History YMMV / ANightmareOnElmStreet5TheDreamChild

* FridgeBrilliance: Freddy's make-up not being as scary as it was in previous movies actually makes sense when remembering his face became more horrific the stronger he got. Here, we know he hasn't fully recovered from Alice's beatdown and he had no more extra souls to rely on so of course he doesn't look as scary as he used to.
* FridgeHorror: Alice turns down the prospect of aborting Jacob because she's seen and interacted with his spirit and considers him a part of herself and Dan. However, if Alice ''did'' abort Jacob that would've cut off Freddy's link to Springwood... yet what would that have meant for Dan and Greta? The previous movies showed Freddy retained the souls of his victims even after he got defeated, so Alice aborting Jacob would've only meant Dan and Greta were still trapped inside Freddy.
* FridgeLogic: Alice's doctor is most likely going to be fired for calling Dan's parents and telling them about her erratic behavior during the ultrasound, because unless they were listed as an emergency contact, he just breached Patient/Doctor Confidentiality laws by giving them her personal health information.
** Add to that, until Jacob was born, there was really no way to verify that the baby was Dan's. We know he was, and Alice would have maintained that, since she wasn't with anyone else and she loved Dan. But legally, the Doctor was committing a serious ethics breach on behalf of people he could not yet verify had any stake in this child's life.

* FridgeLogic: Alice’s doctor is most likely going to be fired for calling Dan’s parents and telling them about her erratic behavior during the ultrasound, because unless they were listed as an emergency contact, he just breached Patient/Doctor Confidentiality laws by giving them her personal health information.

* SignatureScene: [[spoiler:The horrible and cruel death of Dan.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** One of the previous drafts of the movie featured a sequence where Alice witnesses Amanda Krueger's memories of giving Freddy up for adoption, as well as the abuse he suffered from a particular hateful Mother Superior who ran the orphanage. Alice would've then confronted Amanda's spirit and blamed her for how Freddy turned out since she gave him up as an infant. This would've likely been seen as offensive due to recent discussions about the traumatic experiences of forcing women to care for children conceived via rape since they had no say in the matter and are being expected to raise kids connected to their rapists. The finished movie removed this entire sequence and stuck with emphasizing how victimized Amanda was by the whole experience, up to committing suicide when Freddy was originally left off on that technicality.
** While Greta's death sequence initially seem to be built around eating disorders since she's a model-in-training, the finished product as well as Greta's personality have less to do with that and more to do with her mother's abusive attitude. The high chair, the doll, the diaper dress, getting fed to and treated like an actual baby while everyone at the party laughs in amusement, all of it represents Racine Gibson's babying/objectifying treatment of her daughter. The subtext actually fits into the movie's overall themes of parenthood more seamlessly.

* {{Moe}}: Greta, due to her empathetic CryCute moments after the first death, her insecurity about her and Mark's feelings for each other, her playful demeanor during the graduation scene, and her IndifferentBeauty moments when her mother is being a StageMom.

** One of the previous drafts of the movie featured a sequence where Alice witnesses Amanda Krueger's memories of giving Freddy up for adoption, as well as the abuse he suffered from a particular hateful Mother Superior who ran the orphanage. Alice would've then confronted Amanda's spirit and blamed her for how Freddy turned out since she gave him up as an infant. This would've basically ventured into UnfortunateImplications due to recent discussions about the traumatic experiences of forcing women to care for children conceived via rape since they had no say in the matter and are being expected to raise kids connected to their rapists. The finished movie removed this entire sequence and stuck with emphasizing how victimized Amanda was by the whole experience, up to committing suicide when Freddy was originally left off on that technicality.

