A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

R

Now Playing

1h 30m

Horror

List

31%

32 Reviews

Tomatometer

31%

100,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

The fifth installment of the popular franchise focuses on Alice (Lisa Wilcox), a survivor of the fourth, who believes Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has been eliminated for good. She optimistically hopes to start a life with fellow survivor Dan (Danny Hassel). The nightmares begin soon enough, though, and Alice learns she is pregnant. When her friends start dying, Alice suspects that Freddy is using the fetus within her as a weapon. Can she fight the demon while protecting her unborn child?

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Critics Consensus

A Nightmare on Elm Street feels exhausted by this cheesy fifth entry, bogged down by a convoluted mythology while showing none of the chilling technique that kicked off the franchise.

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David C

La trama es mala la historia no tiene sentido una de las escenas de la película tiene unos gráficos muy malos no tiene sentido nada de nada

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/10/24

Full Review

Teddy B

At this point in the run of the franchise, this film is laughably stupid and has shed off the poetic and mysterious atmosphere that the original film tried so hard and succeeded to establish. The only thing that makes this fodder even the tiniest bit watchable is the enthusiastic Robert Englund who tries his absolute HARDEST to make this incomprehensible and meaningless script disguising itself under the abused title of 'campy' actually enjoyable.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

12/19/23

Full Review

Blu B

I think the credits song that plays sums up this movie perfectly....What in the world is this. The music is mostly boring and forgettable which is a sin for a series with such iconic tracks. The acting is bad as well with some performances like Alice being ok, some of the friends aren't that good, and Freddy and others are just bizarre including the humor is bizarre feeling so out of place. Everything else is just bizarre and atrocious. The story is just dumb and is filled with tons of incoherent moments and plot holes. On top of that you know I'll give most horror movies credit even the bad ones for there boring cookie cutter teen characters. At least they give them SOMETHING it might not be good background at all but at least it's something. These people get nothing at all beyond 30 seconds of establishing them as Alice's friends and nothig else! Not even sex scenes or doing dumb stuff hardly. So what happens is on top of unfolding the main plot you get constant jumping around randomly to each friend trying to rush explaining them and setting up there bizarre kills. Add the bad plot, obnoxious camera angles, bizarre special effects and scenes, a tone that is all over the place, and an ending that just goes off the proverbial rails and you can see why this is atrocious. This can't decide does it want to be fantasy, horror, or comedy and makes scenes that are just surreal and bizarre. Never coming close to the magic of 3 which blended fantasy and horror perfectly. Maybe one other compliment is it barely is 80 minutes. I guess that's a plus but it feels longer than that even at times. Stay away from this at all cost. Horrible Sequel, it should've ended here but no they kept going....

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/07/23

Full Review

Ethan G

Tiresomely violent and painfully depthless, this fifth "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie is basically just its predecessors mashed up into one poorly written mess with no tension, just gore.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

09/07/23

Full Review

Jes B

My least favorite of the Nighmare on Elm Street movies but is still worth being watched. All of them. Kinda has Labyrinth elements in there. Trying not to spoil it for someone new isn't too easy.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/05/23

Full Review

Emilliano Jr S

Enough of this non sense sequels.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

07/11/23

Full Review

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Stephen Hopkins

Director

Robert Englund

Freddy Krueger

Lisa Wilcox

Alice Johnson

Danny Hassel

Daniel 'Dan' Jordan

Kelly Jo Minter

Yvonne

Erika Anderson

Greta Gibson

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David Hughes

Empire Magazine

Despite an impressive bag of special effects tricks, old Fred is starting to resemble one of those dead horses that studio execs insist on flogging.

Rated: 2/5

Apr 5, 2010

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

The series here takes a depressing nosedive into zero-degree filmmaking.

Apr 5, 2010

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Fifth edition of the hit Nightmare series is a poorly constructed special effects showcase.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

What "The Dream Child" most successfully carries to term is an empathetic, emotional engagement of teenage trauma and pregnancy. It reflects a decade-ending boiling point in the tension between Hollywood button-pushers and political pencil-pushers.

Rated: 2.5/5

Oct 7, 2022

Full Review

Cody Leach

Cody Leach (YouTube)

Dream Child is a series low-point. Any terror or menace from Freddy Krueger is now gone in favor of a failing stand-up comedian. Lisa Wilcox tries her best to carry a lackluster cast of characters whose deaths (almost) all lean into the silly and stupid.

Rated: 1.5/5

Aug 20, 2022

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Even though the transitioning into nightmares is still admittedly amusing, the specific scary visions, based on individual fears, are rarely terrifying.

Rated: 2/10

Sep 6, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

The fifth installment of the popular franchise focuses on Alice (Lisa Wilcox), a survivor of the fourth, who believes Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has been eliminated for good. She optimistically hopes to start a life with fellow survivor Dan (Danny Hassel). The nightmares begin soon enough, though, and Alice learns she is pregnant. When her friends start dying, Alice suspects that Freddy is using the fetus within her as a weapon. Can she fight the demon while protecting her unborn child?

Director: Stephen Hopkins
Producer: Sara Risher, Jon Turtle
Distributor: Image Entertainment Inc., New Line Cinema, Media Home Entertainment
Production Co: New Line Cinema
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 11, 1989, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA): $22.2M
Runtime: 1h 30m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SR

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