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yendiToday, we're looking at the film that, for a brief moment, was the worst Freddy film on the planet. Then #6 came out, and this looked like a work of genius. Almost.
Anyway, let's talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child.
Concept: Freddy, having been killed off for good (again) by Alice and her boytoy Dan, does what any defeated master of dream magic does, and waits until Alice gets pregnant, then channels himself through the dreams of the unborn child and starts killing again. It all makes perfect sense if you do lots of acid, I suppose.
We eventually meet Alice, the pre-adolecsent avatar of Alice's unborn son, and Freddy's Dead Nun Mother, all of whom team up (along with Alice's friend Yvonne, who somehow lives through the entire mess) to confront Freddy in the final confrontation (not necessarily final).
Body Count: Three. People forget that the Freddy movies aren't known for their kill totals. Freddy was all about style, not volume.
Really Bad Kills: None.
Really Good Kills: All three of them. We start with the death of Dan. Continuing the trend of killing off survivors from previous movies, Freddy waltzes into his dreams when he falls asleep driving over to Alice's diner (or, if you're prefer, Alice's Restaurant). In the dreamworld, Dan escapes Freddy and hops on a motorcycle, but while driving away, the cycle comes to life, and essentially starts assimilating Dan. Dan then wakes up just in time to find his car about to crash into a truck. Interestingly, this is probably one of the few deaths in any of the movies that Freddy didn't need to cause -- falling asleep at the wheel could well have killed someone naturally.
The next death is that of supermodel-in-training Greta, who, like any supermodel, has an eating disorder (this being the '80s -- any supermodel today, of course, would be assumed to have been snorting lines of coke since they were six; then again, we already had a drug-based death earlier in the series). Naturally, Freddy force-feeds her to death (and manages to take a few bites out of her, as well) leading to her appearing to die as the result of choking.
The final death in the movie is that of comic book geek Mark. While reading his comics in an effort to stay awake, he doesn't realize that he's dozing, and finds a strange new comic in the batch. He gets sucked into the comics world, where he manages to fight Freddy for a while (and calling up numerous cliches) before Freddy slashes him up, cutting him into shreds of paper. The animation is a little cheesy, but the sequence some nice originality.
Freddy's quips: His best line, which depends on delivery as much as anything else, is delivered to Greta: Bon Appetit. . .Bitch!" The first part is delivered in a French accent, the last with Freddy's typical force.
Other great Freddy lines: After he's toyed with Mark for a while in the comic book world, he becomes Super Freddy, and announces: "Faster than a bastard maniac! More powerful than a loco madman. It's. . . .Me!" And after dispatching Mark, he utters the same line my mom's been saying for years, "I told you comic books were bad for you."
Celebrities: Something I meant to mention yesterday: All of these movies, of course, star Robert Englund, so I'm taking his presence as a given. As far as other folks go, well, the pickings are slim here. The lovely Lisa Wilcox, of course, reprises her role as Alice, and you might also have seen her as Bill's sister on the Bill and Ted tv series. She never became as famous as she deserved to be, alas. But she's still the most famous person after Englund, not counting a brief cameo by Ted Nugent.
Denouement: Alice sends Yvonne to find the body of Freddy's Dead Nun Mother, and after Freddy's Dead Nun Mother is finally laid to rest, her spirit, along with the inexplicably pre-pubescent spirit of Alice's kid help turn Freddy into an infant, and he's then trapped in the womb of his Dead Nun Mother, who barricades herself away to lock Freddy away as well.
Miscellany: This movie continues the Freddy mythos laid out in the third film, introducing us to the infamous nun who was raped by a hundred maniacs and birthed Freddy. Alas, it muddles up his powers even more, as there's nothing resembling a coherent explanation of how Alice having a baby could possibly bring him back, or why his mom is only now getting involved in things. Still, most of the story of his mom is consistent with what we've heard earlier.
Stephen Hopkins went on to direct some solid B movies, including Predator 2, Judgement Night, and Blown Away, as well as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. He also directed the big-screen Lost in Space, which sucks almost as much as this movie. The "story" credit on the screenplay goes to the team of John Skipp and Craig Spector, and a lot of horror fans give the movie too much love because of their association (I mean, really, do you slobber over Robocop 3 because of Frank Miller?). Aside from the fact that they haven't proven to have any real chops on the big screen, the screenplay itself was written by Leslie Bohem, who has also written such "gems" as Dante's Peak, The Alamo, Daylight, and Nowhere to Run. Wikipedia claims that David Schow had something to do with this mess, as well, which I hope is either a myth, or just a matter of him touching up some dialogue.
