Nightmare on Elm Street 4

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Movie
German title Nightmare on Elm Street 4
Original title A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Renny Harlin
script William Kotzwinkle
Brian Helgeland
production Robert Shaye
music Craig Safan
camera Steven Fierberg
cut Jack Tucker
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
Nightmare III - Freddy Krueger is alive

Successor  →
Nightmare on Elm Street 5 - The Trauma

Nightmare on Elm Street 4 is a 1988 horror film and the fourth in the Nightmare series.

In this part, the plot is directly linked to the previous one. However, the role of Kristen is played by another actress. Freddy Krueger acts with many slogans full of black humor. The film is already heading in the direction of horror comedy .

action

Kristen is now leading a normal life again. She made new friends at Springwood High School and is dating popular boy Rick. Nevertheless, she lives in fear that Freddy Krueger will return. Her friends Kincaid and Joey want to calm her down and make it clear to her that Freddy is dead for good. Nevertheless, she sticks to her opinion - and rightly so, because one night Kincaid and Joey inexplicably die. Kristen realizes that Freddy is resurrected and that she is the last one on his list. She decides not to sleep anymore, but her mother mixes sleeping pills in her daughter's drink while she is eating together because she is seriously worried about her. That turns out to be a big mistake, because Freddy is now trying to kill her too. Out of fear, she brings Rick's sister Alice into her dream. When Freddy burns Kristen, she is able to pass on her ability to bring other people into her dreams to Alice at the last second.

But Freddy comes in handy, because since Kristen was the last child of the parents who once burned Freddy, he cannot torture other children in their dreams. He now uses Alice, who brings other children into their dreams, as a tool to kill them. First, Freddy gets Alice's friend Sheela, who is considered gifted and known as a very good student. She dies of a strange, deadly asthma attack during an exam. Meanwhile, Alice falls in love with Rick's classmate Dan, whom she meets during the shift at the pizzeria where she works. When Freddy kills Rick, Alice is shocked, and Dan and Alice's friend Debby also realize that something is wrong.

One evening Alice goes to the cinema and realizes too late that she is in a dream. Debby, who fell asleep during dumbbell training, is brought into Alice's dream. Freddy pushes her barbell down so far that her elbows tear open. After her beetle arms grow, she suddenly finds herself in a fly trap. The skin on her face and upper body is peeled off and she becomes an insect entirely. Alice tries to save her with Dan. They drive Dan's truck to Debby's, but as they fall asleep and dream while driving, they are suddenly stuck in a time warp. So they're too late to save Debby. Suddenly Freddy is standing in front of them on the street. Dan wants to run him over, but because the car is still driving in the real world, an accident occurs there while they are driving against Freddy in the dream. Dan is injured so badly that he has to be operated on in the hospital. Alice can't stop the doctors from giving Dan a narcotic. Dan is pursued by Freddy in a dream, while Alice realizes in the real world that she now has the power of her dead friends. She gets ready to face Freddy and takes sleeping pills. Dan wakes up from his anesthesia, so Alice is left to fight Freddy in a dark church on her own. At first it seems as if Freddy will win, but suddenly Alice's powers increase so that she can now control the dream. The arms of all the souls Freddy killed shoot out of his body and tear Freddy apart. The souls are finally redeemed and rise to heaven.

In the final scene, Alice and Dan, who are now together, can be seen walking through the park. When they pass a wishing well, they throw a coin into it. Suddenly Alice is startled when she sees Freddy's reflection in the water, but then she ignores it and walks on with Dan.

Trivia

  • When the production team of actress Patricia Arquette , who can be seen in the third Nightmare part in the role of the blonde girl Kristen Parker , offered this part again for the fourth part, Arquette declined on the grounds that they wanted to play more profound characters from now on, although Patricia Arquette appreciates the horror genre and the Freddy franchise. Instead, actress Tuesday Knight took on the role of Kristen Parker in Part 4.
  • In a small supporting role, producer Robert Shaye appears as a teacher who deals with the teachings of Aristotle in relation to dream theories in school, but is given in the credits as LE Moko .
  • In a scene in which Debbie Stevens, played by actress Brooke Theiss , is doing exercise with a barbell while lying on a bench, soul catcher Freddy Krueger appears and turns Debbie into a cockroach in the cockroach scene . A similar fate happened to the main character Gregor Samsa in the 1915 story The Metamorphosis by the writer Franz Kafka when Gregor Samsa woke up one morning and realized that he had turned into a vermin.

reception

criticism

The lexicon of international films wrote that the “banal horror story” served the film “as a pretext for a daring balancing act between shocks, unsavory abominations and extensive self-irony”, while maintaining “surprisingly skillful balance”.

Awards (selection)

  • The film was nominated for the Saturn Award in 1990 in the categories of Best Director , Best Horror Film and Best Supporting Actor ( Robert Englund ) .
  • In 1989 the film won a Young Artist Award in the Teenage Choice for Best Horror Motion Picture category.

Gross profit

With the generated revenue of nearly 50 million dollars, the fourth was the most successful part of the entire series.

Cut versions

The original version of the film was indexed in Germany until July 2015 . It was therefore shortened by around 15 seconds for its release on video cassette; Like the unabridged version, this version was given an age rating of 18 and over by the FSK , but was also indicated. A version shortened by three minutes was also shown on free TV with an FSK 18 approval. Indexing was lifted in July 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Nightmare on Elm Street 4 . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2005 (PDF; test number: 61 120 V / DVD).
  2. ^ Nightmare on Elm Street 4. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095742/awards?ref_=tt_ql_op_1
  4. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elmst4.htm
  5. ↑ Comparison between the video and original version at schnittberichte.com
  6. ↑ Comparison between the free TV and the original version at schnittberichte.com
  7. ↑ schnittberichte.com, accessed on July 31, 2015