DeepSpace9mm’s review published on Letterboxd:
Elm Street 4 is the first sequel that has started to feel like a blatant cash-in on the franchises success. I kind of started getting that feeling when I realized Patricia Arquette had been re-cast and they started killing off the far superior Dream Warrior kids and replacing them with the ones we follow through the second half of the movie. That's the weakest part of Dream Master honestly. I didn't know who any of the kids were and I couldn't give a shit. Freddy is also starting to get pretty cartoony by this point as well. He's kind of in a half-step between Dream Warriors and The Dream Child where he goes full cornball.
However, with all my whining out of the way, I still had a good time with Dream Master. Freddy is seemingly back for 'reasons', but that doesn't matter. The story is just there so teenagers can get killed in increasingly silly and elaborate ways while Robert Englund hams it up for the entire running time. The movie also works as an artifact of 1980s culture. Lots of big hair, waterbeds with zebra print comforters, lots of MTV, and white guys obsessing over karate. You also get the timeless classic Fat Boys jam "Are You Ready for Freddy?" over the end credits.