All language subtitles for Scream.Queen.My.Nightmare.on.Elm.Street.2019.1080p.BluRay.x264-OFT.[eng]

(haunting music)

(static crackles)

(suspenseful horror music)

- Horror is a genre that really deals

with putting women in peril.

- [Narrator] We all know the formula.

A terrified girl being
pursued by a masked villain.

- Of course she runs, and
falls, and the killer gets her.

(woman screams)

- The monster attacks
and the audience reacts.

- The kids call them
slasher or splatter movies.

- They signify a disturbing new

trend at the movie box office.

- Even with its predictability

fans would line up for more.

- I really like seeing a
strong female lead come into

her own and take on the male
villain in a horror movie.

- Survivor girl.

- The final girl.

- Yes.

- Very often you have a female hero

because they feel more vulnerable.

(woman screams)

- In the midst of the 1980s,

the horror genre was running wild.

Terror filled the walls
of video rental stores

and became a weekend ritual
for slumber parties everywhere.

And for every screaming final girl

was a new monster to stalk her.

(girl screams)

Michael, Jason, Pinhead,
Chucky, Leatherface,

but no one was scarier
than Freddy Kreuger.

- Freddy Kreuger is every girl's dream

and every girl's nightmare.

- The burned boogeyman
who frightened audiences

with his razor glove and wicked tongue.

- Freddy is the ultimate nightmare

- "A Nightmare on Elm Street"

unleashed a new cinematic terror

that left audiences screaming for more.

But then came the sequel
to break all the rules.

- [Announcer] Someone is
coming back to Elm Street.

- I just wanted to do something different.

I didn't wanna do another slasher movie.

- "Freddy's Revenge" brought Kreuger

out of the dream world and into the body

of a teenage boy, Jesse
Walsh, a bold choice

that was obvious even to
the film's cast in 1985.

- We had a real sensitive male lead.

Instead of a typical macho teen boy

we had sort of this nerdy,
sensitive kid and he became

the equivalent of our heroine
in jeopardy in part one.

- For Mark Patton, a starring role

in a hit film series
was a dream come true.

- I wasn't intimidated but I
had lots of respect for Mark.

- He has that vulnerability
and that sex appeal--

(man screams)

- Just everything that goes
into being a scream queen.

(screaming)

- The mainstream public,
they weren't ready

for a male scream queen,
they couldn't articulate it.

- This was totally
written to be a gay movie.

I think it's hard to watch
it and not think that.

- He could have had such
a different career path

but was cast in this movie was so queer,

the fact that it wasn't
owned as a queer film

made a light shine on him that
was completely inappropriate.

- The film that was poised

to launch his career
ended up destroying it.

- [Patton] I wake up in the middle

of the first movie that
I'm the lead actor in

and realize that there's
a gay subtext in it.

I was a gay person and
I was living in terror.

- In the 1980, to be queer was

to be this diseased pariah.

I think, in away, Mark Patton
paid the price for that.

- As quickly as he had arrived

Mark vanished from show business.

- What happened to Mark
is not the exception.

I think that that happens constantly.

- The movie was 30 years ago

and you're still pissed
off at Dave Chaskin.

- [Patton] You've been lying
for 30 years about this.

- I mean I never wrote you
know, he screams like a woman.

- [Patton] This is not my theory.

This is my truth.

This is what happened to me.

(Patton screams)

(energetic horror music)

- I don't know what happened

30 years ago to make him quit acting.

- So many of us had no idea

what he was doing for nearly 20 years.

- Mark Patton pretty much disappeared.

- Like they said, he was
the Greta Garbo of horror.

You know they couldn't find him.

They didn't know where he was.

(dramatic music)

- Cher gave me the best
advice in the world

and it's come back to haunt me,

she said, "Mark, in show business,

what you need to do, is
always do what's best for you

because that's what everybody
else is gonna be doing."

- This is like the tip of the iceberg

as far as this film is.

(group laughs)

How many of you have never seen

"Nightmare on Elm Street 2" before?

It's okay, if you can
raise your hand, it's okay.

It's okay guys don't worry.

This movie is the gayest thing--

- [co-host] And it's true.

- And we did Xanadu last month.

- [co-host] It's true, it's true.

- This is the gayest movie
you are about to see.

- That's right.

- It makes "Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert"

look like a staunch, Republican film.

(crowd laughs)

Just please, does us a
favor, sir you've never seen

it before, put on your
gayest googles please do.

- [Co-Host] Please do.

- [Narrator] In 2015, the
infamous horror film,

"A Nightmare on Elm Street: Part Two",

celebrated its 30th anniversary.

In honor of the occasion
the lead star, Mark Patton,

spent the year on the road, traveling

to different horror conventions

to meet the fans of Elm Street.

(engaging music)

- [Patton] Bill?

- [Bill] Yeah.

- What time is it?

- [Bill] Like 9:35.

- Isn't it seven?

- Isn't what seven?

- [Patton] O'clock.

- Yes, yes it is.

(engaging music)

- Welcome back fans, I am Fozzie Bear

and I am the official GLBT
correspondent for NLTOP.

I edged out Andy just by a little.

I'm here with Mark Patton,

Hi Mark, how are you?

- [Patton] Hey, good morning.

- Good morning, how are you feeling

this morning, first of all?

- Oh, I'm feeling great.

- You don't wish you were dead at all?

- Oh never, never, never.

- [Fozzie] Oh no, me
either, I'm feeling good.

- Yeah, no, I wake up on Sunday mornings.

I'm like I don't know
how, Beyonce does this.

And Bill said, "well
Beyonce's really young."

I was like, "okay, well I
don't how Cher does this."

'Cause I feel like I'm between

Beyonce and Cher or some place.

(engaging music)

Part of you lives in
alternate universe, you know.

I spend my days signing photographs

of myself that were taken 30 years ago.

- [Fan] Hi, can I get a signed picture?

- Sure, of course.

And, feel weird about that, honestly.

But it is a business.

When the door opens I become Mark Patton.

- Right.

- It's almost like a veil falls

over me and I become the star.

(engaging music)

And I tell people this all time.

It's like if you're gonna do this

then be really professional,
because for most

of these people it'll be the only time

they ever meet you, and it's a big deal.

I mean I've had people say
to me, "if I could meet you

or I could meet Brad
Pitt, I would meet you.

You're my Brad Pitt."

And they're nervous and they're scared.

You know, it's like a lifetime memory

and it only takes one second to ruin that.

If you think that this is
whorish for you to do this

then be a good whore, because
you're taking their money.

They want you to be a movie star.

Just go ahead and be it.

And that's your job as an actor.

If your rent is due, nobody really cares.

They don't wanna know about your problems.

They want to see the movie star.

♪ One, two, Freddy's coming for you... ♪

- [Announcer] The kids of
Elm Street don't know it yet,

but something is coming to get them.

- [Narrator] Opening to
unexpecting audiences in 1984,

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" introduced

the world to Freddy Kreuger,
the fantasy-horror villain

who stalked and murdered the kids

of Elm Street through their dreams.

Critics praised creator, Wes Craven,

for breaking the mold
of the horror heroine

with his refreshingly
proactive lead, Nancy Thompson.

This gruesome flick
became the first major hit

for independent studio New Line Cinema,

and they quickly jumped into
the production of a sequel.

This time, they asked
budding screenwriter,

David Chaskin, to take
a stab at the story.

- It's starting to happen again.

- Nightmare two is a possession movie

and I especially liked the concept

of an innocent person being invaded.

- [Announcer] "Freddy's Revenge."

- [Narrator] The film's successful box office

opened the door for six more sequels,

and a surge of merchandising followed.

- [Announcer] Freddy Kreuger
is just a phone call away.

(maniacal laugh)

- [Narrator] But "Freddy's
Revenge" was not a fan favorite.

