Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

Patton tells a tighter, less well-heard, and necessary tale of being gay in an era where that could still destroy a career (which to be frank, is still an issue that should be better addressed…), nestled carefully within a re-read of an oft-maligned horror sequel. He’s a deeply appealing subject.

Scream, Queen! feels a bit self-indulgent at times, exploring so many tangents that it tends to lose focus. Nonetheless, it's a fascinating sociological examination of the circumstances surrounding a film that inadvertently became a camp classic.

Directors Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen have packed the film with as much social context as possible, and they view as many sides of this story as they can in a fast-paced, engaging style. There are interviews with academics and drag queens and fans of the horror genre, and this gives the movie a wide-ranging perspective that helps us better understand the moving personal story at its core.

All this certainly constitutes an intriguing footnote to horror cinema history. But Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen’s film could’ve used more distance from its principal interviewee, a producer here.

Perhaps the slickly made documentary overstates the cultural impact of a little-seen and widely disliked film. However, it earns points for scraping at the surface of something rarely discussed in film fandom — homosexuality in horror.

Chronicling the gayest horror movie ever made, Nightmare on elm street 2 Freddy's Revenge. The documentary centers around Mark Patton who at the time was not an out gay actor and how the reputation stalled his career. But even more than that the film chronicles the outlook of Hollywood on it's gay artists and the effects of the industry people had to endure. Surprisingly the movie also investigates the Aids epidemic. Although it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I loved that the makers weren't afraid to go into the darker stuff. I wish it could have touched a little deeper with Patton himself. But the film does give me a new found appreciation for him and the struggle he went through. As a kid I never picked up on the in your face subtext. And if I'm being honest although I liked it I never counted this entry as one of my favorites. But over the past few years and understanding it more I definitely have a new love for it. 4/5