A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Freddy Krueger is back again! Wait, this is the first sequel so now he's just back. Anyway, this movie features Freddy possessing some guy named Jesse. I was confused as to how this even worked. I mean, he literally popped out of Jesse's body instead of possessing him. This movie is notable for being the one where Freddy gets the most kills. Most of them are done out of the dream world. Why doesn't he do that more often? He seems to be more powerful in the real world for some odd reason. He can even teleport.I do like how they feature Nancy's diary and don't just ignore her from the first film. She is the most iconic character from the franchise apart from Freddy of course. The budget was apparently only $3,000,000 so I will give this film props for looking nice. It still doesn't really have anything unique. The ending to the original "A Nightmare On Elm Street" was actually changed so that Freddy could come back giving us the sequels expected from a slasher movie. It's mostly just more of the same. **

Today is Mr. Jack Sholder's Birthday (June 8). To honor him, I watched the second installment he directed. I was 11 years old when I saw this for the first time, with my family, and it was one hell of a terrifying film. Couldn't sleep without the lights at that time. Even today, whenever I'm on a bus, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 just pops into my mind. It's one unforgettable movie with so many horrifying scenes and special effects, Incredible Actors, Legends - Robert Englund, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, and more. One of my favorites, and one of the best sequels ever made!!!

After the late Wes Craven's 1984 horror masterpiece, A Nightmare on Elm Street, was a box-office success, the studio New Line Cinema wanted a make a sequel quickly. Craven was asked back, but refused, a good part of it being due to financial differences with the studio. So the directing job went went to Jack Sholder, who had previously worked on Alone in the Dark (1982). Sholder admitted that he disliked the original film, despite respecting it. A lot of that disdain is clear throughout the movie, which is probably the biggest disappointment of the series. The Dream Child and Freddy's Dead are worse, but they did not have that much riding on them as this film did.The story opens with the only scary scene in the movie, where a bus dropping off high school children suddenly goes crazy and drives out into the desert. The ground falls around it until it is in a see-saw-like position. The driver reveals himself as Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), who proceeds to go after the kids. Just before he strikes with his razor-blade glove, it cuts to a normal family having breakfast and we hear the main protagonist, Jesse (Mark Patton) waking up from a nightmare and screaming like a little girl. The rest of what follows is some typical high school jazz, except when Freddy Krueger appears, which is hardly at all, and everything in Jesse's house (owned by Nancy Thompson's (Heather Langenkamp) family from the original) heats up like crazy. And yet, Jesse's father says that everything is fine, even when a parakeet goes crazy. The opening is only a warm-up for the viewer to get to know one of the weakest protagonists I've seen not just in a horror film, but a film in general.Jesse is what one would think of when it comes to awkward high school boys, but what makes him so weak is how he reacts to what happens to him in the film. Freddy wants to take control of Jesse so that he can eventually kill people in the real world, where he will have unlimited power. Even after Freddy starts coming to him, he does nothing to figure out what's happening. Even after his gym coach, Schneider (Marshall Bell), gets killed by a possessed Jesse, Jesse does not drink coffee or take pills to keep himself awake right away, or let his girlfriend, Lisa (Kim Myers) help him out. It's almost like he's eager to let Freddy take control of his body without even realizing it.The reason Jesse looks so awkward in this movie is that Mark Patton cannot act for peanuts here. Apparently, the director's or somebody's idea for Jesse acting scared or intimidated was to have his body shake a lot, always look like he wants to be somewhere else, and do it badly. Myers does a better job, but at the end of the film when she has to face off against Freddy, who finally does take full control of Jesse, she gets all unnecessarily weepy to the point of extreme annoyance and takes away from how horrific Freddy looks when he melts. It's all part of a confusing finale where Freddy is somehow defeated with the power of love when Lisa kisses him. It does not have the same logic to it as how Freddy is defeated in the first film. Listen to me, talking about logic in movies about dreams. It's also part of the film's attempt to be even more serious and scary than the original, like Lisa and Jesse's relationship was a love story that couldn't be topped. Appreciate the effort, Jack Sholder, but no thanks.The film has very few scares other than the opening scene. The one that comes closest is when Jesse stays at his friend Ron Grady's (Robert Rusler, who also struggles to act) place for the night and Freddy bursts out of his body (a great effect) to kill him. What ruins it is Ron screaming for his dad to open the door to his room (he's grounded), and his dad screaming the same thing. Which side has the lock? A couple of failed jump scares include a boa constrictor wrapping around Jesse as he sleeps and a mouse jumping out of an old locker in a factory that Jesse and Lisa visit (where Freddy used to take his child victims in his past life).In most film series, the first sequel is the best and the third is either a disappointment or just not as good. This time, it's the opposite. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge is a perfect example of how a new series can lose track of itself so quickly. Having a weak protagonist especially hurts the film, partly because it's jarring to go from such an intelligent and sturdy character like Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) from the original to a weakling who can't solve a serious problem like this himself. It does not make him more relatable.

Jesse Walsh moves with his family into the home of the lone survivor from a series of attacks by dream-stalking psychopath, sadistic dream demon, Freddy Krueger. Jesse experiences nightmares every single night, all feature the same man who continues to harass Jesse, telling him to "Kill for me." This is a sequel which isn't as bad as some may say it is. It's not horrible, it's great. And it's great that we have characters we root for instead of wanting them to get slaughtered. Some of the practical effects look good but that's about it. I want to talk about this one scene in the movie I enjoyed a lot, Freddy raids Lisa's party and slaughters nearly everyone there. It's great! A very good film and sequel and is worth watching, 9/10