A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge Review

After mounting the hurdle of fear I had with watching a man with a melted face kill people in their very futile dreams, my trooping on through of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is already off to a rocky continuation. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is problematic from the get-go. Wes Craven’s talents behind the camera are nowhere to be found, as he opted to not touch this project with a ten-foot barge pole. Heather Langenkamp passes on the opportunity to return, understandable since it’d be one of the many typical pratfalls of a horror sequel. Basing a sequel on an almost entirely new cast is a risky manoeuvre, but keeping Englund around for more tantalising dream horror puts director Jack Sholder into a more comfortable position than first expected.

The wry throwbacks to the original are tongue in cheek, and actually rather nice. They don’t have the sentimentalism or the build-up that the first one did, but these moments serve their purpose. As our new protagonist, Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton), finds himself and his family moving into Elm Street, he begins to suffer nightmarish visions as Freddy Krueger takes control of his body and goes on murderous sprees. The continuity from the first film is rather odd, Krueger goes from haunting people’s dreams to being able to take control of the person in the real world. Somewhat inspired, there are moments throughout Sholder’s movie that just make me glad he isn’t re-hashing all the tropes and conventions of the first film.

Whilst the performances are absolutely acceptable, there are scenes throughout that showcase the path these films are seemingly spiralling down. That tongue in cheek style utilised to pay homage to the first film is also used to express some rather obvious undertones about our leading character and what his relationship with Krueger really represents. People a great deal smarter than me have analysed this, but for me, it was just as boring as most of the other storylines in this film. Maybe boring is a tad harsh, because whilst I didn’t enjoy Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, I didn’t hate it either. It’s a completely harmless film, one that strives to be nothing at all and succeeds in doing so.

Considering I was expecting a complete disaster, it’s rather resounding how well A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge holds together. It manages to move away from re-hashing ideas found in the first film, and credit where it’s due, it at least attempts to bring us some original storytelling and goals for both protagonist and antagonist. They’re not all that interesting, and at times are flummoxing, the horrors of the first film are never captured, nor are the charms either. A titan of a task, making a sequel to the first film when it didn’t really need one, but this cast and crew trooped on through, coming out the other end with a competent, if a tad boring, second offering.