Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, 2019
In 1985, Mark Patton was an actor whose career was really taking off following successes on Broadway and in both stage and film collaborations with Robert Altman. Landing in Hollywood, Patton was cast in the lead role of
Freddy's Revenge: Nightmare on Elm Street 2. A horrible, perfect storm landed on Patton, a closeted gay man, as the film began to get negative attention for its less-than-subtle gay subtext, Hollywood began moving into an era of gay/AIDS panic, and Patton's romantic partner died of AIDS. Patton abandoned his Hollywood career, but was pulled back into the controversy when a documentary about the Elm Street series made him aware of a revival of attention to the movie, and also of the way that both the writer and director of the film denied any intention in the film's queer content.
It seems obvious to say it, but this film is really best if you have already seen
Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and are aware that the gay aspect of the movie is deeply ingrained in the whole film--this is not just a case of clever YouTube editors cherry-picking moments and stringing them together to give a false reading.
There are several compelling elements of this documentary, which genuinely moved me. The first is simply Patton's personal experience. Growing up gay in a small southern town, he takes the advice of his high school drama teacher to get out as fast as he can, and leaves for New York. As his star rises, he and his boyfriend, actor Timothy Patrick Murphy, live in a nice house near Madonna. It's all a dream until Murphy becomes seriously ill with complications from HIV. Patton, due to gay panic, is told by his agents that he must become a character actor because he can't "play straight" and that he must put on as stronger front of being straight in his personal life to avoid negative press attention. Patton leaves Hollywood, discovers that he also has HIV and tuberculosis, and after his recovery moves to Mexico, completely leaving fame behind. And when he does get pulled back into the Hollywood world by the documentary crew making
Never Sleep Again, he ventures online to discover hundreds of people calling him a "fagg*t". Patton's decision to engage with the world of the horror fandom clearly causes him conflict, but he is also unwilling to be stonewalled anymore when it comes to just how the film came to be made the way that it was.
The part of the film that made me the most angry was the way that Patton is treated by David Chaskin (the writer) and Jack Sholder (the director). As Patton points out, Chasin repeatedly asserted that there was only meant to be a little gay subtext in the film and that Patton's performance is what made it "gay". But when fans begin to celebrate the queer elements of the film, Chaskin is more than willing to take credit for that "transgressive" element. When Patton confronts Chaskin with interviews he did ("Oh boy!" Chaskin says, "This is where I get haunted!" Yes, imagine. Being haunted by THINGS YOU SAID), he claims that he was "joking" when he asserted that the film was so gay because of "casting". He gives what must be one of the worst non-apologies I have ever seen. He claims that he doesn't want to promote homophobia (what a stand up guy!), but so many of his statements come across as homophobic, especially when he repeatedly talks about Patton "screaming like a girl". Chaskin seems unwilling to admit that a lot of what is in the script comes from his own homophobia--after saying that he'd never met an "out gay"--and he seems entirely unwilling to engage with the emotional damage that Patton has suffered as a result of his words.
The director, Sholder, is even worse. He repeatedly claims that he didn't realize that the film had gay content. "We shot in a famous gay bar!" Robert Rusler, another of the film's stars, exclaims. Sholder then "remembers" that he scouted the bar when it was closed so there were no gay men in there at the time, and then further clarifies that actually in the script it wasn't mean to be a "gay bar" but rather a "transvestite bar", which is why they included "some weird looking women" in the scene. It is so painful. Rusler, clearly an ally of Patton's and an audience surrogate, just shakes his head in disbelief. When Patton asks, very reasonably, why no one ever said anything if he was playing the character as too feminine or too gay, Sholder has no answer for him. It's additionally damning that many of the cast, including Robert Englund, talk about how obvious it was. Englund even talks about asking Patton's permission to make one of their scenes more homoerotic in the way that Freddy caresses Jesse's face.
Maybe one of the most interesting things about the film is thinking about how it is perceived among gay horror fans. There is no doubt in my mind that the blatant gay/queer elements in the film came from Chaskin's own homophobia. And yet, a film in which the intent seems to have been to make homosexuality the monster seems to have been read by many gay fans as the horror actually being the fear of coming out and the fear of one's true identity. Many of the gay fans can identify with the idea that their sexuality, especially in the 80s, was something monstrous inside of them that they could not control and which could ruin their lives. Patton and the film take time to remind the viewer of the tremendous amount of violence and hatred that was directed at the gay community at the time. Despite the film's intentions not being in the right place, you can really see how a young gay person would identify with Jesse.
While I found
Nightmare on Elm Street 2 pretty underwhelming, the character of Jesse was actually my favorite thing about it. Starting with the inclusion of a "final boy" instead of a "final girl", but even more in the portrayal of a lead male character who is a bit feminine and sensitive. I totally agree with the commentator who remarks that an audience likes a final girl because of the transformation from victim to hero, and that audiences are less comfortable seeing a male character in a prolonged "victim" role. Jesse's fear feels very real, as does his sense of being out of control. It makes me sad to think that a performance that I admire was the source of years of pain for the actor who gave it.
I really admire Patton for telling his story. I like that he is both willing to speak up and confront others, and at the same time is quick to forgive. I think that the way that his co-stars talk about him speaks to the fact that he's not being over dramatic about things.
This documentary is a really amazing look at one man's life and experience in Hollywood, but it also raises some interesting discussions about horror movie culture and its complicated relationship with minority characters, especially because those characters are often filtered through the lens of straight/white/male writers and directors. Highly recommended, especially for horror fans.