A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) Review

Freddy's back — but he's not killing teenagers in their dreams anymore. He's possessing them. We're continuing our October So Many Scares series with A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), the sequel Wes Craven wanted nothing to do with. This week on So Many Sequels: a $3 million budget that made $29.9 million, Jesse Walsh moves into Nancy's old house, the title that makes no sense (Freddy won last time — revenge on who?), horror's rare Scream King and the "final fella," why Freddy works in dreams but looks silly by a swimming pool, Clu Gulager the Oklahoman, the queer subtext the Letterboxd crowd won't shut up about, and a score game Josh wins by a tenth of a point — again. Ratings: Garrett 2, David 1.5, Josh 2. Letterboxd average: 2.8. 🎧 Listen on Spotify: [paste link] 🌐 somanysequels.com 📸 Instagram: @somanysequelspod CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome back to So Many Scares 00:41 The Letterboxd synopsis 01:15 Box office: $2.8M opening, $29.9M total 03:32 No original cast, Craven walks away 04:26 Garrett was wrong about Nancy 04:36 Clu Gulager: another Oklahoman 06:22 "Freddy's Revenge" — revenge on who? 07:41 Re-learning lore in every horror sequel 08:50 Reality is as weird as the dreams 09:25 The effects hold up 10:41 Craven's 1988 quote: "silly script" 11:51 The "final fella" — horror's Scream King 14:43 Freddy has a personality; Jason doesn't 18:12 Jesse's only crime is living in that house 20:22 Burnt weenie, smoker, midnight toker 21:09 The Season of the Witch comparison 21:51 The FU endings 23:42 Our ratings: 2, 1.5, 2 25:27 Letterboxd reviews 26:38 The queer subtext + the sweaty movie club 28:00 The score game — Josh wins by 0.1, again 29:31 Almost a full point down from the first film 30:41 Next week: Dream Warriors #ANightmareOnElmStreet #FreddysRevenge #FreddyKrueger #MoviePodcast