A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child

"Freddy delivers."

1989 1h 29m EN

😐

5.4

MID

★5.4TMDB · 1,493

HorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The pregnant Alice finds Freddy Krueger striking through the sleeping mind of her unborn child, hoping to be reborn into the real world.

“Freddy delivers.”

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Cast

Lisa Wilcox
Alice Johnson
Robert Englund
Freddy Krueger
Erika Anderson
Greta Gibson
Valorie Armstrong
Mrs. Jordan
Michael Ashton
Gurney Orderly
Kelly Jo Minter
Yvonne
Danny Hassel
Dan Jordan
Nicholas Mele
Dennis Johnson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Stephen Hopkins
Writers: Leslie Bohem, Peter Ramsey, John Skipp
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

89 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

37 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Stephen Hopkins, shot by Peter Levy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Jay Ferguson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Brent A. Schoenfeld shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Lisa Wilcox and Robert Englund and Erika Anderson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Freddy delivers.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Stephen Hopkins directs. Peter Levy behind the camera. Jay Ferguson scores. Brent A. Schoenfeld cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

189 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
237 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Stephen Hopkins, shot by Peter Levy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Jay Ferguson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Brent A. Schoenfeld shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Lisa Wilcox and Robert Englund and Erika Anderson carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Freddy delivers.".
9IMDB entry: tt0097981 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 24 themes, including "dreams", "baby", "monster", "nightmare".
11Released under 37 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Levy
Original score: Jay Ferguson
Editing: Brent A. Schoenfeld
Production design: C.J. Strawn
Costume design: Sara Markowitz
Makeup / hair: Roy Knyrim
VFX supervisor: Greg Nicotero
Stunt coordinator: Michael Cassidy
Runtime: 89 min · 1h 29m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $8,000,000
Box office: $22,168,359
Return: 277% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)

Awards

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

A slasher film series revolving around people who are stalked and killed in their dreams by Freddy Krueger.

Also by

Stephen Hopkins

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-10-12
★ 5/10
Kids... always a disappointment. This review contains an implied spoiler in last paragraph By the time A Nightmare on Elm Street had rolled around to this, part five, Freddy Krueger had long stopped being a scary bogeyman. He was now a figure of fun, a purveyor of one line quips, while the makers were desperately trying to come up with new ideas in which to have the pizza faced Krueger still exist, and thus have more films for him to be in... Here we are sold the idea that a foetus can dream, so not only do we get a horror staple of sex being bad for you, but it lets Freddy (Robert Englund) back in the fold - in this another garbled screenplay. Cue friends of the pregnant Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox) being stalked and offed by the old stinky green and red jumper killer. It's all very frenetic and cartoonish, with gore replacing scares. There's a little ingenuity with some of the kills, such as a comic book section that has a good thought process, but once the laughable finale arrives - cuz - like - love conquers all - then you may be digging out parts 1 & 3 to remind yourself how good this series used to be. 5/10
Andre Gonzales2023-04-17
★ 6/10
This one was just ok. For some reason the kid in this movie just bothered me. Yea he looked scary but he was a bad actor. The movie itself would have been better with a different actor or just cut him out altogether.