After the debacle that was A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, 1987's A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors firmly resuscitated the budding franchise with its spark and emphasis on action. The movie didn't live up to the heights of the first film, but it branched out into new territory while remaining fairly true to the series' "rules".

Every Nightmare featured a conclusion that made it really, truly, totally, honestly completely look like Freddy was finally gone. As such, every succeeding Nightmare sequel stretched the lengths of credulity just a little farther to resurrect the character.

Granted, when we deal with a universe that features a nutbag who kills teens in their sleep, you can get away with all sorts of bizarre activity. Nonetheless, sometimes the material goes just a little too far.

That doesn't quite happen in 1988’s A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, though. It picks up neatly where Warriors ended.

We find surviving teen Kristen and her pals Joey and Kincaid alive, but not all that well, since Kristen's experiencing nightmares again. Kincaid and Joey try to convince her that she's nuts, but she feels certain Herr Krueger has somehow managed to escape his final demise.

I believed her because she managed a tremendous metamorphosis in the year since Warriors - in fact, Kristen looks and acts like a completely different person in Master!

This may be due to the fact she is a completely different person. For reasons unknown, Patricia Arquette didn't return as Kristen so the absurdly-named Tuesday Knight - a woman who bears very little resemblance to Arquette – replaced her.

Kristen's continued involvement with Der Fredmeister causes her other friends to become ensnared in his web. It seems that even if he kills all of the children of the Elm Street parents who torched him - his original motive – Freddy just can't get enough of that sweet stuff.

Freddy wants new souls so Kristen and her friends become his path to do so. Key to his plot is Alice (Lisa Wilcox), a buddy who gains Kristen's ability to draw others into her dreams.

Bad move, babe, since Freddy now wants to use Alice to absorb more souls. I don't think it can be considered a spoiler to say that he succeeds to a large degree. If it ruins your enjoyment of the film because I mention that Freddy kills some kids, then you really need to get out more often.

Master continues the development of the wise-cracking Freddy we saw in Warriors, so gone forever is the more vicious, demonic character of the first couple of movies. In his place is this still semi-fearsome monster who nonetheless loses a lot of his scariness due to his wittier personality.

As with Warriors, this film plays more like an action flick than as a horror movie, especially as it becomes more and more absurd. Some of the killings really go for ridiculous effects.

However, it works fairly well. The movie comes across as tremendously dated, and not just due to the various styles we witness.

No, the flick bears the unmistakably glib and flashy essence of the 1980s, and it's this factor that probably harms it the most.

Nonetheless, Master offers some fun comic book thrills with Freddy. The story isn't as deep or as clever as that of Warriors, and I think the filmmakers knew that.

As such, they took the film into a more superficial style that strived to hide the movie's deficiencies. It does so fairly well.

At least they had the good sense to make the plot and characters fit within the Nightmare universe. That sense of continuity helps make the movie appear more coherent than it actually is.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 isn't a great movie but it provides a reasonably entertaining little experience. It resides firmly in the middle of the series, as it is neither as good as some of the others but it also avoids the pitfalls of the crummiest entries.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. I didn’t expect much from the transfer, so I was pleased by the pretty positive results.

Sharpness was usually good. A little softness affected wider shots, but any lack of definition was typical for films of this one’s era. Overall clarity appeared fairly appealing.

I saw no jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to cause issues, as this became a clean image, and grain seemed natural.

With a palette that emphasized reds and blues as well as greens for a few shots, the colors of Master worked well. I thought the hues came across as well-depicted, with a nice boost from HDR.

Blacks were mostly dark and firm, and low-light shots offered solid clarity. HDR added impact to contrast and whites. The image turned into a winner.

Although the first three movies hit screens with mono audio, Master reached theaters with a stereo presentation. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos remix held up nicely.

The soundscape opened up better than any of the film’s predecessors and turned into a surprisingly involving mix. Music showed nice stereo presence, while effects offered good localization.

Those components managed to blend smoothly and they moved around the room in a satisfying manner. The surrounds contributed a fair amount of information and helped make this a relatively impressive track for its era.

Audio quality seemed positive, though it still showed its age. Lines always remained intelligible and reasonably natural despite a smidgen of edginess on occasion. Effects showed nice range and clarity.

Music went with some of the treble-heavy pop-rock trends of the late 1980s but the score and songs still offered pretty good range and vivacity. This became a high-caliber reworking of the original material.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the prior Blu-ray? The Atmos audio expanded the prior 5.1 to a moderate degree but quality remained similar.

The UHD’s visuals seemed better defined and more vivid than the BD’s. This turned into an appealing upgrade.

We find four featurettes. Krueger, Freddy Krueger runs eight minutes, 18 seconds and involves New Nine Theatrical Distribution President Al Shapiro, director Renny Harlin, producers Rachel Talalay and Robert Shaye, and screenwriters Jim and Ken Wheat.

This show looks at how Harlin came to the film and his impact on the project as well as aspects of the screenplay and production. It gives us a good view of some complications involved with the movie.

With Hopeless Chest, we find a three-minute, 47-second reel that includes special effects designers Steve Johnson and John Carl Buechler and actor Robert Englund. We learn some fun details about the film’s effects here.

Let’s Makeup lasts two minutes, 22 seconds and features makeup designer Howard Berger. He tells us about his work on Freddy in this short but useful clip.

Finally, The Finnish Line goes for two minutes, 29 seconds and brings notes from Harlin as he discusses his work on the film. This offers another quick but informative reel.

Note that the BD included the film’s trailer but the 4K UHD dropped it.

Though A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master marks a decline from the heights of its immediate predecessor, it still offers a fairly interesting and exciting experience. It should be regarded as pretty much "middle of the road" for Nightmare films. The 4K UHD brings positive picture and audio along with minor supplements. This turns into a watchable horror experience.

Note that as of November 2025, this version of Dream Master appears only as part of a Nightmare on Elm Street “7-Film Collection’. As implied, it also includes the original 1984 movie as well as the franchise’s five other sequels.