Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street Review (Film, 2020) #31DaysofHorror
content warning: homophobia, gore, hospital/surgical footage
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is a documentary about Mark Patton, the star of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. The sequel introduced one of the first survivor boys, which created a whole slew of issues. The film has a reputation for being the gayest horror film ever, and Patton’s reputation as an actor was a victim of homophobia and the fear of the AIDS crisis in the 80s. His breakout role stopped his career before it even started and there are people involved in the production to this day that claim no responsibility for the homophobic reaction to the film and its impact on Patton’s career.
The first thing to know about Freddy’s Revenge is that there is undoubtedly gay subtext in the film. Whether it was written in the screenplay by David Chaskin or encouraged through the direction of Jack Sholder, the film is queer coded as clearly as the Hayes Code era Gothic romances. The survivor boy character, Jesse, is a sensitive and kind teenager with close female friends who believes a monster has taken control of his body that is changing how he interacts with the world. Jesse has horrific nightmares where he wakes up in a cold sweat, unsure what to make of these strange new feelings taking over his mind. For goodness sake, there’s a scene where one of his tormentors is attacked with a towel while showering in the locker room. It goes on.
The film was hated upon release by critics and fans alike because of the queer content in the film. That’s the next thing to know. The 1980s were an incredibly harmful time to LGBTQ people, especially gay men. They were blamed and vilified for the AIDS epidemic. In the United States, the federal government refused to take any significant action as thousands of people across the country died of a horrific disease. We don’t even have accurate records of the death rate at a national level until it was finally acknowledged by the federal government in 1987. The disease was viewed as punishment for being gay and only something that happened to gay men. It literally took a horrific incident of a young boy being infected due to a tainted blood transfusion for the narrative around the AIDS crisis to change into an actual public health issue, but the public damage and damnation of queer people was done.
Mark Patton is a gay man. In Scream, Queen!, he goes into detail about his childhood. He knew he was different and did what out queer people were expected to do that time: leave and never come back. You fled to a metropolis like New York City for your own safety or stayed in the closet and prayed no one ever found out the truth. Even working in the entertainment industry and being gay did not mean you were out in the industry; it just meant you were connected to other LGBTQ people. While it seems like ancient history to members of Gen Z, this was only 40 or so years ago.
Patton goes through his history with the entertainment industry, starting with commercial work out of NYC before landing on Broadway. His role in Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean led to him recreating the role onscreen and making the move to LA to pursue film. Eventually he got his breakout opportunity in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.
Scream, Queen! is an excellent documentary. It’s incredibly well researched and presented, setting up so much context that, admittedly, I forget some people don’t understand. You had to not just live through part of this time period, but be connected to the community who were grieving the loss and suffering the hatred of the 80s in America. Decades later, the truth of what was happening is still not common knowledge for so many people
My experience as a child growing up in theatre right outside of NYC in the late 80s and 90s brought me face to face with artists who buried their friends and collaborators. This documentary brought back vivid memories of those people who taught me compassion and empathy in an era defined by hatred. They also taught me how I, a sensitive young artist finding my voice, had to act to make it in the industry. My success or failure in the arts could be tracked by whether or not I took that advice in the audition room through the mid-2000s. The presumption of an LGBTQ identity, true or not, could end your career before you even got a foot in the door.
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is an important documentary. Yes, it’s rooted in Mark Patton’s life and his experience connected to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, but it’s a sobering reminder of one of the darkest chapters in American history. The documentary can be incredibly upsetting because it goes there. It goes into pain and suffering.
There are things to celebrate here. One, we are at a point where this kind of documentary can be made exposing what happened at this time. It’s upsetting, but it’s important these firsthand accounts of an oppressive era be captured and shared. There are moments near the end of the documentary as more people are interviewed connected to production that make it clear how recent this history is. The people that perpetuated this culture of hatred in Hollywood are still working in Hollywood and still denying that their actions had any impact on the lives of LGBTQ people pushed out of the industry in the 80s.
Two, we are at a point that calling a queer horror film like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge “gay” is not necessarily intended as an insult. The second half of the documentary is about the reclamation of horror through media criticism, specifically queer horror. Horror artists and scholars share their approach to the genre. The distance of time is allowing these unconventional and unpopular films to be reevaluated and given new life outside of the context of a culture that actively suppressed this kind of art.
This is the work I’ve been doing for 16 years. There are writers like me who want you, the audience, to revisit works of art that were unfairly dismissed in their time because they weren’t the mainstream narrative. We want art to be judged on its merits, not on what society deems as the right kind of art to create. One of the most inspiring things in my career as a writer in recent years is seeing how the next generation of young writers and critics are having an easier time selling this work after my generation would literally be fired for daring to write positive things about canonically despised films like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. I mean, a publication would never admit that you were fired for pitching that kind of article, but eventually you would either be let go from the editorial staff or see your queries left unread because you wanted to take a serious look at undervalued art. There is still pushback, but those doors we fought to open at all are at least unlocked for more people now.
One thing you might notice on Sketching Details is my use of personal narrative in critical pieces. There’s a very good reason for this. There are times that my understanding of a piece of media is so clearly derived from my own life experiences that I want to provide you, the reader, with that context. My life is not typical. I’ve worn many hats and had success in many industries. I’ve experienced incredible highs and traumatic lows in 35 years of life. I know my perspective on media is shaped by these experiences; everyone’s is.
Documentaries like Scream, Queen! show the value of personal narrative as a jumping off point for larger cultural discussions. Of all the people interviewed who are connected to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, two admit to understanding the gay context of the story: Mark Patton and Robert Englund. Everyone else claims they didn’t know. Patton’s story allows for the discussion of the AIDS epidemic, homophobia, homophobia in Hollywood, tabloid culture, health, queer media, and so much more. This kind of documentary could not exist without its core subject and Scream, Queen! is one of the best to come out in years.
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is streaming on Shudder.
