Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1985 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
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We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1985 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1985 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s Nov. 1, 1985, and we’re off to see Death Wish 3, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, and To Live and Die in L.A..
Death Wish 3
Ever wanted to see a whole neighborhood turn into blood-thirsty vigilantes? Boy have I got a movie for you!
Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is off to visit a friend, only to arrive just in time to find him murdered by a street gang. It turns out this gang, along with many other criminals, have turned a once nice neighborhood into a war zone. Too bad for all of them Kersey, the well-known vigilante, has arrived in town.
The way vigilantism is treated in this film borders on fetishism. The final act of the film sees Kersey haphazardly leading the entire neighborhood in a war with the criminal element and every day citizens are now killing without hesitation. The film teeters between an uncomfortable level of acceptance of violence into nearly complete farce at times.
It’s not the crimes that will make you unease in this film, it’s the way they are dealt with.
A very easy skip for anyone with even a bit of taste.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
I’m not sure any sequel has ever fallen off from the original quite the way this one did.
A new family has moved into Nancy’s house on Elm Street, and with that comes the chance for Freddy (Robert Englund) to try to make a return, but this time by possessing someone and trying to come into the real world.
Lets not make any bones about this, everything that worked in the first movie is stripped away here. Freddy being restricted to the realm of dreams made him way more frightening as opposed to just popping up physically at a pool party and engaging in wholesale slaughter.
The possession angle never really works because you aren’t sure what Freddy’s true end game is. Is it he just wants to be back in the real world? You’re never quite sure.
And then there is the lack of a connection to the victims. In the first film Freddy wanted revenge on the families of those that had killed him. Here he just seems to kill for no discernable reason. Take the murder of Coach Schneider (Marshall Bell) for instance. Did Freddy want to kill him, or was it really Jesse (Mark Patton) in control at that moment? Why would Freddy care to kill someone Jesse disliked? So who was in control of the body and glove in that moment?
And the less said about the parakeet, the better.
A very lackluster sequel to one of the defining films of the horror genre.
To Live and Die in L.A.
Despite having heard this movie’s name and title song for years, I somehow had absolutely no clue what it was about. I had no idea I would be thrown into the exciting world of counterfeiting money.
Secret Service agents Richard Chance (William Petersen) and John Vukovich (John Pankow) are trying to take down notorious counterfeiter Eric “Rick” Masters (Willem Dafoe). Masters killed Chance’s former partner, and now the agent is willing to go to any length to bring the criminal down. Vukovich tries to keep to the rule book, but even he finds that some times you have to bend the rules.
I was really torn over this film. It’s beautifully directed William Friedkin as one would expect, but I just felt no connection to this story. It was a simple revenge story that finds itself spending far too much time trying to even remind you that the Secret Service does things other than protect the president.
While Chance is someone who surrounds himself with dangerous people, he himself never truly feels dangerous. He’s smart, he does kill, but I never once bought him as truly the most dangerous person in the room.
And then there is Vukovich’s very sudden turn toward the end that feels incredibly forced.
Despite all of this, I still enjoyed the movie, but I had several issues with the most basic setups of the story that made it difficult to call it a home run.
1985 Movie Reviews will return on Nov. 8, 2025, with Target, That Was Then… This Is Now, and Transylvania 6-5000.
