A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

A year after the Westin Hills battle in Dream Warriors, Kristen Parker, Roland Kincaid and Joey Crusel are out of the hospital and back in school. Kristen dreams she is outside the old house at 1428 Elm Street, where a little girl draws the house in chalk and Freddy Krueger shows up in the drawing's window. Scared, Kristen pulls Kincaid and Joey into the dream. The boys tell her Freddy is dead and she needs to stop looking for him. In the boiler room, Kincaid's dog bursts out of the cold furnace and bites Kristen's arm. All three wake up, and the bite is real.

Kristen has a new circle of friends. Her boyfriend Rick Johnson is into martial arts. His sister Alice is shy and spends her days daydreaming, partly to get away from their father, a widowed drunk. Sheila Kopecky is an asthmatic science whiz, and Debbie Stevens is a tough athlete who hates bugs. Alice has a crush on Dan Jordan, a football player. At school Kincaid and Joey warn Kristen that pulling people into her dreams could bring Freddy back.

That night Kincaid dreams he is trapped in a car trunk in the junkyard where Freddy's remains were buried. His dog pees fire onto the grave, the ground splits open, and Freddy's bones pull themselves back together into a body. Kincaid drops a pile of cars on him, but Freddy stabs him through the chest. Joey falls asleep looking at a pin-up poster. The model appears swimming inside his waterbed, turns into Freddy, and drags Joey under to drown. The next day Kristen learns both boys are dead. She takes Rick, Alice and Dan to the Elm Street house and tells them the Freddy story. Alice tells Kristen about a rhyme called the Dream Master and says Kristen should dream about somewhere safe.

Kristen's mother Elaine drugs her with sleeping pills. Kristen tries to dream of a sunny beach, but Freddy comes out of the water and drags her through the sand into his boiler room. Kristen is the last of the Elm Street children, and Freddy needs her to bring him someone new. He torments her until she calls out for Alice, who appears in the dream. Freddy throws Kristen into the furnace. As she dies, her dream power passes through Freddy into Alice. Alice and Rick race to Kristen's house and find her bedroom on fire.

Alice starts picking up the habits and skills of each friend who dies. At school she nods off during a physics test and pulls Sheila into her dream. Freddy traps Alice in her desk and sucks the air out of Sheila's lungs with a kiss. In the waking world it looks like an asthma attack. Rick falls asleep in a bathroom stall, rides a hellish elevator down to a martial arts dojo, and fights an invisible Freddy. He knocks the glove loose, but Freddy kills him anyway. At Rick's funeral Alice daydreams that he climbs out of his coffin, then decides she is done hiding in daydreams. She finds she can now handle Rick's nunchucks.

Alice agrees to meet Dan at the Crave Inn diner where she works and then warn Debbie. While waiting she walks into the movie theater across the street and is sucked into the screen. Inside a run-down version of the diner, Freddy eats a pizza topped with the screaming faces of her dead friends. Alice and Dan then get caught in a time loop, leaving the diner and climbing into Dan's truck over and over. While they are stuck, Freddy finds Debbie lifting weights, breaks her arms, turns her into a cockroach and crushes her inside a giant roach motel. Alice absorbs Debbie's strength. She sees Freddy standing in the road and tries to run him down, but in the real world the truck hits a tree and Dan is badly hurt.

Dan is rushed into surgery. Alice goes home, gears up in Debbie's studded bracelet, Rick's weapons and Sheila's homemade gadget, and takes sleeping pills. Freddy is waiting in the operating room dressed as the surgeon. Alice dives through her mirror, grabs Dan, and the two tumble through a stained glass window into an old church. The doctors wake Dan to save his life, so he vanishes from the dream and Alice faces Freddy alone. Freddy laughs that she may have her friends' powers but he has their souls. Alice hurts him with Sheila's homemade device, but he recovers. Then she remembers the end of the Dream Master rhyme and holds up a piece of glass so Freddy sees his own reflection. The trapped souls in his body revolt, tear their way out of his chest, and rip him apart.

Some time later, Alice and Dan walk through a park. Dan tosses a coin into a fountain, and for a moment Alice sees Freddy's reflection in the water. She lets it go and the couple walks away.

Story notes

• Freddy returns after the Dream Warriors' victory and begins killing the surviving Elm Street children.
• Alice Johnson inherits Kristen's dream ability and becomes the Dream Master.

