A late (but appropriate!) entry to Vadavision's pride programming schedule over at Sun-Ray Cinema, about 50 or so totally-normal-people-who-just-like-scary-movies-ok filed quietly and discreetly into the pews of Theater 10 on the evening of June 29, 2026 to watch a kinda grainy 35mm print of this 41 year old curiosity. It was glorious.
Advertised (accurately) as by Sun-Ray as "the gay one", this film holds a place in gay cinema due to its heavy and onetime controversial homoerotic subtext. As I would chant with my fellow marchers along Bayshore Dr. in the St. Petersburg Pride Parade, "Be Cringe! Be Free!"
By that standard this movie is quite free. Wes Craven allegedly turned this one down because of all the silly elements, the principal one being that the monster, Freddy, possesses main character Jesse Walsh to carry out his campaign of vicious murder from beyond the grave, which puts Jesse in the position of living a bit of a double life--hearthrob teen by day, evil monster by night. What's a boy to do?
The gay subtext and imagery will leap off the screen to all but the most clueless. Even for a horror movie, which as a genre regularly stoops to the camp that my lil gay heart loves, this one is particularly unsubtle and as such I don't think it requires much discussion here. It was amusing enough, but not at all scary or thrilling--it's more of a parody about growing up in repressed with doofy parents.