6/5/2015 Down In The Basement Blog Archive A Nightmare on Elm
Street 2: Freddys Revenge (1985)
http://www.downinthebasement.net/reviews/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-2-freddys-revenge-1985/
1/3
Demons (1985)Alligator (1980)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddys Revenge (1985)
SYNOPSIS
Ever since his family moved into the house on 1428 Elm Street,
teenage Jesse has been having sweaty,shirtless nightmares about an
older man named Freddy whos trying to get inside of him. No, its
not FreddyMercury. This man wears a colorful sweater, a fancy
fedora, and has long, skinny knives for fingers and hesjust dying
to use Jesses bodyumto kill and stuff.
Will Jesse be able to set himself straight, or will the man of
his dreams eventually have his way with him?
REVIEW
Before I can talk about how this film stacks up in the pantheon
of NOES movies, I have to address the elephantin the room. Its a
big pink elephant, and it just had the waiter bring over a Midori
Sour. Oh god. It justwinked at me.
It would be harder to miss the homosexual undertones in Freddys
Revenge, if not for the huge array ofhomosexual OVERtones. This
movie is gay, folks. Not like, This Oscar party is kind of gay gay.
Morelike, this penis near my buttocks is gay gay. For further
analysis, diving into the subtext isnt necessary.Instead, lets just
lay out a more detailed synopsis of the plot.
(SPOILERS ahead, but dont worry too much. This is very much a
you have to see it to believe it film.)
So due to these nightmares about a male agressor trying to
penetrate him, Jesse (played by openly gay actorMark Patton)
struggles at home and at school. His parents suspect hes hiding
skeletons in his closet, andwonder how to correct him. At one
point, theyre truly disturbed (along with the audience) when they
catchJesse dancing on his bed to Touch Me All Night Long while
wearing glitter glasses and firing a pop gunbetween his legs. Poor
Jesse, he can never be fabulous. It doesnt help matters that Jesses
girlfriend Lisaseems more interested in getting in his pants than
hearing about his big scary dream hunk. How annoying. Atleast
theres someone Jesse feels he can turn to a bully named Ron, whom
he tellingly befriends after Ronrips his pants down and does some
bare-bottomed wrestling with him during gym class.
6/5/2015 Down In The Basement Blog Archive A Nightmare on Elm
Street 2: Freddys Revenge (1985)
http://www.downinthebasement.net/reviews/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-2-freddys-revenge-1985/
2/3
Poor Jesse can only keep the bad man inside him at bay for so
long, however. Soon, he finds himself beingtaking over by him. One
night at Freddys whims, he wanders to aMENS S&M BAR. What?!
Overtenough, yet? No? Okay, lets keep going.
At the S&M Bar, Jesse is caught having a beer by his male
gym teacher, Coach Schneider. Now you mightthink Coach would be
embarrassed to run into a student at an S&M bar, especially
when hes wearing asleeveless vinyl vest, but youd be dead wrong.
Coach takes Jesse back to school with him, in the middle ofthe
night, to PUNISH HIM like the bad, beer-drinking boy he is. After
making him run some laps, Coach tellsJesse to hit the showers. All
this sexual tension is too much for young Jesse, apparently,
because now Freddyfully gets inside of him for the first time.
Under Freddys control, Jesse telepathically attacks his gym
teacher by BOMBARDING HIM WITHBALLS soccer balls, basketballs,
tennis balls, you name it. If its a ball, count on Jesse putting it
in Coachsface. As if that was somehow too subtle, Jesse then uses
his psychic Freddy powers to tie Coach up in theshowers, rip off
his clothes, and towel his bare ass until it bleeds. Were even
treated to several close ups ofthe ass getting redder and redder.
Its astounding, really. After Coach is fully dominated,
Jesse/Freddyfinishes him off. Which is to say he kills him. I
forget how, honestly, because Jesse steals the end of the scenewith
the most feminine screamin slasher movie history.
I should really stop now, as you truly cant skip a single scene
if youre trying to describe how incredibly gaythis film is. Lets
just get to the awesome 80s pool party. Finally, Lisa gets sick of
not once being touched byher supposed boyfriend throughout the
entire film, and tries to put the moves on Jesse. Jesses body
literallyrevolts. He starts to kiss her stomach, moving toward the
magic zone, when a slimy grey phallic object flopsout of his mouth.
Its Freddys way of reminding him that hes still very much inside of
him.
So what does Jesse do? Tell Lisa whats up? Nope. He runs to Rons
bedroom. There, he leans against thebed and tells his shirtless bud
that hes scared. He wants Ron to be his protector, but Ron doesnt
really swingthat way, so he falls asleep. This angers Jesse/Freddy
greatly. Freddy breaks out of Jesses body, kills a bunchof dudes
(seriously, no girl victims in a slasher movie), and runs away to
an old factory to be alone.
Now Lisa must rise to the occasion and fight Freddy/Jesse. Does
she defeat him with crazy, violent boobytraps like Nancy did in
part one? Nope. This time, FREDDY IS DEFEATED BY A WOMANS
KISS.Apparently kissing a girl is so yucky to Freddy that he loses
all of his power, allowing Jesse to have his stupidbody back.
However, since you cant really turn someone straight, its only a
matter of time before Freddyappears to Jesse again in the final
scene.
Whew. Now all that might lead you to believe that this is a
terrible film, but reallyits actually pretty damngood.
Theres nothing wrong with all the gay subtext and, well, text.
Its just really unexpected in this first, big-budget sequel to the
classic Nightmare on Elm Street. Once you accept it, the film has a
lot to offer. First, itsthe only film in the series outside of
Cravens very meta New Nightmare that tries something different.
HavingFreddy want to possess someone to live again in the real
world is fairly interesting. It doesnt lend itself to awide variety
of kills, but we get some terrific, disturbing effects along the
way. The opening dream sequencewith the school bus ride to hell is
huge and surreal. It definitely announces, Were spending money on
thisone. Freddy bursting out of Jesses body is fantastic, as is
Freddy pulling back his own scalp to reveal hisbrain, as is a quick
appearance by guard dogs with human faces.
The firey Freddy attack sequence at the pool party is also a
blast. Theres something fun about seeing old Fredjust run around a
slash at a horde of screaming teens. Sure, the wildly innovative
dream sequences are whatmakes the series great, but one simple
chaotic slash fest in the real world is kind of refreshing.
Most notably, though, is just how EVIL Freddy is in this one.
Gay or not, hes really malevolent here. Theresno puns or over the
top one-liners, and his burn makeup is particularly wet and gnarly
looking. The movieputs Mark Patton in the Freddy makeup a couple of
times as well and cuts back and forth between himandRobert Englund.
The effect is actually pretty disorienting and unsettling. Make no
mistake, this NOES aspiresto be a horror film, which cant be said
about installments 4 through 6.
Oh, but then again, theres that exploding parrot scene. Maybe
its not so good. Just watch it.
RATING: 6out of 9 Towel Snaps
KEEPING SCORE: The film is notably missing the classic,
electronic NOES score from Charles Bernstein.Instead, producers
hired a relative newcomer, Christopher Young, to do a more
traditional, gothic horrorscore. It was Youngs first score for a
major studio release. He currently has 110 titles under his
belt,including Hellraiser, Drag Me To Hell and most recently,
Sinister.