A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (USA, 1985) - Color, Director(s): Jack Sholder
MPAA Rating: R
[UK: 18]
Approx. 87 min.
Z-rating: 1 stars out of 5
Cheese Factor: 3 stars out of 5
 |
| So THAT'S where they got the idea for the NES title screen |
What the hell happened with this sequel? They follow up Wes Craven's masterpiece with the slowest and most boring movie in the world. For a long time, the homosexual undertones of the movie had been debated. The filmmakers denied it for the longest time but in an interview with the writer, David Chaskin, he finally admitted that the homosexual themes were written into the movie as "subtext." (The gym teacher is dragged into the shower, stripped naked, and his bare ass is snapped by towels before he's killed... how subtle!)
 |
| We've all run into our gym teacher at a S&M bar and then went with him to run laps at school after hours, right? |
The homosexual undertones aren't even what's bothering me. So Jesse's dealing with his repressed homosexuality, big whoop, it's how slow and boring the movie is that drives me crazy. Freddy went from someone who killed people in their dreams to killing people in the waking world. He's supposedly manipulating Jesse into doing his dirty work for him but this is just as much of a cop out as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning! At least that one pretended to be a typical Friday the 13th movie until the end. This one just goes off on a completely different tangent. The movie is more about Jesse trying to deal with being the new kid on the block than it is about Freddy Krueger. A bunch of random crap happens like parakeets fight in the bird cage then start attacking people before suddenly exploding for no reason. Did that have anything to do with Freddy? Was he haunting their little birdie dreams? Hot dogs explode like firecrackers, a pool is set on fire, there are dogs with human faces. Nothing in this movie makes any sense! What the hell is going on?! This whole movie is like a bad dream... well, they got me there.
 |
| That's uh... that's something coming out of his mouth, not um... not going in. |
Nudity: Male nudity. There's a bunch of man ass all through the movie.
Gore: There are some decent effects in this movie, despite how infrequently they occur. Freddy cuts his way out of Jesse's body, that looked pretty cool. There's a melting effect when they defeat Freddy with the power love at the end but I've definitely seen better.
Awesome: Not at all. Jesse screams like a little bitch every time something happens to him. I think he's supposed to be an athlete but the guy can't do push ups worth a crap. The most awesome thing to come out of this movie is the box of fake cereal they're eating for breakfast at the beginning of the movie. Fu Man Chews, that's actually pretty awesome! Other than that, this movie was garbage. This is the black sheep of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Aside from a couple clips of Freddy, they almost never reference this movie again.