When A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge arrived in cinemas in 1985, it didn’t take long for some people to point out there was something a little gay about it – and not just because the main character, Jesse, ends up in a gay S&M club, where he meets his gym teacher.
It’s now largely accepted that the main character was meant to be a young, gay man and that the homosexual subtext was deliberate, something screenwriter David Chaskin pretty much admitted in the 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. Chaskin also wrote a journal, which told the events of the film from Jesse’s point of view, and which also suggested he was sexually attracted to men, even if he hadn’t quite accepted that yet.
Now there’s a documentary in the works about the gay actor who played Jesse, Mark Patton, and his experiences making the movie, called Scream, Queen! – My Nightmare on Elm Street. To get it finished a Kickstarter has been launched, hoping to raise $49,000.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘This is not your typical Nightmare On Elm Street documentary. Whether you’re a horror fan or a gay advocate, Scream, Queen! has something to offer to everyone. We delve into a deeper subject of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 that has been at the forefront for years, yet no one has fully explored. This is a story not just about Mark Patton, the star of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2, but about Hollywood’s gay subculture in the 1980s. For months we have been following Mark Patton around getting intimate accounts of how the backlash of NOES2 has deeply affected his life. From its release in 1985, fans and critics have raised an eyebrow at the not-so-subtle hints of Jesse Walsh’s sexuality. Did this create the whirlwind of questions that set the film so far apart from all the others in its series? Village Voice publication was the first to officially comment on the film’s gay subtext, releasing a landslide of both good and bad commentary from fans and critics worldwide. In 1985 being gay in Hollywood could cost you your career. Now 30 years later, Scream, Queen! is asking why?’
As Patton points out in the trailer below, “I wake up in the middle of the first movie that I’m the lead actor in, and realize there’s a gay subtext in it. In 1985, Hollywood was very homophobic and very AIDS-phobic. If you were gay, you were hiding.”
It certainly sounds like a film that would be worth watching, so if you’d like to see it, head over to Kickstarter and pledge some cash.
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