Across 1987’s Dream Warriors and 1988’s Dream Master, we saw the filmmakers lead Nightmare on Elm Street demon Freddy Krueger farther and farther away from his origins as a nasty, vicious killer. Sure, he still slaughtered plenty of innocents, but he developed a flair and wittiness that made him popular.

1989's The Dream Child tries to straddle the fence. In the last film, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) thought she escaped the terror of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) once and for all.

However, this doesn’t prove true, and Freddy has a new target. Now pregnant, Alice’s unborn son turns into the vehicle through which Freddy hopes to stage his resurrection.

As mentioned earlier, Child somewhat veers away from the camp of the prior two movies. For one, we find a much darker and more sinister tone, and a few scenes become genuinely disturbing, such as the one in which Freddy's mother Amanda gets attacked by 100 nutbags.

However, we still find Freddy in his nightclub comic glory. The public loved the wacky and wise-cracking version of the character, and there was no way the filmmakers would slaughter that cash cow.

As such, Child can't quite make up its mind about what it wants to be. Is this a nasty, dark horror film or is it just another comic book affair?

I can't answer that because the movie never functions consistently enough for either side to dominate. This makes for a confused, somewhat muddled picture, but it's one that I nonetheless find moderately enjoyable.

The comedic Freddy undercuts the film's scarier aspersions at times, but not to a horrible degree. To a certain extent, the two sides can co-exist.

Admittedly, I wish they'd let the horror aspects of the plot take the lead, as the cutesy Freddy starts to get pretty tiresome. Sure, some of the lines can be witty, but that side of the picture begins to seem stale since it feels like we've already seen those antics.

Granted, we'd also already witnessed a disturbing, fierce Freddy in the first two films. However, it'd been so long since then that a more menacing and crueler presence would have appeared fresh by Child.

Since this dichotomy becomes the movie's chief flaw, here's a list of the main things Child does right. First of all, it maintains a connection to the prior film.

In fact, Warriors, Master and Child actually form something of a trilogy, as they come together in a reasonably sensible manner. The biggest mistake made by Nightmare 2: Freddy’s Revenge was to tamper with continuity, and the subsequent three pictures were careful to keep links among them.

This makes the entire affair more satisfying, as it creates the impression that something more substantial occurs. Consistency is important in this kind of movie, as you can get away with almost any length of absurdity as long as you play by the universe's "rules". Though Child stretches these dictates, it still keeps to them fairly well.

After a series of weak leading ladies in Nightmare films, Lisa Wilcox provides a refreshing change with her work as Alice in this picture and its predecessor. She has a tougher job in Child and she handles the part reasonably well.

The Nightmare series wasn’t known for its terrific acting, and Wilcox would never win any awards. However, she creates a nicely strong-willed and forceful presence.

Like its immediate predecessor, A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 remains middle of the pack Nightmare material. It tries harder to be a true horror movie but since it can't quite make up its mind, it comes across a little weakly. Still, it provides enough solid material to deserve a look.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not a bad presentation, the transfer showed its limitations.

Definition was acceptable, as the film showed reasonable accuracy. I’d never call it razor-sharp, but it usually offered fair delineation. Sporadic soft shots popped up, though, especially during interiors.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies occurred, but I saw light edge haloes. Print flaws were absent.

Colors seemed acceptable. Child provided a somewhat stylized palette that went natural at times but that also favored blues and reds at times. The hues lacked much pop but they appeared passable overall.

Blacks were moderately inky, and low-light shots tended to appear somewhat dense. The transfer seemed dated but decent.

Similar thoughts greeted the erratic DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Child. On the positive side, the soundscape offered good stereo presence for the score, and effects added breadth. Material occasionally popped up from the side and rear channels in a fairly involving and active manner.

Speech appeared a little reedy and thin, and edginess occurred as well. Still, the lines showed good intelligibility and weren’t a major weakness.

Music demonstrated decent range, mainly with some positive low end. Highs tended to feel a little shrill, though.

Effects fell into the same range. Those elements boasted nice bass but suffered from roughness and distortion at times. All of this left us with a track that came with notable ups and downs.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD? Audio felt a bit warmer and richer, while visuals seemed tighter and smoother. Though the movie still showed its age, it benefited from the Blu-ray treatment.

Under Behind the Story, we find five featurettes: “Womb Raiders” (6:23), “The Sticky Floor” (5:45), “Take the Stairs” (0:56), “Hopkins Directs” (0:35) and “A Slight Miscaluclation” (1:26). Across these, we hear from director Stephen Hopkins, producer Rachel Talalay, screenwriters John Skipp and Craig Spector, visual effects supervisor Alan Munro, special effects artist David Miller, and actor Robert Englund.

The “Story” clips cover Hopkins’ approach to the material, story/characters and screenplay, symbolism, effects and set design, and thoughts about the franchise circa 1989. “Story” provides a scattered but informative set of segments.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we locate two music videos. These come for Fat Boys’ “Are You Ready for Freddy?” and Whodini’s “Anyway I Gotta Swing It”.

I love me some 80s rap, but neither of these songs holds up 30 years later. As for the videos, “Ready” offers easily the more creative, as it creates its own Freddy-related haunted house story.

Less ambitious, “Swing” mixes movie clips with lip-synch performance. Despite some dopes who dance in Freddy garb, it seems forgettable.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child clearly falls in the middle of the pack compared to other Nightmare movies. The film has quite a few flaws but it generally offers an interesting experience. The Blu-ray brings acceptable picture and audio along with minor bonus materials. This becomes a decent but unexceptional horror flick.

Note that the Blu-ray of Dream Child can only be found as part of a seven-movie “Nightmare on Elm Street Collection”. While the first flick can be purchased on its own while the second and third appear in a “two-fer” disc, films four through seven appear solely in this package.