lasher@via.DEC (Lew Lasher - DTN 381-2651) (08/24/85)
[Several days I wrote to complain about what I thought was a subtle but annoying anti-gay theme in the movie "Fright Night." Jim Dyer wrote back that he didn't think the characters I was referring to were gay.] I think Jim Dyer's point is interesting in showing that people can easily overlook "clues" that someone is gay. The person with whom I say the movie did not share my annoyance at what I thought was an anti-gay theme, but he agreed with me that there was no question that the vampires next door were portrayed as gay men. The only explicit reference to the concept was when the teenage hero's mother says about the new neighbor "With my luck he's probably gay." But the other "clues" were not that subtle. When the police came for one of the "neighbors", the other one says, "No, that's not me; I'm his *roommate*." He is also described as a "live-in carpenter" (to help restore the haunted house). When the teenage hero and his friends first go to investigate the scene, the "neighbor" makes some remark about "what an attractive group of youngsters" has come to visit. The "vampires" make several advances upon the teenagers beyond that necessary to extract blood. The "vampires" are seen several times touching each other in ways that straight men in American middle class society generally do not. And there's the line "If we don't stop them now, they'll be sucking the whole city" which rivals "actually, tomatoes are not vegetables, but fags (sic) ... Oh, I'm sorry, fruit" from "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." Lew Lasher