Reading Analysis:
Benshoff starts his thesis by recognizing the otherness of homosexuality under the rule of a patriarchal society; therefore, homosexuality is often viewed as a threat to the natural, straight order or as a barrier/sin to straight “purity.”
It is all subjective depending on the perspective of the person interpreting, but through a queer lens, a lot of gothic monsters are queer-coded, specifically vampires. Vampires transfer a virus via blood, and the AIDS epidemic spread in a similar way via the transfer of fluids, often the source coming from gay men, creating this shared horror between vampires and the LGBTQIA+ community. Benshoff recognizes that the homosexual is painted similarly to the way evil lurks in patriarchal horror films, waiting to come out or bursting and disrupt the natural order of the straight status quo.
Benshoff goes onto to describe the otherness of homosexuality and how it acts as blockade or a barrier to the normalized heterosexual romance in horror films. Many horror films portray heterosexual romantic plot lines, where the monster disrupts the straight order of the relationship. Similar to Clover’s argument of the villain in a slasher giving into submission fantasy as he gives up his phallic traits to the final girl, Benshoff recognizes a similar trend in the depiction of queer couples in the media, where one half of the gay couple must be feminized or be without phallic to assume the role of the woman and vice versa for lesbians.
It is the fear of the abnormality of the homosexual relationship to the straight norm that caused this fear and horror that was translated, projected, and interpreted onto the repressed movie monster.
Film Analysis:
There’s nothing like an evil dream demon with blades for fingers telling you he needs you.
Throughout the film, Jesse, the final boy, battles with his inner demons as Freddy Krueger fights for control for his body. “Like an evil Mr. Hyde, or the Wolfman, a gay or lesbian self inside you might be striving to get out” (Benshoff 116). Freddy attempts to subdue parts of Jesse’s personality, such as his seemingly heterosexuality. Every intimate moment Jesse has with his girlfriend, Freddy takes over, causing Jesse to run away out of fear, displaying some form of comphet. Comphet is the shortened word for compulsory heterosexuality, meaning that heterosexuality is the assumed sexual identity under the bourgeois patriarchal order and often queer individuals function under comphet, seeing that is the normal or right thing to do. “The concepts “monster” and “homosexual” share many of the same semantic charges and arouse many of the same fears about sex and death” (Benshoff 117). One could interpret that is the subtext for the Jesse, Freddy, and Lisa as Jesse is trying to fight this evil lurking with in him in order to maintain this heterosexual relationship. This “evil” within him is waiting to burst out of him and consume him, coloring the negative or monstrous ways homosexuals are often depicted.
Despite A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge being considered a gay movie, the Freddy’s Krueger queer coded urges are still silenced by the dominating straight sexuality of patriarchal culture as Lisa swoops in to save the day. “Since the demands of the classical Hollywood narrative system
usually insist on a heterosexual romance within the stories they construct, the monster is traditionally figured as a force that attempts to block that romance. As such, many monster movies (and the source material on which they draw) might be understood as being “about” the eruption of some form of queer sexuality into the midst of a resolutely heterosexual milieu” (Benshoff 118). Straight is the overlay and the norm in the patriarchal society, and so queer cannot triumph in the end. Even though Freddy Krueger is not the best queer representation, the movie does not qualify to be a progressive horror film because the queer-coded character does not win. The monster does not win, and straight wins in the end after Lisa helps Jesse repress Freddy and banishes the demon; therefore, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge has to be seen as a reactionary horror film. Despite the homosexual undertones the film has to offer, the film still conforms to the straight majority by the end, leaving the message behind to queer analysts that straight wins in the end.
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