What the HELL happened to A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5 The Dream Child!!!

Part 5 The Dream Child

From Dream Warriors

To The Dream Master

And ending with The Dream Child.

Our Dream trilogy comes to an end. It’s funny too considering because Dream Warriors, while some laugh at the title now, It was loved by everyone. It sounded bad ass and again that poster. It promised exactly what the title suggested. Then we get Dream Master, which the studio decided on because Dream Warriors rocked so hard, so why not double down. But by the time we got to part 5 well. People were getting tired of the gimmick. Sort of like how as a kid you do something kinda funny and you make a relative laugh. So you double down and do it again, getting ANOTHER laugh, but by the time you have no idea what else to do so you try doing it again. That’s when your mom steps in and says “Okay settle down lets give them a break” and your time to shine has ended.

That’s about how it got when the series reached this point.

So as we said, when the last film was a box office smash and people embraced Freddy and his antics. It only meant another had to follow. I mean Freddy was at his highest peak now, Robert Englund was a household name on par with Stallone and Arnold, and he dug it. The man loved being Freddy and he was doing other projects too. Things were turning up Milhouse and it was a good time for the Franchise.

So no teasing this time. I won’t bait you on what happened here. Because New Line had a unique experience that Halloween and Friday the 13th didn’t really get, but would have loved.They gambled and pushed out as hard and fast as they could a sequel that nearly broke the director, crew and cast. It paid off big time, where as for Michael and Jason they had a big success, they pushed out another sequel and managed to fuck the chicken while it crossed the road.

Those franchises were gamblers who rolled the dice and took the loss on the chin, while still giving it another go.

New Line was the gambler snorting coke from a salt shaker letting it ride. Every. Fucking. Sequel.

Because they rushed out a sequel hitting while the anvil was hot, and it paid off. They did the exact same thing again. But upped the stakes when they didn’t need too.

Just as before, they set in stone a non negotiable release date. 8 months from part 4s release. They had no story, no script. No secured cast. So naturally they hired a director, because LET IT FUCKIN’ RIDE BABY!

And of course this meant, every problem the last production had? Was amplified to 11. Every. Fucking. Issue.

There is no way shape or form to not assume huge duffle bags of pure Columbian bam bam were being tossed into ceiling fans making it rain in executive offices.

So for the sake of giving the only bit of sanity we will get in this one. Let’s cover the story we ended up with. Because surely that will make this a bit less painful.

The Story

Alice has graduated and having landed herself one major league hunk in High School, she’s opened up the gates to her temple and Dan is taking her to pound town nightly while the two embrace the road to college. The two have managed to raw dog their way through a loving relationship and life is going preciously well. Until Freddy comes back. Thanks to Alice having the oddest dream, seeing herself as Amanda Krueger, playing out the established Freddy lore from Part three of Amanda being raped repeatedly by 100 maniacs over the weekend. She gives birth to the still funniest looking Freddy baby, and it goes flying out the delivery room, skittering to the site of Freddy and Alice’s last stand, the church of Freddy. Naturally baby Freddy wants to find his dusty rags to cover his unnatural nudity. As he does so he begins to take his final form and Freddy is reborn proclaiming to one and all. “It’s a boooooyy”

From there the fun begins as Freddy once more begins terrorizing poor Alice and those closest to her. Killing off her bed warmer Dan, Going after her new friends since the last group all died and no one thought maybe to avoid the girl who’s friends all died. As people die, Alice has to deal with the newest mind puzzle of how Freddy is coming through without her being in dreams. She’s also told her eggo is prego and she still seems more focused on Freddy and his new fangled dream powers. Until we learn its not a new power so much as it’s Freddy ghost riding the dream whip of her baby.

So Alice as before, and Nancy did for the crazies, has to explain to her friends who Freddy is, what Freddy is and what Freddy does. No one believes her, until they start dying. Then everyone is ready to help her stop Freddy. Because Freddy plans, as far as we know. To take over her baby when he’s born, and thus be brought into our world ready to resume his child murdering spree. Which would honestly had been funny if Freddy was born with his scarred up face and went to school like that.

