Full Review: Nightmare on Elm St 2: Freddys Revenge (1985)

People in the Movie:  Robert Englund, Mark Patton, Kim Myers

Director:  Jack Sholder

Pigeonhole:  Horror / Teen Slasher

The Basics:  Jesse (Patton) and his family have just moved into a new house on Elm Street.  He is having trouble sleeping because a scary, burned man begins stalking Jesse in his dreams, wanting Jesse to kill for him.  That man is Freddy Krueger.  He is back; it is 5 years after he attacked Nancy Thompson and her friends in their dreams, and it appears he wants to kill some more.  The only person who seems interested in helping Jesse is his “girlfriend” Lisa (Myers). 

Recommendation:  I guess you have to watch something to criticize it, right?  If you like Freddy, and you like seeing him killing with his glove, you can fast forward to those parts… otherwise this movie is a major letdown.  As a standalone (meaning you never watched the first Nightmare), this movie actually makes the most sense.  'R' rating is for violence, gore, and language.    

My Take: **spoiler alert** It is clear from the on-screen product that this movie was rushed into production to capitalize on the success of the prior film, without any (or very little) thought to the story.  Wes Craven wanted nothing to do with this film; in fact, he did not originally want Nightmare on Elm St. to become a franchise.

I’ll start with the good parts… The movie is only 87 minutes long.  Freddy is definitely more interested in the killing this time, the body count is higher, and there is more of a gore factor.  My favorite scenes: the family bird killing its mate, then flying through the house and blowing up; Freddy going into Jesse’s sister’s room, the audience seeing the glove and hearing Freddy’s voice, but then seeing it on Jesse – very creepy; and finally Freddy’s attack on the pool party, with several good cut downs, as it were.

Now the bad stuff…  The title, ‘Freddy’s Revenge’; what’s that about?  Who is he seeking revenge on, and for what?  That was never made clear.   Freddy is only on-screen for 13 minutes.   Freddy coming out and attacking people in the “real world” versus killing them in their dreams (which should be the whole point of the Freddy character), was just a bad idea.  It seemed like the writers and director could not decide if Freddy was somehow linked/anchored to the house on Elm Street, hence why he would pick Jesse, since he was now in Nancy’s old bedroom, or if Freddy was just a possessing spirit at this point, and using the Elm Street house was just a means to link this movie to the first and to the audience.  The whole feel of the movie was just “off”, mostly because of the context to first film.  Finally, the ending was putrid.  Lisa somehow “talking” Jesse’s essence and body out of Freddy, now in the real world, with words of love, was just plain stupid.  There is no other way to describe it.

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  Generally speaking, this is the “black sheep” of the entire series, and least regarded film… Brad Pitt, John Stamos, and Christian Slater all auditioned for the role of Jesse…

Interesting fact: the movie’s screen writer David Chaskin has confirmed that he intentionally meant for the film to have homoerotic subtext.  Witnessed by: Jesse being in various states of undress throughout the movie; Jesse wrestling with Grady (Robert Rusler) on the baseball field with his pants partially down; Jesse having a “No Chicks Allowed” sign on his bedroom door; Jesse doing a dance in his room, and using his butt to pack his drawers; Jesse ignoring Lisa’s sultry advance to help him clean in his bedroom; Jesse running into his gym teacher at a gay S&M bar; balls being thrown at the gym teacher, and the gym teacher being subsequently stripped and swatted on his butt before he is killed; Jesse starting to make out with Lisa at her party, but then running to Grady’s house, where Grady is in bed in his tighty-whiteys; Jesse screaming like a girl throughout the movie; and even casting Mark Patton was intentional, as he was “out”.