Horror movie sequels have a bad rap for spawning endless amounts of terrible sequels. But while most horror movie sequels don't do well critically, there tends to be an enjoyable camp value with many of them. Sure, it might not be as creepy or inventive as the first, but horror movie sequels can at least bring a laugh or two to horror fans. But there is a line that can easily be crossed; the comically over-the-top elements found in great "good-bad" horror movies can quickly turn from hilarious to mind-numbingly annoying. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 crosses that line.
The idea of a demonic figure that kills you in your dreams, while a bit silly, lends itself to a lot of creative opportunities. Dreams and nightmares have no grounding in reality and could easily produce some great and terrifying results. The first film handles the premise pretty well, and although it's very dated by today's standards, the first NoES still manages have a couple of creepy scenes throughout. NoES2 decides to scrap most of the dream element and go for a possession-based horror movie. The plot this go-round revolves around a kid named Jesse, who moves into Nancy's house five years after the first movie. Freddy decides to possess Jesse, using him to randomly kill a few people, despite Freddy already being capable of killing people in their dreams, which is much more efficient. The movie tries to play up a psychological aspect, where Jesse questions whether he's the one killing people or not. This doesn't work, though, because we already know Freddy existed in the first film, and so there's no suspense when the mystery aspect was already answered in the preceding movie.
Another major flaw with the film is the subtitle, "Freddy's Revenge". This is a strange choice for a subtitle, because Freddy is merely returning, and not exacting revenge. The movie even tries to play up the revenge aspect, in that Freddy is possessing Jesse so he can kill people again. This makes no sense however, because the only person he would want revenge on is Nancy, because she sort of killed him in the first movie. Heck, the first NoES could have been called "Freddy's Revenge", because he's getting revenge by killing the children of the people who murdered him. There's no motivation for his killing spree this time, except for "because he's the bad guy". There's no connection to any of the characters from the last movie, except that it takes place in the same house as last time. Having someone live in Nancy's house again might have awoken Freddy's spirit, but if he were out for revenge, he would have gone after Nancy. It's established that Freddy can make Jesse travel long distances when possessing him, so why he didn't try to exact revenge when the theme and subtitle of the movie is literally "Revenge" is anyone's guess. Although it's probably because "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy Kills Some People Because He's Evil" was a hard sell, and too difficult for the writer to work around. (In retrospect, Freddy might have been trying to get back into the real world using Jesse, but one would think being able to haunt dreams is a big advantage for a horror movie villain; you can't really do anything to him, and he pretty much has full control over you. And he takes a serious beating when he's dragged into reality in the first NoES, so I'm not sure why he'd want to return to human form. He's not really a smart one, that Freddy.)
If there's any reason to remember this film (and even then, it's hardly a reason), it's because of the unintentional homoeroticism. NoES2 is notorious amongst horror fans for its numerous scenes of half-dressed sweaty men running around, a dream sequence that appears to take place in a gay club, and a scene where Freddy murders a guy in a shower room after stripping him nude and whipping him in the butt with a towel. This doesn't really add much watchability to the film, but the shower room scene is so bizarre it's somewhat worth a chuckle. There's also a lot of painfully garish 80's fashion going on, so if you get a laugh out of overly feathered hair and loud clothing, it might be worth looking up a few scenes on Youtube.
The characters are all forgettable, but it's worth at least mentioning them. Jesse, the main character, is the flat, boring guy. Lisa, the love interest, is the flat, boring girl. All other characters get around five lines of dialog, and that's about it. There's a coach-type guy who's supposed to be a bad guy, but he dies early on in the movie. There's also some guy that's supposed to be the best friend character, but he's barely around, and he ends up dying before anything of interest is done with him. There's also Jesse's family, but their characters are so thin even a sitcom would reject them for being too archetypal.
Death scenes are a staple in slasher movies, and creativity really counts. As a whole, the Nightmare on Elm Street series has had some really interesting death scenes and some great special effects to go along with them. But NoES2 is surprisingly lacking. While I believe in quality over quantity in horror movies, and that less can often be more frightening, there really is a lack of death scenes, and the few that we get are really lame. Freddy whips a guy in the butt with a towel a few times and then claws his back and stabs one guy. That's really it. He kills a few people during a party sequence, but these are treated as generic background character deaths that aren't really focused on, so those don't really count. (Like how you never hear people commenting on the various anonymous deaths in Indiana Jones; you only ever hear about all the ones at the end when the major bad guy dies.) Speaking of villain deaths, Freddy gets an even weaker death than the last film. In probably the lamest part of the original NoES, Freddy gets killed off by being told he doesn't exist. This time, Freddy gets killed by getting kissed by Lisa, the romantic interest. This inexplicably causes Freddy to burst into flames, which somehow frees Jesse from his clutches. It makes even less sense than last time, and is somehow even stupider than getting zapped into thin air. There's also a strange scene early on the film in which Freddy somehow possesses Jesse's pet parakeet, causing the bird to fly around terrorizing Jesse's family, only to have him explode into flames moments later. In all honesty, the exploding parakeet is really the only memorable thing about this movie. The gay undertones have nothing on a fiery parakeet explosion.
Overall, this is not a very good movie. The idea of Freddy trying to possess someone is kind of lame, considering he usually kills people in their dreams, and thus has no need for a human form. The script is obviously rushed, as NoES2 came out exactly a year after the first movie debuted, and had a little more time been put into the story, we could have gotten a movie where Freddy-possession might actually made sense. Instead, we got a lackluster slasher with enough sweaty shirtless guys to put an action movie to shame. There's no point in seeing this movie, unless you're going through and watching all of the movies in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. If that's the case, may God have mercy on your soul. You may not survive the experience. If that's not the case, stick to the original. But if you have a strange urge to watch a horror movie sequel, Friday the 13th 2-4 are decent, and the first two Child's Play sequels are good for a laugh.
Enjoyment- 2/5
Quality- 2/5
IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089686/
October 11, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)