freddy’s revenge (1985)

6/5/2015 Down In The Basement Blog Archive A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddys Revenge (1985)

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Demons (1985)Alligator (1980)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddys Revenge (1985)

SYNOPSIS

Ever since his family moved into the house on 1428 Elm Street, teenage Jesse has been having sweaty,shirtless nightmares about an older man named Freddy whos trying to get inside of him. No, its not FreddyMercury. This man wears a colorful sweater, a fancy fedora, and has long, skinny knives for fingers and hesjust dying to use Jesses bodyumto kill and stuff.

Will Jesse be able to set himself straight, or will the man of his dreams eventually have his way with him?

REVIEW

Before I can talk about how this film stacks up in the pantheon of NOES movies, I have to address the elephantin the room. Its a big pink elephant, and it just had the waiter bring over a Midori Sour. Oh god. It justwinked at me.

It would be harder to miss the homosexual undertones in Freddys Revenge, if not for the huge array ofhomosexual OVERtones. This movie is gay, folks. Not like, This Oscar party is kind of gay gay. Morelike, this penis near my buttocks is gay gay. For further analysis, diving into the subtext isnt necessary.Instead, lets just lay out a more detailed synopsis of the plot.

(SPOILERS ahead, but dont worry too much. This is very much a you have to see it to believe it film.)

So due to these nightmares about a male agressor trying to penetrate him, Jesse (played by openly gay actorMark Patton) struggles at home and at school. His parents suspect hes hiding skeletons in his closet, andwonder how to correct him. At one point, theyre truly disturbed (along with the audience) when they catchJesse dancing on his bed to Touch Me All Night Long while wearing glitter glasses and firing a pop gunbetween his legs. Poor Jesse, he can never be fabulous. It doesnt help matters that Jesses girlfriend Lisaseems more interested in getting in his pants than hearing about his big scary dream hunk. How annoying. Atleast theres someone Jesse feels he can turn to a bully named Ron, whom he tellingly befriends after Ronrips his pants down and does some bare-bottomed wrestling with him during gym class.



Poor Jesse can only keep the bad man inside him at bay for so long, however. Soon, he finds himself beingtaking over by him. One night at Freddys whims, he wanders to aMENS S&M BAR. What?! Overtenough, yet? No? Okay, lets keep going.

At the S&M Bar, Jesse is caught having a beer by his male gym teacher, Coach Schneider. Now you mightthink Coach would be embarrassed to run into a student at an S&M bar, especially when hes wearing asleeveless vinyl vest, but youd be dead wrong. Coach takes Jesse back to school with him, in the middle ofthe night, to PUNISH HIM like the bad, beer-drinking boy he is. After making him run some laps, Coach tellsJesse to hit the showers. All this sexual tension is too much for young Jesse, apparently, because now Freddyfully gets inside of him for the first time.

Under Freddys control, Jesse telepathically attacks his gym teacher by BOMBARDING HIM WITHBALLS soccer balls, basketballs, tennis balls, you name it. If its a ball, count on Jesse putting it in Coachsface. As if that was somehow too subtle, Jesse then uses his psychic Freddy powers to tie Coach up in theshowers, rip off his clothes, and towel his bare ass until it bleeds. Were even treated to several close ups ofthe ass getting redder and redder. Its astounding, really. After Coach is fully dominated, Jesse/Freddyfinishes him off. Which is to say he kills him. I forget how, honestly, because Jesse steals the end of the scenewith the most feminine screamin slasher movie history.

I should really stop now, as you truly cant skip a single scene if youre trying to describe how incredibly gaythis film is. Lets just get to the awesome 80s pool party. Finally, Lisa gets sick of not once being touched byher supposed boyfriend throughout the entire film, and tries to put the moves on Jesse. Jesses body literallyrevolts. He starts to kiss her stomach, moving toward the magic zone, when a slimy grey phallic object flopsout of his mouth. Its Freddys way of reminding him that hes still very much inside of him.

So what does Jesse do? Tell Lisa whats up? Nope. He runs to Rons bedroom. There, he leans against thebed and tells his shirtless bud that hes scared. He wants Ron to be his protector, but Ron doesnt really swingthat way, so he falls asleep. This angers Jesse/Freddy greatly. Freddy breaks out of Jesses body, kills a bunchof dudes (seriously, no girl victims in a slasher movie), and runs away to an old factory to be alone.

Now Lisa must rise to the occasion and fight Freddy/Jesse. Does she defeat him with crazy, violent boobytraps like Nancy did in part one? Nope. This time, FREDDY IS DEFEATED BY A WOMANS KISS.Apparently kissing a girl is so yucky to Freddy that he loses all of his power, allowing Jesse to have his stupidbody back. However, since you cant really turn someone straight, its only a matter of time before Freddyappears to Jesse again in the final scene.

Whew. Now all that might lead you to believe that this is a terrible film, but reallyits actually pretty damngood.

Theres nothing wrong with all the gay subtext and, well, text. Its just really unexpected in this first, big-budget sequel to the classic Nightmare on Elm Street. Once you accept it, the film has a lot to offer. First, itsthe only film in the series outside of Cravens very meta New Nightmare that tries something different. HavingFreddy want to possess someone to live again in the real world is fairly interesting. It doesnt lend itself to awide variety of kills, but we get some terrific, disturbing effects along the way. The opening dream sequencewith the school bus ride to hell is huge and surreal. It definitely announces, Were spending money on thisone. Freddy bursting out of Jesses body is fantastic, as is Freddy pulling back his own scalp to reveal hisbrain, as is a quick appearance by guard dogs with human faces.

The firey Freddy attack sequence at the pool party is also a blast. Theres something fun about seeing old Fredjust run around a slash at a horde of screaming teens. Sure, the wildly innovative dream sequences are whatmakes the series great, but one simple chaotic slash fest in the real world is kind of refreshing.

Most notably, though, is just how EVIL Freddy is in this one. Gay or not, hes really malevolent here. Theresno puns or over the top one-liners, and his burn makeup is particularly wet and gnarly looking. The movieputs Mark Patton in the Freddy makeup a couple of times as well and cuts back and forth between himandRobert Englund. The effect is actually pretty disorienting and unsettling. Make no mistake, this NOES aspiresto be a horror film, which cant be said about installments 4 through 6.

Oh, but then again, theres that exploding parrot scene. Maybe its not so good. Just watch it.

RATING: 6out of 9 Towel Snaps

KEEPING SCORE: The film is notably missing the classic, electronic NOES score from Charles Bernstein.Instead, producers hired a relative newcomer, Christopher Young, to do a more traditional, gothic horrorscore. It was Youngs first score for a major studio release. He currently has 110 titles under his belt,including Hellraiser, Drag Me To Hell and most recently, Sinister.



Tags: 1985, Good Bad, palmer, Slasher

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freddy’s revenge (1985)

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