About a month after its debut, A Nightmare on Elm Street was already a success. His budget of approximately 1.8 million dollars was returned to a lucrative 10 million, which soon grew to a total of 25 million during his stay in American theaters. Still counting the positive reception for the character of Freddy Krueger, a sequel was a priority for New Line Cinema. Naturally, the colossal success of the first one (by its parameters) sparked the interest of producer Robert Shaye, founder and then owner of New Line, in continuing to make movies with Freddy. It is also reported that it was the success of this second film - which, with a budget of $3 million, returned to the studio $30 million in the US alone - that spurred and established the small production company amidst the giants of the movie mecca. Today, New Line was purchased and is a subsidiary of Warner Bros.
In Nightmare Hour 2, young Jesse (played by Mark Patton) moves with his family to the home where Nancy (the protagonist of the first film, who left Elm Street after the tragedy five years earlier) lived. Jesse becomes tormented in his nightmares by Freddy Krueger and discovers, upon finding Nancy's diary, that the house has a dark past of violence and madness. Some unexplained events, such as a toaster that catches fire even when it is unplugged and a canary that literally explodes in the air, as well as an infernal heat intrigue the family, who insist in not believing that something could be really haunting the place. But for Jesse the nightmares become more and more intense and Freddy is getting closer and closer to possessing him.
The screenplay, written by newcomer David Chaskin, misses ugly as it distorts the villain's original concept: Freddy now doesn't just want to sneak into his victims' dreams and torture them; the villain wants to take over the protagonist's body and, from it, commit murders in the real world. What makes the script even more confusing is the fact that the killer is not identified at any time: was Jesse possessed or Freddy himself "materialized" in our reality? And what would your real goal be? In one of the film's most embarrassing moments, Freddy attacks several young people who are at a party - everyone sees him, including the adults. But even worse is when the guy screams at the surviving teenagers that they are all his children and a big flame tries to attract the viewer's attention and connect Freddy with hell. They could have done it in a more creative way. It is good to remember that the great idea of the character created by Wes Craven was always another type of confusion, much more sophisticated, in which we do not know where the nightmare begins and where it ends; besides the character being seen only by the victims whose dream was invaded.
Immediately, it is an admirable idea in that it is not limited to a mere repetition of the original formula. It is even bold that Chaskin's script bets on very little presence of Krueger, focusing mainly on the promising mental game between Jesse and the dream killer and shocking images, like the teenager suddenly realizing the glove of claws in his own hand or the Freddy's head trying to pop out of his stomach. Promising ideas, but which are wasted on one of the looser and lackluster scripts. By the way, Chaskin himself admitted that he did the entire text to suggest a homosexual subtext, something that would be interesting and unheard of in the genre if worked out well, but which ends up sounding laughable when we have dialogues like "There's a man trying to get out of me! " or a nightmare sequence that involves Freddy torturing a gym teacher by hitting towels on his bare bottom... In a sauna... Right after a chase at an S&M club. Yeah, this really is classified as a horror movie. It's no surprise that Wes Craven didn't want any involvement with the project.
In this second film, the dark humor is accentuated and the sarcastic tone that would become characteristic of the character's lines begins to take shape. At one point, Freddy tries to explain didactically to Jesse why he will possess his body: "You have the body and I have the brain! "At the same time it rips the deformed skin off your head, leaving your brain exposed. As for the cast, none of the characters is captivating like Nancy from the first movie, and even though Jesse brings the necessary clichés to a horror character that breeds empathy, Mark Patton's performance is forced and downright irritating, as if no one is there - not even Patton or the director - take something there seriously. There's not much to say about the rest of the cast, unless Robert Englund is evilly fun as in the original and Kim Meyers is eerily reminiscent of a young Meryl Streep. Only in appearance, of course.
It is also incomprehensible why the great soundtrack created for the original (composed by Charles Bernstein and used in all the other films in the franchise) was forgotten in this sequel. Also in relation to the script, a positive point is the evolution of the mythology that involves the character and the perfect link with the first film (a hook that rests on Nancy's diary). It is also clarified that the killer Freddy, when alive, worked in a plant, where he took the children he kidnapped and murdered. When Jesse finds Freddy's glove in the basement, inside the old heater, we are led to understand that the house was once a murderer's home.
But the main merit (if we can use that term) is the great special effects and makeup of newcomer Kevin Yagher - in the future Yagher would be known for creating the Chuck puppet from Child's Play and the skull host of the Tales from the Crypt series, besides having worked on sequels 3 and 4 of A Nightmare on Elm Street and directed Hellraiser 4. Some other scenes deserve to be highlighted, such as Jesse's girlfriend's saving kiss on Freddy and the outcome, when the protagonist comes out of the villain, whose charred skin is breaking into pieces.
The director Jack Sholder also fails to understand the figure of Freddy and his immense potential. There isn't a single sequence capable of causing suspense or at least visual dynamism (with the exception of the opening on a school bus, but the fact that the best scene is in the opening seconds is worrisome), leaving the shine to the makeup and special effects department, who once again explore the gore caused by the murderer well. It lacked the dreamlike atmosphere and thriller of the first feature film directed by Craven, the explicit and uncomfortable violence, as well as a more elaborate direction; Jack Sholder's work (Night of Panic and The Hidden) is lazy and without style. Not knowing how to harness the good ideas and gigantic potential of its glorious monster, Freddy's Revenge is a disappointing and forgettable sequel, remembered only for its mediocrity. Fortunately, Wes Craven was watching from afar, and things would go better in the next chapter.
