After the debacle that was A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, 1987's A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors firmly resuscitated the budding franchise with its spark and emphasis on action. The movie didn't live up to the heights of the first film, but it branched out into new territory while remaining fairly true to the series' "rules".

Every Nightmare features a conclusion that makes it really, truly, totally, honestly completely look like Freddy's finally gone. As such, every succeeding Nightmare sequel stretches the lengths of credulity just a little farther to resurrect the character.

Granted, when we deal with a universe that features a nutbag who kills teens in their sleep, you can get away with all sorts of bizarre activity, but sometimes the material goes just a little too far.

That doesn't quite happen in 1988’s A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, though. It picks up neatly where Warriors ended.

We find surviving teen Kristen (Tuesday Knight) and her pals Joey (Rodney Eastman) and Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) alive, but not all that well, since Kristen's experiencing nightmares again. Kincaid and Joey try to convince her that she's nuts, but she feels certain Herr Krueger has somehow managed to escape his final demise.

I believed her because she managed a tremendous metamorphosis in the year since Warriors - in fact, Kristen looks and acts like a completely different person in Master!

This may be due to the fact she is a completely different person. For reasons unknown, Patricia Arquette didn't return as Kristen so the absurdly-named Tuesday Knight - a woman who bears very little resemblance to Arquette – replaces her.

Kristen's continued involvement with Der Fredmeister causes her other friends to become ensnared in his web. It seems that even if he kills all of the children of the Elm Street parents who torched him - his original motive - Big K just can't get enough of that sweet stuff.

Freddy wants new souls, and Kristen and her friends are his path to do so. Key to his plot is Alice (Lisa Wilcox), a buddy who gains Kristen's ability to draw others into her dreams.

Bad move, babe, since Freddy now wants to use Alice to absorb more souls. I don't think it can be considered a spoiler to say that he succeeds to a large degree. If it ruins your enjoyment of the film because I mention that Freddy kills some kids, then you really need to get out more often.

Master continues the development of the wise-cracking Freddy we saw in Warriors, so gone forever is the more vicious, demonic character of the first couple of movies. In his place is this still semi-fearsome monster who nonetheless loses a lot of his scariness due to his wittier personality.

As with Warriors, this film plays more like an action flick than as a horror movie, especially as it becomes more and more absurd. Some of the killings really go for ridiculous effects.

However, it works fairly well. The movie comes across as tremendously dated, and not just due to the various styles we witness.

No, the flick bears the unmistakably glib and flashy essence of the Eighties, and it's this factor that probably harms it the most.

Nonetheless, Master offers some fun comic book thrills with Freddy. The story isn't as deep or as clever as that of Warriors, and I think the filmmakers knew that.

As such, they take the film into a more superficial style that strives to hide the movie's deficiencies. And it does so fairly well.

At least they had the good sense to make the plot and characters fit within the Nightmare universe. That sense of continuity helps make the movie appear more coherent than it actually is.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 isn't a great movie but it provides a reasonably entertaining little experience. It resides firmly in the middle of the series, as it is neither as good as some of the others but it also avoids the pitfalls of the crummiest entries.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I didn’t expect much from the transfer, so I was pleased by the pretty positive results.

Sharpness was usually good. A little softness affected wider shots, but any lack of definition was typical for films of this one’s era. Overall clarity appeared fairly appealing.

I saw no jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to cause issues, as this became a clean image.

With a palette that emphasized reds and blues, the colors of Master worked pretty well. I thought the hues generally came across as well-depicted.

Blacks were mostly dark and firm, and low-light shots offered reasonable clarity. No one will view this as a demo film, but given the era in which it was made, the end result satisfied.

While prior Nightmare movies ran theatrically via monaural mixes, Master went out to screens with a stereo track. Reworked into DTS-HD MA 5.1, this became the best of the soundtracks to date.

Though not one without flaws, as quality could show its age. Louder effects tended to seem a bit distorted, and some edginess impacted dialogue.

Still, lines always remained intelligible and reasonably natural, and effects came with nice range and impact. Music could veer a little shrill in terms of high end, but that reflected production trends of the time, and bass came across well.

The soundscape opened up better than any of the film’s predecessors, with a surprisingly involving mix. Music showed nice stereo presence, while effects offered good localization.

Those components managed to blend smoothly and they moved around the room in a satisfying manner. The surrounds contributed a fair amount of information and helped make this a relatively impressive track for its era.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD? The lossless audio felt a bit broader and more dynamic, while visuals appeared tighter and clearer. The Blu-ray turned into a nice upgrade.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find four featurettes. Krueger, Freddy Krueger runs eight minutes, 16 seconds and involves New Nine Theatrical Distribution President Al Shapiro, director Renny Harlin, producers Rachel Talalay and Robert Shaye, and screenwriters Jim and Ken Wheat.

This show looks at how Harlin came to the film and his impact on the project as well as aspects of the screenplay and production. It gives us a good view of some complications involved with the movie.

With Hopeless Chest, we find a three-minute, 45-second reel that includes special effects designers Steve Johnson and John Carl Buechler and actor Robert Englund. We learn some fun details about the film’s effects here.

Let’s Makeup lasts two minutes, 20 seconds and features makeup designer Howard Berger. He tells us about his work on Freddy in this short but useful clip.

Finally, The Finnish Line goes for two minutes, 27 seconds and brings notes from Harlin as he discusses his work on the film. This offers another quick but informative reel.

Though A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master marks a decline from the heights of its immediate predecessor, it still offers a fairly interesting and exciting experience. It should be regarded as pretty much "middle of the road" for Nightmare films. The Blu-ray brings generally positive picture and audio along with minor supplements. This turns into a watchable horror experience.

Note that the Blu-ray of Dream Master 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-for” disc, films four through seven appear solely in this package.