Quite a mouthful, that title. I guess they couldn't just go for A Nightmare on Elm Street 2. They just had to specify that it involved Freddy's Revenge... Thus begins the sloppy screenplay of this jaw-dropingly bad sequel to the classic Craven film. Inexplicably discontent with the fresh and promising formula of the original, which guaranteed this second installment tens of millions in box office revenue, somebody at New Line thought it would be a good idea to take the series in a new direction. Instead of haunting dreams, as was dealt when he cursed the townspeople who executed him, Freddy Krueger would now possess a young man and use his body to act in the real world. Fair enough. But why such ambition when you clearly don't have the means to bring it to fruition? Considering its ragtag crew featuring many newcomers (including screenwriter David Chaskin and female lead Kim Myers), a blaxploitation shoot-em-up editor (Bob Brady), and two hammy, grossly miscast TV parents (Clu Gulager and Hope Lange) who appear atrocious on the big screen, the film could have benefited from being more derivative of the original. But, hey! Freddy's Revenge is what it is: a rushed-out cash-in (it was actually released a scant year and a week after the original). The producers probably felt that by cranking up the special effects, they could cram this razzie down the throats of eager fans right past their judgement.
Here's a case example of the film's ineptitude. A scene in which leads Jesse and Lisa investigate Freddy's background. They drive Jesse's convertible to the factory where the child molester used to work. On the way, Lisa, who believes Nancy Thompson's tale about a boogeyman striking in dreams but still humours Jesse about his own dreams, utters the fantastic line that follows: "It's all in your mind. You must be picking up some psychic signals." Okkkkkkay....very helpful. As the sequence continues, we try not to make a case of this incongruous line, but then another one lashes us. Inside the factory, Lisa asks: "Do you feel anything?" to which Jesse understandably replies: "What do you mean?" "I don't know, says Lisa, I thought you might be able to make a connection or something." What?!? She could've said: "I thought there was something here that could magically forward the plot" and it would've sounded less foolish. Because the truth is Jesse does not "make a connection". He just spots a rusty old metal cabinet that looks like it might hold a prop relative to Krueger. So he and Lisa slowly, very slowly approach the cabinet. And when they open it: GRAWRRRR! A medium close-up of a cute, pet-shop rat! Terrified, Jesse and Lisa hold each other. Cut. I know this is just the set-up for the final scene, but hell! An entire scene just for a cheap scare?!? Couldn't they have found something in that cabinet other than the rat? A glove with razors perhaps, a pickled piece of a child or even a dusty doll. Just thought I'd ask...
Okay. Here's another scene. This one features Jesse and his uptight gym teacher who apparently has a thing for boys. We're in what positively appears to be a dream scene. Jesse is walking the city streets under the rain, wearing only a half-open bathrobe and boxer shorts. When he steps into the local "hardcore" bar, he boldly asks for a beer, which the barman rushes to deliver without asking for an I.D. or an explanation as to why he was half-naked. Then the head of his gym teacher pops above his shoulder. The guy is clad in a mock-S&M suit that features a diamond-shaped opening through which his chest hair flows out (Hummmm, enticing!). Cut to the school gymnasium where Jesse is forced to run laps as punishment by his teacher. But it's not the following day. This takes place during that same night. When we realize that, we figure: "Alright, it's a dream." We unconfortably watch Jesse running until his teacher (still proudly sporting his prowler attire) orders him to "hit the showers". Uh-oh! Will we get some molestation? Actually, yes. While Jesse is showering, coach chills out in his office, probably fantasizing about the next steps of his plan to lay the young man, when he is attacked by (drumroll): sports equipment! Basketballs roll toward him with blinding speed, tennis balls pop out of their boxes and barely miss him, but then he is tied up at the wrists by two animated jumping ropes who drag him to the bathroom and crucify him on two shower heads. Then all of his clothes are magically ripped off. Yes. All of his clothes are magically ripped off. It happens so fast and it is so unexpected that we can only stare wide-eyed at the ass crack that suddenly appears onscreen. We're left speechless. I mean, talk about exploitative slasher films! Of all the characters in the film, most of which are youths, it had to be the hairy gym teacher who gets butt-naked! And that's not all! Once disrobed, he is senselessly towel-slapped, which warrants close-ups on his bleeding butt, then executed with two clean slashes of the razor-glove by Freddy-possessed Jesse. Cut. Then the next day comes, and sure enough, the gym teacher is found dead in the school showers. But wait a minute! Does that mean what we saw in the murder scene was real? Does that mean Jesse actually met Schneider in a bar, then followed him to school, in the middle of the night, to run punitive laps? Is that what we're supposed to believe? Just thought I'd ask...