- When I first started
going to shows people would

walk up to my table and tell me

how much they hated the movie.

I mean, like "What are you doing here?"

- Two, two is my least favorite.

- It's so hard to watch.

- Well, it deviated from
the original storyline.

- It didn't feel like Wes Craven.

He was a god.

- I remember laughing at that one more

and it was mainly because of the dance.

- [Fan] He's dancing all over

his bedroom and doing this motion.

- With the little, popper doo-dad.

(pops)

- It was a really gay though.

There was a lot of gay in that movie.

- Oh, there's a lot of subtext in there.

- It wasn't subtext, it was right there.

- A lot gratuitous bulge,
which is always appreciated.

- And the gay bar scene.

- That winds up in the showers.

- Towels snapping, and with Mark Patton's,

I mean he's a scream queen.

(Patton screams)

- Mark Patton, he screams,
he's a super nice guy,

and he chokes you when you meet him.

- Yeah--

- It's more like this, like.

- I don't need to--

- It's gentle, it's a gentle choke.

- I don't need to meet him then.

- You don't want that,
you don't need that.

(engaging music)

- I don't know what Mark
went through on the show.

I don't know he felt.

- Mark, I think, is
looking for resolution.

I think that some of the
circumstances around the making

of this film created
a lot of hurt for him.

- Judging from what happened, and then him

not being in a movie or
the entertainment industry

for like 27 years, I think he was content

if had they never done that documentary,

I don't think that he
might've ever pursued

trying to find out why or
maybe have some closure.

- [Narrator] The 2010 documentary,
"Never Sleep Again,"

set out to chronicle the
entire Elm Street legacy,

with interviews of the filmmakers

and stars of all eight films.

Having disappeared from the public eye,

Mark was their most
difficult subject to find.

Only after hiring a private investigator

were they finally able
to locate him in Mexico.

- I had not thought about
acting in many years.

I had made myself unfind-able.

I was off the grid.

I was living on a dirt road in Mexico

and I got a telephone call
from "Never Sleep Again,"

and I said, "I'll come and tell my story

under one circumstance,
that I get to confront

David chaskin and say, you
wrote this as a gay movie."

You've been lying for 30 years
about this and every time

people ask you about it, you say "no,

Mark was just so gay that
he ruined the movie."

I didn't even know I was famous.

I didn't know any of this existed.

(energetic horror music)

And then I dived in to the internet.

And that was an eye opener.

That really pissed me off.

(energetic horror music)

(light dramatic music)

I had a very interesting
childhood actually.

My mother was the daughter of
a Southern Baptist minister

and my father was from a
very large catholic family,

and they met each other
and they got married.

By time my mother was 22
she had five children,

one of which had died, and by the time

she was 24 she had a hysterectomy,

'cause that was birth
control where they came from.

My parents divorced when I as 14

and I sort of became the mom in our house.

I took care of everybody.

I paid the bills.

I did all that kind of stuff.

My mother visited mental institutions

on and off for most of her life.

I came from a place where
everybody looked exactly the same,

blonde hair, blue eyes,
but I was beautiful,

and I was noticed, and my
grandmother had said something

to me like, "your hair is like a girl",

or "why do you have it cut like that?

And why do you have this bracelet?"

And, "boys aren't supposed
to wear bracelets."

And I had a nice little flip.

And I thought, you know
what, if God doesn't love me

there's something wrong with God

and when I roll over I'm not
gonna care about this anymore.

I knew I was gay when I
four years old, probably,

and I remember I had a set of bunk beds,

and I had built myself a tent,
and I put all the pillows up,

and I was being carried
off to marry the king.

But I wasn't a girl, I knew I was a boy,

and I was gonna marry the king,

and it was really fabulous
and I knew absolutely that

under no circumstance should
tell anybody what I was doing.

And they didn't understand me at all.

I mean, I was a brother
from another planet.

Actually, I was a sister
from another planet

My dad didn't understand me,

but my dad wouldn't let
anyone fuck with me.

I know my dad loved me a lot.

But I think that my dad
resented my freedom.

I was free because I was gay.

When you become a parent you trade

your dreams for somebody else's,

and I never had to trade in my dreams.

And it was the same with
all the people around me.

I don't know why, but deep down inside me

I knew that there was
something wrong with them

and there was nothing
wrong with me, and that all

of my problems were just
a problem with geography,

and when I moved to New
York I remember my dad

was in the front yard raking the leaves.

He didn't offer me any money.

He didn't ask me when I was coming home.

He just said goodbye.

It was like I was abandoning him

and he was pretending
that I was not leaving.

He, til the day he died, thought
I had run away from home.

I mean that's the way
they talked about it.

It was like, "come and
visit me in New York."

"Well, you're the one that left."

That was the option, you know, you left

and you didn't come back,
I mean, I didn't come back

to my home for four and a half years,

and nobody came looking for me.

(engaging music)

I moved to New York on February 18th, 1977

with a one-way plane ticket and $132.

I'd never been on plane.

My drama teacher had told
me to get out of town.

I was 17 years old.

There was no other option.

I couldn't stay where
I was, because I mean

apart from being an actor, you know just

the gay me, is I would've been dead.

Some redneck would've killed me

on a back road and that
would've been my life.

I was safe in New York.

It only took one walk
down Christopher Street

to know that I had
arrived, 'cause the doors

started flying open, and that was

the same way with show business.

It was just, it was all meant to be.

And I moved into the Hotel Woodward,

which was a prostitution hotel.

I didn't know that at the time.

All the girls wore
little jackets and stuff,

and it was $37.50 a week, and
I had to pay for two weeks.

The boy down the hall had an agent.

He was making a fortune
and I just thought,

I didn't even know you needed an agent.

So, I followed him to his agency

and there was a big sign on the wall,

and it said if you're an actor
do not knock on this door.

Put your resume and
your picture underneath

the door and we'll call
you if we want you.

(table raps)

I knock on the door
because it didn't apply

to me, 'cause I wasn't an
actor, you know, officially.

And the owner of the
agency had come in early,

opened the door, looked at me
and said, "what do you want?"

And I said, "I've come to
apply for a job as an actor."

And he said, "okay," and he looked at me,

and he said, "how old are you?"

And I told him how old I was.

And he said, "okay come
back at 11 o'clock."

And they later told me
he said "we didn't care

if you could talk, they way you looked

we knew we were gonna make a
fortune in commercials on you."

Within days I had my
first national commercials

and then I started making
money, and that was that.

♪ So kiss a little longer ♪

♪ Just give me the
sunshine, give me a dew ♪

- And I said that night, "you know what,

I'll give myself five years.

If I do something really
major in five years

then this is all meant
to be and it'll be okay."

- [Announcer] The curtain comes down.

The laughter and cheers go on and on.

I opened on Broadway
with Cher, Karen Black,

Sandy Dennis, Robert Altman directing,

on February the 18th,
1982, at 6:30 at night.

So I made my five years by 30 minutes.

That kind of timing is just divine.

My family knew nothing
about New York, Broadway.

I mean my first Broadway
show, my mom called me up.

I told her I got it.

Then she called me back later
and she was so embarrassed,

she was like, "do you have
to make your own costume?"

(engaging music)

We rehearsed for "Come back to the

Five and Dive, Jimmy Dean" here.

The Rolling Stones came
here one afternoon.

David Bowie, David Bowie kissed me

on the staircase downstairs,
which was really exciting.

And anybody who had worked
for Robert, Robin Williams,

and they'd watch the
show and give us notes,

but they treated you as peers,
which was really exciting.

You know, nobody every
treated me as a young person.

It was always, I was a peer,
I was a part of that group

and you were just included
in the entire experience.

It was really wonderful.

I was starstruck by Cher and then

I was completely taken under her spell.

All of the time that I spent with her was

pretty magnificent, because she was

exactly what you wanted her to be.

