A long way from a dream
Posted : 3 months ago on 28 January 2024 10:26'A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child' is one just of the weakest sequels in the 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' film series, and one of the weakest films overall. It is such a big disappointment after being so impressed by the surprisingly good previous two sequels (was also underwhelmed by the second film, which to me is actually marginally better than this one). The third film in particular being the best sequel by far if not quite on the same level as the original, a very difficult feat.
'The Dream Child' is not unwatchable by all means. The music score is still hauntingly ominous, the scariest that the film gets is by listening to the music and it is sad that most of the rest of the film doesn't match it in effectiveness. Robert Englund's material is beneath him, but that doesn't stop him from giving it his all and giving a freaky performance.
Production design is the most dream-like the film ever gets and has moments of being nightmarish, just wish that one can appreciate it more because the way it's photographed and edited doesn't do it justice. A couple of the deaths are cool, though there is nothing inspired or creepy here.
However, 'The Dream Child' is an example of style over substance and sadly the style is not done very well...at all in one of the worst looking and most self-indulgent-looking films in the series. The production design is undone by an over-reliance on sudden, amateurish and often misplaced shock cuts and incredibly crude imagery that belongs more in a rock video-like cartoon. This feels like an attempt to compensate for an erratically paced (both rushed and tedious), ridiculous and non-atmospheric story with scares that are unimaginatively derivative, too far and between and vapidly tame on the whole.
Apart from Englund, the acting is very poor (even Lisa Wilcox isn't anywhere near as winning as in the previous film), with the actors having to work with an awkwardly clunky script and irritating characters that constantly make silly and illogical decisions. Even the humour doesn't work, Freddy's one-liners are more stale and toe-curlingly groan-worthy than twisted or witty and what was darkly comic before is replaced by an overload of cheese. The direction is largely unimaginative, and only a couple of the deaths are cool, the others are forgettable at best.
In conclusion, lacklustre and a long way from a dream. 4/10 Bethany Cox
0 comments, Reply to this entry
A long way from a dream
Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 16 August 2022 04:06'A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child' is one just of the weakest sequels in the 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' film series, and one of the weakest films overall. It is such a big disappointment after being so impressed by the surprisingly good previous two sequels (was also underwhelmed by the second film, which to me is actually marginally better than this one). The third film in particular being the best sequel by far if not quite on the same level as the original, a very difficult feat.
'The Dream Child' is not unwatchable by all means. The music score is still hauntingly ominous, the scariest that the film gets is by listening to the music and it is sad that most of the rest of the film doesn't match it in effectiveness. Robert Englund's material is beneath him, but that doesn't stop him from giving it his all and giving a freaky performance.
Production design is the most dream-like the film ever gets and has moments of being nightmarish, just wish that one can appreciate it more because the way it's photographed and edited doesn't do it justice. A couple of the deaths are cool, though there is nothing inspired or creepy here.
However, 'The Dream Child' is an example of style over substance and sadly the style is not done very well...at all in one of the worst looking and most self-indulgent-looking films in the series. The production design is undone by an over-reliance on sudden, amateurish and often misplaced shock cuts and incredibly crude imagery that belongs more in a rock video-like cartoon. This feels like an attempt to compensate for an erratically paced (both rushed and tedious), ridiculous and non-atmospheric story with scares that are unimaginatively derivative, too far and between and vapidly tame on the whole.
Apart from Englund, the acting is very poor (even Lisa Wilcox isn't anywhere near as winning as in the previous film), with the actors having to work with an awkwardly clunky script and irritating characters that constantly make silly and illogical decisions. Even the humour doesn't work, Freddy's one-liners are more stale and toe-curlingly groan-worthy than twisted or witty and what was darkly comic before is replaced by an overload of cheese. The direction is largely unimaginative, and only a couple of the deaths are cool, the others are forgettable at best.
In conclusion, lacklustre and a long way from a dream. 4/10 Bethany Cox
0 comments, Reply to this entry
Shakira S Kiss by Shakira EDT Spray 1.7 oz Women review
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 12 November 2021 04:260 comments, Reply to this entry
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child review
Posted : 12 years, 7 months ago on 7 September 2011 11:59The film opens with Alice and her boyfriend, aka the Random guy she nearly murdered by carelessness in the previous movie, fucking in that sultry, over lit, late 80s way. In a way this ties into the creation aspect of the other movies, with little baby Jacob being created in lieu of papier-mĆ¢chĆ© houses and razor gloves. This is perhaps the cleverest thing about the movie, which is a shame.
In this movie we get flashbacks to nun rape, we see Freddy being born and his little foetal self scurrying away in a direct homage to Alien, we get Freddy at his most outlandish and we get the creepiest child actor ever known to man. Unfortunately nothing comes of it and thereās an overriding sense of cheapness and listlessness to the entire thing. Stephen Hopkins as a director has this unusual talent for overseeing projects with interesting ideas and quirks and somehow making them look cheap and wretched. For all of the abuse Lost In Space got at release Iām sure a better director with that FX team and script could have created something special.
Whilst Renny Harlin could never be classed as a subtle or nuanced he actually managed to make his cast feel lively at times. The cast assembled for The Dream Child just never quite gels. There are five main victims in the film. One is taken out almost immediately, the other two dissapear until theyāre needed and the other is literally in the film for three scenes, one of which is her BIG Nightmare moment. Like the original Alice feels utterly isolated, but unlike the original thereās no sense of menace or dread. Freddy just looks odd (check out his weirdo arms throughout the film) and has become the master of jokes. When you donāt give a shit about the victims Freddy transforms from being something horrific and becomes an almost vaudevillian figure, inflicting ironic punishment on people for our entertainment. As such thereās real spectacle to Freddyās kills this time, people get Tetsuo: The Iron Manād into a motorcycle, people are fed their own innards, at one point Freddy turns into a goddamn super-hero but because thereās nothing to hold it together they feel like skits more than anything else.
Even Englund, usually energised in his role as everyoneās favourite immortal paedophile, seems bored in the role delivering his lines like a washed up comic forced to do paid personal appearances and tell old jokesā¦ā¦there were supposed to be more paragraphics but aside from laying into the aesthetics of the piece (a brown filter? Really?) I honestly donāt think thereās much else to say.
Some people will say that this is a better film than Freddyās Dead and Iād disagree for one key reason. This film tries to go out there and zany with itās dream sequences but fails to be truly crazy, Freddyās Dead for all of itās failings feels like a legitimately crazy film and it becomes endearingly entertaining because of it. The Dream Child just feels like watching beige paint dry.
0 comments, Reply to this entry
An average movie
Posted : 13 years, 1 month ago on 11 March 2011 01:38In fact, I already saw this movie but it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, when I was watching it again, I couldnāt remember a thing so it apparently didnāt make much of an impression the first time around but it made sense. Indeed, it was probably the weakest sequel in this burn-out franchise and it was pretty obvious that the makers didnāt even really try to deliver something decent. Eventually, it turned out to be the lowest grossing film of the franchise. I mean, there were a few good ideas, for example, the steamy intro was pretty good but, ultimately, most of it didnāt work at all. Above all, they made the very same mistake that they already made with the 1st sequel which was to allow Freddy Krueger to kill his victims when they were wide awake. Seriously, it completely contradicted the most basic rule in this franchise and, as a result, the whole thing didnāt make much sense and what was left was just a succession of messed-up but still elaborate killing scenes. At least, Lisa Wilcox was not the worst leading actress in this franchise. To conclude, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing and I donāt think it is really worth a look, Ā only if you are a hardcore fan of Freddy Krueger.Ā
0 comments, Reply to this entry