There are alot of horror icons out there but the biggest one at least interms of eighties slasher villain icons is quite easily Freddy Krueger. With the characters films being one of the most popular slasher series of films out there with alot of them including the more lesser sequels having there fans but as with any franchise there comes a point where the films start going downhill and downhill fast and that is one of the films that i'm going to talking about today and so then join me as I review the film that kind of marks the start in the decline of quality for these films with the film in question being called simply just "A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" enjoy.
The plot of this film is sometime after the events of the third film Kristen , Joey and Kincaid are killed of by Freddy and it's up to Kristen's friend Alice to stop him before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the issue as the plot of this film wasn't all that good either as it just felt like the typical plot for these A Nightmare On Elm Street films to have only without any of the magic care and attention to the plot and that characters that really made the plot of even the third film and the first first and second film as well really stand out as at least that plot tried to advance the characters from the original film where as this film doesn't even bother to do that infact alot of them have regressed inbetween films but I will admit that the plot of this film is really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Lisa Wilcox as Alice Johnson and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and A Nurse. Also starring in this film is Danny Hassel as Dan Jordan , Tuesday Knight as Kristen Parker , Brooke Theiss as Debbie Stevens , Ken Sagoes as Roland Kincaid , Rodney Eastman as Joey Crusel , Andras Jones as Rick Johnson , Toy Newkirk as Sheila Kopecky , Nicholas Mele as Mr. Dennis Johnson and Brooke Bundy as Elaine Parker.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Which isn't all that new as this films director Renny Harlin really does know how to get a good performance out of his cast and alot of the actors in this film are a bunch of really good actors alot of which are reprising their roles from previous films and would there for know what kind of performance to give in any given scene and what kind of performance would be best to suit there respective characters but even the new cast do turn in some good performances was well when there acting against the returning actors with the acting in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all the films cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
This film does also have the best way that Freddy has ever been resurrected in any of these films as it's a really over the top scene. With his resurrection being a really fun and creative scene as we get to see everything that we expect to see about Freddy come back to life in what it a really fun sequence and heck even the kill after his resurrection is a fun kill but what lets the whole scene down is the fact that we get to see Freddy fully which is something that we don't even need to see as just showing us his silhouette would have been more then enough as it's something that really does tell you that it's Freddy which makes showing him in close up pointless as it's telling us nothing new but at the same time tho the close up shot is a good way to get Robert Englund on screen earlier but at the same time tho it adds nothing that we haven't already seen or even been told before and the dog doing his business on his grave was a nice touch as well.
One of the many things that this film gets wrong is the fact that it's characters just aren't as likable nor as they as well written as the characters in the previous films. Minus one or two characters this films main characters just aren't that likable as alot of them just because as being like bland characters while they do have personalities there very note personalities with all of them just having the one personality trait like Dan Jordan who's the good looking guy of the group and that's really it and it's the same thing for alot of this films characters including both Kincaid and Joey both of whom have gone from having a personalty that they worked with in the previous film and had issues that they both had to overcome to in this film having no personalty with in the case of Kincaid having the exact same flaw that he had gotten over in the previous film and Kristin has gone from someone who knew that she had defeated Freddy at the end of the previous film to someone who's afraid of her own shadow all of which is done with for no reason what so ever.
The only three characters about from Freddy who have alot of personality or Kristin , Rick and the films main character Alice. With Alice being the best main character in this film as she is a character that has flaws like the fact that she is a shy person who can't or at best won't stand up for herself as we see at several points in the film when she talks with her dad and while the film does nothing with the fact that she daydreams alot it is something that could also be seen as an extension of her being a shy person with the best scene in the whole entire movie being the scene where she gets ready for the final fight with Freddy as she takes off all of the pictures that she has on her mirror finally seeing herself as others see her for the first time and that is something that also serves as a conclusion of the characters own personal character arc as for better or for worse it's due to Freddy that she becomes this more confident and outgoing person who knows what she wants and how to get it all of which combine to make her a really strong female character that is also a fairly well written female character on top of all of that as well.
Another think that while this film doesn't get wrong it is something that would become an issue later in the franchise is the fact that this is film where Freddy really started to become fun time Freddy. As while the character was indeed really popular by the time that the third film was being made and released he was still being written as someone who while yes did crack jokes would also kill you in some really gruesome ways where as in this film he is written less scary like the makers of this film wanted to make him more save to market to over people outside of the horror world but what the makers of this film failed to realise is that by doing that they then really opened up the gateway for the kind of Freddy that would really put alot more focus on telling dark jokes then he would in giving us dark kills that really played on his victims fears and anxieties something which is yes still present in this film just look at Debbie's kill as a chief example of that he doesn't really kill people in ways that feel personal to them which is something that the Freddy of the previous films would have gone out of his way to do.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me really remember whatever this films grand total running time even was I do know that this film has / has an exact grad total running time of roughly one hour and twenty nine minuets. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for these films especially the later sequels to have as the film has more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time but at the same time tho the film could have done with a longer running time just to fully flesh out the films newer characters and make them just as good as the characters where in the previous films and the best thing is that the plot wouldn't really need to be stretched as you could have had some of the other characters be drawn into the plot as well as was the original plan with Mr. Dennis Johnson original being killed off which really could have given him a nice and sweet moment with his daughter but because that scene wasn't included in the final cut of the film despite being filmed his character really isn't as fully developed as he really could have been with the same thing also being true for alot of the films newer characters as well but I will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this a slasher film that means that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the issue as the films kills weren't always all that good either. As while the film really does have some memorable kills like with Debbie and Sheila for example the film does also have some lame kills like with Kincaid and Rick and to lesser degree Kristin as well with Rick's kill really being the worst one as he's killed of by an invisible Freddy which is really cheap looking but when the film does give us a really good kill it is something that sticks out and helps to make this movie even better then what it really had any right to be in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while this film does indeed start the downfall for this franchise for these sequels this is still a really good fun film altho it's one that's also really safe and very marketable as it is a film that really does play everything as safe as they possibly could do as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official A Nightmare On Elm Street fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this episode up on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
