Line #13 YMMV/ANightmareOnElmStreet5TheDreamChild


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Not so much a '''character''' ''per se'', but the rundown church itself. As Freddy is being reborn the window behind him explodes and blows him away in the process. Was it just a cool effect for the shock of his rebirth, or was there still some good left in the church that tried to stop Freddy before he could be properly reborn?
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/KoolMoeDee's "Let's Go" which covers the entire credit sequence.
3	* ContestedSequel: Aside from the second film, probably the most divisive of the sequels. Some fans ''really'' love it due to its strong cast and dark, gothic visuals, whereas others ''really'' hate the clash between said visuals and a Freddy who acts even goofier than in the previous two films (though to be fair, he acts even sillier in ''Freddy's Dead''; it's just less pronounced because the ''rest'' of the film is also much DenserAndWackier).
4	* EnsembleDarkhorse: All three of Alice's new friends are some of the more popular supporting characters of the franchise, despite the problems with the movie itself.
5	** 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.
6	** Yvonne stands out a lot among Elm Street and slasher movie fans as being the franchise's only important and surviving Black character while being acted and well-written enough that she avoided being ''just'' the movie's "Designated Black Character." It helps that Creator/KellyJoMinter has starred in quite a number of horror movies besides this one.
7	** Mark Gray's decently remembered for his general niceness, willingness to believe Alice, and surviving one dream attack by luck, then turning himself into a comic book superhero to fight Freddy in a second dream.
8	* HilariousInHindsight:
9	** Thanks to the concept of NightmareFuel, Freddy's "fuel injection" line is now more appropriate than ever.
10	** Decades before Freddy's appearance in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'': [[spoiler:Amanda wins. Babality!]]
11	** Freddy mocking comic fans and turning into a supervillain version of himself, considering how Creator/RobertEnglund would become a go-to guy for voicing characters like [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Felix Faust]], [[WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderman The Vulture]], [[WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow Dormammu]], and [[VideoGame/Injustice2 the Scarecrow.]]
12	* JustHereForGodzilla: It's a safe bet that what usually draws people to this installment despite the poor reviews were the extended versions of [[spoiler: Dan's and Greta's]] deaths because of how horrifying they were.
13	* LoveToHate: Greta's mom has about half the amount of screentime as Greta does, and manages to do a very good job of acting like a domineering twit living in a fantasy world where she's identical to her hotter and ''much'' nicer daughter.
14	* MisaimedFandom: At one point, Freddy forcefully fuses a character with his motorcycle. The process looks ''very'' painful, with pipes and wires piercing through his flesh, skin peeling off and pieces of machinery inserting themselves into his body all over. It is...gruesome...and if you look the scene up on Youtube and check the comments, you will find people talking about how badass the resulting being looks, and how it should get its own movie or comic book series.
15	* {{Moe}}: Greta, due to her empathetic BeautifulTears 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.
16	* NarmCharm: [[spoiler:Mark's death may seem ridiculous at first, with him being turned into paper and cut into pieces by Freddy ... until you see a brief close-up of his bloodied arm and start to wonder what his body must have looked like after being mutilated by Freddy...]]
17	* PresumedFlop: While the movie has been constantly referred to as a box office bomb and is the second lowest grossing Elm Street movie, (''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare'' is the lowest grossing movie of the series) the movie actually did do well in theaters. In fact, according to Creator/RobertEnglund, Elm Street 5 was actually a hit. The movie was mainly seen as a disappointment numbers wise only because New Line was expecting it to do as well if not better then [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster the previous movie]] which at the time was the most profitable movie of the series.
18	* {{Sequelitis}}: The general consensus is despite the ContestedSequel 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.
19	* ShockingMoments: Alice dreams of her womb and her baby. [[spoiler: She's happy at first, until she realizes Freddy is there too, and has been feeding the souls of his victims to make the baby evil like him.]]
20	* SpecialEffectFailure:
21	** For all the [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome great looking practical effects]] in it, the few moments of stop motion used look just out of place, especially when Alice sees the food in her fridge rot away before Greta appears to her.
22	** Freddy’s overall makeup is a noticeable downgrade from past films. Between it being a pull over mask to make it easier on Robert Englund looking too rubbery to be burnt flesh and the design making him look much older compared to Elm Streets 3 & 4, Freddy looks less like Freddy and more like somebody’s grandpa.
23	* {{Squick}}: The film is so squicky that it's the only ''Elm Street'' movie to have an unrated version.
24	* 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. Though Robert Englund is always great, he takes Freddy up to an even more malevolent, villainous presence than any of the other movies, despite having less screen time.
25	* 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 up 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.
26	* 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, vile and sadistic depiction of Freddy than the other movies.

Context YMMV / ANightmareOnElmStreet5TheDreamChild