A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2 - FREDDYS REVENGE (1985)

DIRECTED by Jack Sholder.

SCREENPLAY by David Chaskin based on characters created by Wes Craven.

STARRING  - Mark Patton as Jesse Walsh,  Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, Kim Myers as Lisa Webber,  Robert Rusler as Ron Grady,  Clu Gulager as Ken Walsh,  Hope Lange as Cheryl Walsh,  Marshall Bell as Coach Schneider,  Sydney Walsh as Kerry Hellman.

PLOT - Five years after the events of the first movie and a new family - the Walsh family - have moved into Nancy Thompson's old house on Elm Street.

Jesse Walsh finds Nancy's old diary and reads of her battle with dream stalking killer Freddy Krueger. Very soon Jesse is being visited in his dreams by the ghostly maniac, only this time Freddy has something different in store for Jesse.

Freddy starts to possess Jesse, body and soul, taking over his mind...taking over his body...using him to kill.

Jesse must rid himself of Freddy before he fully manifests himself into our world and begins a new reign of terror...

DIALOUGE  - Jesse - "He's inside me...and he wants to take me again."

PERFORMANCES  - This movie see's the second outing of Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and he's just as good in this as he was in the original. Freddy is still not yet in full on joker mode (that doesn't happen until the third film, and is fully prevalent by the fourth). Here he seems to develop a slightly seductive side - coaxing Jesse to kill for him, promising him power. It's a side of Freddy we've not seen before - he's like a drug dealer selling his wares to a junkie, promising a quick fix.

Perhaps Englund's best scene is when Freddy manifests himself at a BBQ party and goes on to massacre an entire bunch of partying teenagers. He struts around like he owns the place, absolutely convinced of his own power and superiority. There's no joking around here only complete and utter dominance of the situation. Freddy is lord and master of all he surveys.

A lot has been made of the supposed homoerotic subtext of this movie, indeed, it has been described by some as "the gayest horror movie ever made". That theme is definitely there if you want to look for it but I do think some people have over exaggerated just how "gay" this film is.

A lot of this perception of gayness is down to the film's central character, Jesse Walsh played by Mark Patton. Its argued that Jesse is a repressed homosexual and that Freddy represents Jesse's homosexual urges coming to the fore, threatening to take him over. Patton is gay in real life and some of this bleeds into his performance, he comes over as vulnerable and effeminate but that's mainly down to the situation the character finds himself in rather than any overt gayness.

Regardless of what reading you care to make of the character's sexuality, one thing thats certainly NOT in any doubt is that Patton is very, VERY good in this role. Jesse is a sweating broken down mess of a kid. He's in massive torment as Freddy steers his body out of his control. Jesse looks like he's in the midst of a complete mental breakdown and Patton plays it to perfection. You one hundred percent believe that this young man is going over the edge and slipping into madness.

Another aspect of this film's supposed gay subtext is the friendship between Jesse and Ron (Robert Rusler). Much is made of the fact that Jesse takes refuge in Ron's bedroom after he's been terrorised by Freddy. Again, you can definitely read it this way if you want but it's only there if you're specifically looking for it. Jesse and Ron definitely have a bit of a "bromance" going on but I don't think theres really much more in it than that. It's just a scared young man turning to his best friend for help. Ron is great by the way, he's pretty much the comedic relief for most of the film.

Jesse's girlfriend Lisa (Kim Myers) is the other major character in the film. Its Lisa who ultimately saves Jesse from Freddy's influence. Bringing Jesse back from the brink by reminding him that she loves him. Crucially Jesse responds by saying that he loves her too and this is what breaks Freddy's hold over him. Is it a friendship based form of love, or is Jesse rejecting his homosexuality and going straight ? Again, it can be read either way.

One character who's gayness is in no doubt is Coach Schneider (Marshall Bell). At one point whilst under Freddy's influence Jesse wanders into an S&M gay bar and is immediately spotted by his high school sports coach dressed like one of The Village People. 

Schneider has been seen up to this point to be a bit of a bully, here he goes one step further. Schneider takes Jesse back to the school and makes him run laps until he's utterly exhausted, he then tells him to get in the shower. Schneider goes into his back office and we see him eyeing up some skipping ropes, the implication is that Schneider is about to sexualy abuse Jesse, but before he can do that Freddy manifests in Jesse's place and takes Schneider out. This whole scene is weird and a bit uncomfortable.

Just a quick mention of Clu Gulager as Jesse's dad. He's great, he's one of my favourite characters in the whole series. He's such an arsehole but funny with it. Literally EVERYTHING is Jesse's fault, the faulty boiler - Jesse's fault, the exploding parakeet - Jesse's fault, the outbreak of world war 3 - Jesse's fault. Even funnier is when Jesse is escorted home by police after the gay bar incident and his dad accuses him of being on drugs. No wonder the poor lad is so messed up.

SFX - As with the first movie the make up effects for Freddy are great. He's been slightly redesigned and he looks even more horrific than he did in the original...

He just looks more raw somehow, like his burns are fresher and more extreme than they where before.

There's a weird effect when Lisa goes to the disused boiler room where Freddy is hiding out only to find it guarded by dogs with human faces. It makes no sense in the context of the story but they look suitably creepy and remind me of a similar creature in The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers remake...

The best effects work comes in the sequence where Freddy literally bursts out of Jesse's body...

80's practical effects at thier finest.

SEX & VIOLENCE - Theres a scene where Jesse and Lisa attempt to have sex and Freddy puts Jesse off by causing Jesse's tongue to mutate...

Then we get Coach Schneider's murder, Freddy/Jesse ties him up with skipping ropes in the shower, whips him with towels and finishes him off with his claws. As with any scene involving Schneider there are huge S&M undertones...

Then we get Ron's death. Mere seconds after witnessing Freddy burst out of Jesse's body, Ron is brutally stabbed to death by Freddy's glove. The claws go through Ron's body and come out the other side of the door he's leaning against...

Finally we get the BBQ massacre. Freddy just cuts loose and slashes people left right and centre. The best part is when one guy tries to reason with him, Freddy just looks absolutely disgusted with him, slashes him and throws him on the barbecue to burn. It's by far the funniest scene in the film.

Finally we get the twist ending - where Freddy's claw bursts out of Kerry's stomach - much to the shock and horror of Jesse and Lisa who both think Freddy's been defeated (they should really know better than that). To say a clawed hand has just punched its way through a woman's stomach there's not much in the way of blood...

RATING - Freddy's Revenge is not the classic that the original was but it's still good in it's own way.

It develops the concepts and ideas that where present in the original and twists them into an interesting new form. There's a lot of body horror here and surprisingly few dream sequences. The gay subtext IS there if you want it to be but it doesn't get in the way of the story - it has themes but they're not hammered home and it's all open to interpretation anyway. It certainly makes the film more interesting and raises it above the usual slasher fare.

I'm giving this 4 and a half closeted Krueger's out of 5. An interesting sidestep.

POSTER/VHS/DVD ART  -