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

In 1984, Wes Craven introduced the world to Freddy Krueger, and horror movies were never quite the same again.

In 1985, "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" came out, pushing Krueger into the realm of household word and horror icon.

Five years after Nancy Thompson fought Freddy Krueger, Jesse Walsh has moved into her old house.  Soon, Jesse starts to experience bad dreams that become reality.  As people start to die, Jesse finds himself fighting Krueger for his very soul...

While I did enjoy this movie, I found it fell short of the first one.  The premise of an entity possessing someone to kill is interesting, but I felt it didn't really fit in with Freddy's personality.  He wouldn't use someone else to kill in the "real world", since he could do so in their dreams.  Not only that, he strikes me as having a huge enough ego that he wouldn't want the puppet getting the credit for the kill.  Not only that, his being able to manifest and kill in the "real world" kinda goes against the first movie, where he was pretty much limited to their dreams.

The characters, while likable, weren't all that different from the ones from the first movie- especially the jocky Ron Grady.  He was almost a carbon copy of Rod Lane in the first one.  That factor made it a little hard to really care about them.

The acting was good.  As usual, Robert Englund was great as Krueger.  Mark Patton did a good job as Jesse, bringing a nice touch of vulnerability to the character.  Kim Myers looked good, and brought strength and compassion to Jesse's love interest, Lisa Webber.  The other actors honestly didn't get enough screen time to really bring their characters to life... which probably added to their already somewhat cookie cutter feel.

Visually, this film had some great moments and effects (especially for 1985).  Krueger's face melting was great to see, and I thought the editing for Coach Schnieder's death was fantastic.  While, you can tell that it was filmed in the 80's (big hair, and 80's clothes abound big time), the movies at a visual pace that helps to keep you from focusing on those things.  The way the fire moves along the railings, etc at the climax really impressed me, and looked stunning.

All in all, I would certainly recommend "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge", I would also add that it's not one that I'd watch frequently, as it doesn't quite fit in with the overall series.  I'm going to put it in The Bad.