Some of those panelists made it sound like NIGHTMARE 2 threw the first brick at stonewall. I appreciate your small inroads of bringing up different perspectives and different approaches to the film and the documentary. You don’t necessarily have to like everything that’s queer coded, but you can appreciate the discussions it generates.
I love Mark. Met him many times and was privileged to see this doc when it premiered in Salem. I was in tears and he kindly gave me a cuddle afterwards. He was fantastic in "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" with Cher, Kathy Bates, and Karen Black. Robert Rusler is also a complete sweetheart. I love how supportive many of his cast mates are.
Interesting tidbit: Robert Shaye, founder of New Line and producer of many films including the Nightmare films has a cameo in Nightmare 2 as a bartender at the gay bar.
This was excellent. Thanks sooo much for posting you guys. My mouth fell open when you mentioned Mark is the guy in Five and Dime/Jimmy Dean... I had nooooo idea. 😮❤💯
You both were asking the hard questions here. I never hated this film, but is it 'good'....not really, but the final boy ending was unique for back then. I do feel bad for him, but I agree that there have been working gay actors/ actresses who would have counted this as a flop and moved on and done better. Some notable people like Brad Davis, Anthony Perkins, Denholm Elliott, and the great James Whale were out there. I'm happy for his resurgence, I can't speak for who he is in real life, but I think there could have been a place for him if he leaned in on developing his strengths more. Great discussion.
Thanks for uploading the talk. I liked the documentary and I sympathize with Mark to a point, but him confronting the writer at the end just comes off as a struggle session. You don't get a sincere apology or understanding from someone by browbeating them on camera for a documentary.
People keep saying writer and director however who edited this film? Like clearly the editor had a HUGE PART TO PLAY in how this film came together and how scenes play out. Ijs
I needed a friend around to say, 'Wait... his dumb 🍑 didn't read the gay coding in the script' so I could've been more 😂 than 😢 when I first watched the documentary, because brotha's heartstrings were PULLED; don't ever stop keeping it real kings 👑 👑
I think people forget that the slasher/ horror genre in film wasn't looked upon as high art by the late 70s and 1980s, regardless if the main lead was female or a gay male. It was a level above pornographic films (Elm Street creator Wes Craven started out as a film editor in that industry before working on the original "Last House On The Left") and a stepping stone for acting talent (Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Bacon, Johnny Depp, Patricia Arquette, etc.). For Patton to go from Broadway and Robert Altman to a slasher flick is not a good career move, homosexual or not. Now, slasher/horror films are being reevaluated as pro-feminist.
One thing I don’t like is I was listening to this podcast called horror queers. And Mark besides being very defensive about everything lol he made alll these weird claims about Wes craven that seemed baseless. Like apparently, Wes didn’t even want him in the role of West Craven had nothing to do with the second one. And then he tried to make some weird statement about Craven, ignoring the second one when he worked on warriors and tried to apply that it was homophobic.😂😂 I don’t know it was so bizarre. He was like going after West Craven over some really stupid baseless shit. He was crying that the second one made a lot of money in West took that money and just ignored them and I’m like yeah but the third one made even more money so 🧐
