A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child | |
 Movie poster |
|
| Directed by | Stephen Hopkins |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Gerardo Gamez Jaime Gonzalez |
| Written by | Characters Wes Craven Story John Skipp Craig Spector Leslie Bohem Screenplay Leslie Bohem |
| Starring | Robert Englund Lisa Wilcox Kelly Jo Minter Danny Hassel Erika Anderson Nicholas Mele Joe Seely Valorie Armstrong Burr DeBenning Clarence Felder |
| Music by | Jay Ferguson |
| Cinematography | Peter Levy |
| Editing by | Brent A. Schoenfeld Chuck Weiss |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | August 11, 1989 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $22,168,359 (domestically) |
| Preceded by | Dream Master |
| Followed by | Freddy's Dead |
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) is an American slasher film. It is the fifth film in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film's general tone was much more gothic and dark than the films before, and used a blue filter lighting technique in most of the scenes. The film's main titles do not display the "5" which 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".
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Taking place a year after The Dream Master, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel) have now started dating and there is no sign of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Alice begins to have dreams of a young nun, with a name tag for "Amanda Krueger", being locked away in an asylum full of maniacs. Upon graduating from high school, Alice and Dan plan their getaway to Europe. Alice has made some new friends: Greta (Erika Anderson), a supermodel in training, Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter), a future Olympic diver, and Mark (Joe Seely), a comic geek.
As Alice makes her way to work she finds herself back at the asylum. Alice is wheeled into an operating room on a stretcher, wearing Amanda's uniform, and screaming in pain. As Alice looks around she sees Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple) on the table, instead of herself, giving birth. As the baby is delivered, Amanda clamors to get to it. The baby breaks free from the doctors and escapes the room. Alice follows it into a church rectory, the same place that Alice defeated Freddy in. Before she can stop him, the baby finds Freddy's clothes and quickly grows into an adult. Amanda shows up to help Alice, but she's disrupted when Freddy slams the church doors closed on her. After these events, Alice finds herself at work, but four hours late.
Alice immediately phones Dan who leaves their friends and rushes over to the diner. Before Dan can make it he falls asleep and Freddy forces him to drive into another vehicle. Alice, after watching Freddy take possession of Dan, faints in the middle of the street. At the hospital, she is informed that she is pregnant with Dan's child. While recouping, she meets a young boy, Jacob (Whit Hertford). Yvonne later informs Alice that there were no children on her floor, nor is there a children's ward at the hospital. Krueger begins to kill Alice's friends one by one as they fall asleep. First Greta, then later he kills Mark. Alice requests an early ultrasound for her baby, and she soon realizes that Freddy is using her child to get into her friend's dreams. Alice also discovers that Jacob is really her son. It's only when Yvonne barely escapes Krueger, thanks to a little help from Amanda's soul, that she accepts what Alice has been telling her.
Alice sends Yvonne to the abandoned asylum to release Amanda's soul while she sets out to free Jacob. Krueger pulls her into a M. C. Escher-like labyrinth to try to slow her down. Freddy goes back into hiding inside Alice as she finally catches up to Jacob. Upon the revelation that Krueger has been hiding inside of her the whole time, Alice forces him out, but almost dies in the process. After being released by Yvonne, Amanda arrives and instructs Jacob on how to defeat Freddy. Jacob, releasing the power that Krueger has given him, forces himself and Freddy to revert back to an infant. Alice picks up Jacob and absorbs while the now-infant Freddy tries to escape. Before he can escape, though, Amanda picks him up and absorbs him back inside. Freddy begins to fight from within and the church doors close. A year goes by; Alice gives birth to Jacob, and is finally at peace from the nightmares.
In the film's last scene, the children who appear throughout the series and are used as omens of Freddy's presence are shown, singing the familiar song "One, two, etc..," wearing church outfits. They are next to Alice, her father, Yvonne and her child.
[edit] 'Unrated' version
Both Dan's and Greta's deaths had to be cut down in order to ensure an R rating, however there was an unrated version released on VHS and Laserdisc, that showed both of these scenes uncut. The uncut version shows more cables burrowing into Dan's skin. Also, most notably, the cables in Dan's face (which were used in a lot of magazines and N.O.E.S. books) is shown. Greta's scene includes more dialogue from Freddy, and the real reason why Freddy says "You are what you eat!" There were also a few minor cuts from Mark's death, showing his paper self actually screaming in terror.[1] Also, rumored, in one of the opening shots after Alice gets out the shower, full frontal nudity can be seen from a distance. This was also the reason for the X rating.
Both the original VHS and Laserdisc versions of the film are currently out of print. These scenes will never see high definition DVD. The master copy of the unrated version was damaged, and the only remaining copy is the edited version.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Commercial
The film opened in 1,902 theaters making $8.1 million in its opening weekend. The domestic gross was $22.1 million, making it the lowest grossing Nightmare movie.
[edit] Critical
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child received very poor reviews, and has an overall 26% 'rotten' score on Rotten Tomatoes.[2]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Comic book
The comic book "Nightmare From Hell" shown in the movie is stated to be the 13th issue, a possible nod[citation needed] to the Friday The 13th Series. But believed to be used in a superstitious manner. 13 being an unlucky number.
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack featured ten tracks. The first side was essentially all heavy metal, with the second side essentially being all rap and hip-hop.
- Bruce Dickinson - Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter
- Romeo's Daughter - Heaven In The Back Seat
- W.A.S.P. - Savage
- Mammoth - Can't Take The Hurt
- Slave Raider - What Do You Know About Rock 'n' Roll
- Whodini - Any Way I Gotta Swing It
- Samantha Fox - Now I Lay Me Down
- Kool Moe Dee - Let's Go
- Doctor Ice - Word Up Doc!
- Schoolly D - Livin' In The Jungle
Bruce Dickinson, famed singer of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, wrote and performed the song Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter for this movie's soundtrack. The song, later re-recorded by the band Iron Maiden itself, went on to be their first (and so far, only) #1 UK single.
[edit] Notes
- This is one the only "A Nightmare On Elm Street" movie where the famous song is changed. Original: One, two, Freddy's coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again. Edited: One, two, Freddy's coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, better stay up late. Nine, ten, he's back again...
- Both horror author Stephen King and comic book writer Frank Miller were offered the job of writing and directing this movie.
- During the sequence in which the nun (Amanda) is raped by the criminally insane, Robert Englund is wandering around in the background without his Freddy makeup—including one shot in which the camera lingers on him for a few seconds.
- Lisa Wilcox's name appears on the opening credits, but not on the ending credits. Due to this mistake, New Line offered her top billing on all promotional materials in fear of her suing them.
[edit] External links
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child at the Internet Movie Database
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child at Allmovie
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child at Rotten Tomatoes
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child at Box Office Mojo
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child at The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||
