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

"Kill for me!!" - Freddy Krueger 

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) (and yes that is the actual title) is about a male protagonist named Jesse (Mark Patton) who moves into Nancy's old house located at 1428 Elm Street. Lisa (Kim Myers) was helping Jesse clean his room only to discover Nancy's old diary; where she explains all her dreams about Freddy. He also has another friend named Ron Grady (Robert Rusler) and he seems really usually; and self absorbed. He brings nothing to the table aside from comic relief. Lisa is the only one who is willing to help Jesse figure out why he's having these nightmares. Slowly, you can see Jesse ascending into madness and makes you wonder: is he is going insane or is Freddy really taking over his body?

Okay so, I don't know how to explain this but I will try. Freddy needs Jesse to be his "henchmen" and kill for him. It's also unclear if it's for people to believe Freddy is back or what; because up until now, all we know is that Freddy haunts your dreams. Also he is attacking the kids from Elm Street whose parents murdered him years earlier for crimes against children.

I don't know what the objective is with this movie. Is it about the house? Is it to get people afraid of Freddy again? Is it a testament of Jesse's sanity? I don't know what their end game was, to be totally honest. I've seen this movie like 12 times and I'm still lost every time I watch it. I don't get it. This is what makes the whole movie hard to review, because it makes no sense. All you can really talk about are scenes in the movie rather than the movie as a whole.

Also the title is confusing. Who is Freddy getting revenge on exactly? If Freddy was to get revenge on anyone it would be Nancy and the parents who killed him. Well neither of those factors are a part of this movie. Jesse has nothing to do with that, considering that he is a new kid that just moved to Elm Street. His parents had nothing to do with the murder of Freddy. In my opinion, I would have made it about the house and/or Jesse's own mental sanity. This movie would have been so much better in a psychological view.

Now I'm going to talk about one of the scenes that I hate. It's when Freddy shows up at Lisa's pool party. I mean Freddy is an entity that lives in your dreams, so how is he living in the real world? That scene enrages me even time I see it. Unless all the kids fell asleep at the party, Freddy should not be there. Period. I don't know, that Pool Party scene its just the absolute worst.

Honestly, I don't know. It's the weaker of the movies in the series. I mean there are a few decent scenes, don't get me wrong. One is when Jesse makes an transformation from himself to Freddy. It is like five separate effects; but they flow together really nicely and looks like one solid motion. Another great special effect scene is the ending when Jesse makes the transformation from Freddy to himself. It is pretty interesting watching the wax bust of Freddy's head; which was made using dental acrylic and toothpicks. Aside from these two special effects, the rest of the movie is just insane. However, the beginning has a really great grabber though. Jesse is on a bus and slowly he starts to realize that this isn't an ordinary bus. Soon Freddy shows up and they are balancing on a long rock pillar; which is a pretty scary and intense sense. Every time Freddy walked towards Jesse and two other girls, they try to move back, but at the same time they need to keep the bus balanced. It's just an intense, claustrophobic and vertigo situation. Unfortunately, it is a false impression that the movie is going to be better than it actually was.

When I watch this movie, I honestly think to myself, what were they thinking? Why didn't they take MORE time to create a better storyline for the film? You know, I'm really surprised and happy that this installment did not ruin the franchise, because it was only the second movie. Now I would end by talking about the gay undertones that are sprinkled throughout this movie, however, I feel like that's been talked about to death every time this movie is reviewed.

Well that's pretty much it. Yeah as you can probably tell it's not really my favorite in the series. It's a decent film and has a lot of great practical effects. For curiosity sake, I would say check it out. It has the same kind of taste as Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and Jason goes to Hell. You see it out of curiosity and then you never want to see it again.


Sleep Tight,
A Nightmare on Movie Night 





Next Movie Review --> A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors 

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

*Note: This blog may or may have contain spoilers for those who haven't had the opportunity to see this film. You've been warned!!

