I found myself haunting The Screening Room again to see Scream Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019), a documentary about Nightmare on Elm St. Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) and it's underlying gayness, or at least that's what I thought it would be about.

In preparation for the documentary, I re-watched Nightmare on Elm St. 2. I remember watching it back around the time it came out, probably at a sleepover party on VHS. I was unimpressed and didn't understand why it stood out so much from the other Nightmare on Elm St. movies. I know I didn't like that it was a possession-type movie and it truly changed the dynamic of Freddy Krueger. To be fair, I was young. Seeing it now, I caught all the homoerotic clues and it's a no-brainer that it's a gay horror movie. I was happy to see male butts and not boobs like so many 1980s horror movies! I'm still confused as to why everyone is so sweaty though. lol.

I read that originally producers had such an unexpected hit with the Nightmare on Elm St. movie, they were in a rush to make a sequel and they were planning separate stories for each movie with the only connection being Freddy Krueger. They ended up switching gears ~ when the second film was a bust ~ and brought back fan favorite final girl Nancy for the third installment, (which I admit Nightmare on Elm St. 3: Dream Warriors (1987) was always my favorite.)

So back to Scream Queen: My Nightmare on Elm St., it revisits part 2 through the eyes of the main actor Mark Patton. So it's less about the movie, and more about him. Mark was cast as Jesse Walsh and this role was meant to further his acting career, but the problem was the gay subtext. He felt it ruined his career and he vanished from show business all together. Little did he know, he shaped fans idea of what a heroine is and gay people finally found representation in horror through his character. Jesse was a final girl...er boy.

In real life Mark Patton is gay. He knew he was gay from the age of 4, but that never stopped his acting career... in the beginning. He was in movies, shared the Broadway stage with Cher, and starred in a bunch of national commercials. He was the "All-American" boy. The timing of his first starring role in Nightmare 2 was bad. In the mid 1980s the AIDS epidemic was taking over the media and we were still learning about it. The media associated gay people with AIDS. Gay actors went back into hiding because of the shame and Hollywood was fearful of people learning about all the gay actors. Mark is HIV positive. So really the subtext of Nightmare on Elm St. Part 2 was dangerous for Mark as an actor.

The writer of the movie explained that at the time, in 1985, the real horror was being gay and having AIDS, not some slasher gimmick. He tried to manifest homoerotic horror in the movie through the relationship Freddy and Jesse have. It's almost a love story where Jesse transforms into Freddy.

Looking back on my experience with horror movies ~ just off the top of my head~ Sleepaway Camp (1983) stands out as introducing a character that you're not sure of their sexual orientation. *SPOILER* You think the main character is a girl, but you find out at the end they have a penis. So the question is, are they a cross-dresser? Are they transgender? You don't really know. Another one is The Lost Boys (1987). The character of Sam always seemed very feminine to me. He even has a picture of Rob Lowe on the wall of his room and wears a "Born to Shop" T shirt, but it's never ever addressed. Really it's "all don't ask, don't tell." In my opinion ~ in the real world ~ it's no one's business anyway.

In 2010, the documentary Never Sleep Again: the Elm St. Legacy (2010) came out, and producers wanted to include Mark Patton. They had to hire a private investigator to find him. (fyi- If you plan on watching Never Sleep Again it's about 4 hours. I was not prepared for that when I started watching it.) They found him living in Mexico off the grid. He's now an artist and owns a little shop.

In 2015 he followed the horror convention circuit because he finally realized his contribution to horror movies. He's finally taking the fame and using it to become an advocate for HIV awareness. He's back in the spotlight and changing the conversation about LGBTQ+ in horror.

I'm a fan of documentaries and I found this one to be thoughtful and interesting. Mark Patton gets "his truth" out and even gets closure from the writer of Nightmare on Elm St. Part 2 for derailing his career. The opening animation was was wonderful too.

Here's the trailer...

Don't forget to enter my 3 year anniversary contest!