When you enter into her world,

that's the real Hollywood world.

- Martha, do you think they could be

as big as Marilyn Monroe's.

I think they might be bigger.

- Do you, (laughs) do you really?

- [Narrator] He played an
outcast Texan boy named Joe

who reunites with a group
of friends years later.

But to their surprise he has changed

his gender and is now Joanne,
played by Karen Black.

- Tell me about Joanne.

- She's a transexual.

- There was an altar to
James Dean and I stepped

through it into the arms of
the crowd, which went wild,

and just in a minute, Cher's
gonna walk down through

the center and the crowd is
going crazy, and it's insane.

- [Narrator] After a short run on Broadway,

Robert Altman went into production

on a feature film adaptation
with the original cast.

That was it, and the next year

I was at the Cannes Film Festival.

♪ Sincerely ♪

- You really can't
imagine when a dream like

that comes true, in the
way that that came true.

"Kinky Boots" is at the Hirschfeld Theater

which was the Martin Beck
Theater, and if you go

to the mezzanine and in the middle

of the whole presentation
there's a picture of me

where I used to sit, its a Hirschfeld.

(crowd cheers)

(energetic haunting music)

I'd been scouted to go
to LA for pilot season,

but I really wasn't prepared to go.

Had I not gotten in that car my life

would have been completely different.

We drove in a Karmann Ghia
from New York to Los Angeles

and I was dumped into the
deep end of Hollywood.

We were living in South
Pasadena with a friend of mine.

- I was doing pilot season.

Mark came out and I feel like
I talked about him with Tim.

I said, "you know I have
this really cute friend

who's staying with me," and he's like

"well when are you going to introduce us?"

- My friend Jeff Marcus said,
"oh come over and meet Tim."

(door knocks)

And my destiny walked right in the door.

- The only thing more beautiful than these

is the woman receiving them.

- Timmy was spectacular
looking, insanely funny.

- Beautiful, black-headed
boy, beautiful eyes,

and he was the reverse image of me.

(Dallas theme music plays)

Tim was a successful
TV actor in Los Angeles

in a steady gig, living
in a house in the Hills.

When we moved in together,
like the day we met each other.

Tim changed my life.

And we lived next door to Madonna

in a house on the top
of Mulholland Highway.

I liked to spy on Madonna and I liked

to go to dinners at Merv Griffin's house.

I mean, I knew how to work the system.

Free clothes, free
travel, when somebody else

is paying the ticket, it's a blast.

The adulation and all that kind of stuff,

it's wonderful, and work is wonderful.

And that's why you're there anyway.

To pretend to be somebody
else and get paid for it.

It's like amazing.

- [Narrator] After years of supporting roles,

Mark had the talent and the
drive to become a leading man.

- [Patton] I was going towards my destiny.

- [Narrator] All he needed now
was that killer opportunity.

- [Walters] Horror movies,
mutilation, decapitation,

torture, does that sound entertaining?

- Half of American households now have

video cassette recorders,
and for many children,

they're a ticket to R-rated gore

that the kids are too
young to see at the movies.

- They seem to love every
moment of today's horror films.

- [Narrator] Through the home
video market, horror movies

had become bigger, badder,
and gorier than ever.

They were an absolute retaliation against

Reagan and the growing
Conservative movement.

- Take a walk down our
opposition's memory lane,

it starts to look like
"Nightmare on Elm Street."

- [Narrator] The kids loved them.

- I love blood, and guts,
and stuff, you know.

It turns me on you know.

- [Narrator] The parents hated them

and organizations tried to ban them.

- They were talking about

the Friday 13th and Freddy Kreuger.

- [Narrator] But, for many aspiring actors

at the time, low-budget horror films

became a gateway to a career in Hollywood.

The demand for new blood allowed

for a constant stream of
fresh talent to emerge.

Everyone was looking to be cast
in the next big horror hit.

- I cannot tell you how many friends

told me "I would never do a horror film."

And it didn't really ever dawn
on me to say to them, "well,

you don't have to really
worry about it because nobody

asked you."

I was happy to get this job, you know.

I mean I loved it.

- Mark was a very good
actor, he had a good look,

and he did have that vulnerability.

I cast him basically because he felt like

he was the right guy for the part.

- I knew about the movie,
of course, but it wasn't

like really on my radar at the time.

I was working way too much,
and then when I got the second one,

they put a screening together

of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" for me

after I had signed the contract

and watched it with a friend.

I had no idea what it was.

Then I was like, "oh my God,
what have I gotten myself into?"

- When I think back on it,
it was hard, hard, hard work.

It was a lot of hard work.

There was all this stuff in this film

that I had no idea how to do.

I didn't know how to do
any of it and basically

I had an anxiety attack,
and that anxiety attack

lasted for the entire
pre-production period.

- We all were fighting
to be comfortable

with the effects and Mark had to lots,

and lots of effects in
this, and he was under

the glue as much as I was in some cases.

- And it was all so fast.

We were shooting that pool
scene on July the fourth.

We opened in New York City

on every screen available on Halloween.

Times Square was head to toe
"Nightmare on Elm Street".

It's "Nightmare on Elm Street",
"Nightmare on Elm Street",

and everywhere you turned was my name

and pictures of me, and it was immersive.

- Who me scared?

Yeah.

- It scared the devil out of me.

- [Patton] At 10 o'clock in the morning

every theater was sold out.

I would go in anonymous
and walk out famous.

It was unbelievable.

I just became a movie star overnight.

- Freddy's back, watch out.

(man screams)

- [Narrator] While Mark was riding high

on the back of a box office hit,

Freddy Kreuger was
becoming a household name.

But the sequel left the
audiences feeling underwhelmed

and a few were picking
up on something odd,

buried just below the surface.

- None of that ever occurred to me.

When the "village voice" came out after

the movie opened and called it

this great, gay movie,
we all had a huge laugh.

We thought it was the funniest thing.

You know, where did they get that from?

- [Patton] As the reputation
of this movie started

to grow, it sort of became a nightmare.

I mean, really a nightmare.

- People have selective memory
a little bit about this.

It was on the page of the
script that there was gonna be

this S&M sequence in the shower room.

And I knew we were treading in there.

I knew we were tiptoeing around this.

I knew we were crossing
a line a little bit,

and I knew Freddy was part of that.

Freddy was pushing those buttons.

And we did talk about this,
I mean I didn't talk to Jack

about it, but I remember
talking to Robert about it.

- Right away, I knew there was homosexual

undertones in the script when I read it.

I knew at the audition, I knew.

- I didn't get it.

I didn't catch it in the script.

- I never was aware until I
heard that Native magazine

in New York had said this
is the first gay movie.

(laughs)

And then I was like, yeah.

- Is Freddy a manifestation
of this taboo thing

that's somewhere in the back of his head?

You can play with it all you want.

You know with "The Advocate, they

were the first ones to notice.

Nobody saw it, Bob asked
me was there anything

in there, and I said, "you know."

Nah, there's nothing, what
are you talking about?

(enterprising music)

- Where it really became
crystal clear for me

was when we were doing
the scene on the stairs.

Look at Robert and I, it's a love scene.

- I remember with Mark,
caressing his face,

and I remember asking
Mark if I could make that,

if I could make it, and I
think the word is homoerotic.

Mark and I are nose to nose,

and I've got the claw on him like this.

- And he asked me actually, if he could

put the blade in my mouth.

- And one of the pieces of
coverage, I rimmed his mouth.

- But I said, well you know, whatever.

I mean, I can go there with you.

And my makeup artist,
he comes running across,

screaming at the top of his
lungs, "stop, he needs makeup!"

And so he grabs me and
he goes, "don't you dare

let him put that blade in your mouth.

It'll look like you're blowing him."

- I'm playing with oral there.

I'm playing with a lot of symbolism there.

