A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge – Film Review

Posted on July 18, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Jack Sholder

Writer: David Chaskin

Starring: Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, Hope Lange, and Robert Englund

When Wes Craven made the original A Nightmare on Elm Street he had no intention of starting a franchise, but New Line Cinema saw its potential as a big money maker and a sequel was put into production. The sequel was released less than a year after the original with a bigger budget this time around. At the time it received mixed reviews, especially when compared to the original, although in the years since it has gained a cult following.

Freddy’s Revenge is set five years after the first film and instead of continuing Nancy’s story, focuses on Jesse (Mark Patton) who has moved into Nancy’s house on Elm Street with his family. Jesse is the eldest child who takes Nancy’s room and starts to experience dreams featuring Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund). Instead of killing Jesse in his dream, Freddy has other uses for him, and starts to use Jesse to leave the dreamworld and enter reality.

Wes Craven turned down directing the sequel, thinking that David Chaskin’s script wasn’t good and had many mistakes. Instead Jack Sholder took the director’s chair, seeing it as a stepping stone to make it big in Hollywood. The film follows a very similar set up to the original with a group of four teenagers at school and then Freddy appearing in dreams. Freddy’s Revenge was daring in that it breaks the rules set by the first, instead of Freddy appearing in each of the teenager’s dreams, he only appears in Jesse’s and uses his body to kill others. It makes Freddy a much more serious threat as staying awake doesn’t mean anyone’s safe. While the film isn’t as scary, or imaginative as the original, it’s still worth some praise that it tried something different. A lot of slasher sequels follow the same plot with a bigger kill count, but this one doesn’t.

The opening is absolutely great, with Jesse dreaming about being on the school-bus and then things get very wacky as it turns out that Freddy is driving and the ground under the bus starts to cave in. Even before that happens it’s Robert Englund out of make-up driving the bus, a nice little nod to horror fans. The bus sequence feels very imaginative, and it feels like it’s using the potential for a dreamlike horror to its full wacky potential. It even makes you feel like the original didn’t push the dreamworld far enough. But then the rest of the film isn’t as out there as the opening, so it’s pretty much the highlight when it comes to the dreams.

Robert Englund was originally turned down for the sequel after requesting too much money. That didn’t last long, though, as the studio backed down since they couldn’t find a replacement who had the same screen presence. Still there is a distinct lack of Freddy in the film, and when he does the make-up seems like a step down from the previous film. Englund is still great in the role though, with some of the most memorable moments of the film.

One of the reasons the film has been re-evaluated in years since its release is due to different readings of Jesse’s character. He’s an outcast struggling to fit in, and people have seen that as him struggling with his sexuality. There are plenty of hints towards his sexuality throughout the film, some obvious and some more subtle. In the 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, writer David Chaskin admitted that this was intentional, after spending years denying there was any hint of this within the script.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is a mixed bag of a film. It feels like a let down with less scares and menace than the first one, but there are some interesting ideas at play. Regardless it’s become a cult-classic in the years since it was released and is still an enjoyable and entertaining film.

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Pom Poko – Film Review

Posted on July 17, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Isao Takahata

Writer: Isao Takahata

Starring: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Clancy Brown, Tress MacNeille, Andre Stojka, J. K. Simmons, David Oliver Cohen

Rating: ★★★½

Isao Takahata wrote and directed Pom Poko, which was originally released in 1994 in Japan, followed by an English dub in 2005. It’s an environmentalist story told through a story about tanuki (translated to Raccoon in the English translation), which feature prominently in Japanese folklore, especially with their ability to transform into other creatures and objects.

The story is told through a narrator, voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the English dub, who describes the history of a group of tanuki whose habitat is being destroyed by the rapid expansion of Tokyo, specifically the project New Tama in the mid-60s. The narrator gives a very matter of fact approach, giving credibility to the story and making it feel like a documentary in places. He tells of the tanuki as they try to fight back the humans and keep their land the way it always has been.

Pom Poko is very similar in theme to a later Studio Ghibli film, Princess Mononoke from 1997. Both deal with conservation and the effects of humans expanding cities and towns. This one is more child friendly and light-hearted in approach with a good mix of comedy with the environmental message. It also hits a lot harder than Mononoke does, as you get attached to the tanuki presented and feel their struggle. The film isn’t afraid to get dark, and when it does, it’s that much more powerful as it’s almost shocking.

