Sleep Tight: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5- The Dream Child

Another Nightmare that I woke up from.  Today's Film is A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, the 1989 Sequel that exists somewhere in a limbo.  It isn't as well-liked as Part 1 or Part 3, but nor is it as polarizing at Part 6 or Freddy vs Jason.  Just like The Dream Master, this one is remembered, but not as much as the rest.  This time, Freddy is back for more killings, but also more subtext about growing up and maturing.  The theory is that the Film was aimed to a slightly-older audience, figuring that the fans of the Original were getting to the 'thinking of having kids' phase that many go through.  This was the least financially-successful Film in the Series, so you be the judge.  The whole thing feels similar in a bad way (it is Part FIVE), but also different in a confusing way.  Will this work better with less actual killings?  To note, we actually get returning Actors in the Lead Roles this time- hurray!  We also brought a couple of odd Retcons too- yes hurray.  To find out if this mostly-ignored Chapter (save for leading to one of the Comics) is good or bad, read on...

In spite of some weird dreams (that try to fill in Freddy's backstory), Alice is convinced that everything is alright.

This doesn't last long as she ends up in a dream (memory?) that involves Freddy being born as an It's Alive baby, crawling to his remains from Part 4 and comes back to life...somehow.

Look- it is better than a dream dog peeing fire on his dream body, so...improvement?

This time, Freddy can attack people in their dreams, but also channeling Alice somehow.  This leads to her boyfriend being turned into some weird mix of Ghost Rider and Hardware.

Does she want the good news or the bad news?

The good news- she's Pregnant.
The bad news- Freddy is using her unborn fetus to channel his power...or something.

This kid appears at the Hospital, but nobody but Alice sees him.  Gee- I wonder who he is?

Now he's the odd thing: this one actually gives you more teases of kills than ever.  While the one girl dies famously by choking on food via Freddy, Alice's friend here escapes her fate.

This leads to the Film Series' original Shark-Jumping moment: Super Freddy.

Some context- the one guy loves and draws Comics, so he's killed by a 'Super Villain' in his dreams.  That...is still dumb.

Oh and the Retcons I talked about?  Well, Freddy now fears his Mother's spirit...who now shows up as her younger self (contradicting Part 3) and her body needs to be freed from the Asylum to come back...even though...

a) She freely appeared and helped Dr. Gordon in Part 3.
b) She was shown to be buried in the Cemetery (also in Part 3).

After a whole Film's worth of build-up, she is released and...tells Alice's unborn kid to beat Freddy.

Oh, alright then.  Now dead for reals, Freddy...is teased with returning in the Film's last shot...again.

Getting kind of stale, unfortunately.  While I'm not as in love with Part 3 as most, it was a solid entry.   Part 4 was a bit shaky with the Recasting, odd Story bits and generally feeling of malaise.  That is not helped with this one, even if there is no Recasting.  Freddy still kills people with continually-more-silly Dream Scenarios.  Teens run around and die.  Freddy dies, but you know that he'll be back.  Not counting the weird detour that the much-maligned Part 2 took, the Films have all been this way.  They do mix things up here with the new stuff involving the fetus, but it is super-bizarre.  Freddy has escaped dreams to exist physically in Alice's body?  He's channeling his power through her unborn child, since it 'dreams.'  A Doctor actually tells someone that a fetus dreams?  On top of that, the aforementioned Retcons/inconsistencies.  It just feels weird that this is a direct Sequel, but now I'm being told something different.  I also have to wonder what happened to Dr. Gordon, although he was absent from the last Film too.  How does nobody remember all of the mysterious deaths that happened in the last 2 Films?  This one has some good moments, some especially-ridiculous ones (Super Freddy!) and some just plain strange ones.  A mixed bag overall- not good enough to keep this one going for much longer though.  On the plus side, this M.C. Esher bit is neat.  On the negative side, they kind of borrowed it from Labyrinth (made 3 years earlier)...

Next up, I dig through my own collection for some content.  Considering all the random crap I bought recently, who knows what will come next.  Stay tuned...