“A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master” mainly followed a character named Alice (Lisa Wilcox) who was said to be best friends with Arquette’s Kristen from the previous movie. Kristen did return, but was now played by Tuesday Knight. Kristen and Alice, through complex mythological details I won’t get into here, alternately had the ability to enter other people’s dreams. “The Dream Master” was to see both Kristen and Alice exercising these powers. Arquette, however, was kind of over the franchise after one go, wanting to challenge herself as an actress. In the Bloody Flicks interview, she said: 

“They asked me to come back for [part 4] but at that time I was starting to break into kind of meatier roles. I had just done a movie of the week about teen pregnancy called ‘Daddy’ and I was really liking getting deeper with my work. I love the horror genre and the Freddy Franchise but I was chomping at the bit to try other things as an actor.”

“Daddy,” incidentally, co-stars Dermot Mulroney and Danny Aiello, and can be seen on Tubi and on Freevee. After that, Arquette’s acting career would take off. She appeared in the 1988 Sam Shepard movie “Far North” with Jessica Lange and showed up on episodes of “Thirtysomething,” “The Outsiders,” and “Tales from the Crypt.” Her true breakout would come in 1993 when she appeared in Tony Scott’s rambunctious flick “True Romance.” She has since played the lead in the TV series “Medium” and won an Academy Award for her performance in Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood.” 

Her feature directorial debut, “Gonzo Girl” just debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.