A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Warner Brothers has released the 1988 franchise film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Master' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/HDR video and Dolby Atmos audio. At time of writing, this release is exclusive to a franchise UHD boxed set; there is no standalone release. See below for reviews of the new video and audio presentations and a listing of included supplemental materials.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

I've been pleased with the video presentations for the Nightmare on Elm Street UHDs for the first three films, and I was particularly impressed with Dream Warriors. "Particularly impressed" also defines my response to A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Warner Brothers' 2160p/HDR UHD presentation of Director Renny Harlin's franchise film is about as good as can be, right up there with Dream Warriors as a standout in this set.

The image is, texturally, very good. An exterior shot at the 7:47 mark really shows what this transfer can do. It's subtly grainy and beautifully filmic, showing natural razor-sharp details on foliage, a car, and other objects in frame, setting the tone for the visual excellence to come. Indeed, the picture quality is at its best in good light, but even in some of the darker and danker locales — the boiler room setting in the film's opening minutes — shows plenty of excellent definition to the grimy and grim surfaces. Period attire is sharp and tactile, faces are robustly defined down to the finest hairs and pores, and the Freddy makeup is terrifyingly detailed, allowing fans to see it with the sort of frightening intimacy that makes a screening of the film all the more effective.

The HDR grading is excellent. The palette is noticeably deeper and more robust compared to the Blu-ray. Colors are bolder, richer, fuller, and and more nuanced. Accuracy is splendid with no real shortcomings to report, especially, as noted above, in great lighting but also with colors holding very good in low light as well. There is no real shortcoming when it comes to those scary low light scenes. Skin tones are healthy, white balance is strong, and black levels are good, though at times prone to slight paleness here and there.

As with the other films that have preceded this one in the UHD collection, I did not notice any print problems or encode issues. Fans are going to be highly impressed with a this masterful Dream Master UHD.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The potency of Warner Brothers' new Dolby Atmos soundtrack is evident right out of the gate: booming thunder, smashing debris, piercing screams, rattling chains, booming footsteps, reverberating voices, and all sorts of horror cues are presented with impressive fidelity, volume, and spacing elements. This sort of high octane audio presentation holds for the duration. The sound design is probably the most active in the franchise and its presentation is nailed for total impact in this Atmos configuration. Although the track hasn't been so reworked as to offer a barrage of discrete overhead effects, it does wisely — subtly — make use of those extra chances to more naturally envelop the listener into the film's terrors and its normalcies alike. School hallways, for example, are living, breathing sonic organisms that easily draw the listener in, but obviously it's this heavy horror details that truly deliver the best punch the track has to offer. Music is also rich and clear with wide front spacing and perfectly balanced surround integration. Dialogue is near perfect as well. It's centered, well prioritized, and clear, with only a few flubs that interfere with lifelike transparency.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master contains the same extras that accompanied the original Blu-ray, minus the Theatrical Trailer. Please click here for coverage of these bonus features:

• The Finnish Line
• Krueger, Freddy Krueger
• Hopeless Chest
• Let's Makeup

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Warner Brothers could have done better by this UHD, but most of that "better" comes in the want for a more comprehensive supplemental package. As it is, this UHD rocks where it counts: the audio and video departments. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master delivers a striking 2160p/HDR video presentation that is matched by an excellent Dolby Atmos soundtrack. It's hard to imagine anyone but the most unrealistically demanding fan and cynical A/C connoisseur being any degree disappointed here, at least in terms of the A/V presentation. Recommended!