'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
• ‘SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET’ TRAILER: A GAY HORROR CLASSIC’S SAD SECRET
• 'A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2' AT 35: ROBERT ENGLUND ADDRS HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT OF 'THE GAYT HORROR MOVIE EVER MA'
• ‘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 CARV UP THE GAY SEQUEL'S LEGACY
• SCREAM, QUEEN! TRAILER EXPLOR THE GAY SI OF NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2

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

In addn to takg a new narrative directn, Freddy’s Revenge is also chock-full of homoerotic subtext. If the homoeroticism isn’t subtextual, the movie be more tertg.

There was a Cracked article that named Freddy’s Revenge the most untentnally gay horror movie ever ma.

THE NIGHTMARE BEHD THE GAYT HORROR FILM EVER MA

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. 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.

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

”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.

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

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

SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET CARV UP THE GAY SEQUEL'S LEGACY

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. 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.

SCREAM, QUEEN! TRAILER EXPLOR THE GAY SI OF NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2

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

’” 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. “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 .