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

Contents:

• HOW A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 BEME AN INIC GAY HORROR FILM (AFTER YEARS OF BEG HATED)
• 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'
• WHO KNEW NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 WAS THE GAYT FILM OF THE 80S?
• WAS THE SEND NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET ABOUT GAY RIGHTS?
• ‘SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ TRAILER: THE DARK TTH BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA
• ‘SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ TRAILER: A GAY HORROR CLASSIC’S SAD SECRET

HOW A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 BEME AN INIC GAY HORROR FILM (AFTER YEARS OF BEG HATED)

And then there was the Never Sleep Aga documentary which wrer David Chask fally admted— a somewhat awkward way, when put on the spot—that the homoerotic unr/overton had been tentnal after took A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 thirty-one years to e out of the closet, but fally has and serv your support.

" Director Jack Sholr and wrer David Chask both nied the film's subtext, and Mark Patton (who was the closet at the time), worried that the suatns of the film beg overtly gay would lead to him beg typest, as he wasn't the typil Hollywood leadg male. Some of the clu a scene where Jse enunters his ach at a gay bar, a scene where said ach is whipped to ath by towels while naked the showers, a scene wh Jse and his bt iend Grady (Rler) where Jse approach him bed, and a scene where Jse attempts to make out wh his girliend at a party before fleeg panic. Beyond that, the film's release 1985 was at the height of the AIDS epimic the Uned Stat, which ed a lot of stigma surroundg gay men and subsequent gay panic was on the rise.

Chask has sce said the subtext was always tentnal and he had wrten the script to ment on the AIDS crisis, gay panic, and the angst young men experience if they stggled wh their sexualy. 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.

THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM 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. 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. 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.

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

”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. 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.

WHO KNEW NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 WAS THE GAYT FILM OF THE 80S?

“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.

WAS THE SEND NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET ABOUT GAY RIGHTS?

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. 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. 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. 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.

‘SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ TRAILER: THE DARK TTH BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA

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. 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.

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. EXCLUSIVE: A documentary about the problematic legacy of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge told through the perspective of s then-closeted gay star Mark Patton has been acquired by Virgil Films & Entertament. My Nightmare on Elm Street reunts Patton’s difficulti makg the 1985 horror sequel, which put him through a range of salac on-screen orals signed to whet the homophobic appet (nsc or otherwise) of 1980s dienc.

‘SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ TRAILER: A GAY HORROR CLASSIC’S SAD SECRET

Patton’s actg résumé clus Broadway rol and the 1982 Robert Altman film, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, another part that he says led to him beg typest before he had e out as 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.