But mostly for me it was disfigured Freddy

playing with Mark's beauty, which is what,

"Beauty and the Beast".

(Mark screams in horror)

- When you actually go
back and you look at it,

you know the S&M bar
with the guy in leather,

and his ass is being whipped.

I mean, you know it's shot
through with this stuff.

You know, why I didn't
get it I don't know.

But I mean just because it
never occurred to me, you know.

- Obviously, I didn't
want it to be obvious,

that subtext, which is why I
never really admitted to that.

That and because it was
so much more fun not to.

(dramatic music)

(enterprising music)

- [Patton] My agents
went to watch the movie

and they were like, "yeah
you can carry a movie,

but we're gonna have to
make you a character actor,

because you can't play straight."

- [Narrator] In order to
keep his image marketable,

Mark's agent had to act fast.

They began working to
conceal his sexual identity.

- She threw a couple of
pairs of jeans and T-shirts

on the floor, over in
the corner, you know.

Like went through my dirty
laundry and threw 'em

in the corner, and she was
like, that's what you can wear

to auditions and the rest
of the stuff has to go.

- [Narrator] Setting him up
for his most challenging

acting role yet, the all-American boy.

(engaging music)

- There were 10 boys in
town at any given time

who could actually get a job.

That's why you keep
everything on the down-low.

You don't wanna give anybody anything

that they can use against you.

I knew I was in danger and it was scary

because I wanted to be a movie star,

and I made it, and I
didn't want to destroy it,

and this movie destroyed it.

And I remember thinking one day,

thank you Jesus, you gave me
everything that I asked for,

every bit of it, you
gave me every bit of it.

It's all here, and then the
next day it all went to hell.

- The irony of Mark Patton's
career is that at a time

when young gay men all
over America and Europe

were coming out and feeling relieved,

and being accepted, the
doors all shut again.

At some point during the beginning

of the AIDS epidemic, everything changed.

- [Narrator] By the time
"Freddy's Revenge" opened,

the AIDS epidemic had consumed
the nation's headlines.

Rock Hudson, the
quintessential leading man,

had not only been outed
as gay by the press,

but his tragic death to AIDS had

sent all of Hollywood into a panic.

- Movie star Rock Hudson, died

at his Coldwater Canyon home this morning.

His publicist said that
the movie star's body

has already been cremated.

- Hudson's battle against
AIDS came to an end--

- [Narrator] Gossip rags like
the "National Enquirer",

had ignited a full-fledged witch hunt

to expose anyone thought
to be in the closet.

It became regular, front-page news.

- There was a moment
of time in the mid-70s,

and I think it may have been a combination

of the 60s culture and
the rise of Disco culture,

and I saw this sort of melting pot

occur there, and everybody got along.

- [Patton] The early
80s were just amazing,

because there were no boundaries.

Cocaine wasn't addictive.

There was no HIV.

Everybody was bisexual.

So, it's like you could pretty much sleep

with anybody that you
wanted to sleep with.

- There was hardly any stigma.

Yes, there was kind of an
etiquette of don't ask don't tell,

but it was much like you don't talk

about politics and religion at dinner.

- We were free, I mean
were living the liberation.

And then the check came.

- [Narrator] The AIDS virus is intelligent,

adaptable, and relentless.

In 1985 it was still an enigma
and completely unstoppable.

Its parasitic qualities wreaked havoc

on all functions of the
body, and the gore and horror

it caused were worse than anything

that had ever been dreamed
up on the silver screen.

It became a boogeyman
for an entire generation.

While "Freddy's Revenge"
showed the devastating

transformation of one teen,
gay men across the world

were actually experiencing
it in real life.

- At the time, I was
emotionally rock-bottom.

I, it was so scary.

- HIV and AIDS was happening everywhere

and nobody knew what was happening

or who it was happening to.

- You know, there was
a time when everybody

lost a lot of friends, or you
walked around and it was like

zombies on the street the
way that people looked.

- I know what it's like to watch zombies

walk down the street,
and they're your friends.

I mean you'd have a friend
who was this beautiful,

hot man and you'd run
into him six months later

and he was somebody's grandpa,

and then you never saw him again,

and if you didn't see somebody for a year

you just assumed they were dead.

(dramatic hospital music)

- It just seemed like
overnight everybody woke up

at the same time and
everyone became paranoid.

- It was the worst years
of my life, personally,

professionally, I think I was
having a nervous breakdown,

didn't even know it, just
because I was ill-equipped

for the enormity of what
was being thrown at me.

- Because it just got to the point

where it was just so overwhelming,

and then you fall into denial, you know.

(dramatic music)

- I was a teenager during
that time and that was one

of the main reasons I didn't come out,

because it was so terrifying;
there was nothing positive.

It seemed horrific to me what
was going on, what was being

said on TV, when you know
that who you are isn't that.

- Gays are being called a
dangerous and violent group

that corrupts children and
infects the community with AIDS.

- You hear that it's vile.

You hear that they are
doing despicable thing.

- Well, what they're doing
is abnormal in the sense

that they were, they're
most of these people

that they're not fit,
they're not human beings.

They have emotional problems.

- There were no role models.

I mean, I was raised in a
religious background, so,

on top of that everything that I heard,

it was incongruent with who I knew I was.

- Homosexuality is a sin.

- God's plan for man was

Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

- The constant dynamic of
being beaten down verbally,

image wise, TV, it was just terrible.

And then all these deaths,
and I kept thinking,

you know, if I start having
sex, I start having gay sex,

I'm gonna get AIDS, I'm gonna die.

- If these fags don't
kill us all with AIDS

they'll bankrupt us all,
but before that happens

God almighty will visit
this country with judgment.

- I decided to hide it and just pretend

that basically I was straight.

I made myself believe it.

It was a struggle and it was a struggle

I almost didn't make it out of.

I almost ended up killing myself, so...

- People did go back into
the closet in great numbers.

Big stars, actors that I know,
that were being very free

and liberated and all of
a sudden, they sort of had

to return to masquerading
as a leading man.

- Like, the public always
came, especially with Tim.

We had dogs.

He had a photo shoot

and they were shooting in the house.

I got really mad because I
didn't think it was fair.

I had to leave the house
of course, and it no longer

became my house, it was his house,

and I didn't want our dogs in the picture.

Tim and I had a very
tempestuous relationship.

So we would break up a lot.

The rumors spread that he had AIDS.

And Timothy did not tell me.

He was not the first person that told me.

It's a, a dear friend of mine told me

and I said "no, that Tim
was not HIV positive,

that he wasn't sick", and
then I called him and he was.

So, it was pretty devastating,
'cause I had talked

to Tim like, a few hours before, right?

How do you tell somebody
that you're intimate with

that you have a disease
that's gonna kill you

and they might've given it to you?

There's no protocol with that.

You could be judgmental and say

that you know what you
do but you don't, because

the shame was so intense,
and the fear was so intense.

But I never blamed him.

I never, never, I loved him, I
don't blame him for anything.

So, I got a call from a guy in New York

and he said, "hi, how are you?"

It's like, I'm friends with Tim and said,

"well Tim said I should
call you when I got

to New York because I don't
know anybody, blah, blah, blah."

And he said that we could get
dinner, and he knew enough

about us that I just assumed, right.

And I went out to dinner with
this guy, and about midway

through the dinner he said,
"oh my God how's Tim doing?

I'm really worried about
him and blah, blah, blah."

And I didn't really reveal
anything but I just revealed

enough to say, well you
know he's doing as best as,

you know, we don't know what's going on.

And that guy worked for
the "National Enquirer".

You know, they broke
into Tim's hospital room

and they took pictures of him
in bed while he was dying,

- And I remember just
really in that hospital room

mustering all of my
courage to just pretend

like we were still happy
friends having a wonderful time,

and as he lay there, not
looking like the Tim I knew,

and then he passed away and
I was not at the memorial.