Release facts

• Budget: $6.5 million (Variety and The Hollywood Reporter charts, cited by AFI; other reports gave $5 million or $6 million)

New Line held Nightmarathons the night before release, where fans watched the first three films and then saw The Dream Master at midnight.

The film opened on 1,765 screens and made $12,833,403 its first weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Time called it the best opening yet for an independent release. It finished with $49,369,899 domestic, the 19th biggest film of 1988, and stayed the top-grossing Nightmare film until Freddy vs. Jason in 2003.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it by far the best of the series. Rotten Tomatoes shows 56% from 34 reviews, and Metacritic gives it 56. Robert Englund has named the time loop, where Alice and Dan keep trying to reach Debbie, his favorite sequence in the whole franchise.

Awards: Saturn Award nominations for Best Director (Renny Harlin), Best Horror Film and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Englund); Best Special Effects win and Best Film nomination at Sitges; a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Original Song (Therapist by Vigil); and at the Young Artist Awards a win for Teenage Choice Best Horror Motion Picture.

In August 1988 New Line sued Jive and RCA Records over DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's song and video Nightmare on My Street. The duo had offered New Line a Freddy song, but the studio went with The Fat Boys. A federal judge blocked the video while the suit was pending.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master poster archive.

Cast

Crew

Production

After Dream Warriors, producers Sara Risher and Robert Shaye passed on a fourth-film idea from Wes Craven. Risher said it involved time travel inside dreams and broke the rules of dreams. They picked William Kotzwinkle's Dream Master concept instead. Risher later asked Craven and his writing partner Bruce Wagner to rewrite the script and direct it. Craven said they felt they should have been approached as artists of the original material, and New Line kept working with the script it had.

Brian Helgeland was at New Line around Christmas 1987 pitching Highway to Hell. The studio turned that down but had no script and no director for Nightmare 4. Mike De Luca asked Helgeland to write one in two weeks. He finished it in nine days at his parents' house and sent it by FedEx. Jim and Ken Wheat polished it under the name Scott Pierce. The final credits give the screenplay to Helgeland and Pierce and the story to Kotzwinkle and Helgeland. The Companion's archive holds a Third Draft, Revised dated May 9, 1988.

Tom McLoughlin, fresh off Friday the 13th Part VI, was offered the job. He wanted creative control. New Line told him it was already shooting effects units without a director, so he turned it down. The job went to Finnish director Renny Harlin, whose only features were Born American (1986) and Prison (1987). Rachel Talalay said the producers debated going back to a small, scary film but decided audiences knew Freddy too well, so they kept the rollercoaster feel of Dream Warriors. Harlin called Freddy the James Bond of the series.

Patricia Arquette declined to come back as Kristen. In 2017 she said she wanted to try meatier roles after a TV movie called Daddy. Tuesday Knight took over the part. Over 600 actresses read for Alice. Lisa Wilcox had lost out on Dream Warriors and was first rejected here for looking too much like a cheerleader. She came back with no makeup, wearing yellow, her worst color, and got the role. Ellie Cornell said she was considered but had already signed for Halloween 4. Lezlie Deane, later Tracy in Freddy's Dead, also auditioned.

The 1988 Writers Guild strike hit during production, so Harlin and the cast made up a lot as they went. Harlin made up many of the nightmare sequences on the spot. Wilcox and Andras Jones wrote some of Alice and Rick's lines themselves. Rick was first written to die in an elevator accident, which was changed to the dojo fight.

Fangoria's set report put the budget at about $5 million on a 40-day Los Angeles shoot. Robert Englund said he was still finishing 976-EVIL when this one started and wasn't excited at first, but changed his mind while shooting the junkyard scenes. His Freddy makeup took about four hours to apply. On the day of the set visit he also shot inserts as the school nurse in a wig, glasses and cap, then went back into makeup for Freddy close-ups that night.

New Line picked a late summer date so it would miss the big studio releases but still catch teenagers on vacation. Talalay later said post-production lasted about two weeks, with three editors working at once.

During Shapiro’s set visit, Robert Englund filmed inserts as the school nurse in a wig, glasses and nurse’s cap, before returning to makeup for Freddy close-ups that evening.

