My Review of Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street (2019)

 

Narrated by Cecil Edward Baldwin

Directed by Roman Chimienti And Tyler Jensen

Mark Patton: "I wasn't an out gay actor. I was a gay person and I was living in terror. My lover was dying. People were going through our trash and my agent was waiting to see if I could play straight."

As you may know, I've always had a soft spot for A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Yes, it's always been the odd one out in the franchise but over the years, it's also been reassessed over the years.

Over a decade ago, there was a four hour documentary called Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy that essentially covered the whole franchise. This documentary on the other hand lasered in on one particular movie and it's leading man, Mark Patton. It's a fascinating look at both but mostly, the latter.

Mark Patton's certainly a fascinating person to watch as the documentary looked into his childhood, his family and his early acting career. Prior to playing Jesse Walsh, Patton played the role of Joe Qualley in the 1982 Broadway production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. It was a role he'd reprise in a theatrical movie that had Cher, Sandy Dennis, Karen Black and Kathy Bates as co-stars.

His career also included having scenes with George Clooney in Hotel where he also punched the latter. Of course as the documentary went on, Patton talked about the pitfalls of his career and the advice he was given to be a character actor. Then there was his sexuality as well.

When Patton was filming his infamous role of Jesse Walsh, he wasn't out to the public. His career stalled after turning down a CBS series where he would've played gay but would've had to pretend to be straight publicly. A past relationship with another actor from a soap was addressed along with Patton's current relationship with Hector Morales Mondragon. The documentary also took a frank discussion on Patton's battle with HIV and AIDS.

Circling back to Freddy's Revenge, it's been a role that was a mixed bag for Patton. There's scenes where he confronted the director, David Chaskin over the more blatant homoerotic subtext in the movie (the S&M club, Jesse being a closeted metaphor, Coach Schneider getting whipped, etc). Those scenes were rather tense but there's levity with a festival screening of the movie and Patton himself recreating the dance.

- The documentary got nominated at the 2021 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary.

- Many of the cast members from Freddy's Revenge, including Robert Englund appear throughout this documentary.

- Standout music: Skeleton Head's Split Second.

- Chronology: The documentary premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 5th 2019 before it got a limited theatrical release on February 27, 2020.

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street was a fascinating look into the making into Freddy's Revenge but more so, a much better look into Mark Patton as a person. I'd highly recommend watching this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Horror Hunks - Final Guys, Bad Guys And So On

It's Halloween 🎃 and the end of the month. I've indulged in plenty of horror movies this month. For my final blog, I thought I'd do something a little different. Here's a rundown of some of my favourite guys in the genre. Enjoy.

Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) - Psycho (1960-1990)

He might be an unstable mama's boy but who can resist the unhinged motel owner? Or at the very least the gorgeous Anthony Perkins.

Dewey Riley (David Arquette) - Scream series (1996-2022)

Every franchise needs it's sensible and collected player and for five movies in the franchise, we had everyday hero Dewey Riley. Still not happy about his death.

Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman/John Shepherd/Thom Mathews) - Friday The 13th series (1984-1986)

Tommy Jarvis was the closest to a proper foil that Jason Voorhees had in this franchise and any future revival should absolutely cast a fourth actor in the role. Best character in that franchise outside of Jason and his mommy.

Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) - A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

The guy can scream louder than anyone should, even in in distress but Jesse Walsh is one of the iconic Final Boys. In a movie that's pretty explicitly gay coded throughout.

Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 

Dodgy attempts of an English accent to one side, there's something very delectable about Keanu Reeves in arguably the most thankless role in the bestest live action adaptation of this classic tale. He's a dreamboat here.

Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) - Halloween Ends (2022)

I don't care what other fans of the franchise say. Not only did I genuinely last year's conclusion to the Blumhouse trilogy but Corey Cunningham was one of the best new characters introduced to the franchise.

Andrew (Ben Aldridge) - Knock At The Cabin (2023)

The faithless human rights lawyer turned sort of action man and unwitting husband killer. The guy went through a fricking lot in one movie. Hot guy though.

Eddie (Dylan Fergus) - Hellbent (2004)

I know this might be a niche, given that's it's a movie only a small audience has heard but I had to include a character from it. The good boy desk cop who copped off with a hunky bad boy while surviving a hunky killer felt like the right choice.

Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) - Fright Night (1985)

It wouldn't be a Horror Hunks list without at least one vampire in the mix. My choice would be the bad boy next door neighbor who had too much fun in tormenting Charley Brewster and seducing his girlfriend. 

Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait) - The Covenant (2006)

Oftentimes I refer to this movie as the boy version of The Craft as it's largely the same plot/similar enough. Now I love Sebastian Stan's sexy bad boy in it but Steven Strait's equally sexy good boy is also a delight too. 

Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) - Gremlins series (1984-1990, 2023)

Yes, this might be more light-hearted family friendly horror compared to some of the others on here, but it still counts. I always liked Billy Peltzer as a character and found him rather sexy moreso in the underrated sequel to this franchise.

Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) - Rope (1948)

There's many a fascinating performance and character in this Alfred Hitchcock classic. None more than Farley Granger's eternally twitchy posh boy killer, Philip Morgan. Oh and he can tinkle the old ivories pretty well too.

John Constantine (Matt Ryan) - Constantine/Legends Of Tomorrow/DCAU (2014-2022)

Saving the best for last. There was no way I was going to do this type of blog and not include the best horror male. Of course I had to specifically reference Matt Ryan's sublime version of John Constantine. The man set the gold standard and is the ultimate horror hunk for me.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Agree/disagree, let me know, lol. Oh and Happy Halloween 🎃

My Review of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Written by David Chaskin
Directed by Jack Sholder

Freddy (to Jesse): "You've got the body, I've got the brain."

For a horror movie franchise that has often generated the most divisive of sequels, I'm surprised that this one has been slightly more divided than others. Forget Hellbent (actually don't, I liked it), this quickly released sequel is the original gay slasher movie and probably the Halloween 3 of the Freddy Krueger franchise.

Set five years after the original movie, A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge sees the Walsh family move into the Thompson's place with son, Jesse (Mark Patton) getting Nancy's old bedroom. Of course it's not the only thing he gets off Nancy too as everyone's favourite nightmare menace Freddy (Robert Englund) is also back and sets his sights onto making Jesse his protege, whether the young lad likes it or not.

At the time of this movie's release, the writer and director insist on the fact that any of the overt gay text from this movie was completely coincidental but it's obvious to anyone that it really isn't. Sure, Jesse has a likeable girlfriend of sorts with Lisa (Kim Myers) but most of the time in this movie he seems far more interested in spending time with his hunky jock friend, Ron Grady (Robert Rusler), even going as far as to evade having sex with his love interest to sleep over with his friend. In fact, it seems kind of obvious that Jesse had the hots for Grady at times during this movie.

Truth be told, the whole movie in itself feels like something of a metaphor for a closeted teenage boy coming to terms with his sexuality. You have Freddy trying to bring out his secret desire by using Jesse as a host to murder characters left, right and centre and a lot of the dialogue isn't particularly subtle about Jesse's own internal struggles with himself either. If this movie was being remade for today's audience, then the character would be openly gay from the off, wouldn't he?

Then there's also the fact that Jesse at some point in the movie ends up visiting a gay S&M bar where he spots his coach, Schneider (Marshall Bell). The coach in question is something of a bully boy and his death however sparks one of the most risque but memorable deaths as does the unfortunate demise of Grady as Jesse loses control and Freddy is able to take over the poor boy's body and cause some havoc before he's eventually defeated.

While Jesse is technically the protagonist and final boy of the movie, it's actually Lisa who saves the day and somewhat defeats Freddy. Her defeat of him isn't quite as great as Nancy's was in the first movie but it does the job. As for Jesse, he's sympathetic enough as a character but a little too whiny in some parts and his screaming are unintentionally comical in some places.

Freddy is pretty strong as a threat second time around but it did seem like this movie ditched some of the first one's original rules in order to have Freddy attack people in the real world instead of their dreams. Of course it would be later movies before the character would truly descend into a parody but here he's used well enough and still packs a punch as the main antagonist of the piece.

- Apparently Brad Pitt, Christian Slater and John Stamos all auditoned for the role of Jesse in this movie. Patton was probably still the better choice. He came out as gay after this movie was released.
- Jesse was considered to be the first male scream queen and he's the only male protagonist in the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. He's also never referenced in follow up movies.
- Freddy's body count is one of the highest as well. All the victims are male too,
- Standout music: Jesse dancing badly to All Night Long by Wish & Fonda Rae.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge is one hell of an interesting sequel. One of the most striking as it tries to do something a little different to the original but at the same time, it doesn't go quite off the rails as later ones will eventually do. Jesse isn't as compelling as Nancy was in the first movie but he's engaging enough and the homoerotic subtext is more literal text than the producers were willing to admit to at the time.

Rating: 7 out of 10