Well after a fantastic start to the Freddy Krueger franchise, it looks like the second installment was, well, not so good. The movie is remembered for having gay overtones, and that's all up to the viewer. But to me, it's just so obvious. Let's just see how the grading scale goes.
So here's the plot:
The film begins with a boy named Jessie having a nightmare. He has just moved into the house that Nancy from the first film lived in, and it looks a little different, I'm not gonna lie. In his dream, on the way to school, the bus driver, Freddy, drives them out to the middle of nowhere and slashes him and the other passengers up.
He goes to school and meets Ron Grady, who will become a friend later but for now is just pulling his pants down in protest when Jessie gets him out in PE. We also meet his future love interest, Lisa, and his gym teacher, Schneider.
Every once in a while, Jessie will have a dream and Freddy will show up demanding that Jessie kill for him. In one, as he says, "You've got the body and I've got the brain," before taking off the skin on the top of his head and showing his psycial brain to Jessie.
Things get even tenser when Jessie's pet bird attacks the family, kills the other bird, and then bursts into flames. That night Jessie goes out in a sort of daze, ends up at a homosexual bar and runs into his gym teacher, Schneider, who makes him go back to the school and run laps.
While Jessie showers, Schneider is attacked by his gym equipment: tennis balls, basketballs, tennis rackets, and his jump ropes end up dragging him to the shower where he is stripped naked, a towel slaps his behind, and Freddy shows up and kills him. Jessie watches and after Schneider is killed looks down to his hand and sees Freddy's glove.
Lisa finds out a little about Freddy and tells Jessie that everything's ok and that he didn't kill Schneider. So one night Lisa has a party and Jessie leaves and goes to Grady's house. He tells Grady to watch him sleep and wake him up if he starts to freak out. Unfortuately Grady fails to live up to that and Freddy bursts out of Jessie and kills Grady.
Jessie manages to get back to Lisa's party before Freddy, but soon enough it all happens again and several partygoers are killed by Krueger. Eventually he runs off to his old work place where the finale occurs.
To put it simply, Lisa does the same thing Nancy did, Jessie ends up ok, Krueger is gone, and a few weeks later when Jessie is ready to go back to school, on the bus, the nightmare from the beginning begins to actually happen.
So now for the grading scale:
Acting: 4 out of 10. Outside Robert Englund as Freddy, the cast is pretty poor.
Entertainment: 5 out of 10. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I get bored. Depends.
Screenplay: 4 out of 10. Points against it for unoriginality. Another remake instead of a sequel.
Directing: 5 out of 10. Competent but nothing above that.
Technical Credits: 8 out of 10. Very well done on the special effects and makeup.
Genre Fit: 9 out of 10. Doesn't try to be anything but a horror movie.
MPAA Rating: 8 out of 10. Actually not too strong of an R rating and not too soft.
Stupid Scenes: 3 out of 10. A sort of dance scene with Jessie making provacative gestures is absolutely unneccessary and stupid, amongst others.
Deeper Message: 3 out of 10. Pretty much none.
Beginning: 14 out of 30. Quite dull.
Middle: 18 out of 30. Gets better.
Ending: 22 out of 30. Ok ending.
Final Score: 103/180 or a 57%. A C+ not too far off from a B-. Its watchable but not really reccomended.
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