So Alice and friends begin trying to find Amanda Kruegers resting place. Which was already laid out in Part 3, but now is changed to a tower room of shame. Freddy and Alice have themselves another showdown in the dreamworld, where her son, Jacob is running from Freddy and Freddy is running after them. Jacob decides to trick Freddy into letting his mommy go and teaching him to be cool like Freddy. Freddy gives him an unsure look and decides, your pretty cringe kid, but sure I’ll show you how to be cool.” Unfortunately for Freddy this is a trick instigated by his mothers holy ghost. Freddys soul is sucked out of Alice’s womb and back into his mothers arms, back into her ghost womb. While Alice embraces the holy ghost of Christ into her womb and readies to give birth to Jesus, while Amanda fights for eternity keeping Freddy and his gloved hand up her holiest of holes.

Though that is the short bus version. It really is just that simple, and not as fun. Honestly it gets a bit tiring when each of these movies has to go through the same thing every time. Freddy comes back. People tell you your being paranoid, don’t worry. People die. You tell your friends whats causing it. They don’t believe you. Then they start dying and you share the lore. They semi believe you until more people die. Then they are on board and by then Freddy is dead. It worked in part 3. You could make sense of it in part 4. But doing it a third time just became a Tuesday on Elm Street.

So with no script, no cast and no idea what the fuck they were going to do. This could only mean the best for the film as story time began to take shape and the coke filled room introduced writers to give out their ideas.

One such idea was an interesting one given the studio’s rebranding of Freddy. The idea pitched as Freddy Rules, which god that already sounds 90’s as fuck. The idea was bringing Freddy back closer to his roots. Only more in line with Evil Dead meets Exorcist 3. They wanted to go heavy on the dark gritty Freddy, and make things visceral and angry. They wanted to lean hardcore into what Freddy could be. It’d mark a return to gore and straight up murder over fun.

Well that didn’t go so well and he exited the project and concept. Not that the studio was eager exactly to change their pop culture icon a third time.

NEXT!!

Well if making Freddy a visceral murder machine bathing in flesh and the screams of the innocent wasn’t going to work. The next frand idea came from famed Splatterpunk writers John Skipp and Craig Spector who pitched, of all things. A fully written script, and the idea of making a more, surreal horror film. A cerebral Freddy film exploring collective unconsciousness, They turned in a fully realized idea full of unreal dream sequences and characters. The studio, high off their collective asses, nodded. Did another line, and famously said to them, and this really did happen, “You wrote a Nightmare on Elm Street movie like Stanley Kubric would do it, and we don’t want that!”

So out the door that idea went and so did any hope of a conceptual surreal Freddy.

NEXT!!

This time, 3rd lucks a charm applied. A familiar face to the franchise returned to pitch an idea they tried all the way back when Dream Warriors was being considered. Leslie Bohem. She rather notable pitched the idea originally to the studio of doing a Freddy movie where Freddy would come into the world through invading a babies dreams. At the time they felt the idea of a demon baby killing people in their sleep was a bit too out there and not that socially acceptable. It was also just fucking weird. Well this time the studio was a little more open to the concept.

They embraced it actually. Loved it.

They didn’t.

They only greenlit the idea because they set a deadline, hired a director and they needed the wheels on the bus to start burning rubber.

Things were set in motion and now they could begin collecting the old cast and let the director know the good news!

Only they still didn’t have a script.

Which presented one mild problem in a growing list of problems.
One of which, just like before. Was the hired director, Stephen Hopkins. He had ideas of his own on where to take this film, or as the studio saw it, delusions of grandeur.

His vision was more in line with classic horror. Think along the lines of old Hammer horror. The old Christopher Lee Dracula films, Peter Cushing. He wanted to take Freddy into a more traditional gothic horror tone. Build eerie old style sets, manors and castle like settings, This is also where the later still used Escher staircase idea came from as well.

Honestly it would have been a fun turn for Freddy. It would still allow him to be his wacky 90’s self and his was a character, concept and look that would have worked well in a Hammer like setting. But the studio much like Moustafa had become protective of their Michael Jackson of Horror. Freddy was a brand now, and you don’t alter the cash cow brand. So it was not to be. But the man fought for this vision. Constantly. Especially given they still had NO FUCKING SCRIPT.

