A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child (1989) - REVIEW

After the great success of Part 4 New Line wasted no time on putting Part 5 into production.  Perhaps they should have taken their time instead of trying to cash in some more because this installment is one that most people like to forget about.  Much like Friday the 13th did with Part 8 and look how that piece of garbage turned out.  Nevertheless Freddy is back with a few of familiar faces and a cluster of new ones as well.

We start with Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and her friends, including her boyfriend Danny (Danny Hassel), graduating from High School.  We find out at the graduation that Alice's Dad (Nicholas Mele) is now a reformed alcoholic and has gotten the help he needed to care for his daughter again.  After a pool graduation party at a local indoor pool Danny has to leave and Alice has to get to work.  Danny is tired and seems to fall asleep while driving.  Yes he is back, Freddy (Robert Englund).  He engineer's Danny's death right infront of the diner that Alice works at.  Right after we find out that Alice is pregnant with Danny's child.  Soon Alice starts having weird dreams with this child named Jacob in it.  She soon learns that Freddy has found a way to get to her unborn child.  Alice, all of her friends and her child are in danger for their lives once again.  Alice has to find a way to stop Freddy again before it's too late!

This installment I have to say is my least favorite of the series.  The character's were not as well developed as the previous installments and the cast wasn't as likable.  The biggest part of what I said is the likability of the cast.  Most of the acting except for Lisa and Robert were pretty awful.  Nightmare has had a tendency like most horror movies to use little known actors and actresses and find success.  This time however they struck out big time.  We were all spoiled in the few years prior with the likes of Tuesday Knight, Patricia Arquette, and who could forget Heather Lagenkamp.  To say I was disappointed with this movie is a total understatement.  It's only saving grace is that it was still a slasher and Robert England was there to save the day so to speak.

I did love the fact that Lisa Wilcox did reprise her role of Alice Johnson from part 4.  She is definitely one of my favorite final girls of the nightmare movies.  I just wish the acting and the storyline could have been as good as parts 3 and 4.  They one thing I did like was the history of Freddy as for his birth and the reappearance of his mother.  Just think that part could have been better though.  It's not a surprise that the next installment of the series they decided to kill Freddy off.  After the bombing of this film I guess they really had no choice if they wanted to cash in on it one more time.  Even the people (like me) who did not like part 5 would be rushing back to the theater to see part 6 because it would mark the end of the series and they can't make 2 bad Freddy movies in a row can they? "It's A Boooooyyy!" Stay twisted everyone!