Robert Englund Says We're Ready For A Gay 'Nightmare On Elm Street 2' | LAist

Contents:

• FREDDY KEGER GAY PORN VIOS
• THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA
• '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
• ‘A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2’ IS THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA
• FREDDY KEGER GAY GAY PORN VIOS
• GAY FREDDY KEGER ACTOR WANTS A QUEER NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET REMAKE
• ROBERT ENGLUND SAYS WE'RE READY FOR A GAY 'NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2'
• “ELM STREET” DOCUMENTARY REVEALS FREDDY KEGER’S GAY SECRET 
• FREDDY KRGER GAY PORN VIOS
• STRAIGHT LANDSPER GAY PORN VIOS
• RULTS FOR : GAY EDDY KEGER
• RULTS FOR : EDDY KEGER GAY

FREDDY KEGER GAY PORN VIOS

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.

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.

THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA

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.

”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. “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.

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

Growg up Kansas Cy the 1960s, he stood out and soon realized he was gay. ”“She gave me two pi of After Dark, which was a gay theater magaze om New York, ” he relled. 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.

"Beg gay was a fe negative, and was a fe al breaker. “At the time, beg gay was a fe negative, and was a fe al breaker.

And more and more gay. The gayer Freddy’s Revenge got, the more anxiety he felt.

ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER

Chask nied that any of the chang ma durg productn had anythg to do wh s gay ntent. But Chask went on to note that terms of the gay them, “very few people on the productn ‘got .

‘A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2’ IS THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA

’” 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.

FREDDY KEGER GAY GAY PORN VIOS

“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. “It never even occurred to me that he was gay — although he wasn’t too great the makeout scen, so I should have picked up on .

When asked directly if he believ stg Patton ntributed to the gay subtext of the movie, Chask wrote, “Of urse.

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

But not bee he’s gay!

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

Now that the ti has turned toward wispread acceptance of gay reprentatn, Chask is upont about the queer unrton he liberately wrote to his script.

As far as his motivatn for “queerg” A Nightmare on Elm Street, he said he was rpondg to the social and polil climate for gay people the 1980s.

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

Whout directly brgg up the issu of homophobia and the AIDS epimic, he wanted to explore and rpond to the gay panic that was grippg the natn. “Homophobia was skyrocketg and I began to thk about our re dience — adolcent boys — and how all of this stuff might be tricklg down to their psych at an age when ragg hormon often produce dreams and urg that make them (if only unnscly) beg to qutn their own sexualy, ” Chask wrote.

FREDDY KRGER GAY PORN VIOS

In a follow-up email to BuzzFeed News, Patton said, “David apologized to me the most general way about offendg me the prs and on film, but nnot rell ever havg said I was too gay. “When he was backed to a rner about beg a gay movie, he [claimed he] wanted to liberate his gay iends, ” Patton said. It wasn’t that he wasn’t beg offered parts, he said, but that he was emotnally draed by what happened wh A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and fed up wh the homophobic culture of 1980s Hollywood.

”The real turng pot me 1987 when he was offered the role of a gay character on a TV pilot. “I was stg at a table wh 14 gay men who were tellg me thgs like, ‘Will your girliend feel OK about this? When people ask you, “Are you gay?

It was through nventns and the horror muny at large that Patton realized the posive effect Freddy’s Revenge had on so many fans, particularly queer people who so rarely see themselv reprented sce Patton had purposely extrited himself om Hollywood — and distanced himself om any discsn of Freddy’s Revenge — he was surprised to learn that the movie had transned om disappotg failure the ey of Nightmare fans to a cult gay classic. And he was even more surprised to fd out that he’d bee an unr-the-radar gay in — after all, his other major role was as a queer teenager a movie -starrg Cher.

STRAIGHT LANDSPER GAY PORN VIOS

Patton scribed fan teractns wh gay men who tell him, “You were the first person I ever saw onscreen that I felt would love me back.

I wnsed real homophobia. When asked specifilly, per Patton’s claim, that he had exploed the homophobic atmosphere at the time for the film, Chask wrote, “When you put that way, sounds almost diabolil. 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.

RULTS FOR : GAY EDDY KEGER

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.

RULTS FOR : EDDY KEGER GAY

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. "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.