The man had a vision and was not going to let up on this. Even when the camera’s began to roll. And there was not a single page of script around. He began pushing and edging his story into the script. Slowly but surely he managed some of his demands. But the studio high or otherwise was not going to let him stir shit and ruin Freddy. So they tolerated him, to a point. While still pulling the man away from their writer and demanding Freddy remain Freddy.

These back and fourths were daily. Though they never reached the point of throwing fist or shouting their heads off. They were always after one another. This director was not going to walk away unless they fired him, and knowing the mess they put themselves in with their set in stone release date. They wouldn’t risk it. They knew replacing him would fuck them over royally. So instead they had the worst complicated relationship, which involved constantly pulling aside the already over worked writer. One side screaming to ignore the other and do things their way. While the other pulled her repeating the same thing.

Again a gentle reminder. There was no script. It existed in concept mostly until the moment of filming. It was worse than the last film. Which is saying something. At least they came up with a system albeit it stressed beyond repairs and forcing people into groups. But it worked. This time no such luck. It was wake up, pop some pills, and pray one ear wouldn’t bleed while the other just listened to white noise.

Did the two immoveable objects ever compromise? Eventually they did, and only once. You wouldn’t even have to guess how. It’s rather evident in the movie. But yes. They did settle finally on one sequence where the man could have his hammer horror fun. The Super Freddy comic fight. You don’t have to watch it too closely to visualize where it originally was headed. The setup was right there for a ‘take on me’ referenced fight scene. Which would look amazing. Instead the comic nerd got to fight a black and white uber super freddy. Which was as a kid a scene I loved laughing at. Freddy just looked so ridiculous it was impossible not too. It was a fun but all too quick scene.

The scene stands out to everyone, because well. It’s entirely out of place. The tone, the style. All of it. It was basically a sizzle reel, test footage from the director to show what he wanted and what they could give him if ONLY THEY WOULD SEE REASON!

But the studio wouldn’t have it.

This wasn’t just a simple fight of two heads butting over creative choices and vision. This director genuinely was going head to head against the studio, which under normal circumstances would’ve cost him his job. Even when the script wouldn’t be in his favor the man was caught. Multiple times by the studio, submitting cuts of the film, scenes and dailies where he completely went his own way. It got to a point the studio, every day. Reviewed film he shot. They began demanding storyboards from him. Daily. For everything he planned to shoot. Which he had to draw himself. He had to prove he was going with their vision, that he would stay within budget and wasn’t ballooning the film by working in his deeply desired larger sets like the huge staircase sequence. That was allowed as it would serve for the final fight. But nothing more. He wasn’t just put on a short leash. The man had eyes on him constantly and they had a hand around the scruff of his neck.

Again. Just like before. This was only a small portion of a much larger disaster.

Once again with everyone rushing in a giant clusterfuck of a production and not one soul mirroring the previous productions mad max style groupings. Every department was going to suffer. Next on the chopping block was the one group you don’t want fucking up your horror movie.

The very special, special effects

So with a tight budget, growing increasingly tighter every with a director and his constant demands for rewrites and new sets. The effects and set departments were working overtime with no clear goal in sight. Given the tone of the film whether it was the hammer horror gothic style shoved in by the director and his demands for large set pieces and mechanical puppetry, or the studio and their surreal effects shots including one named in the credits as ‘Womb with a view”, This was a daunting task for anyone. Add in an insanely cocaine fueled rush and you have yet another department of disasters. Now on the last film even with three groups working to offload onto each other. The effects group still suffered and did their best to construct sets, build gags and test mechanics before filming. They had to make sure they could film what was asked for. Otherwise rewrites were inbound.

This time they had no time for testing. No time for failures. It was literally build it, film it, move on.

Yes none of this worked out.

