A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

Freddy's Revenge is worth a curious look almost entirely for how strange and specific its failures are, not for anything it accomplishes as a horror film on its own terms. The decision to abandon the original's dream-logic kill mechanic in favor of a possession plot strips away what made Freddy frightening in the first place, and the film's now-legendary queer subtext, gay panic anxiety coded into nearly every scene involving Jesse, was reportedly unintentional according to its director at the time, though the screenwriter has since confirmed it was very much intentional. Robert Englund gets more room to be theatrical here, which sometimes works and sometimes just feels like the movie has no idea what tone it's aiming for. It's genuinely one of the odder franchise detours in horror history and that alone makes it worth seeing once. Not good, but fascinating.