(engaging dramatic music)

- Through a combination of experiences,

both professional and
private, they broke me.

- Because he's in a
Hollywood that is fearful

and wants everybody to butch up now,

and I think that that's what
made him go a little crazy.

- [Patton] And I thought,
this is fucking insane.

There were people asking
me if I could live

in the closet while all
these people are dying

and I'm having a nervous breakdown

over my friends and I
just don't want this.

So, I guess at that moment all

of this came together and I made a choice.

- [Narrator] After walking
away from his acting career,

Mark retreated from the
public eye, completely.

(distorted music)

Decades later, a new generation was

taking a second look
at "Freddy's Revenge".

- We're always reinventing the bogeyman.

It's constantly in flux.

In my class, we go
through a lot of different

monster as, dot dot dot,
monster as racial other,

monster as a different
nation, a different ideology.

Nightmare On Elm Street
2 is useful to talk

about the monster as the homosexual,

monster as queer and
tapping into that paranoia.

The relationship between
horror film and reality

is reciprocal; that horror
films do reflect culture,

but they also give us a vocabulary

to talk about things in the real world.

Well there's three ways
I think in a horror film

to think about how queerness emerges.

One, is this sort of
homosexual as a threat

to others, and often the homosexual

is linked with sadism or
violence in the horror film.

There's the homosexual
threat to the culture,

that they represent something
as foundationally antithetical

to the family, or to the future.

And then the third way is the homosexual

as the monster within, that would emerge,

and that we have to constantly repress.

- And I think for all
those reasons queer theory

is intimately linked to the horror film.

- A lot of horror movies
have used queerness

as something to be afraid
of, and what's interesting

about "Nightmare on Elm Street, Part Two",

is it's not the killer
who's necessarily queer.

It's someone, you know,
dealing with themselves.

- All right guys, tell
me as social historians,

you and I, how do we talk about this film?

"Nightmare on Elm Street
2" is one of those films

where you could say it's not subtext

at certain points, it's just text,

especially from a modern
perspective when you're

looking back and saying of
course that's a gay bar.

Of course that is anxiety
about this creature coming out.

We can see Jesse reading
this erotic fantasy

about a man in a diary entry.

- Under the sheets with me, tearing

at my nightgown with his steel claw.

- He has to repress his own
desires in order to survive.

- I think it's interesting
how you have this final boy

who's actually acting like a final girl.

- Right, do you think in a weird way,

given what we know about the final girl,

who tends to be more masculine
than her female counterparts,

does that make sense that he would be

kind of to this side of feminine?

- There is nothing to figure out.

- It may not even be about sexuality.

- I wanna help you.

It actually could just
be about gender first,

and you change that up--

- I'm not gonna let
anything happen to you.

- [Jesse] Automatically shifts
the dynamic of the film.

- You know the mainstream
public, I don't think

that people thought, oh
this sucks because it's gay.

I think they weren't ready
for a male scream queen.

They couldn't articulate it.

- I think one of the problems
with having a final boy

is that the final girl has
to go through this transition

from being a victim to an agent,

and sort of taking up the
phallus and turning the tables.

I think in our culture,
we can't accept that

a boy will be at any point unphallusized,

and then have to go through this sort

of coming-of-age to gain power.

- I'm scared.

- Jesse, who is doing this to you?

- Fred Kreuger.

He's inside me and he
wants to take me again.

- I think it was different,
it was breaking ground

for that kind of horror film
to introduce a man in that way.

(lightning crackles)

(engaging dramatic music)

(metal clinks)

- This is a virgin, and
it's a family altar.

There's all kinds of prayers in there.

It's a gift.

It's beautiful though, isn't it?

And it would make a nice disco lamp.

That's my dog and that's me.

This is me jumping out of the airplane.

This is how I arrived in Vallarta.

I mean you can tell my
head was a little confused.

Well I've had many dark nights
of the soul in this house.

I became very sick with HIV.

I had full-blown AIDS,
cancer, tuberculosis,

I had like everything that you could

possibly have all at the same time.

I was bed-bound for a year and a half.

I was struck dead, but I was also lucky

because I got sick when
the cocktail came out,

but unfortunately I had tuberculosis,

and tuberculosis medicines, you have

to be treated for tuberculosis for a year,

and they're not compatible
with HIV cocktail.

So, I had to take all
of the old line therapy.

I had A7T, DDI, D14, neuropathy,

and the A7T almost
killed me the first year.

But this is what happened
to me after I got here.

It's like I had a spiritual
breakthrough, and this is me.

I always draw me as a
deer, and it was me trying

to get away, but every time I would leave

I would fall into a depression
that I'd have to come back.

(enterprising music)

I knew that I wanted to move down here,

but I also knew that I couldn't not work.

So I decided to open a store here.

Yes, we're very famous in Puerto Vallarta.

They call us the Prada of Puerto Vallarta.

When I came down here,
nobody knew I was an actor.

I mean I didn't want
really anybody to know.

Then, "Never Sleep Again"
happened and I was interviewed,

and suddenly I was out of
the closet, and that's really

when Hector began to find out
about my life as an actor too,

because he really didn't
know much about it.

- And then it suddenly
became people were coming

to the store and asking for my autograph.

Then, I went off on tour.

(dramatic music)

(birds chirp)

(engaging music)

- You know, I think in theaters

you can feel all kinds of creepy vibes.

They're good, but you can
feel everybody's energy

in here if you're kind
of sensitive that way.

There's a lot of hopes
and dreams in this room.

The Supremes, actually the
beautiful Mcguire Sisters.

Actually when we came in
here, somebody said that it

smelled like high school, which it does,

and that's a really,
really good memory for me,

because that's where I really
found myself originally.

(engaging dreamy music)

- So this will be here.

- Yeah, I'm gonna give you the Ray-Bans.

And you're getting a special,
they only had gold ones.

- That's okay, I'm gonna get these.

The timing of Mark coming here is

actually really awesome, because next week

Portsmouth actually
celebrates its first Pride.

There are still things happening within

our community that are
not being talked about.

You have this monster in the room.

When you give it a lot of power
it'll become something huge.

Mark is a wonderful platform for talking

about HIV, for talking about AIDS.

- So I decided that if I was
gonna do this I was gonna take

my little bit of fame and I was gonna

squeeze as much of out
it as I possibly could.

I knew that this glove
was really powerful.

The first year I was
gonna talk about bullying,

and everybody could related to that.

The next year I talked about homophobia,

because conventions were very closeted.

I wanted to shine a light into this world

and make it safe for
gay horror fans to come.

I would always let all of these people

get to know me as a healthy person

and then I would tell them
that I was HIV positive,

so that they could know
that they had met a person

who was gay and who had HIV,

and they couldn't say
they didn't know anybody.

- We've reached a point
where you can actually have

a completely normal life, HIV
can be completely managed.

Research has reached a point
where they're comfortable

talking about the fact
an undetectable person

is unable to transmit HIV,
not necessarily that it's

being eradicated, but it's
being stopped from progressing.

- Then I was on the
cover of "The Advocate",

and an HIV positive magazine that went

around the world, I was thrilled.

With that glove on it
went around the world.

(engaging music)

Oh, and I need that tape.

See I have the tape look, go like that.

That's amazing isn't it?

With a little bit of make up
and like that from a distance.

I could like, still play
a juvenile on stage.

(a BIG stage)

- Ladies and gentlemen
please welcome the star

of "Nightmare on Elm Street
Two, Freddy's Revenge",

Mr. Mark Patton ladies and gentleman.

(crowd cheers)

- Bunny, you must be so excited.

- I am actually--

- 'Cause this has been your dream

the entire time we've
been doing this theater.

- Well, I love a girl with a dream.

- Can you make my dream come true?

- Well, I can try.

