A 40-Year Journey to Seeing Genius of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 2’

It’s been 40 years since the theatrical release of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” which now has a brand-new 4K version, along with the other films in the series (sans the maligned 2010 reboot). It’s a film that has been probed, dissected, and analyzed so many times, what possibly is there left to say? Actually, there are some things!

Yes, by now, we all know and recognize the gay themes of the film. What was once an aspect that made this an entry in the series that some fans wanted to ignore, well, those are now the same reasons why it’s so celebrated. 

For those who don’t know the plot of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge“: a new family moves into the house once lived in by the hero of the first film, Nancy Thompson. Freddy Krueger, still lurking on Elm Street, sees a vulnerable young man in the form of Jesse, played by Mark Patton. Freddy doesn’t just haunt Jesse’s dreams; instead, Freddy uses Jesse as a conduit to manifest himself into reality (which, yes, kind of goes against what Freddy’s supernatural powers are supposed to be). Freddy, through Jesse, antagonizes and murders a lot of men. Which, even today, would be unusual for a horror film. 

“Over the years, Jack has distanced himself, a tad, from the fact it’s the gay horror movie,” Robert Englund, the man who played Freddy Krueger in seven “A Nightmare on Elm Street” films, told IndieWire during a recent interview. Englund was talking about the director of the second installment, Jack Sholder, who took over directorial duties from Wes Craven for the first sequel.

Now, what Englund said was once an accurate statement. The 2019 documentary “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street” from co-directors Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen chronicles Mark Patton’s relationship with the film: being a gay man in the 1980s, trying to navigate a Hollywood that warned him not to let anyone know he’s gay, then realizing he’s starring in a gay horror movie that basically ended his leading man career.

Sholder appeared in the documentary and seemed more bewildered about all of this than anything else. In his interviews, he seems to just be catching up on the fact that not only is the film considered an iconic gay horror movie, but that it had also undergone a positive reevaluation. (I couldn’t find any contact information for Mark Patton’s representative. I did find an email address that I believe belongs to Patton and sent a note to it, but it went unanswered.)

“Jack’s an editor and he can edit in his mind’s eye,” said Englund. “But when Jack was shooting the movie, I think he was preoccupied with budget and directing young actors. So, I don’t think Jack, day to day, was involved in enhancing any of the subtext, gay or otherwise. He was just trying to get his day done.”

Chimienti and Jensen’s documentary focused on the 30-year anniversary of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” right around the time horror fans were starting to come around on it. Now, ten years later, the film is considered a great horror movie, with interesting and unique themes to boot. And Sholder seems to be on board with this assessment.

“At that point, ten years ago, people didn’t like the movie,” said Sholder. “It’s the ugly stepchild. It broke the rules. It didn’t fit with the others. Freddy comes out into the real world.” As for what his relationship with the film used to be, “It wasn’t a deeply personal film for me. ‘Elm Street 2’ was one-third Wes, one-third David Chaskin, who was the writer, and one-third me.”

I asked Sholder if he’s now rediscovered the film as well, as so many fans have done. Sholder said, bluntly, “Yes, I have.” He added, “I’ve been reflecting a lot more. I’ve been thinking a lot more about ‘Elm Street’ than I had.”

Themes aside (for now), the second “Elm Street” installment, as Sholder pointed out, was criticized for breaking the rules of what Freddy Krueger is capable of doing. A villain that haunts dreams who is now just killing people in the real world doesn’t make him much different than a Michael Myers or a Jason Voorhees. But “Elm Street 2” doesn’t get enough credit for what it did bridge between the first and third films.

For one, bringing back Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. This seems preposterous now, but it wasn’t a given at the time, because Freddy wasn’t considered the star — to the point his image isn’t even on the poster. And Sholder wanted to update Freddy’s appearance and voice, which remained for the rest of the series. 

“People ask if I was nervous to follow in Wes’ footsteps, I said not at all,” said Sholder. “First of all, I didn’t think it was a masterpiece and I thought I could make a better film. That was my attitude. Whether I did or not, I don’t know. They said keep Freddy scary. They didn’t like the makeup from the original film, so I found Kevin Yeager, who was going to art school, as opposed to some kid who has every issue of ‘Fangoria’ ever printed, and he wound up doing Robert’s makeup for all the other films. And we also messed with his voice in the mix to get that voice.”

Sholder also wanted the second film to be funnier, which became a hallmark of the series going forward. “Wes didn’t have a great sense of humor,” he said. “He wasn’t exactly the life of the party. And I have a good sense of humor.” (At one point in the film, a Freddy Krueger-possessed bird explodes into flames, which is both funny and awesome.)