There are a lot of characters in the film, and while there are a few distinct ones, most do tend to blend together. It doesn’t matter, because it’s the entire group that’s the main character. They use their powers of transformation to scare the humans, thinking they will back off, but instead a company take credit for the event announcing it as a publicity stunt. Whatever the tanuki do, it never seems to stop the humans advancing. The films message is not intended to be subtle and it really drives the point home as the final act is quite mellow and dark.

Surprisingly, for a film that spends so much time with tanuki dancing about in celebration, there’s quite a lot of death in it. For the most part it’s quite kid-friendly, but the death, while not brutal or gory, leaves an impression. It’s a very sad film to sit through, even with the amount of jokes and funny moments thrown in. That’s not to say it’s not funny, because it is. Isao Takahata does a really good job at blending the sad with the happy, creating a very melancholic tone throughout.  

Pom Poko has one objective, and that’s to spread its environmental message. It does that in spades and to great effect. While it has a powerful message at its heart, the story is still completely engrossing and entertaining.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street – Film Review

Posted on July 16, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Wes Craven

Writer: Wes Craven

Starring: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, and Robert Englund

The 1980s was the decade of the slasher, from endless Halloween and Friday the 13th sequels to one hit screams like Terror Train. Arguably the most instantly recognisable was the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise with Freddy Krueger. The original film was written and directed by the horror master Wes Craven, who had already made a name for himself with The Last House on the Left, Deadly Blessing, and The Hills Have Eyes.

There is a relatively simple plot. Four friends, the main character being Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), all have a similar nightmare that features a burned man, later revealed to be Fred Krueger (Robert Englund). Slowly the group of friends are killed in their dreams, and also in reality, until there’s only one left. It follows the standard slasher structure, helping solidify the cliches and tropes that the genre is well known for.

The character Freddy Krueger is a masterpiece of horror. The name comes from a boy called Fred, who used to bully Wes Craven when he was a child, and Krueger was chosen as it sounds German. He is set firmly in reality with his chilling backstory, that would be further elaborated on in the sequels, and then he’s also supernatural as he’s only able to hurt people through their dreams. The original film masterfully blends the dreams and reality into one, so you’re not always completely sure whether you’re in the dreamworld or not, making the suspense and terror grow throughout the film.

Jim Doyle was the head of effects, and does a fantastic job, with loads of mesmerising effects that stand the test of time. The make-up on Krueger looks incredible and at this point it’s beyond iconic. All the way through the film there are great effects with buckets and buckets of fake blood. The most impressive and memorable being Tina’s (Amanda Wyss) death, which involves a rotating room to make it look like Tina is being dragged by an invisible presence up the wall to the ceiling. It’s an incredible effect, and when you see behind the scenes footage of how they achieved it, by making a whole room that could rotate, it’s simply stunning.

Tina’s death is also quite early in the film, with everything up to that point seeming to make her the main character. It’s through her perspective that we first enter the dreamworld and see Krueger. Having her killed off early is reminiscent of Janet Leigh’s character in Psycho, in that it tricks the audience and comes across as a big shock when she dies. Wes Craven would again use this technique in his 1996 slasher Scream. It’s an old trick, but it still works. The score to the film, which is pretty great, is also clearly inspired by John Carpenter’s Halloween score, which arguably started the slasher craze of the late seventies and early eighties. 

One of the more interesting, and sadly underutilised, things about the film is the parents of the main characters. They’re absent a lot, with Nancy’s father working as a policeman and even when she begs him to come to the house, he doesn’t appear. Nancy’s mother is an alcoholic and doesn’t listen to her daughter at all. It’s not written very well into the script, but there is a real sense that they are neglectful. It would have been interesting to see this built upon more, especially since the sins of the parents being passed on to the children is one of the major themes of the film.

While it’s not perfect, A Nightmare on Elm Street is absolutely a classic horror film. It spawned a massive franchise, that has sadly not had an entry in over a decade, with one of the most iconic characters of the genre. If you’re a horror fan who hasn’t watched it already, then what are you waiting for? 

