A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

 

And the train kept a-rollin'...

Number 4 and still doing okay, but there is no way in heck one would consider this one scary anymore. This is not squarely on director Renny Harlin's shoulders, as he does manage to craft an entertaining film, but this is too light-hearted and quippy and Freddy is too funny in order to be genuinely disturbed. 

Still fun though.

Picking up shortly after number 3, Kristen (now played by Tuesday Knight instead of Patricia Arquette) is back to a regular life in high school, yet she is once again having premonitory dreams that Freddy might actually be coming back. And of course he is, or this would have been the shortest entry ever. He quickly kills off the survivors from the last time (Kincaid and Joey) and then goes after Kristen, so now a new girl takes centre stage, being Lisa Wilcox (I can't even remember her in-film name, that's how bland she is as a character). She somehow manages to absord all the strengths of the teenagers that get killed by Freddy, even if she is inadvertently drawing new meat into the grinder through Kristen's power.

Yes, the how and why is a bit wonky. 

So will our new final girl manage to defeat Freddy once again?

Seeing as there are still entries to come, you know the answer is yes and no. 

In any case, this entry is fun and colourful and really looks good, with some cool sets and for the most part inventive kills. The looping you get about halfway through is a neat joke as well, but there isn't a single moment you feel tension. Heck, you won't even care about most of the people here and just want to see Freddy off them in increasingly silly ways. That being said, this is absolutely the film where Robert Englund is allowed to go full ham and he is loving every second of it. Freddy has never been this quippy with oneliners and quotable lines and it is awesome. If anything else, this is what most people will remember. Freddy with sunglasses on? Epic. Freddy as a disturbing nurse? Check. Freddy's hand doubling as a sharkfin plowing through sand and then exploding to reveal the man in full glory? 

Yes please.

In a way, this film is so essentially 80s it is endearing. That being said, if Freddy wasn't played by Englund, this series would never have worked as well or would have had the longevity it still endures to this day. So watch for Englund having fun. It's the best way to enjoy this anyway.