Movie Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 — Freddy’s Revenge and the Queer Subtext That Saved It

31 Days of Horror | Reelscope

★★★★☆

Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

Directed by: Jack Sholder

Written by: David Chaskin

Starring: Robert Englund, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler

Release Date: November 1, 1985

In 1985’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Mark Patton delivers one of horror’s most unusual performances in a film once dismissed as a cheap sequel but now reclaimed as a groundbreaking queer horror classic.

The Dream Returns — and So Does Freddy Krueger

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge picks up not long after the original, though continuity has never been this franchise’s strong suit. Jesse (Mark Patton) and his family have just moved into the infamous Elm Street house where Freddy Krueger was supposedly stopped. Almost immediately, Jesse…