Overall: What a clusterfuck. Coming off a pretty decent movie, the continued story of Alice and Dan just turns into a nightmare. And not the good kind. There are some damned nifty visuals -- all of the kills, the flashbacks to the asylum, the lovely Escher-esque setting of the climax -- but the plot looks like something that was shat out of a mad cow. No one involved in this film, as far as I could tell, really had a sense of what had gone on in the previous movies, and Freddy's whole "rebirth" thing just never make any sense at all. I don't ask for great writing or even a hole-free plot from my horror movies, but I'd like to get a sense that the people involved at least tried. They get points for a nifty concept (Freddy working through the mind of an unborn child), but none for actually bringing that concept to fruition.
Anyway, let's talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child.
Concept: Freddy, having been killed off for good (again) by Alice and her boytoy Dan, does what any defeated master of dream magic does, and waits until Alice gets pregnant, then channels himself through the dreams of the unborn child and starts killing again. It all makes perfect sense if you do lots of acid, I suppose.
We eventually meet Alice, the pre-adolecsent avatar of Alice's unborn son, and Freddy's Dead Nun Mother, all of whom team up (along with Alice's friend Yvonne, who somehow lives through the entire mess) to confront Freddy in the final confrontation (not necessarily final).
Body Count: Three. People forget that the Freddy movies aren't known for their kill totals. Freddy was all about style, not volume.
Really Bad Kills: None.
Really Good Kills: All three of them. We start with the death of Dan. Continuing the trend of killing off survivors from previous movies, Freddy waltzes into his dreams when he falls asleep driving over to Alice's diner (or, if you're prefer, Alice's Restaurant). In the dreamworld, Dan escapes Freddy and hops on a motorcycle, but while driving away, the cycle comes to life, and essentially starts assimilating Dan. Dan then wakes up just in time to find his car about to crash into a truck. Interestingly, this is probably one of the few deaths in any of the movies that Freddy didn't need to cause -- falling asleep at the wheel could well have killed someone naturally.
The next death is that of supermodel-in-training Greta, who, like any supermodel, has an eating disorder (this being the '80s -- any supermodel today, of course, would be assumed to have been snorting lines of coke since they were six; then again, we already had a drug-based death earlier in the series). Naturally, Freddy force-feeds her to death (and manages to take a few bites out of her, as well) leading to her appearing to die as the result of choking.
The final death in the movie is that of comic book geek Mark. While reading his comics in an effort to stay awake, he doesn't realize that he's dozing, and finds a strange new comic in the batch. He gets sucked into the comics world, where he manages to fight Freddy for a while (and calling up numerous cliches) before Freddy slashes him up, cutting him into shreds of paper. The animation is a little cheesy, but the sequence some nice originality.
Freddy's quips: His best line, which depends on delivery as much as anything else, is delivered to Greta: Bon Appetit. . .Bitch!" The first part is delivered in a French accent, the last with Freddy's typical force.
Other great Freddy lines: After he's toyed with Mark for a while in the comic book world, he becomes Super Freddy, and announces: "Faster than a bastard maniac! More powerful than a loco madman. It's. . . .Me!" And after dispatching Mark, he utters the same line my mom's been saying for years, "I told you comic books were bad for you."
Celebrities: Something I meant to mention yesterday: All of these movies, of course, star Robert Englund, so I'm taking his presence as a given. As far as other folks go, well, the pickings are slim here. The lovely Lisa Wilcox, of course, reprises her role as Alice, and you might also have seen her as Bill's sister on the Bill and Ted tv series. She never became as famous as she deserved to be, alas. But she's still the most famous person after Englund, not counting a brief cameo by Ted Nugent.
Denouement: Alice sends Yvonne to find the body of Freddy's Dead Nun Mother, and after Freddy's Dead Nun Mother is finally laid to rest, her spirit, along with the inexplicably pre-pubescent spirit of Alice's kid help turn Freddy into an infant, and he's then trapped in the womb of his Dead Nun Mother, who barricades herself away to lock Freddy away as well.
