Imagine the description for this one:
Freddy’s back…and he wants revenge. When teenager Jesse Walsh moves to Elm Street, Freddy Krueger starts appearing in his nightmares.
The second movie of the original Elm Street series. This time Freddy wants to come back to the waking world, and he decides to possess an extremely whiny Luke Skywalker type kid.
Parts of this movie are creepier and more nightmare fuel than the first. Especially a pair of weird baby-faced dogs toward the end, and several of Freddy’s new tricks he plays. I want to get that out there before I get into the rest of the movie: there ARE some creepy scenes, and Freddy is at his best.
The problem is that everyone else is not. The acting has taken a real hit, and it makes it feel like a cobbled together, rushed sequel. Several of the characters feel far more B-movie than the previous film. Some of that came down to the acting but some of it could not have been acted well. The BDSM obsessed jack-ass gym teacher was over the top and no one could have made that work. Especially not in his major and final scene: it was like something out of Hellraiser, but re-created by the practice squad.
It also didn’t help matters that none of the characters were all that compelling, even for a slasher flick where expectations are naturally low. So while there’s a lot to like — Freddy, mostly — and a lot of really good effects and scenes involving Freddy — the movie is a bit of a mixed bag. And I don’t like that because I want to like this movie.
In the end, I do like the movie, over all. I just wish it had some better acting. And again, I’m not sure I blame the actors. It seems like this movie was slapped together, maybe by a studio pushing for a quick release.
So we leave the original series for the next on a note of Freddy being better, but everyone else less so.
Report Card:
Running Time: An hour and twenty-five minutes of Freddy.
Acting: I’d say hit or miss, but it was more like miss or miss.
Effects: Pretty damn good for the year.
Violence: Oh yes.
Gun Use: Kind of, with some bad aim.
Gore: A good deal of it for the time period.
Creepy? A few scenes.
Monster Type? A pedophile ghost still.
Funny? Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not.
Nudity: Just male butts.
Pacing: Sort of stuttering.