I just wanted to THANK YOU for following my blog. I've slowed down writing them a little, but I'm still here! This year for my anniversary I'm doing TWO giveaways!!!

Giveaway 1 ~ PUSHEEN

Included is...

1. Pusheen Water Bottle

2. Pusheen Pool Float

3. Pusheen Jump Rope

4. Pusheen To-Go Salad Container

Giveaway 2 ~ MAC

Included is...

1. Gold Makeup Bag

2. Perfume Atomizer

3. Eyelash Curler

4. MAC Makeup Palette (colors: Pink Freeze, Fine Shine, Dove Feather, Chill Blue, Nocturnelle, Formal Black)

All you have to do to enter...

~ Like the Fluffy the Vampire Slayer Facebook Page.

~ Comment on the Giveaway post which one you would like to win, or both! i.e. "PUSHEEN", "MAC", "PUSHEEN & MAC".

~ Share the Fluffy the Vampire Slayer Facebook page.

Good luck and I'll be picking two winners at random on Monday, March 9 and they'll be contacted via Facebook.

The movie the Color Out of Space was recently featured on the cover of Rue Morgue Magazine ~ and I hate it when this happens. Let me explain, I get psyched up about a movie I want to see on the big screen, and then it's only shown at one movie theater in town, once for MAYBE three days. When I saw it was up at the North Park Theater, I had to scramble. Monday night at 9:40 pm and I was there! Nic Cage starring in it and a Lovecraft story, what can go wrong?

I admit I wasn't expecting to like it, on top of that it was playing at my bedtime so I was a tad bit crabby. I was pleasantly surprised. I will also admit, I've read Lovecraft, but not this particular story, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I noticed the crashing meteor trope is similar to quite a few classic horror movies.

***SPOILER ALERT...SORT OF***

The basic premise is that a family of five inherits an old country house. Mom works from home doing stocks and she has breast cancer, it was hinted that dad was an artist, the two older kids are teenagers, and all you need to know about the youngest son is that he's adorable and the most impressionable.

They are secluded from people and a meteor hits their front yard ~ of course it does. Meteors and aliens don't land in the city. (p.s. This is why I would never live in the country, too far away from civilization if some crazy sh!t goes down and I need help. Literally...comes down from the sky). This meteor is alive and dissipates it's energy into the ground, the water, the air surrounding the farm. It begins to change time and matter around it.

Staring at the meteor.

Electronics start and stop by themselves, everything is static-y, time speeds up, foreign plants sprout up all over, bugs mutate, water is contaminated, each family member's personality becomes more confrontational and angry, the youngest son begins to see and hear things no one else can see. That's the scary part, it's unpredictable.

I won't go into all the details, but there's a black fluffy cat in the movie that's owned by a squatter that randomly lives on the land played by Tommy Chong. (Yes, THAT Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong. Makes sense since this movie its a little trippy.) The cat's name in the movie is "G-Spot" you know because pussy-cat. (Even though I never read the Lovecraft story, I'm pretty sure this isn't in it.) The cat's name in real life is Lucifer, much more suitable in my opinion. ***Warning all cat lovers, G-Spot doesn't survive the Color Out of Space.

I feel like Tommy Chong plays the same character in every movie.

After thinking about Color Out of Space for a few days, I've decided it reminds me of The Gate, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill in Creepshow, any of the 1950s B movies about toxic/ radiation/ nuclear destruction, but with beautiful cinematography. A friend said it reminded him of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So while the story isn't new ~ and one could say all of these movies were based on Lovecraft's original story ~ Color Out of Space is an update.

It included a lot of imagery that's found in so many modern horror movies. For example, the use of triangle shaped elements, just like The Void, OA, and Neon Demon. The use of neon colors to give an almost iridescent quality was great, after all it's the COLOR Out of Space. These small things captured me as an audience member and made it enjoyable.

