Set an indeterminate time after the events of Dream
Warriors, the kids who survived - Kristen, Joey and Kincaid - have been
released from the psychiatric hospital and are enjoying life as regular high
school students. That is, until Kristen starts having nightmares again - and
begins to be afraid that Freddy is coming back.
It's always a bit distracting when a character in a series
is recast. Tuesday Night is... okay as Kristen, but hers is a substantially
different version than Arquette's - enough that it feels like a different
character. Not that character really matters here.
Kristen is right, of course, and Freddy IS back, and still
after the remaining Elm Street kids. Kincaid and Joey are dispatched pretty
quickly. Kristen is next, but not before dragging her friend Alice into her
dream. Freddy is delighted to have a new set of kids to stalk and murder - but
Alice has absorbed Kristen's ability to bring people into her dreams. AND to
absorb their unique qualities if they die in dreams.
There's actually a lot to enjoy in Dream Master, spectacle
wise. Debbie, the weight lifter friend is deathly afraid of bugs and the
sequence in which Freddy slowly turns her into a cockroach before trapping her
in a roach motel is pretty epic. The final confrontation between Alice - all
'roided up on her friends' powers - and Freddy in a dream church is also pretty
well done.
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| They check in, but they don't... oh, Freddy does that exact line? Okay then. |
There's an idea introduced earlier in the movie about the
guardians of dreams - the dream masters of the title. One to guard the
nightmare gate, the other the regular dream gate. (The gates of horn and ivory,
to borrow from Gaiman.) Freddy even has a great line, "I've been guarding
my gate for a looong time." There's something interesting and possibly
awesome there - a titanic struggle between supernatural forces, with Alice
maybe locked in combat with Freddy for all time. It's not followed up on,
however, and is dropped in the next movie.
Freddy is finally at his zenith with the over-the-top murder
sequences and constant quips. He's no longer truly frightening and instead is a
figure of sinister mirth, more interesting by far than the interchangeable
teenagers he's set against.
 |
| Not sure those shades work for him, though. |
Alice has a zero to hero arc which feels a bit unearned, but
I do like her 'A-Team' moment of gearing up for battle. How she defeats Freddy
seems cheap - a half-remembered line about mirrors - but it's better than being
beaten up by a fetus. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Bottom Line
The series takes a sharp lurch in a downward direction here,
with less emphasis on story and character and more (much more) on the effects
and Freddy himself. Dream Master is still fun, and definitely not a waste of
time, but the few moments of real interest are few and fleeting.
As a complete tangent - I watched this movie in the theater
specifically because the story was co-written by William Kotzwinkle. Most folks
may know him as the guy who wrote the novelizations of ET and Superman III, but
at the time the movie came out I was in a play he was directing based on his
book Herr Nightingale and the Satin Woman.
I like to think he was the one that inserted the stuff about the dream guardians.
Not the nadir, but close. The Dream Child is a darker Nightmare, but it's just not very good.
Alice is back, with the same actress playing her this time (Lisa Wilcox). She
has a new group of friends, that I can actually (mostly) differentiate this
time around, though the acting is generally poor. And Freddy, of course. Can't
have a Nightmare film without him.
Alice is having nightmares (of course), but not about Freddy
- at least not directly. She dreams that she's a nun trapped in a tower with
roughly 100 maniacs. That's right, she's dreaming about Freddy's mother, Amanda
Kreuger. Alice tells Dan, her boyfriend (and the only other survivor from the
previous film) and he reminds her that she's a dream master, and can control
her own dreams.
Therein's the rub, though. The dreams aren't hers, and they
get progressively darker and soon she sees a monstrous Freddy baby born. She
chases it through the dream until it finds the clawed gloves left behind by
Freddy after his defeat in the previous movie. And just like that, Freddy's
back, baby! (Sorry.) And Alice is unable to control any of it.
 |
| What's up with the long arm, though? |
So, as usual, much of the film is taken up by the set pieces
as Freddy takes out Alice's friends. They're... I don't know, they just feel
cheap and flat. In fact, the whole film feels that way. The story, the
characters, the effects. There are some moments that feel meant to be deeper -
I mean there are themes of teen pregnancy, eating disorders, abortion - but
they aren't used in any meaningful way except as set dressing, except for
Alice's pregnancy.
Which is the big 'twist' of course - despite the title
giving it completely away. Alice's unborn child is dreaming, and that's how Freddy
is getting back in. On top of that, he's also feeding the child with the souls
of his victims, hoping to turn the kid into a sort of Mini-Me of Freddy.
 |
| And why does a fetus look like he's six years old, anyway? |
There's a nicely dark tone, almost gothic, in the film that
I like. And an M. C. Escher inspired chase sequence that's kinda fun.
Generally, however, the film drags and the set pieces are neither as epic nor
as interesting as in previous installments. When the child finally turns on
Freddy (more for plot related reasons than any character driven choices) it's a
relief.
Bottom Line
Another step or two down in quality, unfortunately. There
are the bones of a good movie here, but it all feels both heavy-handed and
cheap. Freddy seems to be just going by the numbers and none of the characters
are really worth remembering. If it wasn't the final film in the loosely
related Dream Warriors trilogy I'd suggest skipping it.
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