(1988) **1/2
JPX has always said that right here, with the sunglasses, is when American horror movies jumped the shark.
Not only do I agree, but I think it's oddly indicative of exactly what's wrong with this movie: the light. There was one scene in Dream Warriors, when Freddy is facing off with Taryn the bad beautiful junkie, that I thought was lit too brightly. For a moment there was no play of shadow on the hideous contour of Freddy's face, but that wasn't the typical mode of that movie. Dream Master, on the other hand, is lit up like a sitcom living room. It's the opposite of scary, but no one cares.
It's easy to see the pattern. Wes Craven gives us something good with #1, they turn it into a possession story. Wes comes back and retools for #3, and they've got the "whatever scares you" formula now, but they don't use it right. It's all about parking Freddy in nutty settings and making quips. He's your teacher! He's bursting out of a sand castle! (Huh?) He's eating a pizza with souls for meatballs! (Double huh?) And so on.
The story brings back the survivors of #3, with Kristen very noticably not being played by Patricia Arquette. Freddy comes back to life for no discernable reason and wipes them out, which was one of those times when offing the survivors from the last movie felt cheap and unfair. Kristen uses her magical special gift to pull mousy Alice into her dream and puts a big target on her head. Alice then replaces Kristen as our Hero Girl, which suited me just fine.
There's some worthy creativity in some of the dream deaths, and the brainy girl couldn't go fast enough for me. I recall liking the roach transformation dream when I saw this the first time...is seemed a little silly now, but there is a satisfying spine tingle when Debbie pulls her face out of the glue and lets loose with that warm scream. Yikes.
It's effective enough to earn Dream Master a higher rating than #2, but this ultimately chokes on its own cheese. Alice's emergence from mousedom was fun, but her acquiring her dead friends' "powers" is pretty lame. The Dream Master dealy is the worst: in the nick of time she remembers the whole rhyme and shows Freddy a reflection of himself, which causes all the people in his chest to bust out. Made about as much sense as him waking up in the first place, I guess.
4 comments:
You found the perfect picture for your review! Yep, I've been touting this scene for years as the moment horror officially died. It would not recover for many years. Taking Freddy out of the murky shadows and putting him under bright sunlight instantly vaporized anything scary about this character. Add to that the terrible one-liners and, bam!, a genre has been castrated. Even with all the terrible Halloween/Friday the 13th sequels, they were wise enough to only show the slashers at night. How scary would Jason be on a beach? He'd just be another fat guy in a hockey mask!
Several of the Japanese flicks are able to create terrifying daytime horror sequences. But I think it still needs to be cloudy out with a 60% chance of rain.
That picture makes me cringe. The worst death in the Elm St. series was when he killed the guy in the video game. No trace of scary whatsoever. "Game over bitch!" Ugh.
I agree with you, that video game death is cringe-worthy. the worst part is when they integrate Freddy and the victim into a Donkey Kong-like game and the victim is forced to jump over barrels and things. I'm turning red with embarrassment just thinking about it.
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