Review and Haiku: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

Freddy needs new flesh 

Jesse will be his vessel  

A chance for rebirth

A big highlight for Nightmare 2. Freddy. He’s dark, menacing, evil, less jokey, intense, fierce, grotesque, and very burned. It’s some of the best make up effects they have ever created for this villain. Robert Englund is great once again as Freddy. He added a bit of swagger to the dream demon this time, which I liked, and he had great one liners too – You’ve got the body, I’ve got the brain, followed by an amazing scream from Jessie played by Mark Patton who knows how to scream. Some of the best screaming I have ever heard in a horror movie. Mark did a great job in this role. You felt this character’s pain and torment and you sympathized with him because of the great job Mark did bringing this character to life. Rest of the cast was solid too – no complaints.

Minimal gore but gory enough when needed. Standout kill, one of the best in the franchise, one of my favorites. It’s when Freddy slams those knife fingers into Grady’s chest, quick cut to the other side of the door and you see the bloody tips burst through, and then a quick cut back to Freddy as he happily drags those knives ever so slowly down Grady’s dying tormented body. And that kill took place after some amazing special effects when Freddy tore himself out of Mark’s body. Just a whole gruesome set of events in that scene. And there are some other good kills too and some solid special effects sprinkled through this movie – Freddy dogs – nightmare fuel.  

Story, script, and directing – solid work in those departments. Great score and I also liked seeing the Elm Street house again. Also liked how they tie this movie into the first one with the journal even though we don’t see Nancy writing in that journal. It’s plausible enough and it helps to keep Part 1 and 2 linked. This movie may be an outlier like Halloween 3, but don’t sleep on it. This is a great sequel from start to finish. Scream at me if you want to for that but it should get more love than it does.

Have you seen A Nightmare on Elm Street 2? Is it a terrible sequel or not? Is Mark one of the best horror screamers of all time? Is it one of your favorites in this franchise, if not, which one is? Drop your thoughts about all of that in the comments.

Take care and have a good one.

Video for this script on YouTube.

Disembodied Screams A Nightmare on Elm Street Playlist