Coming off the highest grossing entry in the Nightmare series, part 4, it was going to be tough to follow-up. In director Hopkins's defense, I applaud him for going in a different direction, despite not making a, well, killing at the box office.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child brings Freddy back mostly to the dark and "scary" path he once took. Sure there were some funny moments and lines from Freddy (you could probably cut the humor/quotes from #4 down to a 1/3), but for the most part, they made a darker less comedic nightmare than #4.
Alice returns from #4, actually her, her father and her boyfriend Dan, all the surviving members of #4. Surprise, Freddy's back, but Alice doesn't know how (yet) that he's all around her when she's awake. And she's out of control from her dreams.
Of course, she has a new slate of friends, or victims, and Freddy's getting them one by one in a tad bit creative ways. (Only one really stands out – Superfreddy, and the rest ho-hum, comparatively speaking to the first entries in the series.) He's using Alice's (and Dan's) unborn child, somehow and Alice and gang must both believe in the man of their dreams before they're all bumped off.
Though this wasn't the worst in the series, by far, it was still a throwaway. Not a must-see in the long franchise. Take the bland friends, or make that boring with barely a pulse for Freddy to stop. Or the copied plot from #3. Or the retreaded Alice from #4.
But the score is good, I liked the atmosphere – dark and strange, especially the tongue-in-cheek finale, and I liked some of Freddy's moments. It's worth a viewing, for fans only. But not repeat viewings.
Side Note: When I was about 14-15, a friend of mine from Illinois, who used to live with me here in Phoenix, AZ, sent me a gift once. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but I was stoked when I saw a huge, flat cardboard box. It already gave away the contents inside – something about Freddy. Inside was a stand-up, cardboard clip out – 6' tall of Freddy, the baby carriage – it was an ad for the video release of Nightmare 5. I loved that and still have that, roughly 20 years later, even the box it came in. Funniest thing is, and I've heard Robert Englund comment on this, the photo they used was transposed, whereas Freddy's glove appears to be on his left hand when it's always on his right. Oh, well, that just makes it all the more valuable to me.
