MovieChat Forums > A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) Discussion > This movie is appallingly bad and the wo...

This movie is appallingly bad and the worst of the series.

posted 10 years ago by XoMoDe
47 replies | jump to latest

So many things wrong here, I may as well go down a list:

1 - Weak congruity and virtually no story progression.

2 - Terrible script. The screenplay barely bodes well. Glitches all over.

3 - Pitiful special effects. For instance: Freddy blasting out of Jesse in Grady's bedroom is one of the most horrendous things I've ever seen on film. It resembled a manikin show.

4 - No one is killed in a nightmare. That all by itself makes this movie the bastard stepchild of the franchise.

5 - Freddy's motivation and reasons why are lost. Furthermore, Krueger is supposed to be a dream killer, not a possessor. Here he comes off more like an evil Patrick Swayze in Ghost.

6 - Overloaded with 2% tricks and theoretical things that don't work or bode well (exploding parakeets, canine face mutants.)

7 - No scenes from Freddy's boiler room.

8 - Freddy, himself, is this movie comes off as inept, generally ineffective and borderline lazy.

9 - Freddy's own death here is absurd and embarrasses the character. In what other Nightmare movie would something as simple "I love you" be enough to defeat Krueger?

10 - The super vague and inconclusive ending essentially renders the whole thing pointless.

How anyone can like this junk is bizarre to me. This is the most exceedingly bad of all the Nightmare films. Every little thing about it was ridiculous or random. A serious drop in quality from the gem Wes made with the first film that would later be completely upstaged by the vastly improved third movie. The one thing I give this movie kudos for is the opening sequence on the school bus, arguably one of the best moments of the series. Too bad the rest of the movie is tripe.

[–] The_Evil_Eye 9 years ago

Sorry but I'm gonna have to agree. Wes Craven *RIP* created a great character in Freddy Krueger but in this movie they lost him. In part 3 they found him again.

[–] BobGunn 9 years ago

Wes Craven *RIP* created a great character in Freddy Krueger but in this movie they lost him. In part 3 they found him again.

Look at this way: It's 1985. You've been asked to make a sequel to Nightmare on Elm Street (which is not yet anywhere near being considered a classic horror movie) and you have none of the original staff or cast (other than Robert Englund) backing you up. Do you rehash the exact same movie, or try and do something a little bit different?

Other than the fact that all of the kills in 3 are committed in the "Dream World", in what way is it closer to the original than 2 is?

If anything, 3 gets further away by starting the trend of over-explaining Freddy's backstory which is completely unnecessary and setting Freddy on the path of becoming a lame comedic character.

[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

Part three definitely "found" Freddy again. That was his renaissance movie.

[–] Electrical1 9 years ago

No, part 3 was when Freddy started to become a corny jokester.

[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

No, part three struck the perfect balance between Freddy's being totally frightening while showcasing his aptitude for sadistic wordplay. Part Three was Freddy as his scariest. It showcased that he wasn't just so buggy monster that could easily be outwitted or possibly ran from. There was candor, intellect and wit behind his evil, which allowed him to stay two steps ahead of his prey and made made him more of a threat than he had been before.

[–] Electrical1 9 years ago

You are in the vast miniroty and for good reason. Freddy started in the dark manner in part 3 much like he was in the orignal and part 2, but after the first 15 minutes or so its downhill. One liners and puns galore as well as seeing him out of the shadows in more well lit areas that diminished his scare factor significantly. It doesnt help that the movie around him is just as cheesy.

[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

I'm not in the "vast minority" at all. In fact if anyone is, it's you. It's pretty common knowledge that Dream Warriors (part three) is arguably the most popular movie in the series, after the original. Robert Englund himself noted that of all the movies, barring the original, part three is the one that fans overall tend to revere the most. Hell, even here at IMDB it has one of the strongest ratings. You're attempting to project your own feelings as if they're generally true, but they're not. No where close.

[–] Electrical1 9 years ago

No, I meant you are in the vast minority in regards to thinking Freddy was at or near his scariest in part 3 which was the point I was making. I know part 3 as a movie is a fan favorite (even though I personally hate it). BTW Englund himself prefers the orignal and New Nightmare to Dream Warriors.

Most people tend to think he was at his darkest in Freddy's Revenge regardless of their feelings towards the movie itself which are split. I'm one of those people.

[–] zeeboe82 9 years ago

I don't think part 3 found Freddy again at all. That's where he got lost and became a wisecracker.

