Robert Englund may think he's a little long in the tooth to play Freddy Krueger once again but that isn't stopping him for suggesting ideas for the future of the franchise. During a recent interview with "TooFab" promoting his new series True Terror, Englund revealed that he would love to see a remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE.
There is a caveat to Englund's idea of remaking FREDDY'S REVENGE. Released in 1985, the film was financially successful but its legacy grew over time not so much because of its importance in NIGHTMARE canon but more for its not so subtle subtext involving homosexuality. In the film, Mark Patton starred as Jesse, a teenage boy who is haunted in his dreams but Freddy Krueger. Freddy is out to possess Jesse in order to continue his reign of terror in the real world. Patton, who is gay in real life, was in the closet at the time but the subtext was not lost on the actor and he felt it wasn't last on writer David Chaskin. There are a lot of moments where Jesse is scared of what's inside of him and is scared of the evil inside of him coming out. Throw in a dream sequence that looks like it takes place at an S&M gay bar, to a coach getting his bare butt towel whipped, to the probe boardgame that Jesse has in his room and Jesse clearly being the "scream queen" to Kim Myers' Lisa Webber, FREDDY'S REVENGE went on to earn a reputation as the "gayest horror film" of all-time. Englund feels the only way a remake would work is if that subtext was brought to the forefront without trying to beat around the bush:
"If they redid Nightmare 2, for instance, and really deal with the subtext, Freddy toying with that boy's sexuality. But the fact that we're much more comfortable with that now, I think it would be really fun to have Freddy play with one kid who's gay. Maybe one boy is not. Play with them. Tempt them. Force him out of the closet or back into the closet and we can do that. Audiences would accept that now. Freddy would do that because he's in your head. But it is going to take somebody very clever to do that."
Despite negative criticism early on, FREDDY'S REVENGE has gone one to build a cult following because it actually dared to be different. The more that people discovered the subtext, the more a pocket of fans began to sing its praises. Mark Patton pretty much left the Hollywood scene after the film was released because he was living as a gay man who stumbled upon a "gay" role and he had a lot of mixed feelings about it for a while. Patton eventually came to terms with the role and embraced its importance to the genre because many horror fans who felt "different", could relate to the film on a level that I don't think the filmmakers imagined would happen when they were originally making it. I highly recommend the documentary SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET which chronicles Patton's story and the infamous homoerotic subtext of the film. At the end of the day, the documentary is about Patton taking back his power and letting him define what the film's legacy means for him and the fans.
Englund has always had deeper thoughts about the themes in the NIGHTMARE films and I think that's why fans respect him so much because he really takes the brand very seriously. Englund went on to elaborate about his feelings on NIGHTMARE being about the loss of innocence:
"The secret of Nightmare on Elm Street is loss of innocence and the kids need to be like Midwestern kids, they can't be hip, chic, junkie kids. They have to be middle American kids that think they're a little hip and they are co-opted by evil and they lose their innocence on all levels; sexual, violence, murder, death, realization of their parents' flaws, all of those things."
I have to say that when I was younger, FREDDY'S REVENGE was my least favorite because it was so different from the first film. I was way too young to notice any of the subtext in the film so it wasn't until I was a teenager that I picked up on it and from there the film became a little brilliant for me on a completely different level. I think time has been very kind to the film and many people are discovering on a completely different level. It may not be the best sequel of the bunch, but it's certainly the most unique in retrospect.
Would YOU like to see a remake of FREDDY'S REVENGE or maybe a NIGHTMARE film that carries over some of its themes?