'A Nightmare on Elm Street 2': Robert Englund talks sequel's gay subtext

Contents:

• FEATURED STORI
• WAS FREDDIE MERCURY GAY?
• FREDDIE MERCURY 'ME OUT AS GAY LYRICS TO H QUEEN SONG BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'
• 'A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2' AT 35: ROBERT ENGLUND ADDRS HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT OF 'THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA'
• THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA
• GAY FREDDY KEGER ACTOR WANTS A QUEER NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET REMAKE
• 'A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2' AT 35: ROBERT ENGLUND ADDRS HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT OF 'THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA'
• ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER

FEATURED STORI

At one pot he claimed to be bisexual, but he may have been a gay man who got volved wh members of the oppose sex bee he was tryg to survive — and build a reer — a very homophobic world. Mercury hid his sexualy om his fayFor most of Mercury's life, the wir world didn't accept gays and bisexuals.

LGBT people were barely reprented the media, and the msage society had to offer was that not beg heterosexual was homophobia rampant, many gay men felt prsured to hi their sexualy, cludg om their fai. Mercury's Parsee parents practiced Zoroastrianism, a relign that saw beg gay as a type of mon worship.

The two lived together for several years and even got engaged before Mercury told At he was bisexual (her rponse was that she thought he was gay).

WAS FREDDIE MERCURY GAY?

" Ci like New York and Munich had gay scen where Mercury, who'd lled his sex drive "enormo" and who'd sung about beg "a sex mache ready to reload, " found one-night stands and UP FOR THE NEWSLETTERBeg a rock star allowed Mercury to ph genr boundariMercury was the one who suggted namg the band Queen, which at the time was a rogatory term for a gay man. Among his sartorial choic were leotards, angel-wg cloaks, tight shorts, and leather or PVC attire that evoked a biker image then popular gay a star allowed Mercury to ph some boundari, but he still lived at a time when honty about his attractn to men uld have limed his reer, and the reers of his bandmat.

Mercury didn't label his sexualy even after his AIDS diagnosisThe exact circumstanc of how Mercury was fected wh HIV are unknown, but the vis was spreadg through New York Cy's gay muny the late 1970s and early '80s. )As the 1980s progrsed, was obv many gay men were gettg sick and there was talk about a "gay ncer"; Mercury himself knew people wh the disease.

Even after velopg AIDS, he nied reports about his illns and beg gay. He was more upont wh his bandmat, but never told his fay why he was reason for Mercury's silence was worry about how his public image and legacy would change wh this revelatn, which at the time would have been enough to nfirm him as gay.

FREDDIE MERCURY 'ME OUT AS GAY LYRICS TO H QUEEN SONG BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'

It is possible that his relatnships wh women were a way of protectg his public image at a time when homosexualy was socially unacceptable or outright crimal. When Mercury was born and for most of his life, homosexualy was treated as a mental illns, a s, or a crime. This extend to the legal stat of homosexuals; before 1967, gay men uld be sentenced to as long as two years prison.

In the fah, homosexualy was nsired a form of mon worship.

'A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2' AT 35: ROBERT ENGLUND ADDRS HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT OF 'THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA'

He suggted the name “Queen” for the band, a rogatory term for gay men, and equently wore outfs on stage that were evotive of gay fashn at the time. At had spected that Mercury was gay rather than bisexual. Mercury embraced the gay scen of ci such as New York and Munich while on tour, engagg numero one night stands.

THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA

Throughout the 1980s, many gay men began fallg severely ill and mors spread of a “gay ncer” the muny. Freddie Mercury revealed his sexualy the lyrics to h Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody, has been legendary songwrer nfsed he was gay through the band's 1975 sgle, which went on to bee one of the most popular songs of all time, acrdg to his bgrapher Lley-Ann Jon. "Mercury's sexualy has long been the subject of bate, as some mentators claim that he hid om the public, while others suggt he openly admted havg gay died at his home Kensgton on November 24, 1991, om bronchial pnmonia ed by the HIV/AIDs vis, which he was reportedly first diagnosed wh topped the UK sgl chart for ne weeks wh Bohemian Rhapsody 1975.

GAY FREDDY KEGER ACTOR WANTS A QUEER NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET REMAKE

What should you do when your biggt petn is also your roommate who you have a huge gay csh on? I am mostly here to follow, subscribe, bookmark, etc., I ma a shpost a while ago and This was spired about the all faiar meme of that time when the people workg on the show wanted to make sure there was no ias of the gang datg, so they ma Daphne and Velma live together and Shaggy and Fred live together, but that jt end up makg look kda gay. As far as famoly homoerotic sequenc seemgly “straight” ’80s movi go, nothg will ever top the sweaty and shirtls fighter pilots bouncg around the sand to Kenny Loggs’s “Playg Wh the Boys” Top Gun’s unfettable beach volleyball as Robert Englund — the man who donned Freddy Keger’s murro razor-claw glove to torment teens for eight stallments of Nightmare on Elm Street — remds , the anchise’s first sequel, Freddy’s Revenge (1985), belongs the same nversatn.

Jsie also dreams he’s at a gay bar one scene, and watch his male teacher get murred while stripped down the shower.

”It’s no wonr why Freddy’s Revenge has been lled “the gayt horror movie ever ma. Freddy and Jse were timate — they seemed to share a secret — and the subtext of that relatnship gave Freddy’s Revenge a homoerotic unrcurrent that eventually ma a cult classic.

'A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2' AT 35: ROBERT ENGLUND ADDRS HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT OF 'THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA'

”However much Englund held back, the damage was done: That scene helps tablish the lible imprsn of Freddy’s Revenge as the gayt slasher film ever ma. Screenwrer David Chask spent years refg to acknowledge any tentnal subtext his script — a posn he has sce reversed — and director Jack Sholr claimed not to have noticed the movie’s gayns durg filmg. Watchg Freddy’s Revenge now, ’s hard to prehend that there was ever a bate over the film’s subtext, which be jt pla text the more blatantly homoerotic scen.

His sexual ambiguy ma him the perfect choice for Jse, but gave the homophobic tractors of Freddy’s Revenge somethg to latch on to. And even though Patton has embraced his “scream queen” stat — he had jt e om signg tographs and panel appearanc at San Diego Comic-Con this July afternoon — he remas driven by a need to set the rerd straight about the film that has hnted him for the past 30 Patton, whose only major film role before he played Jse was as a gay teenager later revealed to be a trans woman (played by Karen Black) Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, the persistent cricism of Freddy’s Revenge was s own kd of nightmare: His sexual inty was exriated for g the film — and wh , his reer. As the actor tells , he beme pigeonholed as gay long before beg an out leadg man was a possibily.

ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER

At the same time, even as the AIDS crisis cimated the gay muny, Patton was forced to stay the closet, rtricted by a bs he eventually chose to leave the stigmatizatn of queer reprentatn over the last 30 years, perceptn of Freddy’s Revenge has shifted: The heavily d queerns that was once a mark agast has bee a charmgly dated relic of another time, and a sellg pot for cult nnoissrs. Inial reviews, though largely negative, did not pot out the film’s homoerotic slant, although Variety lled Patton’s Jse “strange enough to nstute an outsir prence, ” a scriptor that certaly signifi is some bate over where the first direct mentn of the film’s gay subtext appeared.

Patton and Sholr ce the Village Voice, while Chask believ was actually the gay publitn The Advote. The article qutn lled Freddy’s Revenge, by Sholr’s rellectn, “the gayt horror film ever ma. While there’s no doubtg the opprsive homophobia of 1980s Hollywood, the specific circumstanc surroundg the film are often a matter of "he said, he said.