Filming locations

• Soundstage and warehouse in an industrial district near Six Flags Magic Mountain, California: Main stage work, including the school nurse's office set
• Elm Street house built from the ground up: 1428 Elm Street, built from scratch by co-production designer Mick Strawn's crew
• Principal photography began in Los Angeles on April 27, 1988. Location work included an auto junkyard and graveyard, while interiors, stunt work and many effects sequences were staged in Valencia; the production also built a new Elm Street house, Freddy boiler room, Crave-Inn and giant Roach Motel.

Effects and makeup

The effects were split among several shops. Kevin Yagher's company did the Freddy makeup, with Howard Berger applying it. Steve Johnson's X.F.X. built Freddy's death sequence. Screaming Mad George did Debbie's cockroach transformation. John Carl Buechler's Magical Media Industries built the chest of souls, the pizza of screaming faces and the aged Alice and Freddy makeups. R. Christopher Biggs handled additional makeup effects. Image Engineering did the mechanical effects, and Dream Quest Images did the optical and visual effects.

Mick Strawn and his crew built the Elm Street house from scratch and used forced perspective tricks borrowed from the old TV series Land of the Giants for the oversized sets.

The script and press notes call for Kincaid's dog to pee fire onto Freddy's grave. On set, Jake the dog did the real thing take after take, and the urine was replaced with fire in post.

The film won Best Special Effects at the Sitges film festival.

Brooke Theiss underwent a full upper-body cast and roughly three hours of makeup for Debbie's cockroach transformation.

The finale used a roughly 20-foot mechanical Freddy torso so real performers and stunt people could push through the chest as trapped souls.

Kevin Yagher's Freddy makeup still required close to four hours to apply. Chris Biggs handled resurrection makeup, John Carl Buechler built the radio-controlled souls escaping Freddy's body, and Image Engineering supplied mechanical effects including the waterbed sequence, quicksand and water/land-shark gags.

The film deliberately split effects among specialist crews, with Dream Quest handling optical work while practical creature, makeup and mechanical units handled the physical transformations and set-piece mechanisms.

Production designer Mick Strawn described using forced perspective for the cockroach sequence and adapting oversized-set techniques associated with Land of the Giants.

Screaming Mad George’s cockroach transformation alternated a wearable roach costume with a three-foot puppet, according to his contemporary Freddy Times interview.

Props and costumes

Alice's final look is built from her dead friends' belongings: Debbie's studded leather bracelet, Rick's nunchucks and Sheila's homemade electronic gadget.

Audrey Bansmer designed the costumes. Dana Sanchez was costumer.

Trick or Treat Studios now sells an officially licensed Dream Master Freddy glove built with a copper armature, stainless steel blades and a leather glove, about 14.5 by 4.5 inches.

The Dream Master expanded Freddy's physical effects inventory well beyond the glove: the giant Roach Motel, mechanical hand, waterbed emergence apparatus and radio-controlled chest souls were all purpose-built pieces integrated into the existing Freddy costume/makeup continuity.

Production artifacts

Art and design

• The IMP Awards primary one-sheet credits illustration to Matthew Joseph Peak.

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Craig Safan wrote the score. Varèse Sarabande released it on November 1, 1988 (41:51). The Companion also lists a CD edition dated October 25, 1990. Tracks include Kristen's Haunted Dream, Freddy's Back, Kincaid Killed in Junkyard, Joey's Wet Dream, Drugged to Death, Alice Lured into Dream, Rick's Kung Fu Death, Freddy's Pizza Restaurant, Debbie Checks In/Time Circles, Sheila Sucks Face, Theatre Madness, Freddy's Calliope, Alice Battles Freddy and Corpus Krueger.

Chrysalis released the song soundtrack, produced by Kevin Benson for New Line: Under the Night Stars (Sea Hags), Standing Over You (The Angels, credited as The Angels from Angel City), Don't Be Afraid of Your Dreams (Go West), Back to the Wall (Divinyls), My Way or the Highway (Jimmy Davis & Junction), Love Kills (Vinnie Vincent Invasion), Therapist (Vigil), Rip Her to Shreds (Blondie), Angel (Love/Hate) and Resurrection (Craig Safan).

Songs in the film but not on the album: Nightmare by Tuesday Knight over the opening credits, written by Knight and Micheal Egizi; Anything, Anything (I'll Give You) by Dramarama during the martial arts training; Are You Ready for Freddy by The Fat Boys over the end credits; Fatal Charm by Billy Idol during Joey's last dream; Pride and Joy by Joe Lamont; Rebuilding the Big House by Nick Gilder; I Want Your (Hands on Me) by Sinéad O'Connor with MC Lyte during Debbie's death and the end credits; In the Flesh by Blondie; and Baila Baila by Girl Talk.

