Summary:
Nancy Thompson helps a group of teens learn how to fight Freddy Krueger.
My Thoughts:
This is certainly one of the better “Nightmare on Elm Street” sequels. For the most part the dream sequences strike the perfect balance of silly and spooky, this film expands upon the world of the original film, it stars young Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”) and Lawrence Fishburne (“The Matrix”), and best of all Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp, “New Nightmare”) makes her triumphant return to the franchise. I won’t say this is a great movie, but if you enjoy the franchise, then it’s certainly worth a watch.
One of the best things about the “Elm Street” franchise is how creative it can be when compared to other 80s slashers, mostly because Freddy kills people in their dreams. Even the lesser entries in the “Elm Street” franchise tend to have some cool sequences (I didn’t really care that much for “II”, but that bus dream sequence through the desert at the beginning was pretty sweet). Thankfully, this film has far more good dream sequences than bad ones, and furthermore, most of them are relatively creepy. One of the opening sequences, before we’re introduced to the main plot, shows Patricia Arquette’s character, Kristen, falling asleep and suddenly waking outside a home where a small gathering of children, dressed all in white, are singing the famous Freddy jingle (you know the one: One, two, Freddy’s coming for you; three, four, better lock the door… etc.). It’s fairly well shot, and it provides a fair amount of tension before the plot even starts to unfold.
The main plot revolves around a half dozen kids whom have all been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for various types of self-harm, but, the thing is, they all say that they didn’t try to harm themselves, that they were asleep and someone in their dreams attacked them. Of course, no one believes them and they end up in this hospital where a young therapist named Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson, “Body Double”) tries to cure them with the help of Nancy Thompson, who has conveniently just been hired as an intern. Thompson, of course, immediately recognizes the man in the stories the kids tell, and she convinces Neil to try an experimental therapy session where they all go to sleep. Unfortunately, Freddy takes one of their numbers into a coma, and they have to fight to get him back.
I actually like a fair amount of the world building they do in this movie, but unfortunately for the series, this movie has always struggled to keep to its own rules. When can Freddy cross over into our world; when is he stuck in the dreamworld; can he influence objects in reality; can other people see Freddy outside of their dreams? The answers to all of the above questions seem to change in various installments of the series, but in this installment, the rules seem to stay pretty close to the original (up until the end, but more on that in a minute). Freddy has power primarily in his dreams but he can influence people to do things in reality; simple, clean, to the point. I like it. This film has a couple cool kills with a couple really great practical effects and body horror; I loved the veins getting pulled out of the kid’s arms and legs and being used as if he were a marionette.
The first two acts are a bit creepier than the third act; by the third act, the kids have started to learn how to ‘use their dream powers’, which I thought was kind of cool from a story perspective, but I also thought it took away from the creepiness of Freddy. Only a few of the kids’ powers were legitimately cool and useful; like the kid who could perform actual spells. The rest of the kids’ powers were sort of lame; like, for example, one kid dressed like a punk and could fight with knives in the dream world. If that’s someone’s idea of a dream power that’s just pathetic; couldn’t you, like, fly? Be invincible? But you want to fight with knives and wear your hair in a black mohawk instead, huh? Cool.
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW
My biggest problem came towards the end of the film when, for some reason, Nancy’s estranged and now alcoholic father (and still police officer) gets involved and helps to find Freddy’s bones (no problem there). When they arrive at the junkyard, they find the bones immediately in the trunk of an old car (good thing the car didn’t move after twenty years, or however long it’s been since they killed Freddy), and start to dig a hole where they plan to bury him (which will lay him to rest, or something- there’s like four more of these movies; I don’t think it worked). Before Pops can plant Freddy’s bones in the earth, the bones somehow come to life and slay daddy and the dude that was with him. Freddy somehow transferred himself back to his bones (but just for a split second), and then killed some people in the real world, and then died again… it just doesn’t make any sense with the rest of the rules in the film. The rest of the ending, the ending in the dream world with the kids and Nancy, actually worked pretty well, and it did sort of pack an emotional (might be too strong of a word) punch at the end for fans of the original.
Verdict:
While not essential horror viewing, like the original “Nightmare on Elm Street”, I do think that fans of the franchise will find a ton to love in this entry. I really enjoyed this one up until the third act (a problem the second film had too), but it didn’t ever completely fall apart. Freddy might not have as much bite as he did in ’84, but he’s still got enough for me.
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