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

Contents:

• ROBERT ENGLUND COM OUT! … ABOUT THE GAY EMBRACE AND SUBTEXT OF HIS NIGHTMARE FILMS
• ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER
• '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'
• IS ROBERT ENGLUND GAY?
• ROBERT ENGLUND GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 85 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY

ROBERT ENGLUND COM OUT! … ABOUT THE GAY EMBRACE AND SUBTEXT OF HIS NIGHTMARE FILMS

To hear Laguna Beach rint Robert Englund tell , his Freddy Keger movi uld be removed om the horror shelv and placed the gay cema sectn stead. –straight and married … to a woman, Englund recently told The Advote's Jase Peepl that when he saw drag queens drsed as the heroe W Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street shortly after the 1985 release, he knew the flick had legs wh gays. “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, ” Englund explaed.

“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. The embrace by gays embolned Englund to tentnally amplify the gay subtext the script for A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, pecially the scen wh the Jse Walsh character played by gay actor Mark Patton.

Click here for the full article that also has Englund scribg “beg squired about” New York Cy “by this geo 6-foot-6 man a floor-length mk, ” watchg the AIDS epimic stroy his bs and a muny and how he longs for a newer, even gayer Nightmare. 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.

ROBERT ENGLUND AND THE GAY SI OF FREDDY KEGER

"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.

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

"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.

THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA

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.

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

"So I had many gay iends and I crashed on uch at their ho when I started out as a workg actor. "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. "I thk people tend to fet was a different atmosphere for gay people the '70s before AIDS.

"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.

IS ROBERT ENGLUND GAY?

"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. 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.

ROBERT ENGLUND GAY RUMORS?ONLE POLL SHOWS 85 PERCENT DON’T BELIEVE HE’S GAY

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. "I steal om every sgle movie ever ma, " he famoly told Empire magaze (via Bs Insir)  1994, the year his Osr-wng sophomore feature, Pulp Fictn, h ceplex.

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.