Jesse Walsh is the new kid on the block and his family has moved into the old Thompson house. Freddy Kruger has his eyes on Jesse and wants to take over his body in order to kill people.
Blaine: “A Nightmare on Elm Street” was Wes Craven’s creation, but New Line Cinema owned the rights to it and future “Elm Street” movies. Wes didn’t want to direct the sequel because he already had arguments with New Line CEO, Robert Shaye, of how things went with the first movie that he felt that he wouldn’t get full creative power for the second one. He didn’t even have the word franchise in mind when he did “Nightmare 1". David Chaskin was hired to develop a script for the sequel. Jack Sholder’s background was making trailers and the people of New Line thought he was a talented man so they put him in charge of directing “Nightmare 2”. Jack wasn’t a fan of the first “Nightmare on Elm Street” even though he understood why it became a success.
They never asked Heather Langenkamp to return as Nancy for “Freddy’s Revenge” and the reason why was because they wanted to tell a completely new story. Robert Englund was set to return as Freddy Krueger, but his agent demanded that he get payed more if he was going to return. Problem was New Line didn’t have enough money. Robert Shayne asked why they would need Robert Englund for the second movie. But little did he know was that Robert was the reason the franchise was going to be so successful thanks to his performance as Freddy Krueger. They started shooting “Freddy’s Revenge” with an extra all dressed up as Freddy for shots where he is a silhouette or when his the hat is covering his face. Finally, Robert decided to come back and accept whatever money they were going to pay him.
Mark Patton had auditioned for the first “Nightmare on Elm Street”, but he did’t get a part. When he heard there was going to be a second one he auditioned again and he got the part of the lead character, Jesse Walsh. Mark’s competition for the role of Jesse was Brad Pitt and Christian Slater. If Jack Sholder knew they were going to be big he would have given them a part in the movie. Ron Grady is the type of character who bullies Jesse at first, but then he treats him like he is his brother. Robert Rusler just finished doing “Weird Science” and after that he went to audition for “Freddy Revenge”. Both Robert and Mark Patton read together and the casting director had them hired after they were done. Mark and Robert sat around while watching girls auditioning for Lisa. Kim Myers had read a scene with Mark Patton and they both bonded with each other. Kim was hired because everyone thought she was talented after seeing her audition. Another reason why she was hired was because of the fact that she looked like Meryl Streep.
The first scene they shot was that bus scene at the beginning where Jesse is on the bus and he looks like a nerdy outcast. These two girls are making fun of him, then things get weird as the bus starts to speed up and goes into this desert. It stops and the ground disappears. It was a mechanical bus that would tilt back and forth. One of the girls, JoAnn Willette, didn’t have to act scared because being in that bus while it’s moving around was terrifying enough. She hit her nose on a bar. ‘
Freddy Krueger hardly talked in the first “Nightmare on Elm Street” and you hardly saw his face. David Chaskin gave Freddy more dialog in the script and wrote him as a main character for the sequel. David Miller, the makeup artist who did the first “Nightmare”, didn’t return to do the makeup for “Freddy’s Revenge” because one “Nightmare on Elm Street” was good enough for him. He wanted to move on and do other projects. Kevin Yagher became his replacement. It was a challenge for Kevin to do the makeup because there was hardly any photographs of what Freddy looked like in the first movie. They never took any photos. Kevin decided to change Freddy’s look a bit. He gave him bone structure and gave him brown eyes.
The characters that survived at the end of these slasher films were always women. There was a man from time to time, but more as a sidekick. But I think “Freddy’s Revenge” was the first to have a male lead as the victim. Of course Jesse is in trouble because Freddy has taken over his body and it’s up to Lisa to save him. So in a way the girl takes on the horror character. No one had realized at the time that “Freddy’s Revenge” was a gay movie. The only person who knew was it’s writer, David Chaskin. He was thinking about guys who are unsure of their sexuality and it sounded scary to him. The lead man, Mark Patton, is gay. The gym teacher is gay and Freddy kills him by stripping his clothes off first while his arms are tied to the wall. Then he uses a towel to whip his ass. Then he slashes his back and kills him. There’s also a scene where Jesse goes to a gay bar in the middle of the night where the gym teacher busts him. Everyone felt embarrassed about that dance scene Jesse does while cleaning his room. They hated it. There’s also a scene where Jesse has to reject Lisa because he fears Freddy will come out, so he goes to Ron’s house. Jesse says “there is something trying to get inside my body!” and Ron’s reply is “Ya and she’s female and she’s waiting for you at the party. And you want to sleep with me?"
Mark Shostrom did the effects for “Freddy’s Revenge” and everyone thought he did a terrific job with the scene where Freddy bursts out of Jesse’s chest. Mark did different storyboards of how Freddy was going to rip himself out of Jesse’s body. There was one that made it look too much like “An American Werewolf in London”. During that scene, Freddy’s eye is looking around inside Jesse’s throat. That was Kevin Yagher’s girlfriend’s eye because her head was small enough to fit inside the dummy of Mark’s face.
“Freddy’s Revenge” was taking a big turn for what “Nightmare on Elm Street” was supposed to be about. It was the only “Nightmare on Elm Street” where Freddy comes into the real world. He appears when everyone is awake. That was breaking Wes Craven’s rules. Robert Englund was asking himself why they were shooting this scene. Because Freddy is killing teenagers in the real world. I have no problem with Freddy crashing the party and bringing fear into teenagers. Freddy also says this really cool line, “You are all my children now!” Freddy’s boiler room was shot at an iron foundry. There was a robotic life mask for when Freddy falls apart. It was made of wax and they used hair dryers to melt it off. The movie ends with Jesse back to normal and going on the bus. He feels like a million bucks until Freddy’s hand pops out of one of the other teenagers' chest and it goes back to the desert. “Freddy’s Revenge” was released on November 1, 1985 and received mixed reviews. It did become a box office hit. Every theater it premiered at was sold out, but still it was sort of a disappointment.
My rating on “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” is four out of five stars.
