A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge-1985
Director Jack Sholder
Starring Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Englund
Scott’s Review #1,024
Reviewed May 18, 2020
Grade: B
While producing a surprising and tantalizing sexual subtext to a standard story and including a male protagonist instead of the generic female, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) sometimes feels overwrought.
With stock characters and not enough scary moments to satisfy bloodthirsty appetites, the effort and aching for something a bit different is apparent if viewers are sharp enough to take a curious peek.
The glossy 1980s cinematic look is cringe-worthy and very “of the time” which usurps the creative tidbits nestled beneath the surface, as deserving of their merits as they are.
Nonetheless, the film is not at all bad, almost feeling fresh by today’s standards, and the familiar villain is worth the price of admission. Once again Freddy baits and taunts his victims, who never stand a chance, with his trademark sneer and razor-sharp nails.
Five years following the events of the first A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), a new family arrives on the cursed block, happily anticipating a new life filled with baked cookies and warm fires.
Parents Ken and Cheryl Walsh (film legend Hope Lange) raise two kids, Angela and Jesse (Mark Patton). The latter is haunted in his dreams by a killer driving a school bus. Jesse is joined by his friend and romantic interest, Lisa (Kim Meyers), school chum Grady (Robert Rusler), and Coach Schneider (Marshall Bell), who may or may not be gay.
An obvious comparison to the similar-themed Friday the 13th franchise, a hot ticket during the 1980s, is the return to a familiar setting.
Elm Street is to A Nightmare on Elm Street what Camp Crystal Lake is to Friday the 13th. The locale is a character itself and knowing that bad stuff will occur there is pleasing to the viewer.
Elm Street is supposed to be a quiet and safe place for families to snuggle in their beds with pets, dreaming the nights away, not worrying about an evil force turning their pleasant dreams into nightmares come to life.
A clever homoerotic tidbit lost on most viewers, emerges nonetheless, especially in hindsight. Let’s remind ourselves that 1985 was not a hotbed of LGBTQ cinematic activity, especially as the horrific A.I.D.S epidemic was front-page news.
Gay-themed films were not the norm, not even in the independent film circuit yet, so any mention of a gay character was a win for the community.
A riveting scene has Jesse dreaming of indulging in a drink at a gay bar and is caught by Schneider, who sends him to the showers. The sexual overtones, obvious now, were not then.
Sadly, this is as far as the film goes with this subject.
The remainder of the story is mostly standard fare, featuring a lively teenage pool party, aqua-net-infused hairstyles, up-tempo pop music, and familiar written characters, most of whom turned up with different faces in the droves of horror films that peppered suburban movie theaters in those days.
Not daring to make Jesse a gay character, though someone humorously made the character’s name androgynous, Jesse and Lisa share a tender kiss in her cabana.
Most sequels pale in comparison to their originals. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) is an adequate follow-up that dares to incorporate as much diversity and inclusiveness as could be mustered in a mainstream film during the mid-1980s.
Let’s not kid ourselves that the studios did not have profit on the mind over credibility and creativity, but the stakes are not exactly played safe which is to its credit.
There were far worse sequels in this franchise yet to come!