High Points of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is the most unique entry in the Krueger saga. Freddy is dark and menacing rather than the comedic figure he became in later sequels, but it still doesn’t live up to the quality of the first movie. Why doesn’t it? Well, Freddy’s Revenge committed a cardinal sin. It tried to do something different too soon.
Being only the second film in the franchise, the creative team behind it should’ve focused on crafting a story as good as the original, expanding the mythology, and giving the audience more imaginative kills and nightmare sequences. Instead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 is primarily a character study of Jesse Walsh and his unconscious desires disguised as a possession movie.
Before I rip this film to shreds, I’m going to go easy on it and discuss its high points. There are actually a handful of diamonds in this rough.
The First Nightmare
The movie opens with an afternoon school bus ride. The driver drops off a few passengers and then ignores a girl’s stop. Immediately, she points this out. Instead of turning around, the driver speeds up and takes the remaining passengers, which include Jesse and the girl’s best friend, to the edge of the universe.
The bus comes to stop on a series of narrow cliffs above a large canyon. The driver gets out of his seat, revealing himself to be Freddy Krueger. He corners Jesse and the girls near the back of the bus, teasing them with his razor glove. He raises it high in the air, preparing to slaughter them all. Right before he does, Jesse wakes up screaming.
The imagery is striking. It looks like Freddy parked right above the gateway to hell. Lightning strikes pierce the dark sky. Bright orange and red colors glow from deep within the canyon’s abyss, illuminating the bus. It’s a stunning sequence.
Grady’s Death
This entire scene is a masterpiece. Jesse is asleep in Grady’s bedroom. All seems well until he suddenly wakes up with severe stomach pains. It hurts so much he falls on the floor, crying and clutching his abdomen. Freddy is emerging from within him.
First, Freddy’s razors pop out of his fingertips and then the skin peels back on his arms revealing a red and green sweater. Next, an eye appears in the back of his throat and his voice deepens to a demonic pitch. Finally, the outline of Freddy’s face appears inside his stomach. It forces its way out until Jesse’s new razor hand cuts him out. Krueger has completely taken him over and entered the real world.
Grady is scared to death. He tries to flee the room, but his door won’t open. He pounds on it, screaming for his dad. His parents show up and try to open the door from the other side, but it still won’t budge.
Freddy grabs Grady by the throat, lifts him up, and impales him with his razor hands to the door. His parents are horrified as they see Freddy’s razors come through the other side, leaving four streaks of blood in their wake. Without a doubt, this is the best death scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2.
The Pool Party
Shortly after Freddy possesses Jesse, he enters the real world and crashes a pool party at Lisa’s Webber house. Lisa is the final girl and Jesse’s love interest. Freddy pops out of the ground, immediately causing a panic. One guy is trampled to death in the middle of the commotion. Freddy kills a few teenagers and uses his sinister powers to trap the rest.
He makes the water in the pool rise to scorching temperatures. When people try to climb the fence, it burns their hands, and fire appears out of nowhere, blocking escape routes. Freddy enjoys the chaos. As everyone stares at him, petrified, he spreads his arms wide and says an iconic line: “You are all my children now.”
Meanwhile, Lisa’s parents hear everything going on outside and run downstairs. Her dad grabs a shotgun and chases Freddy. He fires one shot, misses, and reloads the gun. He aims it at Freddy again, but Lisa stops him. She knows that part of Jesse remains alive somewhere inside Krueger.
She locks eyes with him, which temporarily brings Jesse’s consciousness to the forefront. He forces Freddy to leave the party to prevent anymore bloodshed and protect Lisa from heartbreak. He walks through the fence, disappearing in a blaze of fire.
The Failures of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2
Outside of those handful of scenes, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 is mostly boring. We spend most of it with Jesse who isn’t compelling. During the day, he goes to school, clashes with Grady, and argues with his parents when he comes home. At night, he has nightmares that basically consist of Freddy teasing him and dropping subtle hints about how he’s going to possess him. It’s not very interesting stuff to watch.
Even Jesse’s relationship with Lisa is dull. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the chemistry between the two characters. Their relationship is bland. It lacks passion. At times, it seems like Lisa has more affection for Jesse than he’s ever had for her.
Barely anyone dies in this movie too. Coach Schneider is the first person killed and that doesn’t occur until halfway through the plot. His death scene is underwhelming. He’s killed in the shower at Springwood High School after work hours. He’s tied up with jump rope, stripped naked, and slashed across the back twice. Really? That’s it.
In the first film, Freddy’s kills were intense. He drags Tina across the wall and mutilates her. He hangs Rod with a bedsheet, and drags Glenn through a hole in his bed, turning him into a fountain of blood. In Freddy’s Revenge, we get a lackluster shower sequence and a few gut stabs at a pool party. Grady’s death is the only saving grace. It’s such a let down.
Lisa: The Final Girl of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2
Freddy’s Revenge would’ve been a much better movie if Lisa was the protagonist. She’s a soft-spoken, studious girl from an upper middle class family. She’s not whiny like Jesse either. Similar to Pam Roberts in Friday the 13th Part V, she had the potential to be one of the greatest final girls of all time. But she was underutilized.
There’s a lot about her we never learn. What dark secrets linger in her past? Other than Jesse, what are her desires? Her quirks? Did her parents help burn Freddy alive too? Instead of following Jesse around the entire movie, Lisa should’ve been part of a clique of girls with similar personality traits and backgrounds. Freddy would’ve had a field day torturing them. We might have even got an epic dream sequence or two set inside their big, beautiful houses.
In fact, this movie might have been darker if Freddy wanted to possess Lisa. Let’s be honest, as much as I love Krueger’s character, he’s lowkey a pervert. This is made clear in the first film on multiple occasions. For example, during an early nightmare sequence he flicks his tongue at Nancy and says “come to Freddy.”
If Freddy wanted to possess Lisa, I’m sure he would’ve done a lot of sick and twisted things to her. He likes to torment his victims, weaken them mentally before he strikes. He might have ripped Lisa’s clothes off, attacked her in the shower, or seduced her by disguising himself as her love interest. Freddy is evil. He’ll do anything to get inside someone’s head.
If Nancy Was Involved
I’ve always wondered what Nancy Thompson was doing during the events of Part 2. She obviously wasn’t in Springwood at the time. When she shows up again in the third film, she’s several years older and has become a therapist. Most likely, she was studying psychology and wrestling with her personal demons in a safe place.
Continuing Nancy’s story is another way A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 could’ve been better. It would’ve transformed the first three entries into a tight trilogy and added more depth to one of the best characters in the franchise. Here’s how I would have this hypothetical sequel play out.
Hypothetical Sequel
It would serve as a prequel to Dream Warriors. After some time away from Springwood, Nancy returns to serve as a guidance counselor at Springwood High. A string of gruesome, sleep-related deaths begin plaguing the student body. To make matters worse, all of the victims suffered from intense nightmares beforehand. This makes Nancy suspicious. She fears Krueger is at it again.
Her fears are confirmed one day when a student named Carly Parker, Kristin Parker‘s older sister, comes into her office and tells her she’s having nightmares about Freddy. Nancy decides to team up with Carly to stop Freddy once and for all. However, they ultimately fail.
In the end, Carly dies and Freddy begins targeting her sister. This gives us a perfect segue into Dream Warriors, where Nancy teams up with Kristin for another rematch with the red and green menace.
