The Nightmare On Elm Street Sequel That Doesn’t Deserve The Hate, Stream On Netflix

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 opens with one of the most terrifying opening sequences in the franchise. Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) dreams he is on the school bus which happens to be driven by Freddy Krueger. When the driver reveals himself to Jesse, the teen is forced to watch as the finger-knifed killer slowly makes his way to the back of the bus.

Jesse had just moved into the home on Elm Street that once housed Nancy Thompson and her mother in the first installment of the film series. Five years after the defeat of Krueger, the Walsh family moves in and begins to experience eerie occurrences. The house is ungodly hot, their daughter’s pet parakeet explodes, and Ken and Cheryl Walsh are beginning to think something strange is going on with their son.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 sees Jesse befriend Lisa Weber (Kim Myers), who quickly becomes his love interest. When the two are unpacking boxes in his room, they discover Nancy Thompson’s diary high on the closet shelf. As they read the pages, it becomes apparent to Jesse that he is suffering from the same nightmares that Nancy describes.

Jesse’s nightmares are becoming more frequent and more terrifying. In his dreams, Freddy appears and tells him to kill for him. After being forced to run laps in the gym late one night by his sadistic gym coach, Jesse’s body gives way to Freddy’s gloved hand and the coach is slashed to death.

Freddy soon steps out of Jesse’s body at will, killing his friend Grady. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 becomes a battle of whose will is stronger; the lovesick teenager or the spirit of the savage child killer that is attempting to possess his body.

With critics, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 sits in the middle of the pack out of all the franchise’s films. The first entry is by far the most revered (95%), with the lowest being the embarrassing 2010 reboot (14%). The second installment only dreams up a mediocre 43%, but Freddy’s Revenge deserves a much warmer reception.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 might not have brought a cast of newbies that showed great acting chops like its predecessor, but Mark Patton deserves accolades for his portrayal of Jesse Walsh. Horror and sci-fi fans will also love that genre icons Clu Gulager (Return of the Living Dead) and Marshall Bell (Total Recall) also gave memorable performances. Of course, Robert Englund always steals the show, this film showing the actor taking more of a humorous direction with Freddy Krueger to add another dimension to the character.

The film also gives more insight to what Nancy Thompson endured from the first film. The pages of her diary read by Lisa were a great touch and one of the film’s most underappreciated moments.

Composer Christopher Bell does well with the film’s score, replacing Charles Bernstein from the previous entry. Bell’s music adds to the film’s buildup of terror in ways that truly serve A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 in the best way. Additionally, the use of the Bing Crosby classic “Have You Ever Seen a Dream Walking” over the film’s end credit was the perfect way to end the nightmare.

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To not point out that the film’s homoerotic undertones would be doing A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 an injustice. It’s been heavily speculated since the film’s release that Jesse is a repressed gay teen that finds himself in numerous situations that are akin to gay erotica. His gym teacher approaching him at a late-night fetish club, a sweaty wrestling match, and Kruger’s tongue escaping Jesse’s mouth and putting the brakes on an intimate moment with Lisa have all been used as supporting evidence to support that belief.

You can stream this underappreciated film on Netflix or rent A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 On Demand with Vudu, Google Play, AppleTV, and Prime.