- Will you dance for me?

- No.

(crowd cheers)

No.

- Come on Mark.

- No, I don't dance.

- Mark, you have to dance for me.

- Do you really want me to dance?

- You want him to, come on.

I will take this dance.

- I'll do it with you.

(energizing music)

- This has turned out to be a lot

of peoples favorite part of this movie,

especially straight guys really love this.

"Risky Business" had just
come out and everybody

wanted me to be Tom
Cruise, and I just wasn't.

(engaging music)

♪ Let me hear you when you call my name ♪

♪ Til I finally believe you ♪

♪ I only want, I only want to please you ♪

(pulsating music)

- If I knew then what I know
now, well I would dance more

like Crispin Glover, electroshock
therapy, but you know

I guess it's perfect,
'cause everybody loves it.

(pulsating music)

♪ I wanna follow you into the night ♪

♪ I wanna hear you when you call my name ♪

♪ Til I finally believe you ♪

♪ I only want, I only want to please you ♪

(crowd cheers)

(Pop)

(energetic music)

- [Narrator] After traveling
the horror circuit

for the past year, Mark heads

to Fort Lauderdale for the grand finale.

The first ever "Freddy's Revenge" reunion.

- Welcome to Shock Pop

- It's just a big, it's a
circus, it's a big circus.

I feel really, totally
weird, I don't know why.

I feel very strange right now.

But like some of these people I haven't

seen in like a really long
time, which is really weird.

(mixed greetings)

Good to see you.

Well none of us have changed.

We're all exactly the same.

- We all got pickled.

(engaging music)

(dramatic music)

Hello Mr. Clu.

It's Mark, how are you?

- I know who you are.

She said you were down here.

I want that room unpacked
by tonight, young man.

- Okay dad, I promise.

See he's got the brains and
I, of course, have the body.

And this is Ms. Joanne Willette.

She is the number one bitch on the--

- I am the best bitch.

- [Patton] She is the best bitch--

- In real life, too.

(dramatic music)

- You okay?

- Yeah, I'm fine.

- Wow, how are you?

- [Patton] Good.

- It's so great to see you.

- It's so great to see you
too, you haven't changed a bit.

- You look pretty much the same.

- [Patton] Yeah, well we're
all the same people.

- [Sholder] You have a
little more mileage on you.

- Yeah.

There has never been "A Nightmare
on Elm Street 2" reunion.

I have only spoken on
stage with Robert one time

in my life and it was by accident.

When we're busy we don't get a lot

of time to talk to each other.

You're signing autographs the entire time.

It's like we don't have
time to sit down and rumble.

You know, we don't have the time

to sit down and work things out.

(engaging music)

- [Announcer] You guys ready?

Are you guys ready?

They said, yes.

All right, let's start off with,

let's bring out the - first off the director

of "Nightmare on Elm Street,
Part Two, Freddy's Revenge",

let's hear it for Jack Sholder.

(crowd cheers)

The star, the scream queen of this film,

Mr. Mark Patton, Jesse Walsh.

(crowd cheers)

- At a Q&A for Nightmare
Two, I swear to God seven out

of 10 times the first question is,

"did you know that this
was a gay undertone film?"

And I usually just kind of
break out with, but I didn't

mm-hmm, and I just try
to have some fun with it.

- Hey, I have a question for Mark.

I read that you had a lot
of problems with homophobia

in Hollywood, and I just wanted to know

if there was any pressure
to act straight otherwise?

- For me it was terrifying.

I wasn't an out, gay actor.

There wasn't any such thing
as an out, gay actor then.

In 1985, Hollywood was very
homophobic and very AIDS-phobic,

and when you signed a contract
for a television series,

they gave you a blood test,

so if you were gay you were hiding.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] After the panel discussion,

Mark and the cast returned
to their hotel to catch up.

- When they talk about the
homosexuality of the film

the end of the sentence
always is, Mark Patton,

an out, gay actor in Hollywood.

I was not an out, gay
actor in Hollywood in 1985.

I was a 25-year-old young man working

very hard to have a career.

I'm now a 50-year-old man who's out

and I'm a gay activist,
it's a big difference.

- This isn't about
anybody's sexuality at all.

Through the subtext and the
questions, and some of the stuff

that happened and evolved,
you know, it was Jack,

and Michael, and Joel that
I think realized that,

or maybe even sensed it, I'm not sure.

Jack, you'd know better than I.

- Well, I think a lot of this has

to do with the lens that you look at it.

I think there was kind of a perfect storm.

- I do too.

'Cause look, I was the director--

- I agree.

- I was the director and I
think about all this stuff,

and I think about story,
and I had no fucking idea.

- Right.

- That there was this subtext,

but there were lots and lots of things.

- [Patton] You filmed in one

of the biggest gay bars in Los Angeles.

- Oh, was that a gay bar?

- Yeah, oh my God yes.

- It was called "Toilet Bar."

- Yes.

- Jack, please don't play dumb.

- [Patton] It's the--

- These guys didn't know.

- They didn't know.

They person that knew--

I KNEW ON MY AUDITION!

(mixed speaking over arguments advance)

- No, I went and I scouted the bar,

because I wasn't thinking
about these things.

(mixed arguments)

- [Rick] You didn't think about it though?

- And now that you
mention it, I do remember,

I went and I scouted the
bar when it was closed.

- That's right.

- I didn't see a whole bunch of gay guys.

- This was written not as a gay bar,

it was written as a transvestite bar.

- That's right.

- In the script, and they actually threw

kind of odd looking women in.

- So, while we were shooting
the movie you always

seemed like you were
slightly out of sorts.

That's kind of my recollection.

- You mean as far as--

- [Sholder] You were
just a little, cranky.

Cranky's not the right word.

I guess, slightly out of sorts.

You just didn't seem happy.

- I was very tired.

I was feeling a lot of pressure.

It gets around to the
homosexual stuff all the time,

but here I was in this movie.

I was gay, my lover was
sick, I wake up in the middle

of the first movie that
I'm the lead actor in,

and realize that there's
a gay subtext in it,

and my agents are waiting to
see if I can play straight.

My agents went to watch the
movie and they were like,

yeah you can carry a movie
but we're gonna have to make

you a character actor because
you can't play straight.

And the minute I heard
that, I heard everyone

that had ever called
me a faggot in my life,

at the top of my lungs, and
I was like, I can't do this.

- You know, I sensed that
there was a resentment

that was built from you,
and I wanna ask you--

- What made me so mad?

Where the resentment came from?

- Yeah, what pissed you off?

- Everything that you see me doing in

"Nightmare on Elm Street"
is written in the script.

David, when he was asked over
the course of all these years,

did you write this movie as
a gay movie, he said, no.

David went out of his way
to say that it was me.

Do you know what I mean?

He would say, no, I didn't do this.

Mark, the actor did this.

- Okay, but he was
saying that you did what?

- That I had made the movie gay.

I got a stick up my ass against David

when I read this stuff because I thought,

you know what, this is
seriously cruel stuff.

(energetic horror music)

- [Narrator] After an eye-opening chat

around the fire, Jack was waiting for Mark

at the convention the next morning.

- Well, I mean this is stuff
that I probably would have

said last night if it occurred to me.

There's one aspect of this that
I've gotten an insight from,

because I didn't really
know who the hell you were.

At call time I saw you and
at wrap I said goodbye,

that was it, but it's been a really good

experience for me to get to know you.

Your life I think, there will
always be a level of turmoil,

because you have some
conflict in your life--

- [Patton] But we all do.

- Yeah, but I think you may
have a little more than others,

and I'm sure when you're
referring to the dark side

that there's a lot of hate
mail and a lot of bad stuff

that would be very hard
for anyone to live with,

which is part of celebrity.

It's just, it struck me last
night that you were getting

a little too wrapped
up in the David thing,

and your whole thing about
that just struck me as odd.

