A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

A new dreamer moves into the house on Elm Street. This time it's a young man named Jesse (played by Mark Patton), and the killer from Elm Street I, Freddy Kreuger, turns him into a sort of murdering vessel. For some reason, he has to kill through Jesse. Why? It's never quite clear. (Very little in this movie is. It's very difficult to tell whether we're in a dream--and whose dream--or reality, for much of the film.) The scenarist, David Chaskin, and the director, Jack Sholder, were obviously trying to come up with some kind of sustainable plot so they wouldn't be stuck remaking the first Nightmare. So there's a lot of bad pop psychology going on of the Jekyll and Hyde/Freudian variety, and lots of hinting around that Jesse might be gay, only he just can't admit it to himself. But the characters are well-drawn, for this kind of film. Jesse is sympathetic, and the girl who's in love with him--or at least, with the idea of saving him--is likable. With Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, Hope Lange, and Robert Englund. 89 min. 1985. ★

Weird Science

Risky Business meets Frankenstein. Two unpopular high school boys (Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan-Mitchell Smith) use a computer to design the perfect girl. To their surprise, it actually works. Kelly LeBrock's performance, as the man-made beauty who helps her makers become less uptight, is this movie's most obvious charm. She's a lot of fun, and when the movie takes a turn for the chaotic (during a big party scene, where a gang of mutants trashes the house), her casual, go-with-the-flow mood is a welcome respite. This isn't the smartest comedy writer-director John Hughes ever came up with. It's too much of a male wish fulfillment fantasy. But it's got some fun moments, and a few up-and-coming actors turn up here in supporting roles: Robert Downey Jr., Bill Paxton, Robert Rusler, and Suzanne Snyder. Followed by a short-lived television series. 1985

Vamp

Low-grade horror-comedy about two buddies who stumble upon a strip club full of vampires in a city that is, by night, a hot-bed of bloodsuckers. The "head" vampire, Katrina (Grace Jones), is a tall, fangy creature with Egyptian roots, so the movie suggests. But she's really not that scary or intimidating, and unlike the suave, charming vampire Chris Sarandon played in the original Fright Night, she isn't any fun. She's just a freak.

Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler have an amiable chemistry together, especially in the beginning when they're being hazed by a particularly infantile group of frat brothers. But the film doesn't make much use out of that charm. Director Richard Wenk (he co-wrote the screenplay with Donald Borchers) doesn't have much of a flair for creating suspenseful situations. The movie has a nice comic book feel, but the simple-minded plot keeps it from generating into anything fun or exciting. Just about every scene promises more than it delivers: Makepeace is chased by a gang of thugs into a sewer system, which seems like it could have been used for a good scare sequence, but the thugs don't go in after him, and it lessens the impact.

There's an odd combination of green and pink neon lighting that permeates the movie, giving it a nice "red light district" feeling, but it's overused, and it doesn't do much more than conceal the fact that the movie wasn't designed with much thought or imagination. The lighting becomes a crutch rather than an enhancer of real atmosphere. With Dedee Pfeiffer, Gedde Watanabe, and, in an amusing role as Katrina's guardian/manager, Sandy Baron. 1986.