So what does one do when they can’t stomach sitting through Nightmare of Elm Street 2? Well they shouldn’t watch part 5 because that’s the next worse one. That’s exactly what I did, and this will be short.
Here’s the biggest problem with part 5: a total disregard for the fans in my opinion. It’s not a bad movie in and of itself, and it plays really well as a story from 1,3, & 4 from a continuity standpoint. So how does it have disregard to it’s fans? Lack of kills, plain and simple. They could have squeezed in 2-3 more kills, and this would have been right there with part 4 I think. Only 3 people get got in this film. Compare that to Part 1, which had 4 but was setting the tone. Part 2 never happened. Part 3 ups it to 6 deaths, plus it is implied Neil probably dies and Dr Bitch may die too. Max takes over the hospital. They also bring back the 3 surviving characters. Part 4, instantly kills off the 3 survivors and adds 3 more, for a grand total of 6. So they bring back Alice and Dan for Part 5, and they literally kill of Dan, Greta, and Mark. THAT’S IT!!! What were they thinking?
Worse were the actual kills. Greta gets force fed, stuffed to death with little scary lead up, no walk through the house, nothing. Awful. Mark’s scene was a borderline rehash of Will’s scene in part 3, only not as cheesy so it lacked a lot of charm. Now I did enjoy Dan’s death scene, but compared to the previous 2, this was lacking in iconic kills. 3 had Phillip and jennifer’s epic deaths. 4 had Debbie and Kristin’s big kills.
Storyline wise, they beat us over the head with this kid bullshit, and really, it was merely adequate for what it was. Like I said, you add 2-3 more kills, this becomes a triumph I feel. This movie also lacked any genuinely great music, which is a shame.
It’s not that I hate this movie, especially compared to the general audience who typically despise this movie. But at least mine isn’t of blind hatred, I have my rhymes and reasons. I wanted to love this, I just can’t. I give this a 6 because it still had it’s moments and I have seen it probably 10 times. Oh well.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- New Line Cinema (presents)
- Heron Communications (presents)
- Smart Egg Pictures (presents)
- Fourth New Line-Heron Joint Venture, The
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