“A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, that installment is the very first sequel, 1985’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” which was always going to have an uphill battle in the best of cases following Wes Craven’s 1984 original. Craven’s film brought European-influenced dream logic and (literal) nightmarish imagery to the slasher movie, thereby kicking off its own trend in the form of the “rubber reality” movie as well as a slew of imitators. The film’s box office success meant that a sequel was inevitable, yet the film had troubles from its conception: Craven didn’t want to return, early ideas for the script were pitched and then abandoned, and at one point, studio New Line Cinema wasn’t even sure they were going to bring Robert Englund back as Freddy Krueger.
Obviously, cooler heads prevailed on that point, but it’s a good indication of how all over the place “Freddy’s Revenge” was from jump street. During a recent exclusive interview with director Jack Sholder on the eve of the release of the full “Nightmare” franchise 4K Blu-Ray box set, the filmmaker confessed that New Line’s motivation in making the sequel was that “they just wanted to get a script out that was called ‘Nightmare on Elm Street 2’ with a character called Freddy, not necessarily even played by Robert Englund.” When Sholder’s film, written by David Chaskin, was finally released, its reception was very mixed, and only diminished as the franchise went on to more success creatively, financially, and culturally. Even the early discussions of the film as a stealth queer movie didn’t get it reappraised at first. Eventually, though, “Freddy’s Revenge” found its audience, and it’s thanks to these newly minted fans that Sholder has now fully embraced the divisive sequel.
