Gayscape #12: A Nightmare on Gay Street
Of the three big slasher franchises of the 80’s, A Nightmare On Elm St. was always my favorite. I loved the original Halloween, it’s truly a seminal film, but it’s really the only movie in that series that I would actually consider great. And not to offend anyone, but none of the Friday the 13th films are really any good. Cheesy fun? Hell yes, but even the original was nothing more than a gorier cash in on Halloween’s huge success. In fact, by 1984, only 6 years after the release of the original Halloween, not only had there had been two more sequels in that series, but also four more Friday the 13th’s, not to mention Terror Train, Prom Night, Happy Birthday To Me, My Bloody Valentine and about a dozen others no one but the most devout Fangoria reader remembers. And it was in this environment that Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare On Elm Street was released, shaking up the whole idea of what a slasher film could be.
The original Nightmare, despite its low budget and occasionally cheesy acting, is actually really ingenious. The idea of a killer who can stalk you when you are sleeping and at your most vulnerable is truly terrifying, and the idea of the sins of the parents being visited upon their children is equally intriguing. Teenage actress Heather Langenkamp might not have won any Oscars, but I for one always loved her portrayal as Nancy Thomson, one of the few female heroines in slasher films who not only does more than scream and run, but fights back and kicks Freddy Krueger’s ass (sort of). And then there’s that score, the instantly iconic and eerie piece of music that was just downright creepy and memorable. The original Nightmare was a surprise hit and more or less put New Line Cinema on the map; Freddy Krueger was an instant icon. So, naturally, New Line wanted a sequel right away. Wes Craven declined to come back for Nightmare 2, and I suppose that was the first indication this movie was not going to be a step up from the first. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge was conceived, written, produced and released all in less than a year from the original’s release, meaning there could not have been a hell of a lot of time to second guess some really bad choices. However ill conceived as it was, today this flick is remembered for a whole different reason: its overt homo erotic subtext.
The movie opens with a school bus coming down a suburban street. Sitting in the back, all alone and without friends, is our hero Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton); the new kid in town and our main character (It should be noted that Jesse is the ONLY main protagonist in the entire seven film run of the Elm Street series who is male). Within minutes, we find out that our bus driver is none other than Freddy Krueger, and he drives the bus into some Hellish desert landscape where he begins to slaughter the screaming kids…until Jesse wakes up, letting out the girliest scream ever given out by anyone with testicles. He then proceeds to get up, and the first shot of Jesse in the “real world” in this movie is his smooth, blonde, pretty boy body in his tighty whiteys, covered in sweat. This is Clue #1 that this is going to be the gayest horror movie of all time.
We then are introduced to Jesse’s boring stereotypical family, who just don’t understand why their son is acting so darn strange lately. He then goes to school with his new girlfriend (but not girlfriend, it should be noted) Lisa. Everyone at school keeps giving Jesse and Lisa shit, asking when are they gonna make it official and get it on. Of course, both get defensive and aggressive whenever this subject is brought up “He’s just my ride to school, ok??“, Lisa says when one of her friends starts to butt in. This was before the time you could just say “Lay off, I’m his Fag Hag”. Jesse didn’t really have any friends at school, yet, but quickly made one after he was pants’ed on the baseball field by local stud and asshole Ron Grady (Robert Russler). They get into a dirty, sweaty, wrestling match during P.E. After the dirty sweaty male bonding, and being forced to run laps and do push ups by their sadistic PE teacher, Grady and Jesse, of course, become best buds.
Jesse continues to have terrifying dreams of Freddy. Why exactly Freddy has chosen Jesse is unclear; aside from the fact that Jesse now lives in Nancy’s old house from the first movie. It’s unclear why Freddy would even haunt that house really, although I guess an argument could be made that he was killed there the second time in the original film. In any event, Freddy haunts Jesse’s dreams, but unlike Nancy, it’s not to kill him, but to enter him (as in possess, just in case you were wondering what I meant). In one scene Freddy caresses Jesse’s face with his steel claw…”Daddy can’t help you now. We got special work to do, you and me…” after which Jesse lets out yet another very girly sounding scream.
We then get some more gratuitous shots of Jesse sweaty and in his underwear, then of Jesse dancing alone in his room in a very queer way to “Touch Me All Night Long” by Cathy Dennis (yes, I’m serious) and then some more sweaty and nearly naked Jesse and Grady being harrased by the evil PE teacher in the locker rooms. There’s even a scene where the family parakeet goes insane and attacks everyone, then blows up for no reason. I’d love to know what the writers were smoking the day they thought that would, in any way, be scary.
