NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET V, THE DREAM CHILD

US, 1989, 89 minutes, Colour.
Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox.
Directed by Stephen Hopkins.

Nightmare on Elm Street V, The Dream Child was directed by Stephen Hopkins (Lost In Space, Blown Away). It is in the tradition of the other four films and was received quite well critically.

The film focuses on Alice (Lisa Wilcox from several of the previous films) and her confrontation of Freddy Kruger. However, she becomes pregnant and Freddy uses the entrance into the world through the dreams of her unborn child, Jacob. The film follows the general pattern of the previous films with a group of young people threatened by Freddy Kruger. However, it gives a lot of attention to Freddy Kruger's past, Amanda, the nun in the asylum who was raped and gave birth to the monstrous child. There are some final dramatics with an attempt to release Amanda's soul and so destroy Freddy. Robert Englund once again is the sinister Freddy Kruger.

There is a great deal of horror imagination in the staging of the nightmares and their violence - nightmare material with a touch of sadistic violence. Much is made about children, the unborn child, the quality of life.

Director Stephen Hopkins was to make several commercially successful films in the 1990s: Judgment Day, Blown Away, Lost in Space.

The films are generally for fans only - and connoisseurs of films of horror and the occult.

1. The impact of the drama? The series?

2. Dramatic nightmares, horror? Their effect on audiences? Imaginations? What if ...?

3. The ordinary setting of the community, the contrast with the imagination of the dreams? Sets and decor? Editing and special effects? Musical score?

4. Alice and her past, the confrontation with Freddy? The initial dream, the relationship with Danny, the shower, being drawn out into the world of horror? Her dream, the role of Amanda and the inmates, Freddy amongst them, the terror? Lisa and her waking, ordinary life, her friends and the graduation, her father's arrival? The party? Greta and the dinner and her death? Mark and his support? Keeping awake - but destroyed through the comic strip? Yvonne and her scepticism? Sending her on a mission to find Amanda? The question about having the baby, Jacob, the discovery of Freddy's entrance into her dreams?
5. Freddy Kruger and his history, the asylum, the sister, the rape, her madness, death? Amanda dying, the monstrous baby? Freddy and his comments about Jacob? Entering the world through Jacob, the scenes with the child? Getting into the teenager's dreams - Danny and the bike, Greta and her food, Mark and the comic book, the comic decor and its collapse? Yvonne and her swimming, diving? In Alice's imagination? The conflicts, ugliness? The macabre and the humorous? His defeat?

7. Alice and her pregnancy, the effect of Danny's death, her father and his support, Danny's parents wanting to adopt the child? Greta's death, her friends, their scepticism, seeming madness? The fight, Jacob and the rescue? The happy ending? The child?

8. Danny, student, in love with Alice, his death - and reappearance as Freddy?

9. Greta, the model, her mother's supervision of her, her behaviour at the banquet, the mad dream, her choking on the food?

10. Mark and his eccentricity, help, his own room, his sketches, the comics, their coming alive, Freddy and himself in the comics?

11. Yvonne and her swim, her escape, her belief, her quest in the asylum and the release of Amanda? Amanda's gratitude?

12. The grim tone of the film, the images? Religious motifs? Conception, embryos, abortion, birth?

13. The sadistic touches? The effect of this kind of film? The Elm Street nightmares in contemporary culture of the '80s?