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

Mark Patton as Jesse Walsh
Kim Myers as Lisa Webber
Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
Robert Rusler as Ron Grady
Clu Galager as Ken Walsh
Marshall Bell as Coach Schneider

After the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a sequel makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. What didn't make sense was rushing into production a sequel full of half-baked ideas, no involvement from Wes Craven and no returning characters with the exception of Freddy Krueger. In that regard, Dream Warriors has always been a true sequel to the original, leaving this as the odd movie out. It's a pale imitation at the first, with several interesting ideas that never are fulfilled to their full potential.

The film sees Jesse and his family move into the same home that Nancy occupied in the first film. We also get  the first confirmation over the course of the sequel that everything in the original actually happened, right up until Nancy thinking it was all a dream. Glen's death, her mother's dead and so on. That would be elaborated on in the next film, but a few mentions are all we get of the original story in this movie, as it's a completely different animal.

This film sees Freddy, perhaps knowing he's not as powerful in the dream world as he thought, wanting to possess Jesse and bring his power into the real world to kill as much as he wants. He mostly succeeds and kills several people. Not a single one is killed with the inventiveness that filled the original. Some slashing and cheap "heat" effects. There are great special effects, but they're saved for the opening and the finale.

The problem with Freddy's Revenge is that it's clearly a cash-in. It was out almost a year to the day from the original. That's fine for something like a Paranormal Activity, which takes very little effort and money to pull off. But rushing a sequel to a great movie like the original results in a weak script, lazy dream sequences and a somewhat confusing story with not-so-subtle gay overtones. Of course the gay subplot has been talked about often, but the problem with that is that it chooses to keep it subtle and not simply go that route. It plays it safe while setting a routine slasher disguised as a Nightmare film.

That's not to say it's all bad. There are some interesting sequences here and there. While bringing Freddy into the real world is not a good idea in this case, the pool party sequence is actually solid. The opening with Freddy driving the bus and the finale inside the power plant both feature the best special effects of the movie, even if the ultimate defeat of Freddy, like the rest of the film, feels cheesy and lazy.

Freddy's Revenge could have used some more passes at the script and more time to finish a quality film. Wes Craven was smart not to step on with the script that New Line had, and New Line was stupid not to take that as a sign to change the script.

Score: 5.0