A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a 1988 American slasher film and the fourth film in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and stars Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox and Danny Hassel. Following the death of Nancy Thompson, Freddy Krueger begins to reappear in the dreams of Kristen Parker, Joey Crusel, and Roland Kincaid and uses Kristen's best friend, Alice Johnson, to gain access to new victims. The film is a sequel to "" (1987) and is followed by "" (1989).
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors series, but its success prompted a continuation. Craven's very first concept for this film was to have Freddy Krueger invade the "real" world, emerging to haunt the actors filming a new "Elm Street" sequel. New Line Cinema rejected this metacinematic idea at the time, but years later, Craven's concept was finally brought to the screen with "Wes Craven's New Nightmare". In interviews with cast and crew in the DVD extras, it is revealed that the original idea for the film centered around the phenomenon of children traveling to a specific location to commit suicide, with dreams of Freddy Krueger eventually