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Why You Should Give “Freddy’s Revenge” a Second Chance

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You all know the movie. You all love to hate it. The black sheep in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. The movie that tackled homosexuality without anyone realizing it. The movie that disappointed the fans; the movie that almost ruined Freddy. Now let me tell you why you should give it a second chance.

On my annual marathon of the franchise I wondered if I should leave the second movie out, because we all know how bad it is. But I gave it a chance. And it did pay off for sure.

About the movie

Five years after the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jesse, a young boy, is haunted in his dreams by Freddy Krueger. He slowly finds out more about our favorite villain and works hard to defeat him. Jesse is played by Mark Patton who quit acting shortly afterwards. The director is Jack Sholder and the writer is David Chaskin. Neither had much of a career afterwards. Robert Englund is the only reoccurring actor as Freddy Krueger.

give Nightmare 2 a second chance

Freddy rocking out at a pool party

Why the hate?

So this all doesn’t sound like a good way for Freddy to return. No famous people at all. None that were big before, and none that went on to do anything noteworthy. Adding to this, the rules have changed. Instead of haunting the teens in their dreams, Freddy mostly haunts Jesse in real life. Not all the teens. Just Jesse and his surroundings. At one point he makes birds go crazy. And instead of visiting teens in their dreams he possesses Jesse’s body and kills people that way.

give Freddy a second chance

Nothing to see here. Movin’ on

Why you should love it and give it a second chance!

If you go at it from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street this isn’t going to work. Too much has changed. So what I’m offering you is to watch this with an clean slate. It’s not about the Freddy Krueger. It’s about another demon with the same name. And this demon has slightly different rules. He needs a human vessel. If that vessel goes to sleep, he can take over their body and come back to haunt the world.

If you watch it with that perspective, what you get is a great horror movie that manages to be scary and haunting. The special effects, all hand-made, are just brilliant. Freddy has some great one liners and the movie has quite a few twists. The homosexual undertones are still there but you can try to read into what they mean. Or just ignore them. It’s especially funny to watch when you hear that neither the producers nor the director realized these undertones existed until after they were told about them.

And, in its defense, this version of Freddy is different from the main lore, because when this movie came out, all we had was A Nightmare on Elm Street, and while it’s one of my favorite movies of all time, you can’t say it sticks to any rules. In it they manage to bring Freddy to real life, so that’s canon. But then again, watching that movie, is he actually in real life, or is it all a dream in a dream inception style? Who knows.

give Freddy a second chance

The birth of an icon

Final Words

No, this is not the Freddy you learned to love over the years. But by no means is this a bad horror movie. It delivers on the scares, the effects, and on the 80s cheese-factor. And you could actually remake this movie today and exchange Freddy for some other creature, and in the end you’d get … well actually it’s pretty similar to Insidious. Boy in a coma (sleep) with ghosts around him, trying to possess his body to come to our world…

If you liked this article you should maybe take a look at

why you should give Halloween 4 a second chance next.

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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