#199: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s revenge

Release Date: November 1st, 1985

Format: Streaming (HBO Max)

Written by: David Chaskin

Directed by: Jack Sholder

2 Stars

How is it possible that a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel was written, then went through all its pre-production (casting, location scouting, financing, etc.), then was filmed, edited, marketed, and released less than a year after the original?

Well, you probably have to cut corners, and that’s what A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge looks like, a film that cut corners.

There are a few things that work here (check out the scene where Freddy bursts through the chest of the main character), but most of it doesn’t come together.

In this iteration, a new family has moved into the house from the original movie, and Freddy wants to entice the family’s teenage son to take on his murderous schemes in the real world. It’s not a terrible plot idea I guess, but the script from David Chaskin and the direction from Jack Sholder consistently fumbles the tone and pace of the film. It will attempt a kind of broad comedy vibe at times, then get deadly serious, then just try stuff out because, shit, why not? You can imagine the producers saying something like, “Hey, we need this thing out by Halloween and time’s-a-ticking, so let’s keep the scene with the family’s possessed parakeet, and that other scene with the gym teacher getting attacked by sports equipment. They look good enough to me.”

Wes Craven walked away from the franchise after reading the script for Freddy’s Revenge. Good call Mr. Craven.

Postscript: I’m sure this has already been written about and discussed amongst fans of the Nightmare franchise, but the homosexual undertones of this movie are…let’s say, barely undertones. It caught me a bit off guard. Kind of a strange quality for a slasher movie, which usually embraces a male gaze and lots of gratuitous female nudity. Freddy’s Revenge instead shows our protagonist barechested at least a dozen times, including multiple shots of him in only underwear, and a scene of him getting de-pants during gym class and getting into a fight while his pants are around his ankles, his whole ass just out there as he’s rolling around on the ground. There’s also a scene in a gay bar, and a scene with the gym teacher being tied up in the school’s shower room naked while he’s being snapped across the ass with a towel. I’m not sure what to make of this, but it made me realize that the original Nightmare also avoided female nudity and did seem to linger on male bodies just as much or more than their female counterparts. Interesting.