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

Mommy?  Why can't Jesse wake up like everybody else? - Angela

So, we come to the first of what would have been last October's big finale trilogy.  I like to finish the month's articles with a look at the big three franchises, a tradition I started with my original site.  Today, we'll be looking at the second installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street film series, Freddy's Revenge.

Did you ever notice how there's usually at least one film early in a series that doesn't quite fit in with the others that come after it?  Usually, this will be the second or third film.  Puppet Master 2 didn't quite fit with the earlier film, or later established canon.  Halloween III: Season of the Witch was an effort on John Carpenter's part to move away from using the Shape again by basing the series off of different aspects of Halloween (it didn't work).  We'll look at the oddness of Friday the 13th: Part 2 tomorrow.  And so, we have this film, the oddball of the Nightmare series.

After a nightmare of Freddy Krueger stalking him and a pair of girls on a school bus, our protagonist, Jesse (Mark Patton) wakes up screaming as his parents and sister eat breakfast.  Seems the family just moved into Nancy's house from the first film (which was empty for five years!).  At school, he runs afoul of, then later befriends, tough guy Grady (Robert Rusler).  But at night, he keeps dreaming of Freddy who, instead of trying to kill him, asks him to help him kill others.  Jesse's obviously not on board with the idea, but will Freddy give him the option to say no?

So, this film has Freddy killing people differently from how he did in the previous film, as well as the rest of the films to come: rather than striking in their dreams, he uses Jesse as a conduit to manifest in the real world.  From what I read online, the script started as a standalone film not connected to the first Nightmare on Elm Street, but New Line waned a quick sequel so they changed things to put Freddy in.  Wes Craven bowed out because he wanted the first film to stand alone.  They also almost lost Robert Englund due to a pay dispute, but the replacement for him, seen in the shower sequence, didn't bring any life to the character.

My thoughts on the film: while different from the others, and sort of a black sheep with some fans, I did like this one.  There was some suspense built up, and the mind games Freddy plays with Jesse's girlfriend, Lisa (Kim Myers), are up there with some of the stuff he pulled with Nancy.  However, in my opinion, Freddy works best in dreams and the next film brings him back to his roots, and also introduces the more wacky, fun-loving, sadistic Freddy we're used to.

I give this movie a 3 out of 5.  Good acting, great special and make-up effects, but overall, just too different from the others for my taste.  Tune in tomorrow for my coverage of Friday the 13th, Part 2, where we get to see, as Horror Hound magazine called it, Jason's "fashionable head bag".  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!