A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

I liked Dream Master I little more than Dream Warriors, mainly thanks to the likeable heroes. Though I enjoyed another hour and a half with Freddy, it’s a shame that the only truly scary and horror one is Craven’s first. Overall, I think that the A Nightmare On Elm Street series has one of the least exploited horror premises ever, and although I have quite enjoyed each of the films, they could be a lot more wholesome. (28/08/2008)

Director Renny Harlin says in the documentary that he wanted to make Freddy the main character, a cool killer. He succeeded, and it is this change that sets the fourth Nightmare most apart from previous ones. Freddy Krueger is a superstar when he puts on sunglasses on the beach or walks into church with a light step - you know that it's him. The film as such is not bad, the dream sequences were good and the deaths of the teenagers are full of black humor, but unfortunately the plot does not escalate at all. People just falls asleep, die and are buried over and over again, and most people in Springwood don't even mind. But the ending and Freddy's death, that's one of the best moments of the whole series for me. (31/12/2017)

Renny Harlin did a good job and shot a very solid sequel that works like a fun consumer horror movie and offers new and diverse characters whose fate you can predict in advance. On the technical side and in terms of special effects, this Nightmare on Elm Street is certainly one of the best and, in all other respects, a totally satisfying horror show with a very strong 80s feeling. A film that makes you lose track of time. (19/09/2020)