I could go on and on like this. Hell, I haven't even mentioned Jesse's impossible night visit to his friend Grady and that infamous scene with the spontaneously combusting parakeet. The problem here is that Freddy's powers can now be used in the real world and the dream world indiscriminately. So the Nightmare gimmick falls flat, and what results is a confusing narrative indeterminacy. The reasons for Freddy's new M.O. are also unclear. We do get some hints about how Nancy "brought him to the real world" from her diary, conveniently found in Jesse's room, but nothing to really sink our teeth into. But that's not the main reason why the "possession" gimmick fails. The main reason is that it posits the question of choice, then swiftly disregards it. In the beginning, Freddy comes to Jesse asking him to kill in his stead. He says: "Kill for me", shows him the glove conveniently left in the cellar boiler... Basically, he's trying to convince him, and Jesse refuses. Nonetheless, the boogeyman invests his body. Did the young man really have a choice? Was he simply eroded into a receptive state? Why is Freddy's relationship with Jesse so ambiguous? Just thought I'd ask...
At least, there are some decent special effects in the film, but nothing close to the ruthless, imaginative gore of the first film. We do get an outstanding opening scene featuring a school bus teetering atop a stone peak, a very nice transformation scene that gives us a Cronenbergian Freddy whose blades are actually organic excrescences of his fingers. We also get an extravagant final scene, but this one is an even mix of pinky syrup and meaningless pyrotechnics. Fortunately, poor director Sholder got sounder material to work with on his following film, The Hidden (1987). To this day, I would guess that he is still plagued by nightmares of Freddy... you know, the second one. Oh! The one that really, really sucked? Yeah, that's right...
1/5 Awful, awful, awful. A piece of cheese anthology, but most of all, a travesty of Craven's awesome Nightmare.
Here's a case example of the film's ineptitude. A scene in which leads Jesse and Lisa investigate Freddy's background. They drive Jesse's convertible to the factory where the child molester used to work. On the way, Lisa, who believes Nancy Thompson's tale about a boogeyman striking in dreams but still humours Jesse about his own dreams, utters the fantastic line that follows: "It's all in your mind. You must be picking up some psychic signals." Okkkkkkay....very helpful. As the sequence continues, we try not to make a case of this incongruous line, but then another one lashes us. Inside the factory, Lisa asks: "Do you feel anything?" to which Jesse understandably replies: "What do you mean?" "I don't know, says Lisa, I thought you might be able to make a connection or something." What?!? She could've said: "I thought there was something here that could magically forward the plot" and it would've sounded less foolish. Because the truth is Jesse does not "make a connection". He just spots a rusty old metal cabinet that looks like it might hold a prop relative to Krueger. So he and Lisa slowly, very slowly approach the cabinet. And when they open it: GRAWRRRR! A medium close-up of a cute, pet-shop rat! Terrified, Jesse and Lisa hold each other. Cut. I know this is just the set-up for the final scene, but hell! An entire scene just for a cheap scare?!? Couldn't they have found something in that cabinet other than the rat? A glove with razors perhaps, a pickled piece of a child or even a dusty doll. Just thought I'd ask...
