A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge

1985

Directed by Jack Sholder

Welcome back to Movie Monday, horror fans! We’re continuing our journey down my countdown of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Today, we’ve reached #58 on the list: 1985’s A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. As always, this ranking is based solely on my personal opinion. Your mileage may vary – one person’s cinematic disaster might be another’s cult classic. And in the case of this particular film, that’s proven to be remarkably true over time.

The Sequel Nobody Asked For

When Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street hit theaters in 1984, it revolutionized horror cinema. With its inventive premise of a killer who stalks teenagers in their dreams, unforgettable villain in Freddy Krueger, and genuinely terrifying practical effects, the film was both a critical darling and a box office smash, making $57 million on a budget of just $1.8 million.

So naturally, New Line Cinema (which was basically built on the success of the first film) rushed a sequel into production. Less than a year after the original’s release, Freddy’s Revenge hit theaters in November 1985. The hastily produced follow-up went on to gross $30 million on a $3 million budget. While financially successful, the film made a critical misstep that would haunt it for decades: it completely abandoned the established rules of the original.

What Went Wrong?

Let me count the ways:

1. The Possession Plot

The film’s main conceit – that Freddy wants to possess teenager Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) to escape the dream world and kill in reality – completely undermines what made the original film so terrifying. Why would Freddy, who has godlike powers in the dream world, want to be limited to a human body in the real world? It makes absolutely no sense, and Wes Craven himself refused to direct the sequel partly because of this fundamental misunderstanding of the character.

As Craven later explained: “I thought they brought Freddy much too much into the realm of reality and put him in situations where he was diminished. You want Freddy to be always threatening and overpowering.”

2. The Missing Director

Speaking of Craven, his absence is felt throughout the film. Jack Sholder, who had previously directed Alone in the Dark for New Line, took the helm despite having “no interest in making horror films” (his words, not mine). In a 2020 interview, Sholder admitted that his initial instinct was to turn down the project, but he realized it could put him “on the map as a director.”

That lack of passion for the genre shows in the final product. Where Craven’s original was meticulously crafted to blur the lines between dreams and reality, Sholder’s sequel lacks that crucial dreamlike atmosphere, instead opting for straightforward horror that feels disappointingly pedestrian.

3. The Confused Tone

Freddy’s Revenge can’t seem to decide what kind of movie it wants to be. Is it a possession film? A coming-of-age story? A slasher? The disjointed narrative lurches between these modes without ever committing to one, resulting in a film that feels unfocused and messy.

4. The Pool Party Massacre

In one of the film’s most ridiculous sequences, Freddy manifests physically at a pool party and proceeds to slash his way through dozens of teenagers. Besides breaking the established rules (again), this scene diminishes Freddy’s menace. As Craven noted, “When he’s running around a swimming pool with a bunch of teenagers who are all bigger than he is, he starts to look really silly.”

5. The Exploding Parakeet

I wish I was making this up. In what might be the most unintentionally hilarious moment in horror history, Jesse’s family pet birds spontaneously combust in their cage. It’s so absurd that it yanks you right out of whatever tenuous grip the film had on its atmosphere. Even Wes Craven singled out the “possessed parakeet” as a particularly ridiculous element.

The Unintentional Subtext

No discussion of Freddy’s Revenge would be complete without addressing what has become its most talked-about aspect: the film’s homoerotic subtext. In the decades since its release, the movie has been reappraised as what one publication at the time called “the gayest horror film ever.”

Consider the evidence:

• Jesse, our male protagonist, has a gender-neutral name and spends much of the film shirtless or in his underwear
• He’s caught at a leather bar by his sadistic gym teacher, who then makes him “run laps” as punishment
• Said gym teacher is later killed by Freddy in a shower scene that includes a bare-bottom spanking
• Jesse literally runs to his male friend’s bedroom after failing to perform sexually with his girlfriend
• The whole film can be read as an allegory for a young man terrified of his emerging sexuality

For years, screenwriter David Chaskin denied intentionally including these themes, even going so far as to blame star Mark Patton’s performance for making the character “too gay.” However, in 2010, Chaskin finally admitted that the gay themes were intentional, saying, “Homophobia was skyrocketing and I began to think about our core audience—adolescent boys—and how all of this stuff might be trickling down into their psyches. My thought was that tapping into that angst would give an extra edge to the horror.”

This admission came as little vindication for Patton, who is gay but was closeted at the time. The role effectively ended his Hollywood career, as he was typecast after playing what amounted to horror’s first “final boy” – a role traditionally reserved for female characters. The emotional stress led him to abandon acting shortly afterward for a career in interior decorating.

In 2019, Patton starred in the documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, which explores the legacy of the film and its impact on his life. It’s a fascinating look at how this strange little sequel affected one person’s life so profoundly.