As for Sholder’s direction of Englund as Krueger? “I just let him do his thing. So he was doing his thing.”

“I remember talking to Mark and Jack about a scene when I wanted to play with Mark’s mouth,” said Englund. “And we did that several different ways. I circled his lips. I taunted him. I think I almost kissed him once, like the kiss of death. I think I put one of my blades in his mouth once, which is overtly sexual. I remember asking Mark if it was OK to touch him here and he was like, yeah, go for it. It was real intimate. Jack was like, yeah, go for it. But Jack wasn’t thinking about the implications.”

Sholder said the test screening for “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” came back with a pretty glaring problem: it wasn’t scary. That’s kind of a problem for a horror film.

Sholder said the solution was moving an important kill to earlier in the film. Originally, Coach Schneider’s (Marshall Bell) gruesome death after a night out at an S&M bar was going to happen at the end of the second act. Putting it at the beginning of the second act upped the stakes of the film, giving the film a scarier vibe, because we’ve now seen actual consequences.

A huge reason this film now works so well is the performance of Mark Patton. Yes, as he’s been pretty clear about, he got a lot of grief for “Freddy’s Revenge” over the years, but this film just doesn’t click without him. 

Robert Englund remembered, “I had seen Mark Patton in (Robert Altman’s) ‘Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.’ I saw him on stage and I saw the movie. He was absolutely beautiful. A beautiful young man. He had that wonderful androgynous beauty that James Dean had. So, I knew they were playing with that. Jack obviously cast him knowing that. Jack’s no fool.”

“The reason I cast Mark was he had a vulnerability that none of the other actors had,” said Sholder. “There are rumors, that are completely untrue, that Brad Pitt auditioned for the role. He absolutely did not. But if he had and I cast him? The film wouldn’t have worked.”

In fact, Sholder gave Patton credit for the film’s recent rediscovery. “Mark actually championed the film. He was out there on social media and he was getting a lot of shit from people,” he said.

So why the about-face from Sholder on “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge?” Why, now, has he been thinking about it a lot more? Sholder was asked by Warner Bros. to directly participate in its restoration and working of a brand-new 4k scan of the negatives. He finally got the look of the film and the sound mix of the film that he originally envisioned. The film was originally mixed in mono — at the time, New Line wasn’t keep on spending money on a stereo mix — but international markets were provided a music and effects track without dialogue. From this, a proper modern Dolby Atmos mix was made.

Sholder said, “That stupid sequence with the bird? “Now it’s like the fucking ‘The Birds.’” (For the record, and all due respect to Jack Sholder, the scene with the possessed bird exploding is not stupid, it rules.)

Spending so much time recently with “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” Sholder has had a complete change of heart. “I’m really pleased people are reevaluating it that way. I’ve seen a lot of people for whom this film has a lot of extra meaning and it means a lot to them,” he said.

So, what’s the future for Freddy Krueger? It’s pretty wild there hasn’t been a new “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie for 15 years now. Englund thinks he knows why. “There are so many people involved who have a piece of the action,” he said. “When Wes passed away, he left an awful lot of rights to his estate. He has many many rights that he worked out between character titles and names and plot and things like that. New Line Cinema obviously has a big hand in it. And much of that was surrendered to Ted Turner, then went to Warner Bros. So Warner Bros. has a huge piece of it. I know Michael Bay had been involved with some interest and also Blumhouse.”

Also, Englund doesn’t necessarily blame the 2010 reboot that was so poorly received. He just thinks it came out a little too soon. “I think the remake was premature. I love a lot of the actors in the movie, so I’m not going to say anything bad about it, I just think the timing was off,” he said. Englund went out of his way to praise how great Rooney Mara was in that film and what a terrific actor he thinks Jackie Earle Haley is — Englund is a big fan of Haley in “Breaking Away.” 

If it were up to Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger himself, how would he approach the series going forward? As you might expect, he had some thoughts.

“I know, eventually, they are going to reboot the franchise. And I think they can do part 2 as a standalone and really get into the subtext of Freddy manipulating Jesse and playing with his subconscious,” Englund said. “My theory would be, you don’t go near ‘Nightmare 1’ again. You either do a prequel or start with ‘Dream Warriors,’ which is the biggest success in the franchise and a fan favorite. So I would do 3, 4, and 5. I’d reboot them. And then, to end the franchise, I would do the prequel.”

Hopefully, we all get Freddy Krueger back in our lives (and dreams) very soon.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” 7-Film 4K UHD Collection is now in stores.