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A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

Play trailer Poster for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child R 1989 1h 29m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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32% Tomatometer 37 Reviews 31% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
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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A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream 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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Critics Reviews

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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 Grant Watson Fiction Machine While stylish and broadly enjoyable, The Dream Child feels like a compromised work and does not quite make the impact that its immediate predecessor did. Rated: 6/10 Oct 2, 2025 Full Review Brian Bisesi Horror Movie Club Podcast The Dream Child has good ideas, and is entertaining despite its flaws. Partly a victim of a rushed production, and partly of extensive MPAA cuts, the final product is a slapdash jumble of what could have been a far more compelling entry in the franchise. Rated: 3/5 Sep 25, 2025 Full Review Joshua Mooney Movieline A pretty tired effort. Sep 16, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Stephen C Success in 1 hour and 29 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/17/25 Full Review Bobby W. Scary Freddy(#1) can rock, but alot of extra joker nonsense makes it too much! Felt like an episode of the series, and similar to tales from the crypt movie. Almost pushing a fine line like all you can eat, till sick of, and never again! Rated 2 out of 5 stars 10/16/25 Full Review Rafael S For me it's the worst Nightmare on Elm Street movie, but it's not the worst Slasher movie. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 10/02/25 Full Review DanTheMan 2 As pedestrian and cliché as they come, The Dream Child doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is; all over the map, it's little more than a bizarre free-for-all where the deaths are much more elaborate, the characters even more bland, and a Freddy full of more one-liners than Terminator with a thesaurus. Although the film attempts to carry to term an empathetic, emotional engagement of teenage trauma and pregnancy, the progressively convoluted nature of its storyline stands as its most egregious failing, even concluding on as anticlimactic a note as one could possibly envision. While director Stephen Hopkins maintains a high energy and preserves the franchise's surrealist edge, with plenty of Giger-esque warpings of human flesh and imaginative special effects, his approach is a bit too choppy to keep all the diverse elements together in a coherent way. Robert Englund is still a joy to watch as Freddy, with his manic energy in full swing; a lot of the lines he's been lumped with are akin to those of a failing stand-up comedian attempting to make their way through a set without being booed offstage. Lisa Wilcox tries her best to carry an otherwise lacklustre cast, but the acting leaves plenty of questions. Even with Jay Ferguson's relatively atmospheric score in tow, I could have done without M.C. Escher. However, despite my reservations, The Dream Child is still a relatively fun time, carrying with it plenty of interesting ideas and visual creativity; it just suffers in a similar vein to that of Part 2, where they are all thrown together without a means of fully exploring them. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 09/17/25 Full Review Munchie A The final movie of the Dream Warriors arc and the worst Freddy film (not including the reboot). The only reason to watch this is for the lore and some of the effects like the weird in-utero scenes. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/13/25 Full Review Jason H How can Alice be so great in part 4, and so annoying in part 5? Answer: different writers/director. This movie is painfully dull. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/21/25 Full Review Read all reviews
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

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Movie Info

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
Robert Shaye, Rupert Harvey
Distributor
New Line Cinema, Image Entertainment Inc., 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 29m
Sound Mix
Dolby SR, Surround
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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