- Odd in what way?

- The movie was 30 years ago,

and you're still pissed
off at Dave Chaskin.

You had a goal in your life
which was to be a movie star

and you sort of got there,
and then you chose to not,

and so, you know why, and
there's gotta be a reason,

and I think you put a
lot of stuff on David.

I mean, the way it came
out maybe wasn't that good.

But it's not about you.

It's not about you at all
and what I wanted to say is

I think it's time that you just let it go.

It's over, it's done, and I think, that's

the perspective that I wanted to give you.

- I don't know anything about David.

The point is he didn't admit his intention

back when it wasn't acceptable to be gay,

then when people started
to notice his subtext

he denied it, and instead
he pointed the finger at me.

Now that it's becoming
an interesting thing,

he's owning it, he wants
to take credit for it.

Now everybody's having
a great time with this.

Meanwhile, I'm being called
fag a 100 times a day.

David didn't come to this
convention because of me.

The reason he's not here is because

he doesn't wanna have this conversation.

This is not all about
David and it never has been

all about David, 'cause
it really is about me,

and it's about people like me.

I talk to young people and
say look, you're standing

on the shoulders of a
lot of different people.

Know your history.

Don't forget your history.

I'm just reminding the
generation that's here

that this is what happened in 1985.

- One of the first things that like really

offered escape for me was horror movies,

and I don't really know why but for me,

and I think part of it was being a sissy,

and getting bullied, there
was sort of this otherness

in certain horror movies
that identified with.

I think one of the best
things about this movie

is that I think a lot
of people in this room,

it was kind of our first gay movie,

but we didn't know it at the time.

- For many queer people this was probably

their first look inside of a gay bar,

their first look at an S&M culture.

- Coach Schneider in the
shower, you know strapped up,

you know, whipped with a towel,

that was some beginnings for a lot of us.

- You know we were used
to so much female nudity

in horror movies or
even kind of any movies.

- Any movies.

- Adult comedies at the
time, that to actually see

nude men as a gay teenager, it was

like wow, that's kind of cool, you know.

- Being a kid who grew
up in the 80s, like,

you know homophobia was the norm.

- I have this nightmare
that I go to Hollywood

and find out that Mr. T. Is a faggot.

- Wait a minute, are you
gonna tell me you're a fag,

I mean if you're gonna
tell me you're a fag,

I don't think I can handle it.

- In the 80s, I mean you had
kid's movies saying faggot

and fag, I mean it was just awful.

- Thor's my hero.

- Thor's a homo.

- Just answer me one question.

- Yes, you're a total fag.

- What'd you say faggot, what'd you say?

- You're a faggot Blaine.

- [Girl] Fag!

(group jeers and laughs)

- Homosexuality was
treated like the plague,

like, you were like a
vampire so stay away from me.

- Fags in the shower, fags in the shower,

fag alert, fag alert, fag alert everyone.

- And that's the comedy,
that's the joke (drum tap)

- Nobody was making films
really for minority audiences

at the time, and this is the
thing about queer spectators.

I think all of us, we
learned to be scavengers.

The fact that this film has become

a kind of cult object is fascinating.

Part of the hallmark of
queer viewing is that maybe

we will forget about the ending
of the film and just enjoy

the section in which the
queer monster run amok.

- "Nightmare on Elm Street
2" was one of the first films

I saw that I thought was relatable to me.

It made me feel a little less alone.

I could relate to Jesse.

- And that was the first time that I saw

that the hero of the movie
be a sissy boy, a Nancy boy.

- I mean, Mark Patton was
probably my first crush.

He was my first, like boyfriend.

- And he was facing problems that

nobody else around him could
understand, and somehow

he showed some strength
dealing with those problems,

so he's somehow kind of a hero to me.

- Having any secret,
being gay, transgender,

any sort of internal conflict
can be so real and so violent,

- And that's part of the genius about it.

I mean whether it was
intentional or not, it works.

- You know, I was sort of
adverse to gay stuff growing up,

and this was a movie that sort
of snuck in under the radar,

and then really enjoying it on that level,

and coming out myself shortly afterwards.

You know, this was an
important movie to me.

- It's great that it's
in an iconic franchise

that another 10-year-old
somewhere, somehow can find,

and it will have the same effect on them,

that they might not be
able to see the gay movies,

or the gay TV shows, but parents

might let a Freddy movie
fall through the cracks.

- You know, I think one of the
reasons so many young queers

identify with those scream
queens of final girls

is because they fought
back against the bully,

and that was what we were
dealing with everyday in school.

- Even at 10, I was kinda like I wanna be

in one of those movies but I wanna be her.

I wanna be the one that kicks
Freddy's butt at the end,

and they were always the strongest ones.

You know, they were great
to look up to at the time.

- I was bullied, and to me, Nightmare

was about beating your bullies.

- I mean right away, off the
bat, Freddy driving the bus,

Freddy's the biggest
bully in the world, right?

- How do you beat a bully?

You show you're not afraid of 'em anymore

and that's what Nancy does
to take away Freddy's power.

- You have to face that monster head on,

and if you don't face
that monster head on,

then how are you ever gonna
make a difference in this world?

(engaging dramatic music)

- Well, we're going to see David Chaskin.

This is the one moment that
I never really expected.

I never thought David
would sit down for this.

I just don't really
want a generic apology.

I want him to really understand
what he actually has done.

I'm hoping for like a really
nice, sort of atonement,

and amends, and like we can hug each other

and walk way from the whole thing,

and he doesn't have to
get tarred and feathered.

But just in case, I do have
a cauldron in my bag with me.

(engaging dramatic music)

- I'm trying to put the
times in perspective here.

Most people at the time,
it was just a horror movie

and I think what you first
saw were a lot of people

that just said, I don't like it.

I love the idea that people
are rediscovering it,

and saying, you know
there's some stuff here.

- Well, I find it really interesting

that over the course of 30
years you're denying this.

- That I denied--

- That you had written
this as a gay movie.

You would say, well it was subtext.

- [David] Yeah.

- But at first you denied any subtext

and then you decided to
get out from underneath it,

and you took the attention off yourself

and you placed it on somebody else.

Everybody knew that it was a gay movie.

I mean, it had been discussed
in the press, quite a bit.

- Oh, I gave an interview five years ago

where I admitted it, it
was to a website, but--

- Yeah, I actually have a
couple of your interviews

that like when you ask me--

- This is where I get haunted--

- But yeah, it is haunting.

There's a quote that you
have and I'm just going

to sort of give it to you off the cuff.

You didn't write the movie
as a homoerotic movie,

you wrote it as a homophobic
movie, the type of movie

that they should show
at a conversion camp,

that the love a good woman
can make any gay man straight.

- Well that was a joke--

- And well, I'm just
telling you what it was.

This is what is says, okay.

At the end of this particular article

you say it was supposed to be subtext,

but then casting ruined that.

You're talking about me.

I have issues with a lot of this stuff

because I was only doing
what I was told to do.

- It was a funky chicken
number if I remember.

- Actually it says that I close

the drawer with my ass
in the script, and--

- But you also have pencils
sticked up your nose.

That was in it--

- Right, there is somebody
that all that stuff got thrown

on, and the person that
it got thrown on was me.

- I do remember this,
very, very specifically.

I remember that you
didn't wanna do that scene

the way it was with the
pencils in your nose

and all that other stuff,

so Jack said, "well what do you wanna do,"

and you said, "I can dance."

- What I recall about that dance scene,

at the end of that dance
scene was people applauding.

Nobody directed me and pulled

me over and said this doesn't work.

It's the same way with this scream.

You know, nobody ever
pulled me aside and said,

you know what I don't think
this scream is such a good idea.

- Wasn't it Jack's job?

- It was Jack's job, yeah.

