Category Archives: Documentary

New to DVD and VOD this week:
SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

Director:
Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen

World Premiere:
Cleveland 2019

Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Fantastic Fest, Milwaukee, Sidewalk, Inside Out, Image+Nation, NewFest, Outfest, Frameline, LGBT fests in Portland, Dayton, Copenhagen, and Pittsburgh

About:
A look back at a horror sequel through the eyes of its closeted young queer star.

Following the runway hit A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET in 1984, New Line Cinema quickly released a sequel the following year, subtitled FREDDY’S REVENGE. While successful enough at the box office, it had vocal detractors who took issue with its homoerotic/homophobic subtext, though this has, in recent years, also resulted in a resurgence of interest in the film as a queer horror cult classic. Directors Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen explore this transformation in the sequel’s reception to some extent, but the focus of their workmanlike doc is squarely on its young lead actor, Mark Patton, the first male “final girl” – the object of the horror film villain’s wrath and its ultimate hero. Like many actors of the time, Patton was not open about his sexuality professionally, and though he saw FREDDY’S REVENGE as his big break, he blamed the film for, essentially, outing him and making him unemployable. While this doesn’t always gel with the history provided here – he did land acting roles after the film, and left acting after his lover died from AIDS complications, and he himself became HIV+ – the sequel has become an albatross. Though he came out of retirement several years ago to participate in fan events, he remains resentful that the film’s gay subtext has been blamed on his performance rather than then script by David Chaskin, and he wants the screenwriter to acknowledge his own role in how the film was received. This hang up at times crosses the line into petulance and takes up too much screen time, unfortunately, detracting from a more interesting look at the reception of the film by queer viewers.

TREAD

Director:
Paul Solet

World Premiere:
SXSW 2019

About:
The bizarre tale of a vengeful man with a bulldozer run amok.

On June 4, 2004, after years of persecution and slights by well-connected rivals and the local government of small town Granby CO, Marvin Heemeyer, a welder and owner of a muffler shop, took his revenge on the community – or so the audience of Paul Solet’s at times absorbing film are initially led to believe. Heemeyer’s familiar, underdog origin story seems to, in part, justify his brazen plan – the demolition of several buildings with a bulldozer that the intrepid citizen customized into an impenetrable tank, represented here through overly slick recreations, audio recordings of Heemeyer’s grievances, and interviews with sympathetic friends. Eventually, however, the director reveals his would-be anti-hero to be instead more of a delusional, sociopathic super-villain, his unreliable version of the events contradicted by the facts. Solet relies far too much on re-enactments to tell the story, veering into awkward docudrama territory, but the sheer strangeness of the incident still makes the film a worthwhile watch.