Episode 21: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss the sequel to Wes Craven's seminal horror classic. Hal takes Craig to school, dissecting this often-overlooked (and underrated) horror sequel and how it has become a classic in queer cinema for its often obvious (but sometimes quite subtle) metaphors to queer identity and escaping the closet in 1980s America. Discussion also includes:

• The merits of the more gloopy, wet iterations of Freddy Krueger's makeup;

• The United Auto Workers Strike;

• Hollywood scabs like gross little puke Bill Maher;

• Nicole Holofcener's new film YOU HURT MY FEELINGS; and

• Our Top 3 American Horror franchises.

Sources and Links

• Intercept Artifcle - "U.S. Helped Pakistan Get IMF Bailout...": https://theintercept.com/2023/09/17/pakistan-ukraine-arms-imf/

• "Will the real Robert Neville please, come out?..." by Jamil Khader: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23469816/

• "Creeper Bogeyman: Cultural Narratives of Gay as Monstrous" by S.F. Juarez: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004360150_011 

• "4 The Monster and the Homosexual" by Harry M. Benshoff: https://doi.org/10.7560/771376-006

• "Frame variation in child protectionist claims: Constructions of gay men and transgender women as strangers" by Amy L. Stone: https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/97/3/1155/5066469