Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) first appears in Dream Warriors in its opening scene in a nightmare, where a terrible, disfigured man is relentlessly stalking and tormenting her, ultimately making her appear to slit her wrists as a suicide attempt in real life, which forces her mother Elaine to commit her to Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital.

This leads to Kristen joining up with Phillip Anderson, Joey Crusel, Roland Kincaid, Will Stanton, Jennifer Caulfield and Taryn White, who have all had the same experiences with a terrible "bogeyman" in their dreams.

After Phil and Jennifer dies in their sleep, in what appears to be accidents or suicide, Nancy explains to the five remaining patients and Dr. Neil Gordon that the identity of the bogeyman is Freddy Krueger, a serial child killer whom their parents, including Nancy's, lynched and burned to death years ago, and his undead spirit is now after their children in their nightmares as revenge.

After an unauthorized group hypnosis causes Joey to be captured by Krueger and rendered comatose, Nancy and Dr. Gordon are fired, which causes Kristen to go ballistic and consequently be sedated and sent to the quiet room for her outburst.

Neil succeeds in sprinkling Krueger's bones with holy water and he is seemingly vanquished in the dream world before he can murder Kristen as well.

At the Parker's house, Alice, Rick and Elaine watches helplessly as Kristen's body roasts away, seemingly a bed-smoking accident in real life.

[13] Clips of Tuesday Knight as Kristen from The Dream Master was also shown in the music video for Vinnie Vincent Invasion's "Love Kills" (1988) from All Systems Go, which is also in the soundtrack for the film.

[14] The scene of Kristen being swallowed by the Freddy-snake in Dream Warriors was featured at the Freddy vs. Jason section at Halloween Horror Nights #25 in 2015.

[15] Kristen Parker has been featured in one action figure, in the series Cinema of Fear #1 from Mezco Toys, also depicting the aforementioned scene.

[21] Chuck Russell, director of Dream Warriors, said on Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy that "the cast member that stuck out with me was Patricia Arquette.

Producer Sara Risher claims that she was disappointed at the time that Arquette could not reprise her role, commending her as an "integral part to Nightmare 3" and as well-liked by the rest of the crew.

[23] Kristen has (for Dream Warriors) been called "one of the most beloved and well-remembered characters from the franchise" and "a role that was as important as Heather Langenkamp's Nancy Thompson".

[27] In another interview, Knight talks about the subject of Kristen as a victim: Jake Dee of JoBlo.com admires the sheer boldness of killing Kristen off midway into The Dream Master, arguing that her death happened in spite of Tuesday Knight providing the theme song and doubles its impact by ending the life of a protagonist and handing over the lead role to a new lead.

[29] Kristen was at 18 on Buzzfeed's top 25 list of final girls[30] and on the top 10 final girls in the digital SCREAM magazine (in no particular order), which states that "Patricia Arquette's depiction of the role injects an impressive amount of gumption into the part; as she brings with her a new twist to the tale- the power to pull other people into her dreams".

Though ultimately omitted from the theatrical script and film, where Elaine is definitely single and apparently attempting to date various men, Kirk Parker would later appear in a flashback in the comic book A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning, the script of which refers to the couple as "rich snobs" and Elaine as "Kristen's bitchy mother".

As with Alice, Kristen's portrayal in The Dream Master differed little between the later drafts and what eventually made it into the film, with the exception of one omitted scene where Kristen faces Freddy in a dream the same night he killed Kincaid and Joey, taunting her for now being "Elm Street's last brat",[34] while in the film she only encounters Freddy after Elaine drugs her.

[36] The screenplay also has a desperate Kristen making a gymnastic attack on Freddy in vain as he stalks her further throughout the 1428 Elm Street/factory labyrinth he tends to use as a setting in nightmares:She realizes she's standing on a catwalk high above the room.

Arquette was reportedly close to being recast early into the filming of Dream Warriors, though director Chuck Russell recognized her qualities and vouched for her to the other producers, resulting in her staying.

[22] Though others speculates that the reason was Arquette's real life pregnancy with her son Enzo Rossi (January 3, 1989),[41][42][43] the book Assault of the Killer B's: Interviews with 20 Cult Film Actresses states that "Patricia Arquette reportedly fought the [horror genre] label, turning down a hefty offer to reprise her heroine role, instead favoring more dramatic roles and becoming a respected thespian in the Hollywood community".

[22] The master record of this song, previously thought for many years to have been lost or destroyed, has since been "uncovered in a box deep within the bowels of Warner Brothers" according to Knight.

[3] Nat Brehmer on That's Not Current elaborates on the false protagonist dimension of Kristen in The Dream Master, arguing that Kristen's fate has also been compared to the plot twist of Janet Leigh's character Marion Crane in the Hitchcock film Psycho (1960), the apparent protagonist of the film, being killed off unexpectedly.