Jesse Has Nightmares

 

My daughter was begging me to have ourselves a "Freddy week". Now, initially she wanted a Freddy weekend Saturday the 24th, but I just didn't want to try and squeeze five or six films in a day or so. Gotta let the films "breathe", I guess is how I felt.

Even though I read that Sholder was very unflattering of the first film, I was still glad the sequel addressed Nancy, the character, through the discovery of her diary and how her naughty thoughts about Glenn. There's this feeling of invasion that takes place as Lisa (Kim Myers) finds the diary and opens it, with Jesse (Mark Patton) soon curious as to its contents. It is an inquisitive nature of the teenager that can't resist "investigating" a former occupant's inner thoughts pinned to paper, locked away and slipped into a closet. Nancy is mentioned as having suffered a breakdown, her mother committing suicide. The tragedy of that is said to have occurred five years previous "before Lisa's time". Jesse and his family seemingly moving to Springwood not long before the sequel starts, with no one else ever living in the infamous Thompson house since Nancy's breakdown and Glenn's death.

I thought the above image was a great case where what is implied is just as impactful and effective as if you showed the mutilation on screen. You save money -- especially after the spectacular Freddy-exits-Jesse special effects showcase -- while still getting the point across that Grady couldn't escape, pressed against the door, as Freddy put that iconic blade glove right through him. And some blood spit out of Grady's mouth while his face loses life. I think it is Sholder at his very best. There were plenty of effects sequences offered so going this route provided Sholder a chance to get creative while still killing off a beloved character in a potent, visceral way.

With some of the Elm Street films leaving HBO Max at the end of July, I did also want to make sure we had to watch the films in the best they've ever looked. I'm still puzzled as to why Warner properties are leaving a Warner streaming service that could always use the Freddy franchise as a reason to use HBO Max. I was telling my daughter and wife that the above bus scene is one of those that did give me nightmares in my youth. I'm on a bus and Freddy was there to scrape across the seats and top of the bus. As a kid and early teen, I HATED riding the bus, and every day, to me, was a nightmare. So how the bus is used as a device for a nightmare made sense to me.

I think I wrote about how the film really imprints on me as it reminds me of school in the 80s. When I watch A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), memories do come alive and I have recall of the brief neighborhood street I once lived and the school experience just feels so fresh in my mind. This is the film out of the Elm Street series where the presence of school and just the 80s experience as a youth seem to really come alive.

But the bus ride to hell scene is so fucking great to me. I can remember when I rented this in the 90s from Ray's Rent-a-Movie -- it was actually the one Elm Street film I had the hardest time locating, which is why it was the last in the series I watched -- that opening scene. The inability for Jesse to get away, the two girls backed up to the back of the bus, Freddy closing in. Nightmares are like that...the menace closes in and the only escape is waking up. But what if you can't escape? That is fertile ground in horror.