A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Year: 1985
Director: Jack Sholder
Starring: Robert Englund, Kim Myers & Mark Patton
Runtime: 87 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 24/11/23
Director: Jack Sholder
Starring: Robert Englund, Kim Myers & Mark Patton
Runtime: 87 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 24/11/23
The success of A Nightmare on Elm Street birthed one of horror’s most iconic franchises and made Freddy Kruger one of the most fearsome villains in all of film. It was no surprise that a sequel was rushed into production. Audiences and producers wanted more of the same, but creator Wes Craven wasn’t on board. Deciding to continue without him, New Line Cinema got a new creative team together for the sequel which is never a great idea.
Five years after Elm Street was terrorised by Freddy (Robert Englund) the Walsh family have moved into the former home of Nancy Thompson. When the teenage boy, Jesse (Mark Patton) begins to have intense nightmares about a man with knives for hands connections begin to be drawn between him and the home’s previous occupant. But when Jesse begins to feel possessed by Freddy and bodies begin piling up it begins a race against time to stop Jesse transforming into the infamous killer.
It’s my understanding that Freddy’s Revenge is one of the weakest entries in the franchise, and I have to say I don’t really understand why. Admittedly I’ve only seen the first film to compare this to, but whilst the original is definitely the better of the two, I wouldn’t say Freddy’s Revenge was that much worse. In fact, I really liked what they did with a few of the concepts here even if the film itself was kind of meh.
Five years after Elm Street was terrorised by Freddy (Robert Englund) the Walsh family have moved into the former home of Nancy Thompson. When the teenage boy, Jesse (Mark Patton) begins to have intense nightmares about a man with knives for hands connections begin to be drawn between him and the home’s previous occupant. But when Jesse begins to feel possessed by Freddy and bodies begin piling up it begins a race against time to stop Jesse transforming into the infamous killer.
It’s my understanding that Freddy’s Revenge is one of the weakest entries in the franchise, and I have to say I don’t really understand why. Admittedly I’ve only seen the first film to compare this to, but whilst the original is definitely the better of the two, I wouldn’t say Freddy’s Revenge was that much worse. In fact, I really liked what they did with a few of the concepts here even if the film itself was kind of meh.
So, what didn’t I like? The dialogue was atrocious, and the acting was just as bad. I didn’t expect much following the original film’s poor performances and stiff writing, but Freddy’s Revenge is definitely worse. Englund was as great as ever, but Patton was not leading man material, and everyone around him was equally bad.
The ending didn’t make an awful lot of sense to me, I feel like I was missing something. It was quite literally riffing on the first films ending but that at least kind of made sense because we never saw Nancy wake up from her dream. Here though it’s clear that Jesse did wake up before Freddy took over the school bus at the end so I’m just very confused.
But I have to say Freddy’s Revenge did deliver some unexpectedly great things. First of all, I loved the way it took a different approach from the first film. Having the protagonist transform into the antagonist over the course of the film was interesting to me, and it was done in a way that didn’t feel cheesy or ham-fisted to me. I also liked that there was this strong gay panic theme running throughout, and to me it felt like the film was an allegory for the fears the LGBTQ community face when confronting the idea of their sexuality in a society that demonises it.
I also felt that the special effects were pretty great, and a massive improvement over the first film. One moment in particular that saw Freddy quite literally burst out of someone’s stomach was really gnarly and one of the best slasher kills I’ve ever seen.
Freddy’s Revenge definitely isn’t as strong as the first film, but is it really as bad as people make it out to be? I’d argue no, it definitely had its problems but on the whole I’d say it was a half decent sequel that played around with some great new concepts for the series. Will I ever be in a rush to see it again? Probably not, but I can’t exactly say I had a bad time watching it.
The ending didn’t make an awful lot of sense to me, I feel like I was missing something. It was quite literally riffing on the first films ending but that at least kind of made sense because we never saw Nancy wake up from her dream. Here though it’s clear that Jesse did wake up before Freddy took over the school bus at the end so I’m just very confused.
But I have to say Freddy’s Revenge did deliver some unexpectedly great things. First of all, I loved the way it took a different approach from the first film. Having the protagonist transform into the antagonist over the course of the film was interesting to me, and it was done in a way that didn’t feel cheesy or ham-fisted to me. I also liked that there was this strong gay panic theme running throughout, and to me it felt like the film was an allegory for the fears the LGBTQ community face when confronting the idea of their sexuality in a society that demonises it.
I also felt that the special effects were pretty great, and a massive improvement over the first film. One moment in particular that saw Freddy quite literally burst out of someone’s stomach was really gnarly and one of the best slasher kills I’ve ever seen.
Freddy’s Revenge definitely isn’t as strong as the first film, but is it really as bad as people make it out to be? I’d argue no, it definitely had its problems but on the whole I’d say it was a half decent sequel that played around with some great new concepts for the series. Will I ever be in a rush to see it again? Probably not, but I can’t exactly say I had a bad time watching it.