NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE @ 40

Jesse Walsh wakes from a nightmare that features the blade-gloved Freddy Kruger. His family has moved into the ol' Thompson house on Elm St and the bad one has been dropping into his dreams on the regular. When his little sister at breakfast hears his blood curdling screams from his room she asks her mother why he can't wake up like everyone else. It won't be the last joke in this film but it's the best. That's not to say that the Elm St's first sequel is poorly made, it's just that the nature of the gag is at odds with the rest of this film which, itself, is at odds with its own franchise. Elm St 2 is like Halloween 3.

Elm St movies generally go like this: a group of teens gets together and vanquishes Freddy Kruger. This one the victim and perpetrator are the same as Freddy possesses Jesse, forcing him to repeatedly commit murder: the protagonist is the slasher. It's significant that such an isolating approach should be applied to a character who, though new to his school, pretty much fits right in with the types who would mark him for bullying. They try but he pushes back and fits among them without a real struggle. He and the king of the jocks unite in adversity against their PE teacher which binds them.

That's the other thing about this film that needs a note. It's been outed for so long that it doesn't count as an elephant in the room. Nightmare on Elm St is a gay. From the dacked wrestling to the leather bar to Freddy's facial caress to his failed makeout with Lisa ending with his refuge with Grady to a near numberless other instances, the theme leaves subtext and becomes text progressively. If Tom Cruise a few years earlier thrilled audiences by dancing in his parent-free house to a rock classic, Jesse unpacks his things in his room to perky electro disco, bumping and grinding with an array of increasingly flamboyant specs.

These aren't the controversial aspects; those have to do with casting, writing and production. I won't cover the whole story here (it's not my community and I can't speak for them) but it's worth pursuit with some wrong-headed sleaze by writers and producers and a history of self-contradicting statements. If you've heard that this is the gay '80s horror you should know that wasn't conceived in inclusive spirit but more exploitatively. That it has become a cult hit with the community is, however, inclusive which serves as an example of cultural redemption that the horror genre seldom knows.

The story itself moves at a clip as Jesse makes his way through high school and Freddy makes his way through him, leaving a trail of corpses and a subplot of queasy manipulation. The fantasy sequences are darker in lighting and mood than in the first and Freddy's seduction of Jesse has the uncomfortable feel of predation. The mid-'80s forced pastel pallet of waking life is a strange relief after that. The finale is strong and, given the progress of the story preceding, has a persistent sexuality to it that leads to a coda of ambiguous experience (who is doing the dreaming?).

That this outlier in its franchise has been adopted by the culture it was once intended to exploit is a kind of happy ending. As an Elm St movie it is overshadowed heavily by the original and the third installment which is often pegged as the best in the best of the bunch. Later entries suffered the same dilution, boiling it down to a series of scenes and locations in a decreasingly purposeful loop. Freddy becomes a wiseacre and loses a lot of his power and the movies often muddle between quick-buck horror and teen comedy, finding an easy home in movie nights on VHS and TV movie marathons. The first three parts, however, stand as strong as a continuous unit as the first four Friday the 13th titles, each bringing something of themselves to the table other than regurgitation. If you've never bothered with it, hearing that one and three are the ones to see, press play on it and find riches.

Viewing notes: I watched my copy from the very well presented Elm St box set on DVD. While the original benefits massively from a 4K upgrade (bought separately) these discs are at the top of the game as far as the earlier tech goes and are often very pleasantly discounted by retail outlets. Otherwise, it's a cheap rent from one of the online sources.