A Nightmare on Elm Street II: Freddy's Revenge

A Nightmare on Elm Street II: Freddy’s Revenge has really been shat on over the years, considered one of the worst of the Freddy franchise, although I think parts five and six clearly are worse. You can analyze to death the homoeroticism of the film in terms of Jesse wanting to spend more time with buddy Grady rather than the very interested Lisa, who voluntarily displays her attraction/interest for him. The rules were tampered with in regards to Craven’s dream logic and this is another point of inquiry when the sequel is subject to the dismay of many as it relates to the first film. 

Director Sholder doesn’t necessarily play by the rules established in the first film, but to me, in A Nightmare Elm Street it wasn’t all that clear the playbook to operate by. Sure, you fall asleep and kids die while under, victim to nightmare man, Fred Krueger. What director Jack Sholder and writer David Chaskin do is play on the idea of an invader (in this case, Fred) slowly taking control of the body of teenager, Jesse (Mark Patton), newly moved into Nancy Thompson’s old room because his dad got the house cheap. 

You've got the body..I got the brain

It is basically a body snatcher, evil possession movie where Fred uses “the screams”, Jesse’s fear as a mechanism for his re-emergence into our world. Jesse’s body is a vessel that will allow him to kill. I do see why some would have a problem with this because Freddy can kill the same people in their dreams—why would he need Jesse at all anyway? But saying that, that terror overtaking Jesse is kind of scary to me, this idea that his fear gives way to Freddy, and he cannot stop the killing. I think those scenes after we see Freddy kill Marshall Bell (the gym coach who moonlights as a S&M gay bar frequenter who catches his student, Jesse getting a beer at the bar; my question about this scene is, “Why would Jesse wind up there anyway? Did Freddy motivate him somehow to go there?”) or Grady, and then Jesse is left with the blood all over him, the glove on his hand (a camera POV trip from the basement to his sister’s room, Jesse, glove on hand, standing over her, is really eerie to me), are potent indeed.

I want to get this off my chest. Just forgive me for a moment. KIM MYERS IS HOTTTTTTTT. Okay, I needed to do that. Moving on.

Speaking of Kim Myers, this film is torture to me because a babe such as this would never give me the time of day, but her persistence in a seemingly lost cause (if it wasn’t intentional in presenting Jesse as a closet character, his non-chemistry with Myers and resistance to her when she’s definitely into him are quite open for debate). This has been a subject of much discussion for decades now and has been tackled by numerous reviews, opinions, and documentaries. I would rather focus on Freddy, so I will move on from this. It isn’t like you couldn’t find this topic discussed all over in regards to this sequel. I do wonder how awkward it must have been for Patton while mouthing down Myers' body; for me, it wouldn't have been hard at all. Okay, enough of that..

I think—and this is my personal opinion but one I think has merit—that this film’s Freddy is perhaps Englund’s scariest, darkest interpretation of the character. It further elaborates on the Freddy character, even taking us to his den of child murder, the location of the abandoned power plant with the boiler room. A key scene has Lisa explaining to Jesse that Freddy killed over 20 children, an alarming number that removes the joy of saluting this monster…I honestly think this number is forgotten by fans of the series, particularly as he becomes more comical and less menacing.

Man, did Patton have the scream. His first nightmare (the epic School Bus Ride to Hell) leads to a primal scream that is to be envied by scream queens. When he screams aloud and awakens in hot sweats, you can see that Jesse has been through nightmares beyond the norm. I think that is important, to establish the torment when he awakens. We need to see that this guy’s going through hell, all thanks to Freddy.

In regards to Freddy, the special effects where he emerges from Jesse are incredible. To see Freddy’s eye as Jesse’s mouth opens (eek!), and bursting out of him, this whole physical exit symbolic of Krueger’s total control, embarking on a kill mission, raiding Lisa's party, leaving plenty of scared teenagers dead (including one guy who attempts to negotiate with Freddy, and taking out a few others trying to flee the premises) in his wake; it is quite unique among the Nightmare films because it happens in the realm of the real instead of unreal. Concluding at the old power plant, appropriate because it has such wicked meaning to Fred, Lisa will try to get through to Jesse and free him from the grasp of Krueger, a battle of wills ensue.

I’m not sure what’s up with the house going berserk or the parrot’s flying amok, bursting into flames (or the toaster for that manner), the temperature problem, as if Fred was causing poltergeist type activity. And the uneasy relationship between grumpy father, Clu Gulagher and his son (there’s an always permeating tension present in almost the entirety of their scenes together), the mother (played by Hope Lange) trying to referee the infighting, not helped by Fred’s possessing Jesse. 

You have Jesse brought home to his parents naked while outside it is raining (the episode at the gay bar and gym coach’s demise in the showers). Jesse’s behavior, strange, erratic, confused, and sleep deprived, with pops thinking he’s doing drugs, mom believing his sanity is slipping. Fred is a nuisance for sure.

Jesse: Something is trying to get inside my body. 

Grady: Yeah, and she's female, and she's waiting for you in the cabana. And you wanna sleep with me. 

You have to feel sympathetic towards Grady because Jesse can’t confide in Lisa, instead choosing his room to stay in case Fred attempts to cause a ruckus. There's a line Grady has above that kind of informs me that the script implies what has now been confirmed, the intention, however or not subtle, that Jesse was in the closet and hadn't quite realized it. It is an eyebrow raiser I think helped to fuel the fascination with this film. That, and the aforementioned visit to the S&M bar.

You are all my children now.

There’s this agonizing physical pain that Jesse conveys, as if Freddy’s a parasite that is steadily taking his body one step at a time. Grady experiences this first hand, and it is a scene that truly horrifies because he can’t get out of the room due to the door’s being locked, Fred removing himself from Jesse and moving towards him, the other side of the door, while father bangs in concern, the gloved claws penetrating the door as his son is shown bleeding from the mouth, the face losing life. 

It’s a terrible situation all around because Jesse sees Fred as a reflection in Grady’s mirror, his friend’s blood all over him. No one wins here, and Freddy is behind it all, allowed to hide away until he decides to return. Not a bad framework as a one-off Nightmare film not to be followed up as the third film goes back to the roots of the original and defies what happened in Freddy’s Revenge.

And speaking of Freddy’s Revenge, why would the sequel be named this since Nancy is not part of the equation? If anything, part three, Dream Warriors, would be the film this title would be more apt for such a title, since it does bring back members of the original. What does seem to be a hold-over from the original is the "fight Freddy by denying him your fear" angle that would surface at the end as Nancy finally said enough, no longer allowing Freddy to control her through use of her fear. This film does link itself to the original by mentioning Nancy, her plight, the murder of Glen, her diary (and how it mentioned Glen and Fred, cluing Jesse in to who he's been seeing in his nightmare), and what happened to her mom. It has Jesse confronting his father about all of this and such forceful accusation towards pops about knowing about the house's history regarding prior inhabitants, and not telling them, paints what happens to the young man over the course of this film as a tragic upheaval against him that should never have happened to begin with. Pops got it for a good price, be damned the reputation the ole Thompson house carries, and, in turn, costing son Jesse in the end.