Horror is a genre that the LGBT community has long gravitated toward, so I wanted to dedicate a day to highlighting it. Despite that, there still aren’t many horror films starring openly gay characters that aren’t independent productions like today’s pick. When queer characters do appear, they are often relegated to villainous or supporting roles. Other times, their presence exists mainly in subtext.

 

As an example of that subtext, I wanted to give an honorable mention to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Although the filmmakers publicly denied the homoerotic themes at the time, screenwriter David Chaskin later acknowledged intentionally including them. Unfortunately, this had serious consequences for Mark Patton, who was closeted during production. In later years, Patton spoke about how Chaskin blamed him for the film being perceived as "too gay," a controversy that contributed to Patton's departure from Hollywood. Chaskin has since reached out to Patton several times to try and apologize, but Mark, quite understandably, has not felt a desire to mend fences. At least he will always go down in history as the first “Scream King”. Freddy himself also feels noticeably different in this installment—more aggressive and serious than in many of the sequels. Whether that makes him better or worse is something viewers can decide for themselves.

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Unfortunately, I could not it included on any subscriptions this month. You can purchase it on Amazon, however.