Saturday, October 14, 2017

Horror Countdown 2017: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) dir. Stephan Hopkins, Heron Communications/Smart Egg Pictures




When we last left our heroes, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and her boyfriend Dan (Danny Hassel) were the only survivors of Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund)'s last rampage. Surely everything would be fine by now, right?

Alice is almost out of school and she's thinking about her future. Her father (Nichols Mele) has even gone cold turkey on the booze. Yup, things are looking up for Alice. 

That's when she ends up in the asylum. No, not literally, but lately Alice has been having rather vivid dreams. She's at first seeing a nun (Beatrice Boepple) being trapped into an old madhouse, although later she's the one wearing the habit...and sporting a nametag that says 'Amanda Kruger'. The nightmares grow worse, as she sees the nun being attacked and rapped by a dozen or so inmates. 

Another nightmare shows the nun giving birth to a hideous baby. The baby escapes the delivery room and crawls into the chapel Alice fought Kruger last time. Just to make sure we understand what's happening, the baby grows into Freddy. He makes it clear he wants revenge, and that he is going to get it.

Alice wakes up and rushes off to work, but she's a bit on edge. A phone call to Dan prompts him to leave the graduation party and ignore their friends. A slight roll call for them:

Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter)-she's a nurse and swimmer

Greta (Erika Anderson)-rich and future model

Mark (Joe Seely)-geek and comic artist

Dan says his goodbyes and rushes off, but it seems finals were a bit trying for the lad, as he falls asleep...

One gruesome transformation later, Dan's truck explodes into fire right in front of Alice's diner. The shock sends her to the hospital, where it turns out Alice is just a bit pregnant. While she's recovering, Alice sees a young boy (Whit Herford), who introduces himself as Jacob. Alice always liked that name, she muses.

From there, the crew figures out that the bones of Amanda Kruger is what is needed, as surely that will summon her to battle her demonic child. If only they can find them in time!

Which really sums up my issues with this film, as why would Amanda Kruger's bones be hidden? Didn't she have a proper grave in part 3? Plus you've got too many scenes that play out like previous films (someone watches over a sleeping person but they fall asleep, etc.). The special effects are top notch though (with nine FX houses they darn well should have), but they get undercut by the excessive amount of jokes that Kruger seems to drop did more damage to the franchise than anything.





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