Okay. Here's another scene. This one features Jesse and his uptight gym teacher who apparently has a thing for boys. We're in what positively appears to be a dream scene. Jesse is walking the city streets under the rain, wearing only a half-open bathrobe and boxer shorts. When he steps into the local "hardcore" bar, he boldly asks for a beer, which the barman rushes to deliver without asking for an I.D. or an explanation as to why he was half-naked. Then the head of his gym teacher pops above his shoulder. The guy is clad in a mock-S&M suit that features a diamond-shaped opening through which his chest hair flows out (Hummmm, enticing!). Cut to the school gymnasium where Jesse is forced to run laps as punishment by his teacher. But it's not the following day. This takes place during that same night. When we realize that, we figure: "Alright, it's a dream." We unconfortably watch Jesse running until his teacher (still proudly sporting his prowler attire) orders him to "hit the showers". Uh-oh! Will we get some molestation? Actually, yes. While Jesse is showering, coach chills out in his office, probably fantasizing about the next steps of his plan to lay the young man, when he is attacked by (drumroll): sports equipment! Basketballs roll toward him with blinding speed, tennis balls pop out of their boxes and barely miss him, but then he is tied up at the wrists by two animated jumping ropes who drag him to the bathroom and crucify him on two shower heads. Then all of his clothes are magically ripped off. Yes. All of his clothes are magically ripped off. It happens so fast and it is so unexpected that we can only stare wide-eyed at the ass crack that suddenly appears onscreen. We're left speechless. I mean, talk about exploitative slasher films! Of all the characters in the film, most of which are youths, it had to be the hairy gym teacher who gets butt-naked! And that's not all! Once disrobed, he is senselessly towel-slapped, which warrants close-ups on his bleeding butt, then executed with two clean slashes of the razor-glove by Freddy-possessed Jesse. Cut. Then the next day comes, and sure enough, the gym teacher is found dead in the school showers. But wait a minute! Does that mean what we saw in the murder scene was real? Does that mean Jesse actually met Schneider in a bar, then followed him to school, in the middle of the night, to run punitive laps? Is that what we're supposed to believe? Just thought I'd ask...
I could go on and on like this. Hell, I haven't even mentioned Jesse's impossible night visit to his friend Grady and that infamous scene with the spontaneously combusting parakeet. The problem here is that Freddy's powers can now be used in the real world and the dream world indiscriminately. So the Nightmare gimmick falls flat, and what results is a confusing narrative indeterminacy. The reasons for Freddy's new M.O. are also unclear. We do get some hints about how Nancy "brought him to the real world" from her diary, conveniently found in Jesse's room, but nothing to really sink our teeth into. But that's not the main reason why the "possession" gimmick fails. The main reason is that it posits the question of choice, then swiftly disregards it. In the beginning, Freddy comes to Jesse asking him to kill in his stead. He says: "Kill for me", shows him the glove conveniently left in the cellar boiler... Basically, he's trying to convince him, and Jesse refuses. Nonetheless, the boogeyman invests his body. Did the young man really have a choice? Was he simply eroded into a receptive state? Why is Freddy's relationship with Jesse so ambiguous? Just thought I'd ask...
At least, there are some decent special effects in the film, but nothing close to the ruthless, imaginative gore of the first film. We do get an outstanding opening scene featuring a school bus teetering atop a stone peak, a very nice transformation scene that gives us a Cronenbergian Freddy whose blades are actually organic excrescences of his fingers. We also get an extravagant final scene, but this one is an even mix of pinky syrup and meaningless pyrotechnics. Fortunately, poor director Sholder got sounder material to work with on his following film, The Hidden (1987). To this day, I would guess that he is still plagued by nightmares of Freddy... you know, the second one. Oh! The one that really, really sucked? Yeah, that's right...
1/5 Awful, awful, awful. A piece of cheese anthology, but most of all, a travesty of Craven's awesome Nightmare.
