When A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master came out, I was pretty much at the peek of my Freddy fandom. I was completely obsessed with the films at the time and found Freddy to be the funniest and most creative horror hero out there. Part 4 had a lot of memorable kill scenes in it, many of which are included in my old "Freddy's 10 Best Kills" piece. But it also had what I consider to be the greatest ending of all the Elm Street movies by far.

Freddy has pretty much killed off all of Alice's friends, but each time he does so, she gets some of their powers. By the end of the movie, she's no longer the quiet, clumsy girl... now she's a buff, badass who's not gonna take crap from Krueger any more. So they meet in a dream and square off in a church for the ultimate showdown. "Welcome to wonderland, Alice!"

Freddy basically allows Alice to pummel him for a solid minute, laughing in her face every time she hits him. Eventually they square up to each other and show off their weapons. Alice, I'm sorry, but your punk rock wristband just doesn't look nearly as threatening as Freddy's glove. Then again, she does shoot a hole through his chest using one of her dead friend's science gizmos. Again, Freddy laughs it off and makes the hole vanish in an instant.

Freddy knocks her to the ground and is just about to finish her off when Alice suddenly remember the end to the nursery rhyme...

One, two, Freddy's coming for you
Three, four, better lock your door
Five, six, grab your crucifix
Seven, eight, gonna stay up late
Nine, ten, never sleep again

In the reflection, my, my, my...
Evil shall see itself and it shall DIE!

I don't know where she got that last part from, but I guess it was good for her sake...

She picks up a shard of a broken stained glass window and Freddy sees himself in it, and this somehow stirs up the souls of all the children that he's killed over the years. They start to try clawing their way out of him and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

The make-up effects they used in this scene were some of the best I had ever witnessed at the time, and I remember watching "Commander USA" on the USA network (a fucking awesome show that far too many people don't even remember) show Elm Street 4 and the making of the movie back-to-back. They actually built a huge 20+ foot model of Freddy's chest so they could film real actors bursting through it. It was really impressive as hell, and it looked like an extremely fun project to be involved with.

In the end, there are so many children tearing Freddy apart so that he'll release him, they actually rip open his jaw and split his head in half! The souls of the children then pour out and are finally free. I've always been a huge fan of the Elm Street movies, they'll probably always be my favorites in the horror genre. But out of them all, I'd have to say Elm Street 4 was by far the most satisfying one. Great way of bringing Freddy back to life, hilarious kills, plenty of classic one-liners, and a death sequence for poor ol' Freddy that no other Elm Street movie can hold a candle to.

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