's asthma or Deb finding a cockroach in her food. And the payoffs are a mixed bag. A few of them show visual or thematic creativity, but Kruger is so jokey-jokey that it adds an element of disinterest to the proceedings. These likable characters are mostly just there to be the victims of set-pieces.
I didn't hate this film, but I wish that with such a good lineup of characters the tone had been a little more serious and there had been a more cohesive narrative arc. A few bold choices here and there just don't quite cut it.
Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master, 1988
Kristen (Tuesday Knight), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), and Joey (Rodney Eastman) are all that survive of the Dream Warriors from the third film. But Freddy isn't as dead as they'd hoped and he comes raring back. Falling in his sights are Kristen's friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and her brother Rick (Andras Jones), along with Alice's crush, Dan (Danny Hassel).
I mean, the picture above says it all. I was hoping to watch the third film tonight, but it is the only one not available on any of my streaming services. What I got was the fourth film, a movie that has fun ideas here and there but struggles to find any kind of coherent tone and shortchanges its most interesting characters.
The most frustrating thing about this film was that I actually cared about most of the characters. This is maybe the most likable group of teenage protagonists I've seen in a slasher film in a good while. I genuinely liked Deb (Brooke Theiss), the weight-lifting tough chick who would rather watch [i]Dynasty[i] than do her trig homework. I liked her easy friendship with Sheila (Toy Newkirk), the brilliant nerd (SIDENOTE: Brilliant Black nerd girl, a character whose presence actually made me check the date the film was made). Rick and Alice, who both deal with their father's alcoholism following their mother's death, are likable as well.
Unfortunately, in its haste to move from one one-liner cracking death to another, the film almost never gives the characters a chance to breathe.
The film's strength and weakness, as is typical with many a slasher, lies in the creativity of the kills. And it's a mixed bag, to be honest. There are a lot of incredibly obvious set-ups (like Sheila's asthma or Deb finding a cockroach in her food. And the payoffs are a mixed bag. A few of them show visual or thematic creativity, but Kruger is so jokey-jokey that it adds an element of disinterest to the proceedings. These likable characters are mostly just there to be the victims of set-pieces.
I didn't hate this film, but I wish that with such a good lineup of characters the tone had been a little more serious and there had been a more cohesive narrative arc. A few bold choices here and there just don't quite cut it.