How the director of A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2 feels about the divisive film today (Exclusive)

Almost every film has at least one poorly received sequel, but none are quite as divisive as the first in the series, as it marks the moment when a large number of fans were left disappointed or worse. to “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise.this installment is the 1985 sequel, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge”, which was always going to be an uphill battle at best after Wes Craven’s original 1984 film. Craven’s film brought European-influenced dream logic and (literal) nightmarish imagery to the slasher film, thus starting its own trend in the “reality” film format Rubber” in addition to a large number of imitators. The film’s box office success meant that a sequel was inevitable, however the film faced problems in terms of its conception: Craven did not want to return, early ideas for the script were pitched and then abandoned, and at one point, New Line Cinema studio wasn’t sure they would bring Robert Englund back in the role of Freddy Krueger.

Cooler heads obviously prevailed at this point, but it’s a good indication of how ubiquitous “Freddy’s Revenge” was from Jump Street. During a recent exclusive interview with director Jack Scholder on the eve of the release of the complete 4K Blu-Ray box set for “Nightmare,” the director admitted that New Line’s motivation in making the sequel was “they just wanted to put out a script called Nightmare on Elm Street 2 with a character named Freddy, not necessarily played by Robert Englund.” When Shoulder, written by David Chaskin, was finally released, its reception was very mixed, and only diminished as the franchise continued to find more success creatively, financially, and culturally. Even early discussions of the film as a stealth film were not initially re-evaluated. Eventually, though, “Freddy’s Revenge” found its audience, and thanks to these new fans, Shoulder has now fully embraced the divisive sequel.

It’s important to remember that the 1980s saw sequels being a more fragmented affair, and although many films were starting to leave room for a potential future film, none had yet been produced with a concrete idea for a sequel. With “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” New Line Cinema was just looking to leave some room at the end of the film for a sequel, so the field was wide open for “Freddy’s Revenge” creatively. As Scholder recalls, the pressure for a sequel came more from himself than from anyone else:

“There was never any pressure on me to make a movie that would be a hit. There was pressure on me, self-imposed, just to make a good movie. The only thing they said was ‘Keep Freddy scary, keep him dark, keep him dark… both in lighting and metaphorically.’ I didn’t feel constrained at all. I felt like I could make a better movie than Wes did. That was my attitude. I mean That it wouldn’t be as good if I went in and said, well, it’s not going to be as good as Wes’s movie, but I’ll do it anyway.

“Freddy’s Revenge” is ambitious in its shift away from Kraven’s film conventions toward seeing what other abilities and concepts the character of Freddy Krueger could handle. There’s also no doubt that even though cinematographer Jacques Haitkin shot both this sequel and the original “Nightmare,” the films have a distinct and unique visual language. However, even at the time, it was generally understood that the sequels stuck to the original film’s formula, and the only criticism Scholder has of Freddy’s Revenge to this day is that Its sequel breaking the “Elm Street” formula set it apart a lot:

“If you look at it in the context of all that, you say ‘Well, this movie is completely inappropriate because they break the rule,’ and that Freddy goes out into the real world. Freddy doesn’t do that. Because if Freddy did, we wouldn’t have ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ because (teens) wouldn’t have to sleep to be killed by Freddy. So that idea is kind of a dead end.”

As the film’s strange subtext was noted by audiences, Chaskin denied that the themes were intentional, placing the blame instead on star Mark Patton, who was a closeted gay man at the time of filming. Thanks for “Never Sleep Again: The Legacy of Elm Street” And in Patton’s 2019 documentary “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street,” the truth is laid out, with Chaskin admitting that the themes were intentional on his part. As much as Scholder knew about these topics, he remained largely unaware until he met Patton at a conference to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary a decade ago. This helped Scholder embrace the film after years of ignoring it, as he explained:

“I didn’t really follow anyone’s thinking, and I didn’t really care what anyone thought about the movie. (…) And I remember doing one of the first interviews I did about the movie with these two women who had a podcast, I think they specialized in ‘Elm Street,’ and they got some good feedback. And then a few people said ‘Oh, it’s not good.’ It doesn’t fit with the rest of the series.’ And (these women) said, ‘If you look at it that way, you won’t enjoy it.’ But if you look at it as its own movie, it’s really good. And they were the first to say that. And then it seemed from there that people started to look at it that way.”

As it happens, it was Scholder’s oversight of the new 4K version of the film that allowed him to fully embrace “Freddy’s Revenge”:

“When I was in Los Angeles supervising the 4K restoration, especially with the new Dolby Atmos track, I said, ‘This is a really good movie.’ It really is. You did a really good job. Again, it’s not as personal to me as Wes’s movie (which it was intended for), but I felt like I did a really good job on it.”

Although Scholder thinks he’d probably say that “The Hidden” was the best movie for me“, “He’s now about to accept the legacy of ‘Elm Street.’ “It will be in my obituary. The first line of my obituary will say I directed Nightmare on Elm Street 2, but I thought I did a really good job.”