A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child Plot

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) is an American slasher film. It is the fifth film in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film's general tone was much more gothic and dark than the films before, and used a blue filter lighting technique in most of the scenes. The film's main titles do not display the "5" which was used in all of the promotional material, TV spots, trailers, and merchandise. The main titles simply say "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child".

The film opened in 1,902 theaters making $8.1 million in its opening weekend. The domestic gross was $22.1 million, the second lowest grossing Nightmare movie.

Taking place shortly after The Dream Master, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel) have now started dating and there is no sign of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Alice begins to have dreams of a young nun, with a name tag for "Amanda Krueger", being locked away in an asylum full of maniacs. Upon graduating from high school, Alice and Dan plan their getaway to Europe. Alice has made some new friends: Greta (Erika Anderson), a supermodel in training, Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter), a future Olympic diver, and Mark (Joe Seely), a comic geek.

As Alice makes her way to work, from graduation, she finds herself back at the asylum. Alice is strolled into an operating room, wearing Amanda's uniform, and screaming in pain. As Alice looks around she sees Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple) on the table, instead of herself, giving birth. As the baby is delivered, Amanda clamors to get to it. The baby breaks free from the doctors and escapes the room. Alice follows it into a church rectory, the same place that Alice defeated Freddy in. Before she can stop him, the baby finds Freddy's clothes and quickly grows into an adult. Amanda shows up to help Alice, but she's disrupted when Freddy slams the church doors closed on her. After these events, Alice finds herself at work, but four hours late.

Alice immediately phones Dan who leaves their friends and rushes over to the diner. Before Dan can make it he falls asleep and Freddy forces him to drive into another vehicle. Alice, after watching Freddy take possession of Dan, faints in the middle of the street. At the hospital, she is informed that she is pregnant with Dan's child. While recouping, she meets a young boy, Jacob (Whitby Hertford). Yvonne later informs Alice that there were no children on her floor, nor is there a children's ward at the hospital. Krueger begins to kill Alice's friends one by one as they fall asleep. First Greta, then later he kills Mark. Alice requests an early ultrasound for her baby, and she soon realizes that Freddy is using her child to get into her friend's dreams. Alice also discovers that Jacob is really her son. It's only when Yvonne barely escapes Krueger, thanks to a little help from Amanda's soul, that she accepts what Alice has been telling her.

Alice sends Yvonne to the abandoned asylum to release Amanda's soul while she sets out to free Jacob. Krueger pulls her into a M.C. Escher-like labyrinth to try and slow her down. Freddy goes back into hiding inside Alice as she finally catches up to Jacob. Upon the revelation that Krueger has been hiding inside of her the whole time, Alice forces him out, but almost dies in the process. After being released by Yvonne, Amanda arrives and instructs Jacob on how to defeat Freddy. Jacob, releasing the power that Krueger has given him, forces Freddy to revert back to an infant. Before he can escape, though, Amanda picks him up and absorbs him back inside. Freddy begins to fight from within and the church doors close. A year goes by; Alice gives birth to Jacob, and is finally at peace from the nightmares.

The soundtrack featured ten tracks. The first side was essentially all heavy metal, with the second side essentially being all rap and hip-hop.

Romeo's Daughter - Heaven In The Back Seat
Bruce Dickinson - Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter
W.A.S.P. - Savage
Mammoth - Can't Take The Hurt
Slave Raider - What Do You Know About Rock 'n' Roll
Whodini - Any Way I Gotta Swing It
Samantha Fox - Now I Lay Me Down
Kool Moe Dee - Let's Go
Doctor Ice - Word Up Doc!
Schoolly D. - Livin' In The Jungle

Bruce Dickinson, famed singer of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, wrote and performed the song Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter for this movie's soundtrack. The song, later re-recorded by the band Iron Maiden itself, went on to be their first (and so far, only) #1 UK single.