A year after A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors was released, Freddy returned to slash up more teenagers in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Freddy Krueger’s fourth film features a new group of teenagers, while also bring back Kristen, Joey, and Kincaid from Dream Warriors.
While the characters from the previous film come back for the fourth movie, The Dream Master mainly focuses on Alice (Lisa Wilcox), who is haunted by Krueger after being pulled into one of Kristen’s dreams. The film has been out for over 30 years now, but some things about the movie may still surprise you. Here are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.
Englund Wasn’t Originally Behind The Project
While the A Nightmare on Elm Street series had several directors work on the franchise, Robert Englund was always a constant. Englund was almost replaced in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, but New Line Cinema quickly realized he was a critical part of the franchise. That being said, Englund wasn’t originally behind the idea of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.
Englund admitted in the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy that he was worn out from his other acting gigs and didn’t really like the idea that was presented for Nightmare 4. However, the director Renny Harlin won Englund and others over after the first cut of footage was put together. After that, Englund described the film as the “MTV Nightmare”, calling the film, “energetic and kinetic”.
They Ran Out Of Money While Shooting
At one point during the shoot for The Dream Master, the filmmakers ran out of money. This is why Rick (Andras Jones) fights an invisible Freddy for his death scene. Originally, Rick was supposed to die in a complex sequence involving the elevator seen in the movie. The bottom of the elevator was originally supposed to crumble away and have Rick fall into a dark void, but instead, they had him fight an invisible Freddy using his karate moves.
Jones said he even studied karate for a few weeks prior to filming, but once he was on set, they just wanted him to do roundhouse punches. Jones even tore his stitches from his appendix surgery and had to be rushed to the hospital.
The Film’s Success Was A Surprise To Everyone
Despite getting mostly positive reviews from fans and critics for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, New Line Cinema still wasn’t quite sure they had a hit franchise on their hands. Due to lots of mishaps behind the scenes and a rushed schedule, it was a surprise to everyone when their film got glowing reviews and made a ton of money.
Harlin revealed that at the time, The Dream Master was the highest-grossing independent film ever made. The Dream Master would hold its spot as the highest-grossing Nightmare on Elm Street film until 2003 when Freddy vs Jason took its place.
Englund’s Dentures Fell Into Toy Newkirk’s Mouth
Toy Newkirk played the character Sheila in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, who was a nerdy girl with asthma. During her death scene, a robotic claw comes out of Sheila’s desk, which the director now regrets. She then saw Krueger, who came over and literally sucked the life out of her, leaving behind a deflated and dried up corpse.
Newkirk has revealed that this was her first on-screen kiss, but it didn’t go exactly to plan as Englund’s Freddy dentures fell into her mouth when he kissed her. The glove that Englund had on was also the one with real blades since the shot was so up close.
Englund’s Favorite Scene Is In Part 4
Everybody has their favorite A Nightmare on Elm Street movie, but Robert Englund’s favorite scene of the entire franchise is in The Dream Master. The scene comes after Alice leaves The Crave Inn and rushes to Dan’s car. Alice tells Dan she’s going to drive before they get in the car and drive off.
The scene repeats a couple of times before Dan realizes that they are dreaming since the same sequence is happening over and over again. Englund has stated on the Never Sleep Again documentary that this is his favorite scene in the entire franchise because of how well the scene captures what a dream looks and feels like.
New Line Cinema Wasn’t Confident In The Director
By the time New Line Cinema was ready to make A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, they were scrambling to find a director. When Renny Harlin applied for the directing gig, New Line really wasn’t interested in him. He was an up and coming director from Finland, who had only made a few films in his career. Harlin was persistent and went back to New Line (unannounced and uninvited) five times before Bob Shaye gave him the job.
During the shoot, Harlin said that Shaye was always cold towards him, but after the film was released, Shaye invited him to drive around in his limo to go watch people’s reactions to the film around town. Harlin’s career quickly took off after this and today, Renny Harlin is the most successful Finnish director in Hollywood.
It Isn’t Known Why Patricia Arquette Didn’t Return
Today Patricia Arquette is an Academy Award-winning actress, but in 1987, her first-ever acting gig came in the role of Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Arquette was replaced by Tuesday Knight for Nightmare 4, but it still isn’t exactly known why she didn’t return.
Rodney Eastman seemed to suggest that Bob Shaye wouldn’t pay her what her agents were asking, while Robert Englund also brought up the fact that Arquette was quickly becoming a popular actress. Eastman also mentioned that having a heartfelt reunion between his character Joey and Kristen was hard in Nightmare 4 since Tuesday Knight was acting in Arquette’s place.
They Build An Enormous Freddy Chest
At the end of the film, Alice is able to defeat Freddy by letting true evil (Freddy) look upon itself. This causes the souls of the children to literally rip their way free from Freddy’s chest and tear his head open. To pull the effect off, the effects department built a giant prop of Freddy’s chest of souls.
While the effect looked cool, it wasn’t mounted properly and actually fell over during one of their takes. They had a woman named Michiko supporting the prop from the rafters of the set, who came tumbling down when the prop fell over.
Toy Newkirk Almost Had To Do ADR
Toy Newkirk had a memorable role as Sheila in The Dream Master, but her work behind the scenes wasn’t always the easiest. Not only did Englund’s dentures fall into her mouth, but she also almost had to redo all of her lines with ADR. Newkirk explained in the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy that Renny Harlin told her she had to ADR all of her scenes because she didn’t sound black enough.
She said at the time she was really offended by the comment, but that Harlin later thanked her for calling him out on it. However, in the documentary, Harlin denied that this actually happened and jokingly blamed it on Bob Shaye.
They Were Filming While The Script Was Being Written
With the positive reception of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, New Line Cinema was in a rush to get the next installment out. Most films won’t start filming until the script is finished, but that wasn’t the case for The Dream Master. William Kotzwinkle and Brian Helgeland are credited as the writers for the film, but by the time they started shooting, they only had a rough draft of the script to work with.
The 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike also affected the film, making Harlin rely on more visuals than actual storytelling. One of the makeup artists, Howard Berger, even said that they were still shooting a scene two weeks before the film was set to hit theaters.