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A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) Review

  • Writer: Julio Ramirez
    Julio Ramirez
  • 4 hours ago
  • 5 min read
“You’re all my children now”
“You’re all my children now”


THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.


The worst thing about a nightmare is that it’s an entity that is reoccurring.


PLOT

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge takes place five years after the events of the first film. Teenager Jesse Walsh and his family have moved into the home that the Thompson family used to live. Ever since the move, Jesse starts having nightmares of the child killer Freddy Krueger. Apart from having a friend out of Lisa Webber, he has a rough start with classmate Ron Grady. When Lisa helps him finish packing, she finds the diary that belonged to Nancy, containing details of past nightmares Jesse has had. The next time he dreams of him, Krueger wants him to kill for him which he rejects. At home, the Walsh’s pet birds spontaneously combust and Jesse has a nightmare so severe that he wakes up in the middle of a gay bar by his school coach, Mister Schneider (Marshall Bell), who punishes him by running laps at the school gym at night. Freddy does emerge to kill the coach and Jesse would find the glove again upon discovering the carnage, but would be let go by the police when he’s later found wandering naked in the streets. The following night, Krueger still urges him to do his bidding. The day after, Lisa drives him to the power plant where he killed all the children and was killed by the avenging parents. Jesse then temporarily loses control of himself when he lurks into his sister’s room with the glove but stops him from doing something terrible. He later goes to Lisa’s pool party and he almost has sex with her until catching onto Krueger’s intentions before telling Grady what’s going on. Out of respect, he promises to watch him as he sleeps if something else happens. When he makes the mistake of falling asleep as well, Freddy emerges out of Walsh’s body to kill him and Lisa’s party guests. He almost kills Lisa as well, but Jesse’s influence is able to restrain him from doing so. Realizing fear is what strengthens the slasher, Lisa controls her own fear when confronting him at the same factory. As she professes her love for Jesse by saying it aloud and proving it with a kiss, it becomes enough for Walsh to reemerge and cause Krueger to combust. However, the film ends in a cliffhanger where the force of evil traps both protagonists within a shared nightmare, driving them into a field on a moving bus.


THOUGHTS


Having seen the consistency of Jason Voorhees in the 80s, it made all the right sense that other slashers that would come after are gonna follow suit in banking on it. Robert Shaye, the founder of New Line Cinema, was aware of the trend and didn’t hesitate making a big profit off of Freddy Krueger because had he not, the studio likely would’ve not lasted so long; Meaning had this franchise not lived on, we likely would’ve not seen classics like The Conjuring or Lord of the Rings. While I don’t think this sequel is the best thing ever since it doesn’t match the quality left behind by Wes Craven. Nevertheless, writer David Chaskin & director Jack Sholder are able to give us a right amount of supernatural suspense. What I applaud a lot here is gonna be the makeup done by Kevin Yagher because he succeeds in making Freddy appear creepier in a vein much differently because you know you’re set for discomfort seeing a demon show off his brain or emerge from someone’s body. That said creepiness really goes to meaty and wet he looked in comparison to before & actor Robert Englund uses that to excel all the fear we feel and then some. To top it all off, this is the one time where he has a melee of kills to the point of being his only time having double digits of a hit list according to ‘Dead Meat’. I ain’t ever gonna root for this villain, but that’s impressive for one who is known to take his time taunting his prey. In the long run, this movie stands out from the later sequels because it’s a provocative tale of self acceptance, where you’ll live on healthy if you can accept all the goodness you’re all about. People want to also point out all the homosexual innuendos as a second answer to it, like Coach Schneider being at a gay bar or Grady questioning Jesse of his sexuality, which does make sense since Mark Patton was closeted when shooting this movie playing Walsh. Either way, he does a great job embracing the character’s inner paranoia of succumbing to corruption, worried he’ll lose himself if he doesn’t hold his own. Luckily, he had people that deeply cared. Robert Rusler may come off too strong with his theories, but meant well when it came to sharing what he thought of people. The more detailed Walsh told him how scared, you can’t blame him doing his best to help him with what’s given. Maybe if he had an alarm clock, he would’ve had better chances in lasting longer. On the other hand, Kim Myers, who impressively has a beautiful resemblance to Meryl Streep, made Lisa a standout because she was more easygoing than her inner circle can give her credit for since she hardly judged Jesse when they first met. Like a lot of high school based films, she quickly falls for him solely off of catching on to how big of a heart he’s got and he felt the same in return because of that acceptance giving him a feeling of comfort for the first in a lengthy amount of time he was going through. Even though they couldn’t defeat Freddy, their efforts are sure to be respected for lasting longer than past victims. Having said all the good I can point out, there were still a few things I scratched my head about upon rewatching. From the top, it’s totally on Jesse’s parents, Ken & Cheryl (Clu Gulager & Hope Lange) for not taking serious consideration in setting up Jesse for therapy to cope with his nightmares. They don’t know exactly what happened in the first film, so it would’ve made sense for history to repeat itself. Heck, it’s even on Ken to not tell his wife how they got a cheap deal on the house and he looked stupid blaming his son for the birds combusting. Another thing, I don’t get why does Fred need someone at this point to do his bidding, let alone have it be someone from the old Thompson home? If he can kill Grady or Coach Schneider without full control, that should be enough for him to go on without him. Also, how the hell did Nancy miss her diary) if she wanted people to know what she went through was legit, she would’ve not forgotten that. Lastly, it was stupidly hilarious vice versa for a party guest to try calming down Krueger. I’m sorry dude, but you can’t talk some sense into a burnt man with a razor glove. If you can still ignore these factors however, then you’ll remain a slasher fan that digs the supernatural intensity that is Freddy’s Revenge.





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