10 Insane Movies Way Deeper Than They Look

To the casual observer, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge is a relatively standard issue horror sequel, albeit one that follows the deranged plotline of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) attempting to possess the body of high-schooler Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton).

Though opinion on Freddy's Revenge continues to vary wildly among the fanbase - and most will agree it's nowhere near the quality of Wes Craven's original - it has enjoyed a re-assessment in recent years for its homoerotic subtext.

Many have suggested that Jesse's literal struggle for his own bodily agency against Freddy makes the film a metaphor for coming out, compounded by a scene where he's tormented by Coach Schneider (Marshall Bell) for visiting a gay bar, only for the Coach to then be suggestively killed by Freddy in the school showers.

This is especially interesting as actor Mark Patton was himself a closeted gay man at the time, and though writer David Chaskin spent years denying that the gay subtext was intentional, he later admitted it was.

The film's legacy as a queer classic was brilliantly explored in the 2019 documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, which examined both its thematic depth and the impact it had on Patton's life thereafter.