A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge

The A Nightmare on Elm Street series has just been released on Blu-ray, in a box-set containing the first seven films and a plethora of exclusive special features. While I’ve delved into the Elm Street series before, it’s always good to revisit old favourites; especially when they’ve been released in shiny HD and in a box-set crammed with all sorts of geeky goodies. Over the next few weeks I’ll be revisiting all seven films and taking a look at the extra features accompanying them.

The tagline for Freddy’s Revenge boasts that “The man of your dreams is back!” While this is certainly true, he’s back in a sequel sadly lacking in the surreal intensity and creepy ingenuity of its predecessor. Director Jack Sholder takes the story in a new, body-horror orientated direction, with child killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) attempting to possess a teenaged boy (Mark Patton) and emerge into the waking world, which results in a strangely homoerotic subtext. As the story progresses it takes the form of a violent ‘coming out’ parable. Freddy - who had yet to become the clownish figure he was in later sequels – is arguably constructed as the repressed desires of a young gay man struggling to come to terms with his sexual orientation; desires that have become destructive as he struggles to suppress them for fear of rejection…

Head over to Eye for Film to read my full review of the film and its special features.

Comments

Ralf said…
This was one of the Elm Street sequels I never even cared to rewatch. Have you seen the NEVER SLEEP AGAIN documentary where the cast and crew laughs about not having realised how gay the film was? The screenwriter intended the movie to have that strong gay subtext, but despite some obvious dialogue like "Something's trying to get inside me body!" - "And you wanna sleep with me?!" and the gay bar and whipping scenes, everyone was absolutely clueless. Now they just laugh how oblivious they were.
6 October 2014 at 01:29
James Gracey said…
Yes, some of the interviewees on the special features of Freddy's Revenge take a look at the subtext and have a chuckle at how obvious it seems now - they maintain that back then, when they were actually shooting the film, they hadn't noticed. Pfft!
7 October 2014 at 20:25
Roman J. Martel said…
Yeah this film... not so much. It is actually so over the top that it gets really funny at times. The not-so-subtext is an interesting twist, and it could have made this one a classic. But the execution and tone are just so overdone, it kinda ruins that whole element. This is a fun movie, but not because it is good.

I had seen it once long ago, revisited it last year and found it very funny. But not sure if it is one I'll revisit very often.

Really enjoying your coverage of the series.
8 October 2014 at 16:52
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