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[–] HereMyDear 9 years ago

Freddy is not his scariest in this movie. Freddy is scariest when he's at his most efficient and that is not the case in this particular installment. Here he's all bluster with little actual capability and is weaker than he was in any of them. Even in Freddy vs. Jason, he does a better job of manipulating Vorhees into killing for him and generating fear on his behalf than he does in this. However one feels about the jokes & one-liners that started becoming more apparent in the next movie, there is no denying that the Krueger of part three was much more clever and proficient there than he is here. This movie is all smoke & mirrors. It tries to hide behind darkness to mask not knowing what to do with Freddy or how to properly use him.

[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

^ Thank you. Some people wanting to pretend that Krueger is alpha in this movie, just because his personality was tempered, is odd. He was sluggish, couldn't do anything for himself and practically spineless. This is why he is absolutely scarier in part three - one liners and all. He wasn't requesting anybody's assistance, could do just about anything and his prey little chance of escaping him. If he had his eye on you, you were pretty much toast. His threat was real.

In part two, if you were lucky enough to just not be standing in his way or could run fast enough, you had a reasonable chance of survival. So yeah, he was 2x scarier there than he is here. Dream Warriors Krueger makes Revenge Krueger look like a joke.

[–] Electrical1 9 years ago

You are both in the vast minority in regards to Freddy, and thats a fact. Freddy was a lot darker, more sinister, had better make up and was used more effectively in part 2. Part 3 was the beginning of a slippy downhill slope where Freddy was becoming more "hip" and "MTV" which is what Dream Warriors started.

Even a lot fans of Dream Warriors who also dislike Freddy's Revenge realise that freddy was a lot more serious and creepy in part 2 than he was in part 3.

[–] HereMyDear 9 years ago

No sir, that is not a "fact." It's an opinion; a biased and speculative one, based on what you choose to see and want to think. What is a FACT is that ANOES3 is and has always been an overall better reviewed and received movie than ANOES2, and that Fred was written to be more organized and forceful in it than in the latter. All this spiel you're babbling on about what is "vast minority," "MTV" and "hip" is futile and doesn't mean anything. Fred was more serious in the second movie. Sure. Who denied that? But serious =/= scary. My position stands: Fred is scariest when he is his most self-sustained and powerful, and for all of his "seriousness" those are traits that he tends to lack in ANOES2, which renders him less scary in it.

[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

But serious =/= scary.

(!)

[–] Durham_christine 8 years ago

I'm actually with you. I don't like Dream Warriors at all. It was good until Kristen second dream,then it goes downhill from there. Nancy looks terrible in that one. It wasn't worth bringing her back. It has such cheesy lines ("In my dreams I'm the wizard master!", gimmie a break), it's so dated and becomes more like Captain Planet and the Planeteers. It's seems far less a threat when it's all these kids at once against Freddy. And Nancy's death was the stupidest ever. She really believed Freddy was dead just because the mirrors broke? Yeah right. Freddy'd Dead and 3 are the worst for me.

[–] RiseAbove873 8 years ago

How the hell anybody can like 4-6 more than part 2 is beyond me! Especially, part 6. What a steaming pile of crap that is. New Nightmare sucks butt too! They should have ended the series with part 3.

[–] Durham_christine 8 years ago

That's alright. It's your opinion and you're more than entitled to it. Personally i can't see how anyone can like 3. It's cheesy and so dated. The lines are cringeworthy. I'm so glad they didn't end it there.
Got to agree with FD. That was awful and not even funny in the slightest. New Nightmare? That was a masterpiece

[–] cheryllchance 9 years ago

I agree too!

She's a real carpenter's dream "Flat as a board and needs a screw"

[–] cheryllchance 9 years ago

I agree too!

She's a real carpenter's dream "Flat as a board and needs a screw"

[–] MacsBottomBitch 9 years ago

It was bad but the 2010 version was way worse

[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

True. I'll watch this movie 10 times in a row before I sit through that ghastly 2010 remake (or through the new remake that they're supposedly pondering) again.

[–] TheComeUp 9 years ago

The problem with this movie is that Jack Sholder and David Chaskin are both hacks who NLC hired for the sake of cost effectiveness. In more capable hands, the plot here may have been salvageable and perhaps not so disconnected from what part one established, but these two had no sense of east and west and it shows on screen. They were trying to turn an rough draft script that cried for a rewrite into a movie. The actors look frustrated and inconvenienced. Half the reason Freddy is so pokerfaced in this movie is because Englund was irritated. The whole thing was mediocre. Just imagine what this could have been had Craven returned.

[–] 5535 9 years ago

However, Robert was at his best here, not including the original and New Nightmare!