The master recording of Tuesday Knight's song Nightmare was long thought lost until it turned up in a box at Warner Bros.

The Sinéad O'Connor song cost twice as much to license as the others because of her success on MTV.

The Fat Boys' Are You Ready for Freddy video features Robert Englund rapping as Freddy while one of the Fat Boys spends a night in the Elm Street house to inherit it. PolyGram put out a 12-inch single in 1988, and Polydor paired it with Louie, Louie on a 7-inch. Vinnie Vincent Invasion's Love Kills video uses film clips, and Chrysalis issued a promo cassette with a custom Freddy intro by Englund.

Safan's score was reissued in Varèse Sarabande's A Nightmare on Elm Street 8-CD box set (October 16, 2015) and Death Waltz Recording Co.'s Box of Souls vinyl set (October 25, 2017). Varèse also used four cues on the 1993 Freddy's Favorites compilation.

Home Media

• 1989 VHS, Media Home Entertainment: pan and scan, with promos for films 1 to 3 and Freddy's Nightmares. A separate Spanish-subtitled VHS came out the same year.
• 1989 VHS, Media Home Entertainment 3-D viewer edition: came with a 3-D viewer promoting The Dream Child.
• 1989 LaserDisc, Media Home Entertainment: pan and scan.
• 1989 VHS and LaserDisc, United American Video Corp.: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, a separate behind-the-scenes documentary from Cummings Entertainment with Englund, Wilcox, Harlin, Talalay and Craven. The LaserDisc has 10 minutes not on the VHS.
• 1993 VHS, Video Treasures: pan and scan, recorded in EP mode.
• 1995 VHS, Video Treasures: Double the Horror set with Dream Warriors.
• 1999 VHS, New Line Home Video: remastered pan and scan with a trailer, a promo for the collections and an interview with Renny Harlin.
• September 21, 1999 DVD, The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection (New Line Platinum Series): includes the bonus disc The Nightmare Series Encyclopedia with the Fat Boys video.
• 2000 DVD, New Line Home Video: digitally remastered with widescreen and full screen versions, the trailer, cast and crew profiles, the screenplay and trivia.
• 2001 VHS, Warner Home Video (UK): remastered PAL with trailer and Harlin interview.
• 2008 DVD, 4 Film Favorites (New Line): films 1 to 4 in widescreen.
• 2012 Blu-ray, New Line (Japan): paired with The Dream Child, with the Encyclopedia featurettes The Finnish Line, Krueger, Freddy Krueger, Hopeless Chest and Let's Make-Up, the Fat Boys video and the trailer.
• 2014 DVD, Walmart exclusive double feature with Dream Warriors (Warner Home Video).
• 2017 DVD, double feature with Dream Warriors (New Line) and the 4-Film Collection: Monster Mayhem (Warner).
• September 30, 2025 4K Ultra HD, A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection (Warner Bros.): HDR, in standard and limited steelbook packaging, with The Finnish Line, Krueger, Freddy Krueger, Hopeless Chest and Let's Makeup.

• Trick or Treat Studios: The Dream Master Freddy Krueger latex mask, sculpted by Justin Mabry (SKU TTWB119).
• Trick or Treat Studios: The Dream Master Deluxe Freddy Krueger Mask with Fedora Hat.
• Trick or Treat Studios: The Dream Master Deluxe Freddy Krueger Glove, sculpted by Anders Eriksen (SKU MAAEWB104).
• NECA: Nightmare on Elm Street Series 2 action figures covered Dream Warriors and The Dream Master.
• The Nightmares on Elm Street: Parts 4 & 5, novelization by Joseph Locke, St. Martin's Mass Market Press, August 1989, 188 pages.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, hardcover adaptation by Bob Italia, Abdo & Daughters, September 1992, 64 pages.
• The Fat Boys, Are You Ready for Freddy 12-inch single, PolyGram, 1988.
• Dramarama, Anything, Anything 45 RPM single, New Rose, 1989.
• Trick or Treat Studios Dream Master Deluxe Freddy Krueger glove.
• Trick or Treat Studios Dream Master Freddy mask and deluxe mask/fedora edition.

Books and publishing

Replica props and masks

The catalog

Trailers & clips

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Press & Promo

Effects

Props

Home Media

Merchandise