A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master — Synopsis
Elm Street, Springwood, U.S.A. Kristen, one of the sole survivors of an earlier epidemic of teenage deaths on Elm Street, is reliving her former terror as child murderer Freddy Krueger returns to haunt her dreams. At first, only fellow survivors Kincaid and Joey share Kristen’s secret when she uses her psychic gift to draw them into her nightmares to witness the return of razor-gloved Freddy Krueger, bastard son of a hundred maniacs.
Joey and Kincaid are not convinced that Freddy is back until one by one Freddy begins to claim his surviving victims and target fresh prey—unsuspecting Elm Street youth not formerly exposed to Freddy’s revenge for being burned alive by vigilante parents, avenging the deaths of their murdered children. Kincaid is first to sleep to his death. In his nightmare, he is locked in the trunk of a car.
Escaping, he finds himself in a junkyard. Suddenly the earth rumbles and cracks open to reveal the charred remains of Freddy Krueger’s grave. Burned flesh forms over the skeletal shell. Freddy is back—in the flesh. Kincaid’s attempt to crush Freddy with a car fail, and Freddy pierces Kincaid’s heart with his trademark blades. Kincaid awakes in his bedroom moments later, mortally wounded.
Meanwhile, Joey experiences his own hellish fatal nightmare when a nude poster girl suddenly beckons him from inside his waterbed. As Joey spreads his arms, the naked beauty transforms into Freddy, slashing his way through the plastic waterbed to capture Joey in a death grip. Joey’s mother discovers his drowned body the next morning.
When Joey and Kincaid are found dead, Kristen intimates to newcomer Alice that her friends were murdered by Freddy Krueger—in their nightmares. Alice is convinced of Freddy’s lethal power after Kristen draws her into a nightmare to experience the very real terror. Together they decide to do battle with the deathly Elm Street menace, Freddy Krueger. They share their fears with friends Sheila, a scholastic genius; Alice’s brother Rick, a martial arts expert who is also Kristen’s boyfriend; Debbie, an attractive bodybuilder; and Dan, the handsome object of Alice’s schoolgirl crush. No one will believe them.
Alice, the neglected daughter of an alcoholic father, unveils her theory on the “Dream Master,” the guardian of good dreams. She explains that weary victims should summon up the dream master and visualize positive scenarios to avoid contact with evil. After her mother drugs her with sleeping pills, Kristen has a chance to put this theory to the test. She forces herself to dream of a warm, sandy beach only to face a fatal encounter with Freddy Krueger who appears out of the ocean and stomps her into the sand. Alice is pulled into Kristen’s nightmare but is unable to prevent her fall through the sand to Freddy’s boiler room. Before burning to death in the furnace, Kristen’s psychic powers are meshed with Alice’s being. Alice is now burdened with the powerful vision to witness her Elm Street friends’ slaughter as Freddy continues to claim their lives, one by one. Sheila is next. While dozing off during a physics exam, Freddy materializes as a teacher who literally sucks the breath from Sheila. Her asthmatic condition is cited to explain the death. Rick is next to go when slumber finds him falling into hell’s inferno, better known as Freddy’s boiler room.
Alice realizes that by inheriting Kristen’s ability to “dream together,” she has been leading Freddy to new victims. In addition to Kristen’s powers, Alice has also acquired the strengths of her deceased friends. She decides that she must wage battle with Freddy alone.
Dan, finally convinced of Freddy’s existence, agrees to meet Alice at the Crave-Inn, the local diner where she works, to discuss her battle plan. To stay awake and pass the time before their meeting, Alice stops at a local movie theatre. Slipping into sleep, Alice dreams she sees the Crave-Inn on the screen. A hurricane-force wind pulls her right through the screen and into the Crave-Inn where she finds herself seated beside Freddy at the counter. The waitress brings her a pizza. The pepperonis are miniature screaming faces of Kristen, Sheila and Rick.
Later, Alice is with Dan in his truck and her friend Debbie is in her attic, lifting weights. Freddy appears, breaks Debbie’s arms and she begins to shrink into a cockroach. Alice tries to get into Debbie’s nightmare to help her, but she is now trapped inside a roach motel. Alice is too late—Debbie is dead.
Dan and Alice continue speeding down the road as Freddy stands in the way of the truck. Alice attempts to run him over but drives right through him and smashes into a void. Dan is injured and taken to a hospital, where he will undergo surgery in 15 minutes. Alice realizes that she will have to fight Freddy before Dan is forced asleep.
Alice races back to her house and takes some sleeping pills. She’s ready for a battle with Freddy. As she looks in the mirror, she gasps at her transformed image. She’s leaner and meaner. Her clothes are tighter, more battle-like. This is the Dream Master, ancient guardian of the gate of good dreams.
In the operating room, Dan sees the doctor standing over him. It’s Freddy. Alice hears Dan’s cry for help in her dream and enters the operating room through the mirror. As Freddy tries to get Dan, Alice begins throwing knives at Freddy. She grabs Dan and they fall through the doors. They run into the hallway, which has become a huge, rotating cylinder and fall through a stained glass window of a church. Freddy appears and Alice battles the “eternal” killer, but she’s unable to inflict any significant damage upon him.
Alice looks down and sees a large piece of stained glass. She picks it up and holds it in front of Freddy. As he is about to slice into Alice, light hits Freddy off the glass like a blast. Freddy sees himself reflected in the glass. As he screams, the trapped souls of the dead children begin fearing through Freddy’s body. Freddy’s sweater stretches and rips apart, as all the tiny bodies trapped inside try to escape. Finally, Freddy’s head explodes and the souls are released. Freddy is dead.
Alice stands alone, not dressed like the Dream Master anymore. Having fulfilled her mission, she is just Alice again, but retains her beauty and confidence.
A few weeks later, Alice and Dan, with their arms around each other, walk through the park. As they walk away from a fountain, Freddy’s reflection appears and fades on the water’s surface. Alice and Dan, involved with each other, don’t notice and continue walking. Freddy Krueger is dead… or is he?
— Press Kit Synopsis