Many fans consider A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master the beginning of the end for Freddy Krueger’s reign as cinema’s scariest killer, but could the sequel’s original plans have changed? When Wes Craven created the character of Freddy Krueger in the early '80s, it is unlikely that he knew just how influential the character would be in decades to come. After the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween, countless slasher movies had been rushed into production in the early ‘80s, all of them aping the simple formula of the 1978 hit.
Some, such as Friday the 13th, managed to spin countless sequels out of a fairly basic premise, but most earned woeful reviews due to their blatant lack of imagination or originality. When it arrived in cinemas in 1984, though, Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street was undeniably a different sort of slasher movie. The kills were much more inventive and ambitious, with the unforgettable villain Freddy Krueger attacking victims in the one place they thought they were safest - their dreams. Robert Englund’s talkative slasher was a far cry from the hulking, wordless Micheal Myers clones of his competitors (although interestingly, Craven originally wanted a more Jason Voorhees-style Freddy, and almost hired Kane Hodder for the role)
This inventive supernatural spin on the tired formula was an instant hit, prompting the rushed production of a disappointing sequel. Having learned their lesson from the reviews received by 1985's Freddy’s Revenge, the franchise producers ensured the next Nightmare On Elm Street movie lived up to the original, and 1987’s Dream Warriors remains for many the high point of the series. However, the next sequel The Dream Master saw the series start a slow decline - one it could have avoided if it had stuck to its original plans.
Wes Craven’s Unmade Nightmare On Elm Street 4 Draft
When production began on The Dream Master, creator Wes Craven was given a chance to return to the franchise years before Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. However, the producers were not impressed by Craven’s pitch. Per producer Sara Fisher, they decided not to go with his"illogical" concept which involved "... time travel within dreams that broke all the rules of dreams. This could sound to some like an odd complaint, as the supernatural fantasy horror of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise was better equipped to incorporate time travel than, for example, the comparatively realistic horror of the Halloween movies (which flirted with fantastical elements in later, lesser sequels). Nevertheless, while Craven remains a horror legend, this may have been a case where the franchise’s producers had a point when they vetoed his idea. Although time-traveling within dreams is a convention-breaking notion, the conceit would get complicated fast, and Freddy Krueger could have lost audiences by adding sci-fi to its fantasy premise. After all, as a character in Craven’s own Scream 4 noted years later of the fictional Stab series, no slasher franchise is worth watching by the time it starts adding time travel to its story.
Tom McLoughlin’s Nightmare On Elm Street 4
He may not be a household name, but Tom McLoughlin is famous among slasher fans for reviving the Friday the 13h franchise with the surprisingly funny, action-packed, self-aware Jason Lives. The sequel was the movie that showed Friday the 13th movies could be funny and scary, adding an edge of meta-humor to proceedings that would not be replicated by a mainstream slasher until New Nightmare almost a decade later. Evidently, the Nightmare on Elm Street producers was impressed by his pedigree, as they offered him the job of directing Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. However, McLoughlin balked upon discovering he wouldn’t have creative control, as the producers were already shooting the project (without a director in place) when they approached him.
McLoughlin, a solid slasher helmer in his own right, likely would have directed a serviceable Nightmare On Elm Street installment but when he left the production, he was replaced by Renny Harlin. Harlin once said of Robert Englund's Freddy that audiences were drawn to him because of his humor and had come to see him as the hero as the series evolved. Harlin also stated, "And because of that popularity, I'm faced with showing Freddy in a more heroic light and giving him more screen time." Indirect as it may have been, the absence of McLoughlin was central to the defanging of Freddy, a problem that would hurt the franchise's reputation, and even caused Craven himself to base the plot of New Nightmare around how un-scary Freddy had become.
Rick Johnson’s Original (Better) Death
Harlin may have wanted more funny one-liners for Freddy, but his funniest contribution was actually a death scene that was intended to be chilling - not that the director was to blame. Arguably the worst death in the entire series appears in Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master when the unintentionally funny dojo scene sees an invisible Freddy beat up poor Rick Johnson. It’s a hilariously un-scary spectacle, but the scene wasn’t actually Rick’s original scripted death. A spectacularly gory elevator accident was planned for Rick, and in fairness to future Cutthroat Island director Harlin, the dojo sequence was only used when this proved prohibitively expensive to shoot and an alternative had to be quickly whipped up.
Ellie Cornell (Not Lisa Wilcox) Stars In Nightmare On Elm Street 4
According to Halloween 4 star Ellie Cornell, she was sought out for a role in The Dream Master, but couldn’t commit (or even audition) due to nabbing a lead role in the competing slasher series. Nonetheless, Cornell claims producers were seeking out an “Ellie Cornell archetype” in her absence, an interesting note that leaves viewers to wonder how different The Dream Master’s Alice might have been if played by the actor the creators originally wanted. With a different lead, Craven’s time travel angle, a different director who wasn't as invested in Freddy's funny side and a better death for Rick, the original version of A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master could have been a profoundly different outing for Freddy Krueger and one that may have held onto his scare factor.