Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A (1988)

... aka: Le cauchemar de Freddy (Freddy's Nightmare)
... aka: Nightmare 4
... aka: Nightmare 4 - Il non risveglio
... aka: Pesadilla en la calle del infierno 4 (Nightmare on Hell Street 4)
... aka: Rémálom 4. - Az álmok ura (Nightmare 4 - Lord of Dreams)
... aka: Terror på Elm Street 4 - Freddys mardröm (Terror on Elm Street 4: Freddy's Nightmare)

Directed by:
Renny Harlin

The previous entry, DREAM WARRIORS, did things quite a bit differently than the first two films. For starters, the mysterious and ambiguous phantom figure that started the series was given a family history. We didn't know very much about Freddy at all over the course of the first two films but by the time Warriors was over we certainly did. Perhaps too much! To make a long story short, Freddy's mother got tag-teamed by a hundred or so nuts in an asylum and one of those psychos knocked her up and is thus Freddy's father. Part 3 also saw an increase in the amount of witty one-liners Freddy was given. While he'd throw out an occasional dark-humored line in the first two films, by #3 virtually everything out of his mouth was meant to elicit a laugh and he seemed unable to murder anyone without first doing a brief stand-up comedy routine.

Finally, Part 3 added a strong religious angle to the works that was not prevalent in the previous ones. Religion did not factor at all into Freddy's Revenge from what I recall and, while the original features one scene of Freddy being repelled by a crucifix while the heroine slept, he ultimately wasn't stopped by religious artifacts nor divine intervention. It was entirely up to Nancy after learning she could bring him out of the nightmare world (where he's immortal) into the real world (where he's not). But Part 3 piled on the religion thick and heavy to the point where the doctor hero was being coached by a ghost nun about having faith and then filling an empty whiskey bottle with holy water so he could consecrate ground in which to bury Freddy's remains. Seeing how Part 4 opens up with a biblical quote from Job 4: 13-14, I was expecting more of the same. Thankfully, this one backs off that a little bit, though Part 5 would more than make up for it by virtually wallowing in it.

By the end of Dream Warriors, a bunch of beds at the local psychiatric hospital had opened up as the majority of the remaining Elm Street children, descendants of the lynch mob who hunted down and set child killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) ablaze, were killed. Now only three remain: the still meek but no longer mute Joey (Rodney Eastman), the loud, foul-mouthed and "funny" Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) and the resilient Kristen. All three think they can rest easy now that Freddy's remains have been put to rest on consecrated ground, but Kristen's nightmares have started up again and she suspects Freddy will be back to try to finish the job he started.

Viewers will immediately note the absence of Patricia Arquette. I've read multiple sources state she didn't reprise the Kristen role because she was pregnant. I don't recall Arquette ever saying that herself but let's do a little math here. Filming began on April 4th, 1988. Arquette's son was born January 3rd, 1989. There's a window of almost exactly 9 months between the two. So either Arquette found out she was pregnant a few days after it happened and bailed at the last possible second or someone just made up the pregnancy excuse. Seeing how the Kristen role is much smaller here and it's common knowledge Arquette didn't have the best of times on the Elm Street 3 set, it's far more likely that she simply didn't want to do this. Either way, she's been replaced by another blonde named Tuesday Knight, who also performs the opening credits theme song "Nightmare."

Though he's skeptical of Kristen's claims at first, Kincaid becomes a believer once he's dreamed into the junkyard containing Freddy's remains and his dog pisses fire (?!) on the ground, causing it to crack open and Freddy's bones to reassemble all by themselves. Unfortunately he won't live long enough to pass on this info to his endangered friends. Now back to "life," Freddy kills him and then heads right on over to Joey's house to give him a "wet dream" by putting topless Playboy Playmate Hope Marie Carlton inside his water bed. But Joey's hope he'll get some Hope is short-lived once Freddy jumps out of the water and slashes him to death.

Now with Kristen the last of the Elm Street children alive, she makes sure to pass on some vital information to her core group of friends before Freddy picks her up and tosses her into a furnace. She also passes on her "power" to pull people into dreams to her mousy friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox), who will soon have her hands full beyond school, working double shifts at a soda fountain and filling in for her dead mother by catering to her drunken asshole of a father (Nicholas Mele). Is it just me or are Elm Street parents the absolute worst parents ever?

Not content with just getting revenge against those who killed him, Freddy's now planning on branching out. After all, he's got plenty of vacant space on his soul chest. Alice, her brother Rick (Andras Jones), who was also Kristen's boyfriend, Alice's "major league hunk" love interest Dan (Danny Hassel), big-haired workout enthusiast Debbie (Brooke Theiss) and asthmatic nerd Sheila (Toy Newkirk) all become targets. Each time someone dies, Alice is given a special new talent from the victim, whether that be intelligence, strength or martial arts skills. Where she'd already inherited Kristen's ability to pull others into her dreams is where the problem lies as Freddy just uses that against her to strike out at new victims she lures to him.

The acting is the worst yet for the franchise, most of the characters fall flat (what they attempt to do with Alice is more interesting in theory than in execution) and both the plot and the newly added dream mythos get a bit too muddled, but Harlin's flashy direction and the special effects do their best to distract. Some of the fx highlights include Alice being pulled right off a movie theater balcony into a black-and-white movie, a human face pizza (likely a jab at critics frequently describing Freddy's face as one), a gory bit where a girl is transformed into a cockroach, Freddy sucking all of the air out of a victim and a spin through a tunnel of human souls. The finale takes place in a church for some reason (I guess because the stained glass looks cool), where the souls of Freddy's victims eventually rip his body apart. As usual, the ending is left wide open because they already knew they'd be making another one. Or five.

