A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge — Script

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge Movie Poster

Horror villain Freddy Krueger comes out of nightmares and into the real world in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. New Line Home Video included this script on the DVD release in 2000. It is available here in PDF format.

When Wes Craven opted not to participate in the first sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Line Cinema approached then-employee David Chaskin to write the story. “I sat down and thought about what scares me, what makes me feel creepy and tried to wrap that around the already frightening Freddy Krueger,” Chaskin said. Chaskin drafted a 15-page treatment in three days and, after it was approved, spent the next two months refining his script. (Fangoria)

“I just thought it would be fun for Freddy to have a human avatar that’s actually doing stuff in the real world,” explained Chaskin of the film’s premise. “That was where I took off from: possession. Jesse was this nerdy outcast and Freddy is taking over, about to take him on this ride. The whole movie is the ride Freddy takes him [on].”

Chaskin also sought to explore Freddy’s character more and give him a personality. “[In] the first [film], you didn’t see anything of Freddy—you saw him in the shadows, he barely said a word,” claimed Chaskin. “We tried to make Freddy a little more talkative. At the time, horror movie villains—Jason, Michael Myers—didn’t talk. Freddy talked; he had a black sense of humor.” (Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
Script by David Chaskin

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge Script

Excerpts

We hear an awful sound from somewhere—WOOD RIPPING.

Jesse makes his way cautiously along the side of the house.

He notices a red-orange LIGHT is flickering from behind a cellar window. He gets down on his hands and knees to investigate.

THE CELLAR – HIS POV

An INTRUDER is bent over by the furnace, lit only by a raging fire in the fire-box. He puts his hand right into the flames and begins digging for something way in the back of the furnace. We can’t see his face but he is dressed in a filthy green and red striped sweater and a battered hat.

He pulls out a bundle of rags, sets it on top of the furnace and proceeds to unwrap it.

INT. WALSH HOUSE – BASEMENT – NIGHT

We hear FOOTSTEPS and we TRAVEL with the sound along the floor to the foot of the basement steps.

INTRUDER’S POV

as he climbs the steps and approaches the door to the main part of the house.

THE CAMERA is moving faster now, leaping the top steps and CRASHING through the doorway and onto the foyer floor.

It crosses the FOYER and begins climbing the stairs to the bedroom level. It stops at Angela’s room and opens the door.

ANGELA sleeps soundly, peacefully.

It crosses over to the bed, a menacing SHADOW creeps over her form. The taloned glove pulls down on the blankets and she shifts position in the center of the bed, innocent and vulnerable.

We see the SHADOW of the intruder on the wall…it moves in close to the sleeping child and emits a guttural, inhuman VOICE:

INTRUDER (O.C.)
Wake up, little girl…

ON LISA

She GASPS.

FREDDY is standing in front of her.

FREDDY
(laughing hideously)
He can’t fight me.
(raising his eyebrows)
I’m him.

Freddy approaches, flashing his razor-knives like a set of Tiffany rings.

Lisa looks about the room for some escape.

Freddy swings. Lisa counters by pulling an afghan from the back of one of the chairs and catching it in his blades.

She reaches behind her for something to hit him with and comes up with a heavy brass lamp from the top of the desk. She SMASHES him over the head with it.

The impact throws him back long enough for her to slip by him and run out of the study. She slams the door behind her.

Freddy recovers quickly from the blow and, angry now, takes after her.