A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
5.546%33%5.8
A new family moves into the house on Elm Street, and before long, the kids are again having nightmares about deceased child murderer Freddy Krueger. This time, Freddy attempts to cause havoc in the real world, and can only be overcome if the kids can master their fear.
Tom Majski reviewed
2d ago•
Well how wrong I was. I gave this a 2.5 and dismissed it as generic sequel fodder in my first watch. Having now developed my appreciation of the genre a little more this has become one that I really respect.
So lets get this out the way, yes the move is gay as anything. I understand it has become a flagpole for the queer community. I think that's cool, its unusual for such 'in your face' representation in the time without it taking over the story. So the point is i acknowledge it, appreciate it and won't address it too much going forward.
Jessie and the rest of the cast here are cool. They do a great job and actually elevate the level of acting from the first movie. Though what I really enjoy is the experimentalism of it and the vunerability of the characters. This is before the franchise really laid the ground rules and Freddy was still supposed to be actually scary. On top of that his vunerabilty and insecurity makes this very interesting.
Story / lore wise, yes I know it doesn't add up. But this was put out before there really was a 'lore' to Freddy so I forgive it for that. There are some really cool elements between dream and possession that are all held up by final boy Jessie. I just think its really engrossing and the characters far outweight those of the original.
Its one of those 'Halloween 3' sequels that seems to have got its respect later in life and I do understand why. Yes its got a lot of gay messaging in it that may have been a surprise on release, yes it breaks the established rules that I argue were acutally established later. But overall this is a really really good installment and a nice experimental step forward from the original.