The movie required a mechanical baby freddy puppet. They did their best in the time they had, and the result was a barely functioning puppet. Bruce the shark managed to work better and look somewhat real versus this thing. Instead of crawling or skittering on the floor, the puppet would jerk and twitch. It never worked properly  and  often had to be pulled. When filmed the puppet looked somehow worse. No time for reshoots and further building. The director had to film with what they had, and edit it down to look ‘acceptable’. Which was the word of the production. Acceptable.

Greta. The model wo was force fed her own innards. They built a mechanical prosthetic of Greta. A stomach Freddy could cut open, with intestines that would ungulate and spit blood. This didn’t work at all. The prosthetic would instantly clog up after one or two spurts, and begin leaking out onto the stage the fake blood and ‘food’ she was being spoonfed. Resulting in crew getting sick and the stage smelling of an unholy concoction for hours. Same thing as before. Edit it down and make it look ‘acceptable’.

Dans famous motorcycle death when Dan gets turned into Tetsuo The Iron Man. This was the big film death so it had to look good. It was also the first death to be filmed. That didn’t mean they had time and money. They had to rush through it. Second verse same as the first. The metal and foam plates restricted movement and often broke. Jamming together and preventing the actor from moving. The tubes spitting out oil clogged. The concept was great. The result was mediocre at best. Because this would be the hero shot of all the deaths. Acceptable was not entirely within their vocabulary. So the studio told them fix it. They couldn’t. The suit would break mid take. Extending the setup and shooting schedule. It ended up putting them behind on schedule even more, and each take cost the studio more and more money. What  we end up with. Is a hot glued mess of all cuts to make a scene that was, acceptably okay. Which is better than just acceptable.

Super Freddy was another challenge. They built a suit for Robert to wear, bulked up chest and popeye like arms. The suit was so thick he couldn’t move. He looked like the little brother in A Christmas Story wearing several jackets unable to move his arms. So they rushed and hired a bodybuilder. Which is why Freddys face grew suddenly thicker and a bit deformed.

Meanwhile there were the sets and rigs needed to give the director his stylized shots. The large staircase scene set production back further and the cost kept escalating. All the while the direct was pushing for more sets, bigger sets. Camera rigs were built for these sequences and often failed. Further pushing filming back. Having stuntmen in these rigs for the staircase scene, Dans Bike crash. The comics. All of it. It was exhausting and the crew were dropping like flies. Again setting back the rushed production. This did not end with set construction and stunt work in the effects department. It escalated.

Soon the cast and crew began getting sick. Overworked and often without rest. Crew were constantly facing dehydration. On set accidents from sleep deprivation. Often the sets involved smoke filled sound stages, large lights and a lot of night shoots. Several actors, including Alice Wilcox(Alice) fell from exhaustion and smoke inhalation.

The original makeup artist who worked on Robert Englund did not return and makeup was now taking them longer. Robert Englund had to sit for hours getting into make up. Wait on set for them to use him, and by then with the heat and smoke. He’d sweat badly enough the spirit glue would come loose and he’d have to return to makeup. Setting the shooting schedules back further. Often leading to quick edits.

Because they couldn’t let things be and let the suffering end. The studio, again working without a finished script right up to the ending. Had the bright idea. During filming. Why don’t we bring back Patricia Arquette. The actress who played Kristen, whom we recast in the last film. Lets bring her back and make her part of the story! Brillaint! We can tie her back into the end of this franchise mid trilogy and people will flip their minds for it. Let’s run with it! They began forming. In the middle of fucking filming. A new plotline, new shots. MORE SETS. To bring her in and tie her story in with Alice and the baby.

Again. Mountains. Copious mountains of cocaine.

So the producers ate it up and reached out to the actress. Who came down with a case of Pregnancy and declined the offer. Which even had she not been? Would have still said no.

SO. The producers facing this new failure, and the studio unable to feel their teeth. They had to force immediate rewrites. Again. Change storylines, again. And up until the very last scene of the film? No one. Not the director, not the actors. No one. Had a clue how the film was going to end until the ending was written and handed in.

But end it finally did. Even if suddenly and without a bang. It was over. The real nightmare had ended and the crew was ready for freedom, long forgotten but often dreamed of.

