Director: Stephen Hopkins
Cast: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Kelly Jo Minter, Erika Anderson
Have I seen it Before: I’m not even sure that’s a valid question anymore. I oddly do have a strong memory of being in the video department of a grocery store* and being absolutely transfixed by a large cardboard ad for the movie, with Krueger (Englund, Dream Demons bless him for hanging around this long) admonishing those walking by to be quiet, as the baby in the bassinet from hell was sleeping. Also, I thing I read a submission by the screenwriter for an anthology I was working on years ago. For the life of me, I can’t remember if we bought the story or not.
Did I Like It: Clearly, I’ve watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), and these two films so absurdly blurred together that if I were to ever break my rule and write a second review for a film I would probably still be just as uncertain that I’ve ever seen the film. For two films which were not
In that way, it’s oddly a little a bit like Star Trek: Generations (1994), or better yet Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Now, stay with me here, no matter how much you may not want to. At this point in time, the series was putting out a movie a year, and Freddy was appearing weakly as a host (and occasional character) of his own syndicated horror show. The franchise was clearly spread just a bit too thin. Freddy is over-exposed. Throw in a writer’s strike for full production chaos flavor, and voila, a franchise that vacillates between being over-produced and forgettable, yet strangely cheapened from its heyday.
*This was in those halcyon days when you could rent movie about five feet from the deli department of any grocery store. I’ll never know why they always put the video department right near the deli…