Nightmare Nights IV

 

I thought about "Dream Warriors" (1987) Thursday, how Elm Street fans could finish that film and see it as perfectly reasonable close to the series if they so choose to avoid any other sequels after it. It seemed to punch Freddy's ticket quite effectively, going with a Catholic demise for the dream demon, burying him, even with holy water. The bones in "consecrated ground", officially put to rest. No longer allowed to reemerge to torment the offspring of those who burned him alive for the child murders he escaped justice from on a technicality.

But because of the impressive bank Part 3 brought in, who could blame New Line for wanting to repeat an assured trip back to profit? And "A Nightmare on Elm Street IV: The Dream Master" (1988), directed with a ton of energy by starving, hard-working Harlin, desperate for a hit so he could make a name in Hollywood, was greenlit, a monster hit that year considering the kind of film it was. I remember Harlin talking about seeing lines around the block, feeling relief and excitement, and who could blame him? He did it. And he got a Die Hard sequel out of it.

But I personally believe Part 4 was a product of its previous entry's success, certainly helped by the benefits of following such a bonafide hit. While I felt so much exhilaration after watching Part 3 again, some of those old memories flooding back, not to mention, the experience reawakening just a well of  happiness deriving from knowing it was such a special film, Part 4, while still a fun trip down that same lane of nostalgia, reminded me that the series had reached its true peak, with nowhere to go but downhill. 

I felt Part 4 took the Freddy of Part 3 and wringed out any remaining menace, and even though Robert Englund is clearly enjoying the ride for all its worth, that nightmare terror of the first two films is all gone bye-bye.

That doesn't mean there aren't setpieces and kill scenes that don't leave a lasting impression. I still adore Alice in the theater being sucked into a movie while victims of Freddy still in the seats wave like zombies at her. I was just smitten with Wilcox as a teenager, really taken to her shy plain-faced beauty, glammed down wearing rather blase dress, until the very end where she prepares for her concluding fight with Freddy in the decaying cathedral where shredded garments hang throughout...in jeans with the sleeves rolled up jacket, a leather bracelet from her fallen friend, Debbie (Theiss), and an electrical doohickey created by her brilliant friend, Sheila (Newkirk), both unfortunate victims thanks to Freddy's penetrating Kristen's "firewall".

I think Arquette's absence as Kristen, with Knight just not resembling her at all, always takes me out of the sequel a bit, but because the character is dispatched early into the film it isn't as much a bummer as it could have been. It just isn't the same. And that isn't Knight's fault as much as how it reminds me that perhaps Part 3 should have been mentioned more than returning characters from it. Kincaid and Joey, although both characters have really creative setpiece death sequences, are absolutely wasted. The use of a nightmare junkyard from hell and a waterbed drowning provide visual dynamos, though. I just felt, considering how Part 3 left these survivors intact and Arquette was missing with Knight in her place, Kincaid and Joey deserved better. A few lines each, one trip into Kristen's dream, briefly at school, then disposed of, Kincaid and Joey could have been left out altogether. But still they left the film with some of the more memorable scenes in the franchise.

Poor Andras Jones, as Alice's brother and Kristen's beau, Rick, gets one of the worst kill sequences of the franchise via invisible Freddy and glove, despite karate efforts. It just looks so embarrassing. He was in a Freddy elevator... just send him to his doom that way. Invisible Freddy being punched and kicked with sound effects and Rick striking at air sure does the scene no favors. But Debbie turned cockroach and squished in a roach motel and Sheila involuntarily receiving suckface are definitely outrageous enough to make up for that mishap.

Alice and her bo-hunk, Dan (Hassel), get in a wreck while pursuing Freddy, with Kristen tossed into the oven eventually earning the nickname Crispy Kristen. Alice, though, is equipped with Kristen's powers to draw in others which proves to be a detriment to her friends than help.

So in the past this forth film has been an easy watch. In fact, if I'm honest, I watched this as much, if not more, in the 90s than many of the more highly regarded franchise films. It's cartoonish and very much embraces the playful side of Freddy's devious personality and sadistic sense of humor. But I think it takes what made Part 3 so ingenious and clever and ratchets up Freddy's antics to such an over the top degree the forth film turned a lot of series fans off. I believe many hold Part 3 responsible for why the franchise took such a steep turn towards the horror comedy direction.

If I had a bone to pick with the forth film, it's that Freddy returns and is vanquished in such bizarre fashion. Now many love how dog piss fire resurrects Freddy. The bones recovering Fred's sinews, muscles, organs, and burned flesh is a gnarly visual effects sequence. But dog piss fire is quite a headscratcher...it certainly is an outre idea. And the use of colored window glass from the cathedral to reflect Freddy's reflection back at him so the victims could free themselves from him so their "yummy" souls could depart until nothing is left but his clothes, glove, and hat, stemming from a rhyme Alice heard from her mother, is also a rather odd selection for defeat. So the film is quite an assortment of strange ideas, good or bad depending on the viewer. Because I know some who totally dig the film while others blame it for spiralling the franchise off a cliff into some totalled wreck never to rebound.

My feelings are that I can't shake it off despite my critical side pointing out aloud in my head that this is a mess. But it's a mess my heart can't let go. You can argue all its flaws, its ugly discrepancies, what goes off the rails and the clear signs that there was no turning back as the audience going forward wouldn't quite see Fred as the fiend that gets under the skin. His burned face and dark eyes, the voice and presence not as much comedian as creep, were once sinister, but after Part 4 Freddy was prankster quipping with death punchlines. 

But when I started with the Elm Street series, it was with Part 4. Then "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" (1991). So I went backwards. Which might explain why Part 4 isn't such a bad time for me as it is others. Freddy on a beach or as a nurse, his glove claws mimicking the fin from Jaws, or interrupting Joey's wet dream; these could easily take you right out of the franchise never to return. But damnit, I have to cop to finding this nonsense endearing.  Or it could just be the soundtrack...I listen to it while working from home still, and MTV on Joey's TV sure drudges up the feels. Such a sucker, I am. That and I just get lost in Wilcox's beauty...I love the close-ups.