A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master Director: Renny Harlin (The Long Kiss Goodnight)
***out of****
Review
Freddy is at the top of his game. After the immensely popular "Dream Warriors", Freddy had reached his peak of pop culture. This movie brashly illustrates the pop culture, with Freddy being less scary, and more of an icon. I admit once again of seeing all the horror franchises at a (very) young age and I don't think I was alone as by this point in the franchise as there was a wave of Freddy toys, sheets, lunch boxes, posters, etc. Basically the statistics were rolled in, and marketing knew its age group. So yes, before I start this review, I'll say that Freddy isn't scary, the movie doesn't even try to scare you, but alas, it wants to entertain, and boy does it ever.
The movie continues on from 3, with the survivors trying to get on with their lives (Kristen, Joe, Kincaid) and the beginning has Kristen (now played by the less competent Tuesday Knight) having the dream at the Elm street house (which is EVEN more pimping then 3). She gets frightened and pulls the other two in, but they get angry and don't believe her (after everything they went through together you'd think they wouldn't give it a second thought, but never mind). We then go into the now familiar territory of the introduction of our new batch of teens since the Elm street children are near extinct. Alice is the only one we should really invest in since she eventually is going to take the lead as Freddie's new opponent. Anyways, Freddy indeed does resurrect (in one kick ass surreal "regeneration" scene which is started by flaming dog urine!?!) and continues to dispatch our reaming survivors. The mythology for this sequel indeed makes sense and tries to expand off 3. It seems if Freddy kills all the final Elm street children he will forever be trapped in the dream world with no more victims so he now must find someone he can use to bring new victims, and he finds that in the very shy and insecure Alice, who inherits Kristen's gift (after her grisly "furnace" death). One thing Freddy didn't count on is that every time he kills someone, she inherits their special power, and gets stronger and stronger, but when Freddy kills a very close family member, Alice must use everything she's got in a final kick ass showdown.
Although many people feel this movie is a cheat and that the series should have ended after 3, I beg to differ and felt that the closure for 3 was to poorly done, making the ending very underwhelming, I WANTED MORE! So the sequel is a somewhat decent companion piece to 3. Bringing back the warriors was genius, and I enjoyed the continuity. Sure, I can make a stink about them getting killed, but personally since I cared so much about them from 3, their deaths upped the stakes for me. Also the new characters, although noting that layered, the actors portraying them were competent and very likable none the less, like three, I cared about the kids. Also Lisa Wilcox is a revelation, making the most interesting Elm Street character ever. I was rooting for her all the way.
Another pro for this sequel is Renny Harlin in the directing seat. Not only did he create the most visually appealing sequel of the entire series, he made the movie and extremely effortless watch as well. This movie ahs flaws, but boring us is not one of the them. It's so fast paced, you feel like you need to stop for a breath of air. The camera is very fluid and I loved the style. The colors are also very vibrant, lot's of green and red lighting. Thank you Mr. Harlin, you certainly can punch a wallop with your scenes.
As with 3, there is so much scenes that stand out in my mind with picture clarity, the Junkyard scene, the watered scene, the beach scene, the classroom scene, the elevator scene, the movie theater, Freddy eating the Pizza, Alice and Dan spinning through the tunnel, Roach motel scene, Freddy's death, all classic scenes and after watching them you can see why the movie made the most money in the entire series (ex Freddy Vs Jason).
Some flaws I have with the movie are 1) Although the deaths had good SFX, the gore and mean streak so prominent in previous sequels was seriously lacking, Should have made Freddy mean like 3 did, 2) the movie's narrative gets a little shaky in places, making some dream sequences not following up with logic, comes off as a tad distracting, and 3) the movie does get a little heavy handed making some scenes very cheesy (you'll probably groan) like Alice gearing up to go into hand and hand combat. To much man, I ended up laughing at it.
Overall though, this is the last decent hurrah for Freddy. The movie sells his soul but at least it's still quite fun watching it go down, swinging. It only gets lesser and lesser after this one, and Robert Englund has even admitted he felt strongly about this movie ending the series, as Freddy's death certainly makes sense and is a fitting touch. What a kick ass scene too. This is where Elm street ends for me, even though I still watch 5, I consider this to be Freddy's final "adventure".
Of course, commercialism and the mighty buck thought otherwise, but you can still consider this the final Freddy, and should wisely do so.