Miscellany: This movie continues the Freddy mythos laid out in the third film, introducing us to the infamous nun who was raped by a hundred maniacs and birthed Freddy. Alas, it muddles up his powers even more, as there's nothing resembling a coherent explanation of how Alice having a baby could possibly bring him back, or why his mom is only now getting involved in things. Still, most of the story of his mom is consistent with what we've heard earlier.
Stephen Hopkins went on to direct some solid B movies, including Predator 2, Judgement Night, and Blown Away, as well as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. He also directed the big-screen Lost in Space, which sucks almost as much as this movie. The "story" credit on the screenplay goes to the team of John Skipp and Craig Spector, and a lot of horror fans give the movie too much love because of their association (I mean, really, do you slobber over Robocop 3 because of Frank Miller?). Aside from the fact that they haven't proven to have any real chops on the big screen, the screenplay itself was written by Leslie Bohem, who has also written such "gems" as Dante's Peak, The Alamo, Daylight, and Nowhere to Run. Wikipedia claims that David Schow had something to do with this mess, as well, which I hope is either a myth, or just a matter of him touching up some dialogue.
Overall: What a clusterfuck. Coming off a pretty decent movie, the continued story of Alice and Dan just turns into a nightmare. And not the good kind. There are some damned nifty visuals -- all of the kills, the flashbacks to the asylum, the lovely Escher-esque setting of the climax -- but the plot looks like something that was shat out of a mad cow. No one involved in this film, as far as I could tell, really had a sense of what had gone on in the previous movies, and Freddy's whole "rebirth" thing just never make any sense at all. I don't ask for great writing or even a hole-free plot from my horror movies, but I'd like to get a sense that the people involved at least tried. They get points for a nifty concept (Freddy working through the mind of an unborn child), but none for actually bringing that concept to fruition.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:23 pm (UTC)I'm curious, is your scale "the best concept" or "the most frightening"? My pick for best concept is different from my pick for most frightening.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 06:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:54 pm (UTC)Well at least Lisa Wilcox is still working
Date: 2006-03-22 05:29 pm (UTC)Re: Well at least Lisa Wilcox is still working
Date: 2006-03-22 05:56 pm (UTC)And I see that she's also active on the Trek and horror convention circuits.
Re: Well at least Lisa Wilcox is still working
Date: 2006-03-22 06:30 pm (UTC)Re: Well at least Lisa Wilcox is still working
Date: 2006-03-22 07:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:56 pm (UTC)The super-model death is good though.
P.S. Is your countdown going to include Freddy vs Jason?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 05:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 06:38 pm (UTC)Question...
Date: 2006-03-22 07:00 pm (UTC)Or am I thinking another one in the series? Oy.
Re: Question...
Date: 2006-03-22 07:15 pm (UTC)*laughs*
I'm getting this one confused with #4.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 07:03 pm (UTC)I never really noticed Robert Englund as an actor, however, until I saw him in his absolutely brilliant role in the (rather odd) movie Killer Tongue.
The movie itself is weird enough to make it a must-see, but Englund's role is seriously the most surprising show of talent I've seen in a long time. I was totally taken aback.
If you haven't seen it yet, I heartily recommend it.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 07:45 pm (UTC)The plot always made perfect sense to me. At the end of part 4, Alice robs him of all the souls he's taken. Freddy is completely powerless at the beginning of part 5. Alice still has part of Kristen's soul, the part that can call others into her dream. So by the "rules" Freddy can still haunt her, but no one else, until she has a child. He can haunt the dreams of her unborn child as well, as he found out.
It was a loophole, a way out. He was attempting to find a way to be reborn through Jacob. This breach of rules, in the manner it was done, obviously alerted the ghost of his mother and forced her to take some sort of action. Or perhaps she was sent by the Powers That Be to enforce the rules by which Freddy existed.
His mother's name was Amanda Krueger, AKA Sister Mary Helena.
And for the record, I never took acid.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-23 12:30 pm (UTC)then agian, i think think that fact alone says quite a bit.
.
(which is to say, i'm enjoying this.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-23 07:28 pm (UTC)And thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-30 12:06 am (UTC)Which Labyrinth did a couple of years earlier.