Queer Fear I: “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2” (1985) and “Scream, Queen!” (2019)

Often referred to as “the gayest horror film of all time,” 1985’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” (Jack Sholder, 1985, US, 87 mins) was the sequel to Wes Craven’s surprise indie horror hit of the previous year. Although financially successful, “Freddy’s Revenge” was rejected by audiences and badly reviewed. Starring a pretty boy (Mark Patton) in the Scream Queen role, the film has been repeatedly subjected to analysis in relation to its homoerotic subtext (or simply text), which, as described by Horror Homeroom, includes, by way of example, “a scene that I still cannot believe made its way into a mainstream horror film in the 1980s, in which Jesse goes to a leather bar and sees his sadistic gym teacher kink-slapped to death in the boys’ showers. This actually happened. In 1985. Just let that soak in.”

The film’s “gayness” became a hot potato: the director claimed cluelessness, the writer complained that the “casting” made the subtext text, and the young closeted gay actor, after the predictable homophobia the film engendered, was told by his agents that he “can’t play straight,” and subsequently disappeared from the industry, and the country, for decades. The 2019 documentary “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street” (Roman Chimienti & Tyler Jensen, 2019, US, 99 mins) documents Mark Patton’s recollections and reemergence as a gay horror icon at horror fests and revival screenings, and the film as an important early queer text in horror cinema. Whether the film is any good or not is a different question, but it functions as an ideal paradigm for exploring the relays between text, subtext, and paratexts (eg., the documentary).

Hosted by Noel & Matthew

"Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" is available to stream on HBOMax and to rent on a wide range of platforms.
"Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street" is available to stream on Shudder and to rent on a YouTube and AppleTV.