Superman4 remembers the Nightmare part 2

For “Nightmare on Elm Street 2 : Freddy’s Revenge” the film took Freddy in a different direction. Instead of killing people in their nightmares Freddy haunts the dreams of the main character Jesse, who slowly throughout the film is becoming Freddy. Wes Craven didn’t intend for “Nightmare on Elm Street” to become a franchise and he also didn’t like the idea of Freddy manipulating and possessing the protagonist.

The story takes place five years after the first. Jesse’s family are now the new owners of Nancy’s house. Every night Jesse has these horrible dreams with a man haunting him and ordering him to “kill for me”. Jesse meets Lisa who tries to help him with this problem. However they both realize when they come across Nancy’s diary that Freddy Krueger is using Jesse to come back to the land of the living.

Typically with horror movies the sequels are never as good. Unfortunately this is no different. However I want to talk about the good points first. The special effects keep up and even improve on the original. Making parts like the bus scene and when Freddy literally pops out of Jesse very cool. Robert Englund plays Freddy very well and is in my mind actually more intimidating in this one then the original. The main cast are all like able, Jesse although not as memorable as Nancy has you feeling for him. Probably my favorite character from this film (excluding Freddy) is Lisa. She’s the type of girl that is there for her man and stands by him. She helps Jesse over come Freddy.

Now to the bad points. Jesse’s parents are quite annoying (ie thinking the bird exploded because the oven was leaking). There are a few gay theme’s to this movie like: Jesse dancing in his room with some sort of stick in between his legs, Jesse after having an episode goes to a gay bar and is found by his gym teacher or when he goes to his best friends house for help so that his friend can watch him while he sleeps so he doesn’t leave. These things are just a little odd and I think the writers meant it that way. I also don’t like the idea of in the finally Freddy’s claws are in his fingers instead of his glove. It just looks stupid and awkward. Also the new direction is although a little creative I don’t particularly care for it. I agree with Craven, Freddy should stick to haunting peoples dreams. It’s what made the first film so cool because you didn’t always know if the character was sleeping or awake.
This film although ok is nothing compared to the original. The nightmare sequences that made the original horrifying are gone. However there are still sequences with Freddy in the real world that are cool but not necessarily scary.


I give “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” a C.