A retrospective look at A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) and the life of its lead actor, Mark P | dG1fSWE1dG9ndDQ0bDg
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00:00 [scary music]
00:02 In the midst of the 1980s, no one was scarier than Freddy Krueger.
00:07 I love Nightmare on Elm Street.
00:09 I was obsessed, loving Freddy Krueger, loving Nightmare on Elm Street.
00:12 But part two came along and it was just a strange movie.
00:15 [thunder]
00:17 For a lot of us, Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was our introduction to like...
00:20 [popping]
00:21 There's a lot of gay in that movie.
00:23 It's kind of a siren song for the queer horror community.
00:27 Mark Patton's a... I mean, he's a scream queen.
00:30 [screaming]
00:33 I wake up in the middle of the first movie that I'm the lead actor in
00:36 and realize that there's a gay subtext in it.
00:38 It wasn't subtext, it was right there.
00:41 This movie is the gayest thing...
00:44 and we did Xanadu last month.
00:47 [laughing]
00:48 [thunder]
00:50 Some of the circumstances around the making of this film
00:53 created a lot of hurt for him.
00:56 And people ask you about it, you say, "No, Mark was just so gay that he ruined the movie."
01:00 You know, the mainstream public, they weren't ready for a male scream queen.
01:04 They couldn't articulate it.
01:06 I think the word is homoerotic.
01:08 That it wasn't owned as a queer film
01:11 made a light shine on him that was completely inappropriate.
01:15 The film that was poised to launch his career
01:18 ended up destroying it.
01:20 Mark Patton pretty much disappeared.
01:23 He was the Greta Garbo of horror.
01:25 [music]
01:27 I was not a gay actor in Hollywood in 1985.
01:31 I was a gay person, and I was living in terror.
01:34 In the 1980s, to be queer was to be this diseased pariah.
01:39 I think, you know, Waymo and Patton paid the price for that.
01:42 It was on the page of the script, and I knew we were treading in there.
01:46 This is not a delusion that I'm having.
01:48 You filmed in one of the biggest gay bars in Los Angeles.
01:51 Oh, was that a gay bar?
01:52 Yeah.
01:53 Oh my God, yes.
01:54 You can play with it all you want.
01:56 [music]
01:59 I wanted to be a movie star.
02:01 This movie destroyed it for me.
02:03 That's what made him go a little crazy.
02:06 The movie was 30 years ago, and you're still pissed off at Dave Chastain.
02:09 You've been lying for 30 years about this.
02:12 Yeah, I never wrote, you know, "He screams like a woman."
02:15 [screaming]
02:17 If you don't think that this is all interconnected,
02:19 then you need to do your math again.
02:21 [music]
02:24 (gunshot)