Ah yes, the first sequel to Nightmare On Elm Street, a movie that contains tons of gore, bad acting, things that happen for no logical reason (A bird who flies in the room and explodes) and a cast that includes special appearances by Hope Lange and Clu Gulager. The former was in the best vigilante movie ever made (Death Wish, and damn you Part Time Ninja for not having Charles Bronson on the top ten coolest celebs, I mean he didn't even make an honorable mention but Colin Farrell sure did. Just gay to the tenth power.) and Gulager was in the best zombie movie ever made (Return Of The Living Dead, and nobody shall sway from this stand.) This doesn't sound like much but I neglected the ultimate best part of Nightmare On Elm Street 2- Freddy's Revenge. The homoeroticism.

Of course many people might think this can't be, and as much as I'd like to claim responsbility for coming up with this observation, i'm not. Several reviewers have had their eyebrows raised by the overt and completely obvious homoeroticism. Hell even my DVD guide ( I forget if it was 2 or 3) said "Often referred to as the gay one" Indeed. This isn't Freddy Krueger killing people, this is a metaphor about one teenager's fight against a homosexuality he can't fight or supress. Indeed when reading the tagline, i'm surprised it wasn't "Hiding in the closet won't save you!" To add further proof the star of this now performs on Broadway, which basically speaks for itself.

Anyway before I get into the obvious gayness of this movie, let me explain what the movie is about. Freddy Krueger has posessed Jesse, a kid in town who has moved on elm street. However suddenly Jesse is blacking out and all of a sudden he feels Freddy's force inside him (Pun intended) this leads to him killing lots of people and at the end it's only the love of his girlfriend that can save him from Freddy's wrath.

By the way, Freddy is more of a symbol, symbol for gayness that is. One night Jesse wakes up and decides to head down to the local gay bar. (I'm not even making this up.) he then meets his phy ed teacher (Who they have it wrong, since male gym teachers are never gay, only female gym teachers.) and his gym teacher brings him back to the school (Which is weird cause it's late at night and technically he isn't on school grounds) and is forced to run around the track. Not able to suppress the desire for a better work out, the gym teacher is tied to the walls (In the shower no less!) and "Freddy" makes sure to wack the gym teacher in the ass, before slicing him up. Before Jesse is even posessed he gets into a fight with his soon to be best friend, and in the heat of battle pants are pulled down. I myself have been in many fights but i've yet to ever lose my pants during the heat of battle. Of course what this all means, is that Jesse doesn't feel complete until he pulls down another man's pants.

Nothing however is more telling then in the scenes where Jesse tries to embrace heterosexuality. Seems there is a girl (a cute red head that was in Hellrasier:Bloodline) and when he tries to make out with her and eat her pussy, seems "Freddy" won't let him get it on with her. He tries to caress her but Freddy's tounge blocks him for kissing her, he tries to touch her breasts but Freddy starts making Jesse look freakish. It goes on and suffice to say Jesse never gets it on with the redhead chick in this movie.

There is of course the sequence where Jesse dances to Cathy Dennis' Touch Me (a supergay techno song) and his mom and beard, I mean girlfriend walks in on him. Of course even more telling is how the ending is implied, it has a set up for a sequel (One which would follow the Quickening appraoch) and the ending finds that the love of a good woman conquered Jesse's gayness, it's telling that at the end the bus in which Jesse and his red head girlfriend are on is attacked by Freddy. Implying that sooner or later, Freddy's gonna get you. Most likely up the ass if we are too understand what we have just witnessed.

Other things that were just peachy, was the part where Freddy starts killing people left and right at the pool. How the pool starts heating up for no reason, how teenagers offer Freddy a beer and of course the way people are just randomly killed. This movie isn't just a Nightmare On Elm Street sequel, a movie with tons of gore and a movie too ridiculous to take seriously. This movie is obvious symbolism. None too subtle symbolism.

So just keep one thing in mind, it's hard to escape from Freddy's wrath. You can try coffee, you can try staying up, you can try dream supressors, you can try pills that make you able to fight back, just remember what we learned from this series that sooner or later Freddy is gonna get you. And hiding in the closet won't save you.

Hamlin Grade: 6

Ryan
-Board certified professional safety dancer