Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!! In honor of Pride Month, I wanted to dedicate this post to one my favorite gay horror films, A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge! This film took a classic horror story and created a symbol of internalized homophobia, overcoming hate and fear, and finding love and acceptance within oneself. So, beware of possessed birds, make sure your room isn’t boiling, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• New Line Cinema initially refused to give Robert Englund a pay raise to return to play Freddy Krueger. An unknown stuntman was brought in to replace him. After two weeks of filming, the head of New Line, Robert Shaye realized that this was a terrible laps in judgment. He fired the stuntman and met Englund’s demands. One of the stuntman’s scenes was never re-shot with Englund, so you can see “Stuntman Freddy” in the shower scene when Coach Schneider (Marshall Bell) was killed.
• In the beginning of the film, the bus driver was played by Robert Englund without Freddy makeup. This is one of the rare moments in the franchise where he appears without makeup.
• Supposedly, Kim Myers won the role of Lisa Webber due to her resemblance to Meryl Streep.

• Makeup effects artist, Kevin Yagher replaced David B. Miller, who did Freddy’s makeup in the original film. Yagher had only a few photos and the original film to work with, so he ended up redesigning Freddy’s look. He studied pictures of actual burn victims and he used that to change Freddy’s look, mostly by accentuating his facial bones. He intended to make Freddy look more witch-like, and he gave him red and amber eyes to make him look more demonic.
• Robert Englund stated that he was fully aware of the homoerotic elements in the film, and he was enthusiastic about playing up these undertones in the on-screen interactions between Freddy and Jesse (Mark Patton). Mark Patton admitted that he had to say no to a few suggestive scenes, including Freddy putting his blades in Jesse’s mouth, which made him feel uncomfortable.
• Michael J. Fox was considered for the role of Jesse, but he was already committed to Back To The Future and Teen Wolf. John Stamos and Christian Slater also auditioned for the role. It was rumored that Brad Pitt auditioned for the part, but the film’s casting director, Annette Benson confirmed that she didn’t meet Pitt until 1987, when he auditioned for Apt Pupil.

• In his memoir, Robert Englund stated that he was happy with his decision to return for this sequel. He later admitted that this was his least favorite movie in the franchise.
• Robert Shaye and the film’s director, Jack Sholder clashed regularly on set after Shaye micromanaged production and offered orders that should’ve come from Sholder. Plus, production was so rushed, that there wasn’t really time to question the direction of the film. Robert Englund recalled some moments were he had difficulty playing the part. For instance, when it came to the pool scene where Freddy attacked the kids when they were wide awake, he felt it was going against the rules established in the first film.
• Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy, the heroine in the first film, admitted that she was never actually approached to be in this film. The film’s line producer couldn’t recall if there was any internal discussion at New Line Cinema about bringing her back. It’s speculated that because Jack Sholder and the film’s writer, David Chaskin had a whole different concept when it came to Freddy’s motive, that bringing Nancy back didn’t make a lot of sense to them.

• Due to the film’s homoerotic subtext, the fact that Jesse screamed “like a girl” throughout the film, and because the character is viewed as a closeted gay man, Mark Patton considers himself to be the first male Scream Queen.
• Jack Sholder had a lot of difficulty shooting the pool house love scene. He couldn’t contain himself from cracking up or laughing, so he had an assistant shoot the scene for him.
• This is the only film in the franchise that didn’t include Charles Bernstein’s original theme or some variation of it.

• Robert Rusler auditioned for the role of Ron Grady on his last day of shooting Weird Science. Robert Downey Jr. drove him to the audition.
• The famous line, “You’ve got the body, I’ve got the brains” was created by Robert Shaye.
• The dance scene was put in the film as an homage to Risky Business. Mark Patton was reluctant to film the scene, sensing impending embarrassment. Shooting the scene had to be postponed more than once due to Patton’s reluctance. Patton initially stated that he improvised the dance moves himself, telling the filmmakers to just roll the camera while he gave it his best shot. He later changed his statement, saying the specific dance moves were actually in the script, including him bumping his dresser drawer with his butt and getting on the bed and pretending to masturbate.

• The school used for this film was also used in The Karate Kid.
• Special effects artist, Rick Lazzarini created a demonic parakeet puppet for the exploding bird scene. The filmmakers wanted a regular looking bird for the scene, so the puppet was never used.
• Mark Patton was the one who insisted to Annette Benson that he wanted Kim Myers to play Lisa.

• One of the inspirations for Freddy’s look in this film was the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard Of Oz. Freddy would later dress like the Wicked Witch in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.
• Wes Craven, the director of the original film shared his distaste for this film. He felt the script was substandard and it took too many liberties with the character of Freddy. He also felt it broke too many rules that the first film established. He especially hated the pool scene. He felt he couldn’t take Freddy killing teenagers taller than him seriously.
• The original film’s production designer, Gregg Fonseca returned to work on this sequel. He designed all the sets seen in the film, but he quit before shooting started. He said that production was too rushed and his department was severely under-funded. Art director, Maggie Martin stepped in for Fonseca during the actual shoot.

• The boiler room used for the climax of the film was the same steelworks that was used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Jesse’s car is the same car driven by Lar Park-Lincoln in her episode of Freddy’s Nightmares, It’s A Miserable Life.
• After several failed attempts to start her acting career, Sydney Walsh was set to leave Los Angeles. This changed after she landed the role of Kerry.

• Robert Shaye wanted to play Mr. Grady (Lyman Ward) himself, but Jack Sholder convinced him not to.
• This is the only film in the franchise where Freddy kills his victims outside of their dreams.
• Wes Craven refused to work on this film because he never wanted or intended his film to have a sequel. He even wanted the first film to have a happy ending. He also didn’t like the idea of Freddy manipulating Jesse into committing the murders.

• Robert Rusler stated that when he watched the movie in the theaters with his father, it got to the part where Ron was banging on the door, calling for his dad, and Rusler looked over at his father during that moment and saw that he was crying.
• As Freddy started to emerge from Jesse, we see a shot of Freddy’s eye staring out of Jesse’s open mouth. The special effects artists accomplished this shot by making a dummy of Mark Patton’s head with a hole for Freddy’s eye to look through. Kevin Yagher’s girlfriend was the only person whose head could fit, so she was placed in the scene. That makes her the only woman to ever portray Freddy (not including the times he pretended to be other people in the dream world, of course).
• Despite the film’s subtitle, it’s never revealed who specifically Freddy was trying to get revenge against in this film, considering Jesse’s family just moved to Springwood and had nothing to do with his murder.

• The scene with the possessed bird was a nod to The Birds. Clu Gulager’s (Mr. Walsh) eye was actually injured during filming of the scene. Producers later stated their regret leaving the scene in the film, as they felt it was too goofy.
• In the original script, the film was going to end by Lisa getting possessed by Freddy and attacking Jesse. This was changed and their fates were ultimately left unknown.
• Robert Shaye has a small cameo in the film as the bartender at the S&M club Jesse went to.