A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stephen Hopkins
Produced by	Robert Shaye Rupert Harvey
Screenplay by	Leslie Bohem
Story by	John Skipp Craig Spector Leslie Bohem
Based on	Characters by Wes Craven Bruce Wagner William Kotzwinkle Brian Helgeland
Starring	Robert Englund Lisa Wilcox
Music by	Jay Ferguson
Cinematography	Peter Levy
Edited by	Brent A. Schoenfeld Chuck Weiss
Production company	Heron Communications Smart Egg Pictures
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	August 11, 1989 (1989-08-11)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million[1]
Box office	$22.2 million

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is a 1989 American slasher film^[2] and the fifth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins, stars Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox and Danny Hassel. It is the sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and is followed by Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

The film's general tone is much darker and the dream sequences are more Gothic than the previous films of the series, and a blue filter lighting technique is used in most of the scenes. The film's main titles do not display the "5" that was used in all of the promotional material, TV spots, trailers, and merchandise. The main titles simply say "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child". Released on August 11, 1989, the film grossed over $22.2 million at domestic box office to a generally unfavourable critical reception.

Plot

Taking place almost a year after The Dream Master, Alice and Dan have now started dating and there is no sign of Freddy Krueger. One day, in the shower, she sees herself at a strange asylum, dressed in a nun's habit with a name-tag saying Amanda Krueger. She is then attacked by patients at the hospital but wakes up. The next day, Alice is graduating from high school alongside her new friends: Greta, an aspiring, albeit reluctant, supermodel; Mark, a comic book geek; and Yvonne, a candy striper and swimmer. She only confides her nightmare to Dan and he tells her she is in control of her dreams.

On her way to work, Alice finds herself back at the asylum, where she witnesses Amanda giving birth to a gruesomely deformed Freddy-looking baby. Amanda tries to collect the baby before it escapes, but it sneaks out of the operating room and Alice follows it into the same church where she had defeated Freddy in the previous film. The baby finds Freddy's remains and quickly grows into an adult, hinting to Alice that he's found the "key" to coming back. Alarmed, she contacts Dan, who falls asleep en route to see her, and is attacked by Freddy. Freddy electrocutes him, turning him into a frightful creature before veering him into oncoming traffic. Alice sees Dan's body come to life and taunt her before she passes out. Waking in a hospital, she has to take the news of Dan's death and that she is pregnant with his child. In the night, she is visited by a young boy named Jacob, but the next day Yvonne tells her there are no children on her floor, nor is there a children's ward.

Alice tells her friends about Freddy and his lineage, but Yvonne refuses to hear it while Mark and Greta are more supportive. That afternoon, at a dinner party at home, Greta falls asleep at the table; she snaps at her mother, going on a rant over her controlling nature before Freddy arrives and literally forces Greta to eat herself alive before choking her in front of a laughing audience. In the real world, she falls down dead to the surprise of her mother and guests. Yvonne and Alice visit Mark, who is grieving Greta's death and a rift forms between them. Mark falls asleep and is nearly killed by Freddy, but Alice saves him at the last minute before seeing Jacob again. Jacob hints that she is his mother. Alice requests that Yvonne gets her an early ultrasound and discovers Freddy is feeding Jacob his victims to make him like himself.

Yvonne still believes that Alice is crazy. Dan's parents also believe that Alice is delusional and insist that she give them the baby when it is born, which Alice refuses. Alice and Mark research Krueger and the Nun Amanda. Realizing that Amanda was trying to stop Freddy, they investigate her whereabouts and Alice goes to sleep, hoping to find Amanda at the asylum. While there, Freddy lures her away by threatening Yvonne, who has fallen asleep in a Jacuzzi. Alice rescues her, and Yvonne finally believes her. Mark falls asleep and is pulled into a comic book world, where Freddy slashes him apart.

Alice goes to bed in order to find Freddy and save her son. She is led into an M. C. Escher-type maze before she finally draws Freddy out from within herself. Yvonne finds Amanda's remains at the asylum and joins the fight in the dream world, encouraging Jacob to use the power that Freddy had been giving him. Jacob manages to destroy Freddy and his infant form is absorbed by his mother while Alice picks up a baby Jacob. Warning Alice away, Amanda manages to seal Freddy away in time.

Several months later, Jacob Daniel Johnson is enjoying a picnic with his mom, grandfather and Yvonne. The familiar song of Freddy's theme can be heard being hummed by children jumping rope.

Cast

• Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger/Maniac in the asylum (without make-up)/Waiter (without make-up)
• Lisa Wilcox as Alice Johnson
• Kelly Jo Minter as Yvonne Miller
• Erika Anderson as Greta Gibson
• Danny Hassel as Dan Jordan
• Beatrice Boepple as Amanda Krueger
• Whit Hertford as Jacob Johnson
• Joe Seely as Mark Grey
• Nicholas Mele as Dennis Johnson
• Valorie Armstrong as Doris Jordan
• Burr DeBenning as Mr. Jordan
• Clarence Felder as Mr. Gray

Reception

Deleted scenes

The graduation sequence was considerably cut down, which included Alice's father giving her the camera. As a result, there are a number of minor continuity errors such as Alice holding airplane tickets moments before Dan gives them to her as a surprise gift.

Upon its release, the movie had to be subjected to some cuts in the sequences of Dan's, Mark's and Greta's deaths, in order to avoid being classified X by MPAA due to the extremely violent and graphic nature of those sequences. An unrated version of the film was originally released on VHS and Laserdisc. This version contained longer, more graphic versions of Dan's, Greta's and Mark's death scenes. In Dan's scene, cables can be seen sliding under the skin of Dan's arm, a large piece of the bike pierces his leg, and the skin on Dan's head is much more graphically torn off while he screams in pain. In Greta's scene, Freddy slices open a doll that begins to bleed, and Greta is shown to have a gaping wound in her stomach—from which Freddy starts to feed to her. In Australia, the scenes were cut in cinemas, but restored to the VHS release.^[11] In Mark's death sequence, Freddy turns him into paper and shreds him to pieces, before beheading him; the decapitation scene was deleted in the original version of the film. Despite this, the Australian Classification board did not rate it "R18+", giving it the lower "M15+". As of 2018, New Line Cinema has yet to officially release the uncut version of the film on DVD; however, snippets of these scenes are found in the Nightmare 5 section of the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.

Music

Film score

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]

See also

• List of ghost films

References

External links

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