* UncertainAudience: This is a film that attempts to return the series to its darker roots by keeping Freddy in the shadows more, integrating more gothic imagery and adult topics, and building up the kills as being more gruesome and shocking than before. At the same time, however, Freddy keeps his snarky, jokester persona from ''[[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster The Dream Master]]'' but cranked UpToEleven with even more one-liners than before, which results in all of the kills [[{{Narm}} falling into laughable territory]] and [[MoodDissonance contrasts the darker and more serious tone]] being presented here, almost as if the writers of the ''Series/FreddysNightmares'' TV series wrote his dialogue. In the end it leaves the viewers wondering who its intended audience really is.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The general consensus is despite the ContestedSeuqel status, ''The Dream Child'' is one of the lesser films in the franchise, with a gothic visual flair that does not save a script that can't balance the scares and humor.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Alice's right as a mother is explored upon in this film. The film doesn't try to pass moral judgement on abortion, nor is the process considered right or wrong. When Mark asks if Alice has thought about not having Jacob, Alice says no because she considers him a part of herself and Dan, not because she thinks the idea itself is wrong. The whole film is about Alice trying to keep her child from other people, such as Freddy, who is trying to warp Jacob into a tool he can use, and Dan's parents, who think they have a right to Jacob because he's their grandson and even refer to him as "It." In fact, Dan, despite [[spoiler: dying early in the film]], is given more consideration than Alice is, as Alice's own doctor actually called Dan's parents and told them she was hysterical. The film treats this course of action as wrong.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: All three of Alice's new friends are arguably some of the more popular supporting characters of the franchise, despite the problems with the movie itself.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A major point of contention many fans have with this entry is that it’s too bleak and mean-spirited to really care about anybody, from Alice reliving Amanda Krueger’s rape by the 100 Maniacs via nightmare, to nice guys like Dan and Greta being killed in vicious and cruel ways, and Alice being pregnant with Dan’s baby. As a result, a lot of people feel it's trying too hard to be controversial for controversy's sake.

* UncertainAudience: This is a film that attempts to return the series to its darker roots by keeping Freddy in the shadows more, integrating more gothic imagery and adult topics, and building up the kills as being more gruesome and shocking than before. At the same time, however, Freddy keeps his snarky, jokester persona from ''[[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster The Dream Master]]'' but cranked UpToEleven with even more one-liners than before, and ''all'' of the kills [[{{Narm}} falling into laughable territory]] with concepts like the Freddy Motorcycle, Chef Freddy and even Super Freddy, which [[MoodDissonance contrasts the darker and more serious tone]] being presented here, almost as if the writers of the ''Series/FreddysNightmares'' TV series wrote his dialogue. In the end it leaves the viewers wondering who its intended audience really is.

** Greta Gibson is arguably the most popular character to come out of this movie, most likely due to how... [[BodyHorror disturbing]] her [[spoiler: death sequence]] was. Photos and screenshots of her tend to be the most frequently posted ones online in connection to the movie, but beyond that she was given just enough screentime and characterization (such as her mourning [[spoiler: Dan]]) to make her likable. There's even fan fiction that puts her in the main character role. Hell, there's even an [[https://www.discogs.com/Nicole-Dollanganger-Greta-Gibson-Forever/release/7832154 album]] named after her.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The general consensus is that it is one of the worst films in the franchise, with a gothic look that does not save the problematic script.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: For as rushed and problematic as the movie turned out to be, its cast is clearly aware of the film's issues and did the best they could with their limited time. Erika Anderson gives one of the better performances as Greta Gibson, [[spoiler:even though Greta dies before the halfway point]], thanks to making Greta a believably sympathetic and caring young woman.

* VindicatedByHistory: For quite some time after its release it was considered among the worst of the Nightmare movies, but over the years has gained a new appreciation from quite a few fans of the series, who like its darker tone and atmosphere, mature and deeper themes, creative kills, sympathetic, well written characters and a more malicious depiction of Freddy than the other movies.

* VindicatedByHistory: For quite some time after its release it was considered among the worst of the Nightmare movies, but over the years has gained a new appreciation from quite a few fans of the series, who like its darker tone, creative kills, sympathetic, well written characters and a more malicious depiction of Freddy than the other movies.