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

Contents:

• ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER
• 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'
• THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA
• ROBERT ENGLUND SAYS WE'RE READY FOR A GAY 'NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2'
• “ELM STREET” DOCUMENTARY REVEALS FREDDY KEGER’S GAY SECRET 
• NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2: FREDDY’S…GAY?!
• ANNA GAY AND FREDDY KRUEGER WIN TITLES AT NAUTIQUE MASTERS

ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER

Robert Englund says he spected A Nightmare on Elm Street was sted to have a large gay fan followg when he saw several drag queens drsed as his star Heather Langenkamp's character, Nancy Thompson, at a stume party 1985. "Lookg back more than 30 years after the first film the anchise slashed s way to pop culture history, Englund has a theory why the first heroe of Elm Street and the actrs who played her fiercely ronated wh gay horror fans. "There's always been a great affectn the gay muny, and I share this om my pot of view as a heterosexual, for the survivor and the diva, " he says.

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

"That strong woman thg that gay men the '40s and '50s intified wh actrs like Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, there was a transference gog on the early '80s bee there was no Bette Davis then. I thk young teen boys and girls the late '70s and early '80s who were gay ma their transference wh characters like the survivor girl, which is a great gredient of the horror movie, startg wh Jamie Lee Curtis and g to full blossom wh Heather's character Nancy. "So that area where gay culture and Hollywood crossover, Heather hered some of those fans and I thk that's why Nancy beme that supplemental diva for the gay muny.

"While Nancy hooked a new generatn of gay horror fans the origal Elm Street adventure, was the film's first sequel that reeled them for more. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge took a bold turn by replacg the tradnal "fal girl" wh male protagonist Jse Walsh, played by gay actor Mark Patton.

The movie also ntaed gay subtext purposefully woven to the script by screenwrer David Chask, which was further highlighted by stylistic choic ma durg filmg. Most members of the sequel's productn team have nied they were aware of the gay unrton throughout Nightmare 2 over the years. Branch of London's Royal Amy of Dramatic Art attribut that portn of his tn to the many gay iends he ma durg the early days of his reer.

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

"In fact, my first time New York I was stayg wh a buddy who was one of the stars of Fortune Men's Ey and his roommate, Bobby, who happened to be gay, favored mk ats, and uld make the bt poor man's tequila sunrise wh lemona and orange juice. "The growg homophobia and panic AIDS brought wh angered Englund, and he rells the exact moment he realized the epimic had bee a full-blown crisis.

THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA

"Early on, the Nightmare on Elm Street films were seen as a sort of outsir art before they beme overhyped, and they were embraced by var cultur -- not jt gay culture, but piercg culture, goth culture, the blends of those cultur, heavy metal kids, and so on. Englund speculat the new film won't be another remake of the origal and hop stead for a bolr choice: a new film based on Nightmare 2 that embrac the 1985 sequel's gay subtext. He also referenced the first sequel to the classic horror film – A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge – which has a huge fan followg among queer dienc for s homoerotic subtext.

“But the fact that we’re much more fortable wh that now, I thk would be really fun to have Freddy play wh one kid who’s gay.

ROBERT ENGLUND SAYS WE'RE READY FOR A GAY 'NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2'

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. 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. ”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.

“ELM STREET” DOCUMENTARY REVEALS FREDDY KEGER’S GAY SECRET 

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. 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.

NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2: FREDDY’S…GAY?!

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. 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. ”By ntrast, Patton sists that Chask, stead of merely stayg quiet, repeatedly placed the blame for the queer terpretatn of the film on Patton’s “too gay” performance, rather than on the script.

ANNA GAY AND FREDDY KRUEGER WIN TITLES AT NAUTIQUE MASTERS

“I don’t rell any terview where I would have ed the words ‘too gay’ but if I implied somethg like that and/or said anythg to e Mark grief, I certaly apologize, ” he wrote.

Deliberately or otherwise, Patton’s associatn wh what me to be known as the “gayt horror film ever ma” — while he was beg told to keep his sexualy a secret — left lastg srs. It had always been a fe le to walk: While gog to gay bars wasn’t somethg you had to hi 1970s New York, “you didn’t go to an dn and talk to the stg director about beg gay, ” he Patton ma his 1982 Broadway but Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean — playg the same queer character he would play the film adaptatn later that year — The Advote requted an terview wh him. ’” It’s possible that some of the addns to the film that Patton terpreted as homoerotic — and that the movie’s large queer fanbase has e to accept as such — were not directly tend to be.

”“I mean, clearly [there’s] the gay S&M bar, and the ass-whippg and all of the other stuff, and some of the l that people have picked up on, like, ‘He’s si me, ’” Sholr said. “This is all kd of hdsight, but may be that the fact Mark was a closeted gay at that pot, or at least as far as the film bs went, that that was part of what was g through there, ” Sholr suggted of why Freddy’s Revenge read as queer.