"Whatever you do, don't fall asleep." - Nancy

A Nightmare on Elm Street is about a group of students, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), Glen (Johnny Depp), Tina (Amanda Wyss) and Rod (Jsu Garcia aka Nick Corri) who begin to have nightmares about a man named Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). This is another piece of cinematic  genius from the late Wes Craven. Another great thing about this is that he always knows how to pick strong female lead roles.

Fun Fact: his daughter actually asked him why girls always fall down when being chased by a killer; and I guess this is why he had a strong female lead in all his roles. Also this is Johnny Depp's FIRST movie roll, so how could you NOT want to check it out? Yeah it all comes back to horror movies.

The film opens with a girl, Tina, walking down a hallway. It appears she is in a boiler room. It is a great way to open the film, because it gives an eerie feel to the movie. It's a bit unsettling. Then Freddy grabs her and she wakes up. This really grabs you , because you want to know more. Who is the man? What's up with the boiler room setting? You have so many questions within the first five minutes of the movie. This also gives you a false sense of the main heroine of the story. So throughout the film, each character is murdered by Freddy until Nancy is the only one left.  She eventually learns that if you turn your back on him, its over. Or is it?

This movie really does blur the lines between reality and fiction. It makes you wonder, is Nancy going insane or is this all really happening? You really don't know. This is why I loved Wes Craven and his films, because they did keep you on your toes as well as give you suspense throughout the movie. The cast in this movie is really good. I feel all the actors blended really well together. They aren't like the camp counselors in Friday the 13th. You really see their humanity and you actually want them to survive. In Friday the 13th, you root for Jason rather than the survivors.

The special effects are pretty awesome for 1984 standards. I love movies from the 80s, because I love the idea of practical effects and stop motion animation. They also used all sorts of different tricks to create these death scenes and leave the audience unsettled. I mean they used rotating rooms, reverse, stop motion, strings, and practical effects. They don't do this much in movies these days, because of the advent of CG.

They used a rotating room for not only Tina's death, but for Glen's as well. Fun Fact: During Glen's death scene they were using the rotating room, after Glen was pulled through; they started pouring a bucket of fake stage blood into the room. It hit the light and electrified the water and blood mixture. So the rig started to spin out of control, all the crew were running away from it and there was sparks. Eventually the rig stopped and all the fake blood poured out the window on to the crew below. Now that would have been a killer extra take to have on the blu-ray; but it's not. So when you're watching it, and you see that scene; part of the reason the blood is flowing towards one side is because of this accident. I would go into more detail about the special effects, however, it sort of spoils the movie and I didn't want to talk about every key scene.

When it comes down to it, the character who really steals the show is Freddy Krueger played fantastically by Robert Englund. This guy sat through 8 hour makeup sessions everyday. The first day of makeup tests, David Miller, took this medial book filled with real burn victims and literally said this is what we are going to do to do. Also it had a little bit to do with pepperoni pizza. Anyway, this is also where Robert found a little bit of his "dark side" while sitting through those long make-up sessions. I mean I would find my dark side too if I had to sit in an 8 hour makeup session a day for a film. Now that is dedication to a roll. Also Robert Englund LOOVED being Freddy. He enjoyed coming up with new mannerism and he literally created the character. For example, it's easier to replace Michael or Jason, because they wear masks and don't speak. This is what separates him from the rest of the horror icons. He literally is Freddy and I honestly believe no one can replace him.


All in all, I could talk about this movie all day; but I don't really want to spoil too much for people who would like to see this film for themselves. There is just so much information and facts about this movie that are all over the internet as well. I am just trying to give my overview and appreciate for this movie.

This is my absolute favorite franchises, because of Robert's performance of Freddy. It is so hard to explain how much I love this movie (and the whole series). Its just good 80s horror. I mean not every sequal is a slam dunk (you'll find out as I write more of these) and there are a few that are just stupid; however they all have their charm. So I really recommend checking out this movie like today. Please please watch this one instead of or at least before watching the 2010 horrific remake (which we'll get it), mainly because if you're starting out watching horror, it's better to start with a classic than a stinker. Just saying.

Anyway, I really hope you all at least check out this movie this weekend.



Sleep Tight,
- A Nightmare on Movie Night



Up next: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.