I tend to have mixed feelings when it comes to this fourth entry in the Elm Street series. You see, back when this came out in 1988, I was a fifth-grader with a bad case of Freddy fever. I was Mr. Krueger for Halloween, watched the Freddy's Nightmares television show religiously, and even made my own Freddy glove that I kept in my garage, serving as my boiler room in my young Freddy Fevered brain. I suppose at this point you might say I was a tad obsessed, and I would tend to agree with you. The problem is, all of this childish fixation on Krueger shows you exactly what was wrong with the series at this point. In an odd way, I looked up to Freddy, as did the millions of other kids who dressed as him for Halloween, with a sort of super-hero type idolization. This very same character who was 4 years ago scaring the piss out of audiences was now as safe as Alf, and not nearly as scary. Krueger is the main star in this film, as he is brought out from the shadows of the first two films and thrust into the spotlight in all his wise-cracking, pizza faced glory.

As it has been many years since I've actually sat down and watched the Elm Street series, I noticed as I was watching Dream Master that I was actually looking at it with a hint of nostalgia and definitely did not look at it as a horror film, because to me it isn't. As stated in the opening, this is, of course, Freddy at the height of his power as a pop culture icon, one who hosted MTV shows and had his own board games, chewing gum, and action figures. It sure is a long way from the child molester/murderer that he was in the first film, but you know what? As much as all that used to bug me, in my "old age" I really tend to enjoy all of that now. There is just something about memories of myself and old childhood friend and fellow horror enthusiast Mike Rieneckert circa sixth grade sitting around reading Fangoria/Gorezone/Toxic Horror magazines, cutting out pictures to hang on the wall and wearing out old VHS tapes of our favorite horror films, that I'm particularly fond of these days. However, all this nostalgia and reminiscing and a slightly more forgiving attitude can't save the fact that Dream Master really isn't that great of a flick. One of the better sequels sure, but c'mon...Freddy bubblegum?? All the nostalgia in the world can't save the fact that it's all rather ridiculous by now.

Story wise, let's see what we have here. Freddy is back to finish off the unfinished business of part three, killing the last of the Elm Street kids to complete his otherworldly revenge. As he is about to off the character of Kristen, the chick in part three who could pull others into her dreams, she panics and brings in Alice, a shy and withdrawn friend from school to help her against Freddy. Before she dies at Krueger's hands, Kristen zaps Alice with her dream power, of which Freddy gleefully manipulates to his own advantage, using Alice as a means to gain access to new victims outside the original Elm Street kids.

If part three's Dream Warriors began the turn to Freddy becoming an anti-hero fan favorite, then part 4 definitely seals the deal. Director Renny Harlin gives us a film that's nothing more than sequences of Freddy offing various teenyboppers set amidst a background of fog and neon lighting up the wazoo. It's actually a fairly stunning film visually speaking, though there is never once a hint of the fear or darkness from the original film. It's all rather "Alice in Wonderland" like with a much more fantasy feel than one of horror, and is, of course, a natural progression as the series became more "safe" for mainstream audiences.

Robert Englund is the star of the film, make no doubt about that, and this is definitely Freddy at the peak of delivering his smart ass one liners and overall popularity as a horror hero. With director Harlin bringing the character out of the shadows and shooting him in full lighting, Freddy becomes more "fun" rather than scary, and Englund does a great job hamming it up in his scenes. I always enjoyed the initial shot of Freddy, just after his resurrection in the junkyard, as the camera pans over his shadow standing in the typical Freddy pose. The Elm Street films made Englund a household name and deservedly so, since he's typically considered one of the hardest working and most liked guys in the horror genre. The acting by the rest is all rather so so, as is to be expected, though Lisa Wilcox as our heroine looks cute and proves to be a rather spunky foe for Krueger to tangle with. The end sequence of the two battling it out in a church is still fun to watch after all these years, and I still enjoy hearing Krueger tell Alice, "I've been guarding my gate for a long time, bitch".

As is usual with the series, the terrific f/x takes your mind temporarily off the many plot holes and inconsistencies in the story. Though the f/x is done to amaze rather than scare, with my favorite being the "girl turned into cockroach" scene, expertly done by f/x wiz Screaming Mad George. With CGI being so prevalent in films for the past 15 years, I really appreciate these older films when the special effects were actually made/sculpted by human hands and not done on a computer. Other nifty sequences include Alice being "pulled" out of a theater as she is watching a movie and "into" the movie that is playing on screen...very cool. As mentioned above, besides the great f/x, the other plus to this film is that it actually feels like a dream, and there is a sort of comic book vibe to everything that is going on. Everything is definitely more fantasy rather than horror.

However, to summarize, all the terrific f/x and atmosphere in the world can't really save the film or series at this point. This was surely Freddy mania at it's peak, and by the time the fifth and sixth films were out, the series had definitely ran it's course. Dream Master accomplishes what the studio set it out to do...make a shitload of money and turn Freddy Kreuger into a cash cow, and, somehow, I'm alright with that. Wow, I can't believe I just said that. It's still a fun film, and for fans like me who grew up on this stuff in the mid to late eighties, I think you'll look at this entry in a sort of different light then maybe you did years ago.