The body horror special effects were impressive. Mom chops off her fingers and they show it, Dad's skin becomes dark and scaly, the alpacas when touched by the toxic air melt to a giant blob of flesh ~ think the monster in Slither ~ and mom and the youngest get attacked by the light and their skin fuses together into a gooey blob that evolves into The Thing type monster.

About midway through, Nic Cage becomes the comic relief in this movie. His over-acting outbursts into madness were laughable, and the audience did laugh. You'd think this was a bad thing, but it seems to make the movie even better.

My only question is why they made the daughter a practicing Wiccan? Was it to prove even though you worship the old way, you still can't be saved? I didn't think it added to the movie at all. Other than that I give it 4.5 mutated alpacas out of 5.

I'm looking forward to Nicolas Cage's next movie, and hopefully more Lovecraft adaptations!

Here's the trailer...

Our second try at visiting a cat cafe was completely different then the first! I knew the Buckminster Cat Cafe was opening soon, as the owner Molly stopped in my shop Cats Like Us last summer and we were in communication about cross promotion. Well they finally opened in November and our family holiday obligations calmed down, so we stopped in for a visit! It was awesome!

The reason it took so long to open is that they wanted to do a cat cafe right, and it shows. I can't say enough good things about this place. The building is in downtown Buffalo, NY and they completely gutted and rehabbed the inside and part of the outside. Even though the inside is small, the giant front windows, streamlined interior, and clean look make it nice and bright. You feel like you're in a much more cosmopolitan city like Toronto! 

The front part of the cafe is a an actual cafe with a big variety of coffee and tea drinks, nibbles, AND they have local beer and wine! The atmosphere was calm and filled with students working on laptops and people reading. We were running errands on Sunday and ended up getting there a little early for our 2 o'clock Cat Zone appointment, so we ate lunch. Both of us opted for a beer/ hard cider and a BLT. They have a tempeh bacon option if you are vegetarian too! The sandwich had bacon, tomato, mayo, cucumber, and sprouts. It was simple and tasty. After lunch I had a hot tea and they have a nice variety of fresh loose tea. The quality of their cafe is impressive. It's hard to find a restaurant that serves good loose tea, or even loose tea in general!

They have vintage cat planters for sale, along with locally made cat toys and goodies. You know I'm all about the vintage!

Ok, so 2 o'clock rolled around and we filled out our waivers. I suggest making reservations online to visit the cats since only five people are allowed to visit with them at a time. The money to book your slot goes towards caring for the cats. Totally worth it.

We were then escorted by the owner into the back of the cafe and through a glass door into a window filled hallway where we hung out coats. Looking through the window you can see the kitties in the cat room. She opened the door and introduced us to the cats that were currently up for adoption. She gave a little info on each of their personalities and what toys they like. I loved this part because it's good to have a little background since cats are as different as people.

The room itself was small and long and made for kitties! It had lots of nooks for the cats to hide and escape if they got too overstimulated, hidden litter boxes, even an open window up high to get some fresh air. There was a bin of cat toys for us and the cats to play with. I was surprised at how active the cats were for it being the afternoon. Maybe my own cats are just super lazy. 

Don't worry though, if the cats are all napping in the Cat Zone, there's light reading for you to enjoy! (Lol.)

Of the five cats we met, I really liked Noelle. She was a lone tabby kitty just doing her thing. We were told she doesn't get along with other cats. I did notice she was a quiet observer. We got her to loosen up a little and go by the other cats, she even climbed up and perched near them! What a sweetie!

Our hour was up and I left feeling an overall sense of delight at what Buckminster Cat Cafe is doing. They are adopting out cats from Second Chance Sheltering Network.

As for the cross promotion I mentioned above, come to Cats Like Us and get a coupon for a free coffee or tea with the purchase of Cat Zone entry! Just ask! *While supplies last.

Buckminster Cat Cafe

577 Niagara Street

Buffalo, NY 14201

Me in my happy place...with cats.