A psychiatrist, familiar with the knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger, helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
Debuting director Chuck Russell elicits poor performances from most of his thesps, making it difficult to differentiate between pic's comic relief and unintended howlers.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
28 Apr 2008
fresh:
The film's dream sequences are ingenious, and they feature some remarkable nightmare images and special effects.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
30 Aug 2004
rotten:
While it's better than its predecessor, it's still not quite up to its inspiration.
– Richard Harrington,
Washington Post,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
This is filmmaking by the numbers, without soul.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
A creepy score and Russell's sure grasp of the skewed logic of nightmares helps to sustain the ambiguity between the 'real' and 'dream' worlds, while Englund's Freddie now fits like a glove.