This Day in Horror History: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD Opened in 1989
On this day in horror history, the fifth installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child with Lisa Wilcox and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger was released in 1989.
It opened in third place with $8.1M behind Ron Howard’s Parenthood and James Cameron’s The Abyss. Not bad considering it’s $8M budget.
The film snagged $3.6M in its second weekend before dropping out of the Top 10 in the third. Overall, it grossed $22.1M at the U.S. box office.
While that (currently) makes it the second-lowest-grossing Elm Street movie, it was the highest-grossing slasher film released in 1989.
Written by Leslie Bohem, the fifth film focuses on survivor Alice who believes Freddy Krueger has been eliminated for good. She optimistically hopes to start a life with fellow survivor Dan. The nightmares begin soon enough, though, and Alice learns she is pregnant. When her friends start dying, Alice suspects that Freddy is using the fetus within her as a weapon. Can she fight the demon while protecting her unborn child?
Directed by Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Lost in Space) it stars Lisa Wilcox, Kelly Jo Minter, Erika Anderson, Danny Hassel, Beatrice Boepple, Whit Hertford, Joe Seely, Nicholas Mele, Valorie Armstrong, Burr DeBenning, Clarence Felder, and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.
The film sports a 32% approval rating over on Rotten Tomatoes with a Critics Consensus that reads: A Nightmare on Elm Street feels exhausted by this cheesy fifth entry, bogged down by a convoluted mythology while showing none of the chilling technique that kicked off the franchise.
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