Until the bells began to ring.

The film, now pieced together, was headed for the final boss. Yes. The MPAA had to raise their hands and get their stabs in.

If history is to be believed and Ceaser was stabbed by every member of congress including his dear friend Brutus. You gotta think. Either that guy was so severely hated, and feared. That every last one of them had to get their knife into him. Or after the first 10 stabs you’d figure, Leave him alone, he’s already dead.

But no. Every blade had to be accounted for. I mean as a bearded Scotsman said. They didn’t get dressed up for nothing.

The MPAA was far from kind on this film. They eviscerated this disaster. Cuts were made across the board to every scene. Everything.

To put it in better perspective, because again Every blade counted.

This film was literal weeks away from release in cinemas. The studio promised theaters a release date and film. They had no choice but to deliver. Even if less than a month out from release.

And again, no reshoots, no nothing. The film editors locked themselves into a room and began cutting every corner of the film they could. Entire sets that took weeks to build were gone. Death scenes trimmed to a few frames. Quick cuts all around and gore cut down to a few quick glimpses. This is why both Dans and Greta’s deaths were so sudden and quickly ended. They couldn’t play cut a little of this and a little of that. This had to be a one time pass and release. So entire scenes as I said were cut out. It was brutal even by their standards.

But the studio did this to themselves.

So the film was released onto the public. Expectations from the public were high. I still remember the teasers and posters for this film. You had a freddy looking evil baby carriage with black spikes jutting out and a proud father Freddy smiling. It looked dark and cool.

It was not a dark and cool movie. It was silly. The rushed ending felt bland and empty. Which a lot of the movie was. Dans bike death was cool. It still looks comical but gnarly in a good way. It just. Well. It all fit the tone the studio wanted.

The movie was both studio themed and director themed. You had his visual style, and gothic foot print, while the studio had their pop culture quipping Freddy. The problem was the film just wasn’t that good. Audiences had begun to grow tired of the schtick reused from the previous film. Freddy was Freddy and fun. But he just couldn’t save a disjointed mess of a film. The cuts to the film made it hard to follow and things felt rushed. It was disjointed and compared to the previous film, a major let down.

Did it perform well? Well The Dream Master raked in $49 million, nearly $50 million on a hyper low budget. This film was made for $8 million and brought in…$22 million.

Welcome to the club Freddy.

Not enough to be a success, but enough to say you made enough to warrant pushing down the road for another film. Just…not as fast as they had.

Critics and fans were let down. No one was clamoring for more. You know you fucked up when both critics and fans accuse you(the studio) of making a quick cash grab. And that’s what they did, and called out.

The studio gambled and let it ride. Just like the last time. Bet it all every spin of the wheel and roll of the dice. They pushed everyone under them to literal exhaustion and once the wheels were spinning they never backed down. This film is still today an example in studio interference, directors unleashed and critical failure productions. Everything failed across the board. Because of the studio. Today studios are a bit more forgiving and pushing back a film release isn’t unheard of. Marvel still famously as with Disney films with incomplete scripts. Resulting in mirrored results. Not resounding box office successes, but moderately okay cash grabs. Resulting in hurt relations with actors and the studios. Upset fans, and people tired of spending their money on sub par products, wishing for the days of taking their time and building up to something resembling quality and care.

To fail that badly as to be remembered to this day throughout Hollywood as how not to make a movie? That says something.

Thankfully for many, this was the end of the dream trilogy and for at least a while, Freddy would slumber once more and no one was going to hit the whopper button after this hit theaters. Anyone even near it would be sacked and fed to llamas.

I’m joking but I’m also serious. Not about the llamas though they bite. Just not as badly as a mouse.

The next Freddy film wouldn’t come out for another two years. Given the mad dash new Line was implementing throughout? This signaled a major shift in direction. They were going to course correct and needed too. Otherwise they’d go down as the studio that killed their cash cow and brought Freddy and his empire crumbling down.

They would slumber, and wait. Biding their time until a new way to sell their franchise would arise. That chance came around with the idea of following Jasons footsteps and giving the world what was build as, and technically was. The final Nightmare.