A family moves into the Thompson house (that’s 1428 Elm Street) and effeminate son Jesse (Mark Patton and if you haven’t seen Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, I highly recommend giving it a watch) immediately begins to have nightmares of a crispy fiend with a razor-tipped glove (Robert Englund, thankfully back) after setting up in Nancy’s former bedroom. Instead of slashing the young man while he sleeps, it seems Freddy needs him as a vessel to carry on with his sinister shenanigans in our world. His girlfriend Lisa (cute as hell Kim Myers who would later turn up in another odd franchise sequel Hellraiser IV: Bloodline) is concerned for Jesse’s sanity as his fears that “Freddy is trying to get inside of me” don’t paint the picture of mental health. A limited supply of victims include Jesse’s hunky frenemy Grady (Robert Rusler), who Jesse runs to after being disgusted when Freddy pops up while he’s about to have sex with his girlfriend and an asshole gym teacher (the always welcome Marshall Bell) who is into S&M, hangs out at downtown gay clubs and gets bound bare-ass’d and whipped in the school showers… hmmmmmm? Eventually Freddy manifests (in a jaw-dropping and literal “out of body” experience) and causes some serious damage. Clu Gulager and Hope Lange are there as Jesse’s parents (blaming drugs and mental illness for their son’s “queer” behavior) and Englund gets a human cameo as a nightmare sequence bus driver. Nancy’s diary is literally pulled out of the closet to offer up some clues to our hero’s recent trauma right after Jesse is caught by his mother and girlfriend performing a thrust-heavy dance while cleaning his room… hmmmmm? It just comes off feeling like a gay panic film shoehorned in as an Elm Street sequel where the evil “monster” inside is finally stopped by heterosexual love courtesy of the protagonist’s girlfriend. That’s right fellas, the best way to repress those sinister urges is to get yourself a lady! It is refreshingly strange for a sequel to a box office success, especially something coming out of an 80’s slasher flick but on top of the icky vibe of homophobia (I could be reading too deep into things), it also comes off as being different because of being a bit underdeveloped thanks to a rush to make more profit off of a hot commodity.
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