A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child - 1989

I put on the Iron Maiden song that was made for this movie, and I started writing my second review for something in the Nightmare on Elm Street series.  See my review of Wes Craven's New Nightmare here.  I jumped from 7 to 5, and I am considering now jumping to 3 and reviewing The Dream Warriors next.  We'll see.

The Nightmare series was not a series I grew up with.  I think I mentioned this in my New Nightmare review.  For some reason, I think it was the quirkiness of the films, Halloween was the series I enjoyed the most.  Those half baked sequels are ones I am incredibly aware of.  Everything from possessed masks in Season of the Witch, to the latter embarrassing cult of the thorn.  I saw all the Friday the 13th movies later, and those intrigued me.  For laughs sake, I saw all the Chucky series.  But it was shortly around that time I began to be drawn towards the more obscure sequel shit, and I never really got around to Nightmare as a franchise.

I am loosely familiar with where the series goes, and as I understand, it got pretty lame at certain points.  I went into this film with no knowledge of it, and I basically rented it because the SF Public Library has little to no Nightmare films available on DVD.  Seriously, what the shit is this:

So...There are 3 copies, and one is on hold.  Yet, I can't request it?  WHY NOT?!

I didn't expect this to be good.  Let's say I expected a less than stellar follow up sequel.  I expected that, 5 films into the franchise, this would be shitty, probably have lame comedy, and would be a disaster of a flick.  And honestly, I was very surprised by just how good and innovative it was!  I was pleasantly surprised by Nightmare 5, and I don't know what the general perception is, but I found this to be a great horror flick.

This is an effects filled, extremely fast paced, awesome looking movie.  Main character Alice Johnson is back from Nightmare 4.  She was the titular Dream Master, and we gather that she bested Freddy and laid him to rest in the previous film.  However now, he's back and what's worse, he seems to be able to invade the world when she's awake as well as asleep.  Turns out she is pregnant and thus Freddy is able to get at her through her infants dreams.  Furthermore, Freddy is trying to turn the infant into the "next Freddy" by feeding it souls of people he kills.

Along for the ride is Alice's friends, coworkers, and random others who Freddy kills while he tries to get souls.  There's some cool deaths here, some original effects, and plenty to keep even the entry level fan entertained by.  I gather that at this point many fans had left the franchise, and this was also seen as a bad sequel to 3 and 4 where the series was "good".  But shit, if this is bad, I do wonder what is GOOD?  Cause this movie was not bad at all!  Fucking assholes man.  Every movie fan is an asshole.  True story.

I give this movie high marks.  Coming in randomly into the franchise, it stands out.  It didn't have too many attempts at humor, and the 80's-ness was on full display as seen in some of the costumes and in the MTV feeling wackiness that happens at times.  However, that shit was fun to watch, and way better than some bland ass slasher flick.  This is a slasher flick made to appeal to the audience, the audience being young adults.  There's a saying which fits:  "If it's too loud, you're too old".