Elm Street 2's Mark Patton shines in 'Scream, Queen' documentary

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Oct 23

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MARK PATTON IN *NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2*

Jesse says frantically “Something is trying to get inside my body!” Ron naturally replies, “Yeah, and she’s female and she’s waiting for you in the cabana - and you want to sleep with me.”

Jesse and Ron Grady from A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

I showed up to the Out on Film festival in my plaid short shorts with matching suspenders, black boots, fluorescent yellow button up (¾’s unbuttoned), faux leather daddy cap, and my silver Freddy Krueger earrings. All of this was important. I was pretty sure I was going to meet Mark Patton from A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 : Freddy’s Revenge, and I needed my look to give nods to the absolute queerness of it. The daddy cap is in reference to one of the films most notoriously gay scenes where the coach is picked up by Jesse (Patton) in a queer leather bar, then slayed in the high school showers, butt naked.

I was there to see Scream, Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street. Directed by Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen, it follows Mark Patton telling his experience of being the first final boy and scream “queen”. If you haven’t seen A Nightmare On Elm Street 2, here’s a few things you need to know. Mark was 21, not a 100 percent out of the closet, and thrown into a spotlight that would shine more on his personal life than his acting. He had mostly modeled and starred in commercials until Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean in 1982 with Cher, Karen Black, and Kathy Bates. It was 1985 when NOES2, came out and the AIDS epidemic was in full swing.

ROBERT ENGLUND AND MARK PATTON ON SET OF *NOES2*

David Chaskin, the writer, denied for years that he wrote the film to be so gay. Up until the 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again, Chaskin blamed all of the films queerness on Mark Patton’s Jesse. I mean….his scream is powerful, flawless, and one that rivals some of the best...but the movie’s gay cup runneth over with or without Mark Patton. It wasn’t until Never Sleep Again that he admitted to writing any “subtext” into the film. Then, in a 2010 interview, he was asked if he was aware of the films homoerotic undertones and if they were intended. He replied “Yes, there was certainly some intentional subtext but it was intended to play homophobic rather than homoerotic. I thought about the demographics for these types of films (young, heterosexual males) and tried to imagine what kinds of things would truly frighten them, to the core. And scary dreams that make them, even momentarily, question their own sexuality seemed like a slam dunk to me.”

WTF?? So… Chaskin, a writer that I assume is heterosexual, wrote a screenplay for a sequel to a successful film that further demonized being gay and effeminate during the AIDS crisis. Mark’s innocence, sensitivity, and vulnerable queerness were completely exploited so people could make money while attempting to simultaneously fuel the unnecessary fears of straight people. This ended Mark’s career and took him into hiding for years. And that is what takes us to the premise of Scream, Queen. The documentary follows Patton as he travels to horror conventions across the U.S. Each city a piece in the journey to gaining peace confronting Freddy’s Revenge cast and crew for the first time, including co-stars Robert Rusler, Kim Myers and Clu Gulager, as well as Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. This also includes Jack Sholder (director) and David Chaskin.

I realized shortly after Scream, Queen started that this was gonna go deeper than I initially expected in an hour and 39 minutes. The filmmakers, Chimienti and Jensen, did a beautiful job of capturing just how vulnerable Mark still seems even at 50. You can see it in his eyes that he needs this closure with the cast and crew of NOES2. He needs to heal. The way his eyebrows shake during some of the moments of confrontation literally tore my damn heart out. The filmmakers also dive into the AIDS crisis and how that was affecting Mark personally. In my opinion, It also seems that Freddy Krueger may have been written to be a metaphor for AIDS as well as being queer. Being that this is the only sequel where he literally comes out of the protagonist, he’s the “monster “ inside of Jesse killing those around him that he loves. Issues that definitely did not strike me watching this as a kid, but definitely hit home for me as I am now an adult queer living with HIV. I now fully understand why I’ve always felt more connected to Freddys Revenge, more than I should. I cried 3 times watching this. The film devotes about 20 minutes to the history and affect of the AIDS crisis. It also continues to discuss Marks own HIV status. He’s been positive for 21 years and is an activist in making sure that people, especially our own community, stay educated and continues to help fight the stigma we still face on a day to day.

CODY AND MARK AT THE *SCREAM, QUEEN* SCREENING

Scream, Queen was thought provoking and skillfully successful at tugging at the heart strings. You can tell that the directors are compassionate, big time horror movie nerds and seem to really care about telling Mark’s side of the story. This is the story Mark has been waiting to tell. It is so much more than just a documentary about someone from a horror classic. It’s about the journey someone takes to discover how to forgive someone. A new light is shone on one of the best horror movie villains of our time. Making Freddy Krueger the unofficial nightmarish poster boy for both AIDS and the coming of age queer experience could’ve been genius had the writer been more transparent with the cast, most importantly Patton.

As the lights came on and I wiped the tears from my beard, the directors, Chimienti and Jensen, walked out for a Q & A with the queen himself, Mark Patton. I wanted to float over the theater seats like Alice in NOES4 and give him a huge squeeze. But alas, I stayed in my seat . I listened to a sweet memory from a mother who had taken her son to a convention several years earlier to meet his self proclaimed “boyfriend”. He was there with her this night too, cringe laughing to her right. After a few more questions, we were headed to the lobby. Eek!

I was next in line and had been locking eyes with an extremely realistic looking wolf baby that the person in front of me had propped up in their arms like they were about to burp it. I would adopt it. Mark was gazing at it too, until he looked at me and said hi. Yay, it was my turn. After saying “Heeeey”, I told him that Jesse and Grady were one of my top 3 “almost queer” couples growing up and that he literally has one of the best shriek screams in the game. I told him that I hoped he got the closure he was looking for. And most importantly, I told him thank you for his transparency with his HIV and that his visibility is important. I disclosed my status of being positive for about 20 years and we high fived. We’re so close to being litter mates. How fucking cool is that???

Scream, Queen pushed all my buttons and is a perfect documentary just in time for Halloween.

Go see this film! 5/5

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Cody Patterson is a barber and full time horror movie fan In ATL. Follow him @barberonabike on Instagram

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