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 





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