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Persuasion (2022) – Film Review

Posted on July 15, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Carrie Cracknell

Writers: Ronald Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Henry Golding, Richard E. Grant, Anikki Amuka-Bird, Ben Bailey, Mia McKenna-Bruce

Persuasion was Jane Austen’s last novel, published six months after her death. Over two centuries later, and having been adapted a fair few times already, it’s now Netflix’s turn. This version re-interprets the story with modern-day language and colour-blind casting that will probably annoy the Austen purists. It’s told more like a light-hearted and quirky romcom than a period drama.

The tone is set instantly by having the main character Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson) introduce the story while speaking directly to the camera. This style is kept up all the way through, with Anne giving the audience knowing smirks all the way through.

It feels inspired by 2019’s fabulous The Personal History of David Copperfield, in that it takes a classic novel and brightens it up with an off-beat tone and a diverse cast. Persuasion isn’t as whimsical or magical as Copperfield was, but it tries its hardest to be. The end result is still a very enjoyable version of the story.

Dakota Johnson does a great job as Anne. She’s a charming and relatable character, detached from the rest of the people around her, not really fitting in and blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time. Richard E. Grant is absolutely excellent as Anne’s self-obsessed father, Sir Walter Elliot. He practically steals every scene he’s in. Mia McKenna-Bruce is fabulous as Anne’s youngest sister, Mary Elliot, who’s beyond selfish, and has some of the best lines of the film.

This adaptation is more bothered about being funny and bouncy rather than faithful to the source material. It’s light-entertainment that if you can get along with it, is very charming and enjoyable. By sticking with the original setting but modernising the tone and language it will probably introduce a whole new audience to the story, while at the same time alienating those that already loved it. For those that hate this version, the previous adaptations are still available and there will be more in the future. If you’re interested, and not put off by the modernisation, then it’s really worth giving a go.  

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An Actual Update

Posted on July 15, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Hello everyone, I’m back again with another short update since I actually have something I’m excited to share. I’ve started writing a new fiction story. It’s been a little while since I’ve written anything apart from reviews, so it feels very good to be back at it. I woke up on Monday after having an unusual dream, and thought it would make a good story so I started writing it down. I’ve written a little more each day and as of yesterday I have 4000 words written. I don’t have the whole thing plotted out yet, but I have some of the major plot points and ending in my head. I don’t think it’s going to be very long, maybe 50,000 words, but I will share more when I have more of an update. Oh, and the working title is ‘Blossoms of the Apocalypse’.

I’m also finally ahead of my reviews. For the longest time I was writing them the day they were being posted, with very little wiggle room. With work, life, and other distractions, I couldn’t get ahead on the reviews. At one point I had 9 days worth of reviews written up in advance then that number slowly crept down as things went wrong. Thankfully this week I’ve managed to get 5 days in advance. Thanks mainly to a horror convention I’m going to in October. It sparked my love of horror films again and I started re-watching the Nightmare on Elm Street series and writing a review for each one. I’ve seen them all before, but it’s been a while. To be honest they’re a lot better than I remember. I have reviews for the first four written and ready to go, but don’t want to do them on after the other, so will try to publish them on alternative days.

The other thing I’ve been doing is filling in the blanks for Studio Ghibli films that I haven’t seen. One of the things I’ve wanted to do for a while is rank all the Ghibli films, but more importantly I still need to watch a few more to see them all.

Years ago I watched Spirited Away as a little kid and ended up seeing a fair few of the studio’s output since then. Earlier this week when going through Netflix at the start of my lunch hour, I found When Marnie Was There, which I hadn’t seen so started watching it. It re-sparked my idea for ranking them, and then I made a list of what I hadn’t seen. Since then I’ve crossed off Grave of the Fireflies and Ponyo, and just have Princess Mononoke and Pom Poko left to go.

There are also a few others I need to re-watch before completing the ranking, like Howl’s Moving Castle (which I don’t remember liking that much but have a feeling I like more now that I’m older). My plan is to review the ones I haven’t seen, re-watch (and review) the ones I have but don’t really remember, and then do the ranking. I’ll probably then re-watch the rest and review all of them. It might just take a while.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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