And after the parakeet, things get really gay….
Jesse, after yet another nightmare, goes wandering out at night in the rain, where he stumbles into what seems to be a gay leather bar called “Dom’s” (I assume as in Sub and Dom). After some random shots of leather queens making out and some trannies, Jesse is approached by none other than his evil PE teacher…in full leather daddy get up, baby! Next thing we know, we’re back at school, where the S/M PE teacher is making Jesse run laps in the basketball court and then tells him to hit the showers.
After a gratuitous scene of young Jesse in the showers, we see the S/M coach in his office, when suddenly…all the balls come to life. Basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, all start flying off the shelves by themselves and begin attacking him. You read that right….the gay S/M teacher is assaulted by multiple BALLS. BALLS. But it gets better; the jump ropes come to life too, and proceed to tie him up in the showers and strip him naked. Then the wet towels come to life and begin to smack him on his bare ass. It’s then that Freddy finally appears, kills Evil S/M PE Teacher and, when we next cut to Freddy, we see it’s our hero Jesse — now possessed by Krueger and wearing the signature glove. He’s dripping wet and naked, horrified at what he’s done. Cue to yet another very girly scream.
Jesse’s friend Lisa decides to lighten the mood on Elm Street by throwing a pool party, but Jesse just isn’t in the mood, seeing as how he’s possessed by Freddy and killing older gay dudes and stuff. Lisa tries to get Jesse in the mood, and the two start making out in the cabana…but Jesse freaks out after another Freddy flash, and the hetero sex moment in interrupted and Jesse runs off. The very next shot we see him in is when he jumps into his friend Grady’s bed and wakes him up and demands to let Grady allow him to spend the night there and watch him. How much more blatant can you get? Take the following dialogue exchange however you want it;
Jesse: “Something is trying to get inside my body!”
Grady: “Yeah, and she’s female and she’s waiting for you inside the cabana…and you wanna sleep with me?“
Of course, Freddy takes complete control of Jesse in this homo-erotic set up and, after he kills Grady, he returns to the pool party where he proceeds to kill a bunch of kids there too. What is interesting to note is that at this party, made up equally of males and females, Freddy ONLY kills the boys. In fact, in this whole movie Freddy only kills guys, an anomaly not just for this series, but for all slasher films in general. Of course, hetero love prevails, and Lisa’s love for Jesse forces Freddy out of his body by the climax (of the movie). At the end of the movie we see Jesse and Lisa, now officially a couple, ride off into the sunset. Of course, Jesse can’t fight his repressed true nature for long, and Freddy reasserts himself over Jesse at the very end.
As a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, this second installment almost totally sucks — at least on paper. Almost all of the cool elements of the original are gone; Freddy being exclusive to the dream world and not the real world, the plot of the child killer seeking revenge on those who killed him, the great score and Nightmare theme, and, overall, the script really doesn’t make much sense. Still, Nightmare 2 made more than part 1, and with almost the exact same budget. I attribute this, of course, not to the quality of Part 2, but to the goodwill engendered by the previous film (modern examples of this include The Matrix Reloaded and Pirates of the Caribbean 2). When I was in Jr. High and High School, whenever we would have all night Nightmare on Elm Street Marathons (with a helping of Jolt Cola and No Doz of course) we would always skip Part 2, since it was “the lame one”. With Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, the series brought back Wes Craven and upped the budget, making what many consider one of the best horror sequels ever. But I have to admit, as an adult, Nightmare 2 is a hell of a lot of fun to watch for all its gay subtext. Also, I’d much rather watch this one than Dream Child or worse, Freddy’s Dead [Editor’s Note: Suck it, Eric, that was my first 3-D movie! Also: Powerglove!]. The director of Nightmare 2, Jack Sholder, claims he had no intention of making it any kind of allegory of repressed homosexuality, but that when he watches it now he totally sees it. (I’ve never read a quote from the screenwriters, though.) It’s interesting to note, however, that Mark Patton, who played Jesse, did in fact turn out to be gay in real life, but kept it a secret from the producers since he was afraid of getting fired. I can’t help but wonder if they knew and that’s really why he got the role in the end, considering how gay this flick turned out.
