Cult actor Robert Englund–known for playing the iconic role of murderer Freddy Kruger in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series–has just made a surprising request. Englund wants to see a gay remake of a film from the series.
The first sequel to the original Nightmare film, titled A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, debuted to negative reviews back in 1985, but has since earned a devoted following for a peculiar reason. The film has come to be known as the gayest horror movie of all time.
Freddy’s Revenge starred actor Mark Patton as Jessie, the object of Freddy’s aggression. Viewers often note the homoerotic subtext to the film’s story: Freddy tries to seduce Jessie, rather than kill him; one scene takes place in a leather bar; the high school coach flirts with his male students. Since the release of the film, Patton has also come out as gay himself, and revealed he’s HIV+. The odd gayness of the film–and the effect it had on Patton’s career–were recently detailed in the documentary Scream, Queen.
Related: ‘Scream Queen’ creators on why ‘Freddy’s Revenge’ is the most homoerotic horror film ever
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Now Englund thinks the series should embrace the gayness. In an interview with TooFab, he talks about recontextualizing the Nightmare series for a modern audience.
“Because our society now is more damaged because of the opioid crisis, because of incredible diversity, because of the openness now with gender and sexuality, those kids now have to be different than the kids from the original Nightmare and someone has to write a different batch of kids and Freddy needs to be a different kind of evil,” Englund observes. “His evil needs to be, he needs to toy with what they like in the culture.”
“If they redid Nightmare 2, for instance, and really deal with the subtext, Freddy toying with that boy’s sexuality” he continues. “But the fact that we’re much more comfortable with that now, I think it would be really fun to have Freddy play with one kid who’s gay. Maybe one boy is not. Play with them. Tempt them. Force him out of the closet or back into the closet and we can do that. Audiences would accept that now. Freddy would do that because he’s in your head. But it is going to take somebody very clever to do that.”
A Nightmare on Elm Street got the reboot treatment back in 2010 starring Rooney Mara and Jackie Earle Haley. The film received negative reviews, and the series has since gone dormant.
dhmonarch89
Freddy was a child molester before he ‘died’ do we REALLY want THAT made into a gay film???
Catholicslutbox
Molester? Where the f- did you read that?
MarkyMarkNipple
@Catholic it was said in one or more movies. I think he started as a child killer and it evolved more. It was definitely in the movie they had the 3D effects in.
JaceFace
@catholic have you watched the movies? It’s not just implied. It’s the whole reason the parents kill him.
Toofie
Yeah, people love Freddy’s personality they forget the character is a creepy child molester/killer. Even in the remake.
Cam
@Catholicslutbox
It was literally the reason the parents of the neighborhood killed Freddy.
MISTERJETT
yeah, nightmare 2 was so very gay!!!!!
cwaigy
@catholic. It was mentioned in the films that Freddy molested and killed the kids. Whether or not Freddy did is up for debut but several parents did say he did it and, as others have said, the towns parents cornered and killed him, burnt him in that factory.
The first couple of Nightmare films were pretty good as far as I’m concerned. I enjoyed them a lot and, of course, the first film was excellent and I thought the 2nd & 3rd were great as well. I thought the actor was good and did a good enough job with what he had. I had the hots for him back then and knew the gay subtext was there, especially the filming of showering and naked boys and the way the main character behaved and moved about and I loved it. At the time I didn’t quite get why I was gay and to be honest, I didn’t care as it was my life and if anyone didn’t like it, I’d set Freddy onto them! I was young and shy (yeah right)! I loved this movie and would love the original series of movies to be available on BlueRay 3D surround sound zone 4/B
IAmUp4It
And they need to bring back the lead actor Mark Patton!
spunkfunker
The tension between he and his “best bud” is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. I think in one scent they are actually talking about being inside of each other.
radiooutmike
Freddy was burned alive because he molested some children. John Saxon’s character (sheriff/cop?) tried to stop it but he could not.
I saw this movie when it was out. And it made me really uneasy when I saw it. I did not want to even put a name to my easiness though I knew perfectly well what IT was. I kept thinking why couldn’t they have put in a hotter girl as the ‘love’ interest? (At least then I could have deluded myself.)
The whole thing was Freddie took your worst nightmares and tried to kill you in it. So, personally, I don’t think there was a gay subtext. It was the whole text!
The best friend being hotter than his supposed love interest. The whole play between him and his best friend…just everything.
I’d prefer a remake not to have as Freddy “gay”. Especially, if he’s a child molester. We don’t need that conflation going on. But sure a queer hero, I’m all for irt.