- See, I never wrote
he screams like woman.

You know what I mean?

- You know, when I heard
you to begin to talk about

the subtext, your subtext
inside of the film, the first

question that I wanted to ask you was why?

Because I didn't understand it at all.

It was a very dangerous move to pull.

- First of all, you have to understand

the context of the
times, I was in New York,

starting in 1978, I had never met

in my life an out of the closet gay.

Coming out in the 80s was
a scary thing, I'm sure.

It's gotta be because
nobody, not only do you have

to deal with your parents, you gotta deal

with your straight friends, and it just

wasn't something that people talked about.

It just seemed like a very
visceral, animal thing

that's not controllable
and that would infiltrate

somebody's mind, and it's just
another thing to worry about.

Because of what was happening,
because of the AIDS thing,

and the AIDS thing made it even worse.

I mean what if I do this,
and what if I get AIDS,

and it just seemed like
it would add to the horror

in a sense, maybe it was
a little exploitative,

but you know, that's what movies
do, they manipulate people.

And that's why I wanted to
make it as subtle as possible.

I mean subtext's supposed to be subtext.

It's supposed to stay down
there and I think it did

until people started
really analyzing stuff.

I don't know if it's
something that you feel

that I shouldn't have done, I don't know.

I'm not gonna say I haven't made mistakes.

I'm not gonna say I haven't
said things that I've regretted.

- You did.

- But I hope you can forgive me

for any perceived or,
it wasn't intentional.

Certainly, I don't want
to promote homophobia

but I do want to point it out.

- Right, first of all
I wanna say thank you,

and that was the only thing I wanted

from this entire experience,
what you just did.

I wanted somebody to say that if I was

hurt by it that they were sorry.

You know, and you're the only
person who has done that.

I don't want people to
think you're homophobic

because I think that
would make me a bully.

My intention is not to
harm you in any way.

- I know and I'm really
glad we're able to do this.

I wish we could've done it in Florida.

- It really meant the world to me.

I don't really think it
would've been possible

in Florida to be honest with you.

- Really?

- No, I think it probably
need to happen like this,

you know, just me and you,
because ultimately in the end

this really is all about me and you.

You know, you wrote it and I played it.

I got what I wanted out of
this ultimately, you know,

which was I got an apology
from David chaskin.

When I got to the part where
it became very vulnerable

for me, he sat there and listened,

and he didn't try to interrupt me,

and talk me out of what I was saying.

I said things to him that I don't think

that I had been able to
articulate in my mind,

but I just wanted one of
them to say there were sorry.

I think that's a great
thing about apologizing,

and doing, and investigating,
and talking to people

is that really is where the healing comes.

(engaging music)

The reason that I began this
process, this whole process,

really, I was angry at
David, I did blame David.

I felt like he was responsible for,

I guess I made him responsible for a lot

of things that he wasn't responsible for.

He's not responsible for AIDS.

He's not responsible for
homophobia in Hollywood.

He's not responsible for 14-year-old boys

sitting in the dark,
calling people faggots.

David's not responsible for that.

But I did bring all of that energy

and he became my focal point.

I did hang the blame on him

and I'm certainly glad now that I don't.

(engaging music)

I've had a great amount of
healing I think around this.

Like, I've let go of a lot of things.

But, I also have realized what I gave up

in this world, and I gave up a lot.

I did ask God, as I understood
God, I did say why me?

Why did this happen to me?

I heard the voice of my
own spirit or my own God

saying to me, look, I made you famous

and then I made you not famous.

I let you get sick and I
let you do it in private

because you could've
never done it in public.

You could never handle AIDS in public.

It would have been way
too humiliating for you.

If I would've started taking the medicine

earlier the medicine
would've killed me, right.

And then, as soon as you got
well, sitting on a dirt road

in Mexico, I made you famous again,

and I gave you a rock to
stand on and a story to tell.

So, you get on the rock and you tell

the story and that's what your job is.

My generation's gone.

I have no friends my age.

I want people to know their history.

I want to them at least hear
from somebody that the way

the world is now, it wasn't
this way five minutes ago.

(whistles blow)

They need to know what
happened, and we need to keep

telling them, because if
we don't keep telling them

there are a whole lot of people

that would like to put them back in a box,

and put them back in their
place where they belong.

(dramatic music)

The world has changed since 1985,

and you know why the world has changed?

It's changed because of
people like me, who stand up

and tell their story, and say
look, this is what happened

to me, and I will be God damned

if I'll let it happen to another person.

(inspiring music)

This being the gay film, at Halloween,

I'm always gonna make
the scream queen list.

I'm, and do I like that?

Do I like being identified
forever and ever

as a scream queen, as a
gay movie, that's mine,

that's it, that's my
title, that's who I am.

Like the worst thing that you can

say to me is I'm a girl,
you scream like a girl.

And I always say, what's
so bad about screaming

like a girl, it made me rich and famous.

I used to say I take the
bricks that people throw

at me and I build a firm
foundation with them,

and that's what I've done with
"Nightmare on Elm Street".

Now, like over the course
of the last five years,

it's like really, like
you've seen what's happened.

Now you type in, Mark
Patton gay, and it's like

Mark Patton is a social
activist who is a horror,

like a leader in the horror community

and all this kind of
stuff, and it's all nice,

and the creepy stuff is buried way down.

It doesn't lead with the creepy stuff.

You have to start digging
for the creepy stuff.

- Yeah, if you don't like
the dialogue, change it.

- I changed the conversation
on "Nightmare on Elm Street",

and I wanted to save
Jesse and I saved him.

So I have to proud of
it because it's my baby,

and right now he's the favorite one,

and so, of course I'm proud of it.

You know, this is my creation.

(crowd cheers)

(man screams)

(crowd whistles and cheers)

- When "A Nightmare on Elm
Street", the first one came out

and a lot of the world
has Heather, but to all

of the gay fans of horror, we have Jesse.

(crowd cheers)

- All of these other people
can say whatever they want to,

this is about those boys
who are sitting in a room,

they looked up at the screen
and they saw themselves.

(engaging music)

This is my testimony
that you can live through

it all and you can watch
it happen, and they can

throw rocks at you til the cows come home

and you can still come out of it a winner.

(energetic horror music)

(enterprising music)'

♪ Don't lie ♪

♪ Don't cry ♪

♪ Don't try ♪

♪ No need to have ♪

♪ Don't hide ♪

♪ Don't thrive ♪

♪ Don't choose ♪

♪ No need to have ♪

♪ Reactions of your own ♪

♪ There's something wrong with me ♪

♪ And there's nothing wrong with me ♪

♪ Don't read ♪

♪ Don't learn ♪

♪ Don't yearn ♪

♪ Just live through me ♪

♪ Don't burn ♪

♪ Don't fade ♪

♪ Don't fall ♪

♪ Just live through me ♪

♪ That's all you ever know ♪

♪ All of my problems were
just a problem of geography ♪

♪ Don't think, don't blink, don't sink ♪

♪ Just waste, just pace, just case ♪

♪ Just bleed for me ♪

♪ I'm still what you want ♪

♪ Nothing of your own ♪

♪ And if you don't face
the monster head on ♪

♪ Then how are you ever gonna ♪

♪ Make a difference in this world ♪

- [Female] There's more
to it than just well,

call it premonition, or women's intuition

if you like, but I'm afraid.

- [Male] Of what?

- [Female] Afraid I'm going to lose you.

- [Male] To a dream?

- [Female] To a dream that might be real.

- [Male] It could all be
real for a little while.

(engaging music)

- [Female] All the ways
that I love you Tony.

- [Male] Take care of yourself
Val, I'll see you soon.

(captivating music)

- [Female] I'm afraid.

- [Man] Of what?

- [Female] I'm afraid
I'm going to lose you.

- [Male] To a dream?

- [Female] To a dream that might be real.