How It Compares to Other Entries in the Franchise

Freddy’s Revenge stands as the odd duck in the Nightmare franchise, completely disconnected from the mythology established in the other films. While later sequels would continue to follow the dream-demon rules set up in the original, Part 2 exists in its own bizarre pocket universe where Freddy can possess people and manifest physically.

The franchise would course-correct with 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, which brought back original star Heather Langenkamp and got Wes Craven involved in the story development. This film would establish the pattern for the rest of the series: Freddy kills in creative, dream-based ways, makes darkly humorous quips, and faces off against teenagers with special dream powers.

By the time we reached A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy had morphed from the silent, menacing child killer of the original into a wise-cracking cartoon character who killed teens in increasingly elaborate and absurd ways. This trend would reach its nadir with 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, which leaned so hard into comedy that it abandoned any pretense of being scary.

Craven would return to the franchise with 1994’s meta-horror masterpiece Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which reinvented Freddy as a darker entity and ignored all the sequels. While critically acclaimed, it underperformed at the box office, becoming the lowest-grossing entry in the series.

The franchise would lie dormant until 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, which finally delivered the long-promised showdown between the two horror icons. A 2010 remake attempted to return Freddy to his darker roots but failed to capture the magic of the original.

In this context, Freddy’s Revenge remains fascinating as the only entry that completely abandoned the established rules. While it’s undeniably a mess, it’s at least an interesting mess – unlike some of the later, more formulaic sequels.

The Legacy

Despite its initial critical panning, Freddy’s Revenge has developed a dedicated cult following over the years, particularly in the LGBTQ+ community. Its unintentional (or perhaps intentional) queer subtext has made it a subject of academic analysis and cultural reappraisal.

Robert Englund, who has played Freddy Krueger in every installment except the 2010 remake, has acknowledged the film’s subtext. In a 2010 interview with Attitude magazine, he stated: “The second Nightmare on Elm Street is obviously intended as a bisexual themed film. It was early ’80s, pre-AIDS paranoia. Jesse’s wrestling with whether to come out or not and his own sexual desires was manifested by Freddy.”

Even director Jack Sholder has come around to acknowledge the themes in his film, though he maintains he wasn’t consciously aware of them during production. In a 2020 interview, he reflected: “Looking back on it, there were a whole bunch of decisions, starting with casting Mark, that really… If you look at some of the exegeses as to why it’s the gayest horror film of all time, some of it is people reading stuff into things, some of it was intentional, and some of it was stuff that people added that fed into that idea.”

Final Thoughts

Is A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge a good movie? Not really. Is it a good Nightmare on Elm Street movie? Definitely not. But is it an interesting cultural artifact that provides a window into the anxieties and attitudes of the mid-1980s? Absolutely.

While the film fails as a straightforward horror sequel, it succeeds as an unintentional commentary on repressed sexuality and the fear of emerging identity. It’s a mess, but it’s a fascinating mess that has rightfully earned its place in horror history – not for the reasons its creators intended, but for the conversations it continues to spark decades later.

The irony is that had the film been made today, with its subtext brought to the foreground as intentional text, it might actually be celebrated as groundbreaking. Instead, it remains a curious anomaly in a franchise that quickly moved in a different direction.

Recommendations for Better Horror from the Era

If you’re looking for superior horror films from the same era as Freddy’s Revenge, here are some recommendations:

1. The Thing (1982) – John Carpenter’s masterpiece of paranoia and practical effects remains one of the greatest horror films ever made.
2. Re-Animator (1985) – Released the same year as Freddy’s Revenge, this H.P. Lovecraft adaptation perfectly balances horror and dark comedy.
3. The Fly (1986) – David Cronenberg’s remake starring Jeff Goldblum is a perfect blend of body horror and tragic romance.
4. Hellraiser (1987) – Clive Barker’s directorial debut introduced the world to Pinhead and the Cenobites in this exploration of pleasure, pain, and dimensional horror.
5. Evil Dead II (1987) – Sam Raimi’s sequel/remake is a masterclass in horror-comedy that influenced countless films that followed.
6. Phantasm (1979) – Don Coscarelli’s surreal horror features dreamlike imagery and atmosphere that the Nightmare series would have done well to emulate.
7. The Burning (1981) – This underrated slasher features early appearances by Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter, plus incredible practical effects by Tom Savini.
8. The Howling (1981) – Joe Dante’s werewolf classic combines transformation horror with sharp satire.
9. Near Dark (1987) – Before she made The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow directed this gritty vampire western starring Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen.
10. Child’s Play (1988) – The original introduction of Chucky manages to make a killer doll genuinely terrifying rather than silly.

That wraps up this week’s Movie Monday! Next week, we’ll continue our descent through cinematic hell with #57 on my worst movies list. Until then, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs (or dream demons) bite!

---

What’s your take on Freddy’s Revenge? Is it an underrated gem or a franchise misstep? Let me know in the comments below!