Fowler's Frights 2015: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel
Directed by: Stephen Hopkins


Now here's a Nightmare film that actually might be a bit hard to follow. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child continues where The Dream Master left off. We have a new crop of supporting side characters, a couple of innovative death scenes, and Freddy doing what he does best. So what's hard to follow? The story. One of our characters is pregnant and Freddy uses the baby's dreams to collect souls and puts the souls he collects into the baby so the baby can be more like Freddy. Then our characters are seeing living versions of Freddy's mother and a grown up version of the baby, and a baby version of Freddy. WHAT THE CRAP IS GOING ON!?!?!? That's this movie in a nutshell. You have such a difficult time reminding yourself about the plot that it's hard to keep up. Of course anytime you get to a part 5 in a horror franchise, you're there for the body count and what you know best anyway, so maybe it's of no concern to you. For me, I like a good plot with my horror sequels, and this one's a bit too ambitious for me.

Lisa Wilcox and Danny Hassel return as Alice and Dan. They're just about as good as they were in the last one, so not much to write about. My favorite new character was Mark, played by Joe Seely. He's a huge fan of comic books and superheroes. Need I say more? He's also featured into one of the film's only highlights when he is pulled into a comic-like dream world. He becomes a superhero he's been drawing to combat Freddy and gets the upper hand, until Freddy becomes an over the top super villain (Super Freddy). Just having a character like this shows the potential of creativity these movies have for the unique dream sequences.

Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund, does what he does best. There's no point in highlighting how great he is in every film. He was born to play the role. Even the dumbest Krueger movies featuring Robert Englund are entertaining because of his performance. I will say something looked off about the makeup for Freddy in this film. Not in every scene, but the first half of the film had his face looking like it was made of pure rubber. It's a tad off putting, but once you get passed that, you can enjoy Freddy for what he is.

Based on that plot description I mentioned in the intro, are you surprised the film doesn't have the strongest following? Unless you're pregnant yourself when watching it, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child shouldn't be that scary to watch. The humor is hit and miss in many places, and even a lot of the blood and gore was cut down by the censors. The film has way too much going on for its own good, particularly in the climax. It comes, it leaves, and you're left sitting there going "What just happened?" The answer is simple, you've just witnessed one of the weaker films in the Nightmare series.


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

A little too convoluted for my taste, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child has a lot going on for it, but not in the best way. One or two dream sequences may be good to watch, but it's one of the Nightmare films you can easily avoid.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and movie images are copyrighted by New Line Cinema