Don’t Snooze On Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

As fans of both gay cinema and horror films, we here at TLA have always enjoyed the subversive charms of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. All subtext considered, it’s not exactly a gay-positive movie, but we’re fascinated by the fact that screenwriter David Chaskin was able to sneak a ‘gay panic’ allegory into a highly publicized blockbuster horror sequel – back in Ronald Reagan’s 1985, no less. While the making of the film has been covered in DVD special features and the heralded A Nightmare on Elm Street documentary Never Sleep Again, there’s a new documentary coming that examines not only the making of the film, but the aftermath.

A feature-length documentary focusing on the gay experience in Hollywood horror, Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street explores how that experience has changed in the three decades since actor Mark Patton‘s controversial portrayal of Jesse Walsh, the object of Freddy Krueger’s latent desire in the second film of the Nightmare franchise. Scream,Queen! examines that film’s infamous homoerotic subtext and the special place it holds in the Nightmare franchise as well as the gay film canon. Partly in thanks to evolving social mores, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 – which was considered controversial at the time of its release – is now being looked back upon with a new appreciation and fondness by horror aficionados and fans of the series.

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Halloween Highlights: 50 Queer Horror Flicks We Think Are Worth a Look – Part 3

If you’re the same kind of scare-seeking movie geek that I am, you’ll know that October is a time to light a few candles, turn down the lights, open up the windows to let in that fresh autumn breeze… before really setting the mood with some seasonally-appropriate scary movies! Being authorities on all things gay-cinema, though, we at TLAgay.com wanted to put in a good word for some queer movies that don’t make the usual ranked horror lists. We came up with a selection of 50 different gay titles that are either direct horror movies or horror adjacent (suspense, mysteries, thrillers). Below, you’ll find part three of our ongoing list – in alphabetical order – with new lists appearing each Monday in October. Keep checking back each week for the latest additions!

 

We tried to limit these to films that are currently available on our site – either on DVD or Blu-ray, or available via our On-Demand service. If a movie is missing from this list, chances are good it’s just out of print or otherwise currently unavailable/hard to access. This isn’t, as you’ll see, a definitive list of the greatest gay horror – that’s not what we were going for. This is just a sampling of some offerings that usually fly under the radar. Some are good, some are great, some are delightfully campy and ridiculous, some might be downright terrible, but they’re all available to help get your into the Halloween spirit!

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