The cast includes Brooke Bundy (again) as Kristen's bitchy mom, "L.E. Moko" (producer Robert Shaye) as a boring teacher and Linnea Quigley as a soul in Freddy's chest. Among the big names on the fx crew are Kevin Yagher, Screaming Mad George, Howard Berger, R. Christopher Biggs, John Carl Buechler, Steve Johnson and Hoyt Yeatman.

Made on a 13 million budget (more than what it cost to make the first three films combined), The Dream Master became the biggest Elm Street hit yet. It was the #1 movie in America for three straight weeks, broke a record for the biggest opening weekend for an independent production, was the highest grossing horror film of the year and went on to earn nearly 50 million dollars, making it the 19th highest grossing film of 1988 and the highest grossing slasher film of the entire decade. It is also among the Top 10 highest grossing genre films of the entire decade.

Englund / Freddy received his own hour-long MTV special to promote the film and there was also a tie-in Fat Boys music video ("Great Ready for Freddy") featuring Englund as well as a 50-minute The Making of a Nightmare on Elm Street 4 tape hosted by Englund. As soon as this left theaters, Freddy was back on TV again hosting his very own syndicated series Freddy's Nightmares, which would last until 1990.

★★

Howling VI: The Freaks (1991) [filmed in 1990]

... aka: Final Attack
... aka: Grito de Horror 6 (Horror Scream 6)
... aka: Howling 6
... aka: Mostriciattoli (Monsters)

Directed by:
Hope Perello

The sixth entry in this long-running werewolf series has nothing to do with Gary Brandner's book series or the previous five films bearing the same name and instead seems to take its greatest inspiration from Ray Bradbury's 1962 book Something Wicked This Way Comes. Handsome, sad-eyed British drifter Ian Richards (Brendan Hughes) arrives in the small, dying Southwest desert town of Canton Bluff with just fifteen dollars in his pocket and a handful of papers he doesn't want anyone else to look at. Though the local sheriff (Carols Cervantes) initially tries to drive him away and others question his presence there, widowed pastor Dewey (Jered Barclay) agrees to give him room and board in exchange for helping to rebuild the communities run-down church. It isn't long before Ian's kind demeanor and hard work ethic manage to win over the town - not to mention the heart of the pastor's hot blonde daughter Lizzie (Michele Matheson) - but things are about to take a turn for the weird and horrific once a traveling carnival / freak show called Harker's World of Wonders strolls into town.

Headed by the charismatic and mysterious H.B. Harker (Bruce Martyn Payne), who is M.I.A. during the daylight hours (*wink*), the carnival boasts an array of oddities and human freaks. There's Mr. Bellamey (Antonio Fargas), the token geek who likes to bite off chicken heads, Mr. Toones (Deep Roy), a dwarf gambler with a tiny third arm he keeps tucked away in his jacket, transvestite stripper and torch singer Carl / Carlotta (Christopher Morley) and Winston Salem (Sean Gregory Sullivan), a meek, cat-loving burn victim whose scars are painted into scales so he can play "The Amazing Alligator Man." Ian turns out to be a "freak" himself and is in town with ulterior motives that coincide with the arrival of the carnival. Always on the lookout for a new monstrosity to add to his collection, Harker discovers that Ian is actually a werewolf. He has him captured, caged and then primed to be the new star attraction. Using a crystal and some chanting, the evil barker - who's also harboring a secret monstrous identity of his own - is able to make our hero transform whenever he wishes.

Howling VI suffers mostly from uneven writing. While Kevin Rock's screenplay boasts surprisingly well-defined characters and credible dialogue, the story line is unfocused, somewhat shapeless and a little lacking in narrative drive. Thankfully, the film itself has enough positives to partially overcome all that. For starters, I liked the fact the action centered around the same style of tortured werewolf from the Lon Chaney days, which is in stark contrast to the portrayal of the creatures in the first five Howling films. Not only is the wolf man sympathetic this time out, but it goes one step further by giving him partial control over his actions post transformation. While Chaney's Larry Talbot was a good guy turned murderous, out-of-control creature by the light of the full moon, the werewolf character here is pretty much a good guy in either his human or his monster form. Though some viewers may be disappointed by the absence of a more bloodthirsty creature, Payne's character more than makes up for that in villainy.

Another big plus is that the acting is vastly superior to most of the other films in this series. Lead Hughes - previously seen in the romantic vampire movie To Die For (1988) - not only does a fine job capturing both the mysterious and tender qualities of his character, but he's also physically perfect for this role because he has a gentle and kind look and non-threatening way about him. British character actor Payne is also perfectly cast playing the sinister, cultured and evil carnival barker, though he'd soon find himself being typecast in similar roles simply because he plays bad guy that well. While some of the other actors aren't quite as good, no one really embarrasses themselves either like they do in most of the other Howling movies. The only real disappointment was them under-using Carol Lynley, who was once a star headlining major studio productions but has been reduced here to a small and rather pointless part. Elizabeth Shé, one of the stars of HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH (1989), can also be spotted briefly in the carnival audience.

For a low budget production, the sets are fairly good and the movie also delivers more in the way of makeup fx than the previous two films, which are well- executed by Todd Masters and the ever-reliable Steve Johnson, who also contributed to the scant fx in HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE (1988). The look of the werewolf here is somewhat old school in the face department (there's no wolf-like snout and the transformation scene is pretty weak), but it looks pretty cool regardless thanks to bipedal legs.

★★1/2