***out of****
Review
Freddy is at the top of his game. After the immensely popular "Dream Warriors", Freddy had reached his peak of pop culture. This movie brashly illustrates the pop culture, with Freddy being less scary, and more of an icon. I admit once again of seeing all the horror franchises at a (very) young age and I don't think I was alone as by this point in the franchise as there was a wave of Freddy toys, sheets, lunch boxes, posters, etc. Basically the statistics were rolled in, and marketing knew its age group. So yes, before I start this review, I'll say that Freddy isn't scary, the movie doesn't even try to scare you, but alas, it wants to entertain, and boy does it ever.
The movie continues on from 3, with the survivors trying to get on with their lives (Kristen, Joe, Kincaid) and the beginning has Kristen (now played by the less competent Tuesday Knight) having the dream at the Elm street house (which is EVEN more pimping then 3). She gets frightened and pulls the other two in, but they get angry and don't believe her (after everything they went through together you'd think they wouldn't give it a second thought, but never mind). We then go into the now familiar territory of the introduction of our new batch of teens since the Elm street children are near extinct. Alice is the only one we should really invest in since she eventually is going to take the lead as Freddie's new opponent. Anyways, Freddy indeed does resurrect (in one kick ass surreal "regeneration" scene which is started by flaming dog urine!?!) and continues to dispatch our reaming survivors. The mythology for this sequel indeed makes sense and tries to expand off 3. It seems if Freddy kills all the final Elm street children he will forever be trapped in the dream world with no more victims so he now must find someone he can use to bring new victims, and he finds that in the very shy and insecure Alice, who inherits Kristen's gift (after her grisly "furnace" death). One thing Freddy didn't count on is that every time he kills someone, she inherits their special power, and gets stronger and stronger, but when Freddy kills a very close family member, Alice must use everything she's got in a final kick ass showdown.
Although many people feel this movie is a cheat and that the series should have ended after 3, I beg to differ and felt that the closure for 3 was to poorly done, making the ending very underwhelming, I WANTED MORE! So the sequel is a somewhat decent companion piece to 3. Bringing back the warriors was genius, and I enjoyed the continuity. Sure, I can make a stink about them getting killed, but personally since I cared so much about them from 3, their deaths upped the stakes for me. Also the new characters, although noting that layered, the actors portraying them were competent and very likable none the less, like three, I cared about the kids. Also Lisa Wilcox is a revelation, making the most interesting Elm Street character ever. I was rooting for her all the way.
Another pro for this sequel is Renny Harlin in the directing seat. Not only did he create the most visually appealing sequel of the entire series, he made the movie and extremely effortless watch as well. This movie ahs flaws, but boring us is not one of the them. It's so fast paced, you feel like you need to stop for a breath of air. The camera is very fluid and I loved the style. The colors are also very vibrant, lot's of green and red lighting. Thank you Mr. Harlin, you certainly can punch a wallop with your scenes.
As with 3, there is so much scenes that stand out in my mind with picture clarity, the Junkyard scene, the watered scene, the beach scene, the classroom scene, the elevator scene, the movie theater, Freddy eating the Pizza, Alice and Dan spinning through the tunnel, Roach motel scene, Freddy's death, all classic scenes and after watching them you can see why the movie made the most money in the entire series (ex Freddy Vs Jason).
Some flaws I have with the movie are 1) Although the deaths had good SFX, the gore and mean streak so prominent in previous sequels was seriously lacking, Should have made Freddy mean like 3 did, 2) the movie's narrative gets a little shaky in places, making some dream sequences not following up with logic, comes off as a tad distracting, and 3) the movie does get a little heavy handed making some scenes very cheesy (you'll probably groan) like Alice gearing up to go into hand and hand combat. To much man, I ended up laughing at it.
Overall though, this is the last decent hurrah for Freddy. The movie sells his soul but at least it's still quite fun watching it go down, swinging. It only gets lesser and lesser after this one, and Robert Englund has even admitted he felt strongly about this movie ending the series, as Freddy's death certainly makes sense and is a fitting touch. What a kick ass scene too. This is where Elm street ends for me, even though I still watch 5, I consider this to be Freddy's final "adventure".
Of course, commercialism and the mighty buck thought otherwise, but you can still consider this the final Freddy, and should wisely do so.