Elm Street 5 years later. Nancy's House at 1428 (featured in the first episode) has new tenants: the Walsh family. But there is also an old nightmare, which returns to haunt the neighborhood: Freddy Krueger. The monster uses young Jesse Walsh's dreams to move from fantasy to reality and return to claim victims. He takes advantage of the poor boy's unwitting help to slaughter those around him. Jesse is unable to realize what is happening to him, but his behavior begins to resemble that of the phantom Freddy, including his outward appearance. Only through the discovery of Nancy's diary is he able to make logical sense of the aura of death surrounding him: Freddy has not been destroyed and his bloodlust has not been quenched. Will the love of Jesse's girlfriend Lisa be able to defeat Freddy's hatred?
Nightmare II - The Revenge (1985) by Jack Sholder, the second chapter in the saga Nightmare suffers somewhat from the change in direction; where Craven had woven an unpredictable and compelling dream-realta plot, here we find ourselves with a good film that builds on the success of the first installment but adds virtually nothing. Freddy is still the villainous killer who leaves no room for laughter, observed in the first installment; a character that holds up, thanks in part to a good series of fairly gruesome murders. Otherwise, a film that suffers from its predecessor, even in relation to a decidedly inferior acting; happy gimmicks (see the Freddy-Jesse relationship) alternate with less successful ones (a Freddy interacting with reality, somewhat distorting Craven's initial character), for a director who has yet to mature.
If you love Freddy watch it: not a masterpiece but still an above-sufficing film.
Review by mestreandrea
