Unfairly Derided, one of the series best - look again...
Always liked this film in the series and was surprised to discover how widely dismissed it is. Nightmare 2 is one the series best - it has the strongest opening of any film in the series that picks up the story with a fast pace, includes a number of genuinely creepy scenes and was the last sequel to maintain some of the spookiness of the original before the franchise descended into quip-kills and FX-mania. There's also some genuine laughs and nice moments between the cast, great photography and score, and some ripper kills....
Mark Patton gives a dedicated if at times over-the-top performance, and Robert Russler is terrifically funny. The 'possession' angle, while not strictly nightmare-focussed, span the story in a unique direction. Sure there's some hokey scenes (exploding budgie??), but the left-field S&M kill and some uniquely weird moments, as nightmares seem to spill into the real world, reflect the Asian and European horror we often laud - so why dislike it in an American setting?
This was also the last time Freddy came close to the menace he was originally imagined to be - the American nightmare, a lurking psychotic who stalks our safe, tree-lined suburbs, driven to steal and murder children. In that context, the pool-party scene where he faces down and dominates a horde of shivering teenagers approaches a genuine horror the series never again touched.
Many horror films also share a strong crossover with the teen genre, mirroring that period of our lives when we're changing inside and out; indeed the doubt, isolation, discontent, uncertainty and occasional dread we feel in that pivotal period often haunts our dreams well into adulthood. The screenwriter later admitted to a gay subtext in the film also; can we assume some of the alleged dislike of this film is perhaps discomfort with some of the undertones?
When I first saw this film I lived at home with my parents. I'm re-watching it tonight as a father with my own young children. Ironically part way through watching it, my young 3yr old son awoke crying in bed and I had to soothe him back to sleep. In his darkened room I asked him "what's wrong?", and sobbing he said "bad dream". As a father now I can far more appreciate the horror of what Freddy was supposed to represent, and Nightmare 2 was the closest he ever came to that again as a character. Take another look with fresh eyes....