So, things go swiftly off the deep end here. 1985's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE almost instantly takes the once frightening Krueger into comedy territory and subverts a lot of the carefully constructed "rules" of the first movie.
This time out, Mark Patton stars as the new kid in town whose family has just moved into the house Langenkamp's family lived in in the first film. Her diary's even still in her bedroom. Patton reads the diary and finds that his current nightmares are similar to hers. It isn't long before Freddy is apparently possessing Patton's body in one way or another to carry out murders for him.
Because of these possessions, a lot of the murders take place outside of the dream world, which runs counter to what Craven established in the first film and ruins some of the more creative elements of the premise. In this movie, probably moreso than any other in the series, Freddy is reduced to a clichéd slasher villain, almost indistinguishable from his contemporaries.
So, those are the negatives. On the plus side the movie does have a lot of energy and is never boring. Even if Freddy's acting a little out of character when he shows up at a pool party and starts stabbing everyone, it's still cool.
It's also important to note that the movie has gained a cult status for some perceived subversive homoerotic undertones, starting with the casting of Patton as our hero. I know it's not cool to say, but he reads as gay, even if he does have a crush on a chick (Kim Myers). He also has a budding friendship with a jock (Robert Rusler) who he runs to for help at the climax of the film, much the same way Langenkamp goes to Depp for help in the first movie. There's also a scene in an S&M club and a couple other elements that never really add up to make any kind of definitive statement, but do serve to make the movie more interesting than it would be otherwise.
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