It may have been slated by critics on its release, with few praising or understanding its cutting-edge exploration of the toxicity of homophobia. But since its release, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker has finally earned the accolades it deserved. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker will be released in a limited-edition 4K Blu-ray on May 13 through Severin Films.
Four years before A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge explored the horrors of coming out in 1980s America, William Asher’s (Beach Blanket Bingo) Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (aka Night Warning) explored how homophobia was used to manipulate, control and terrorise individuals and communities in the 1980s. Long-forgotten by many, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is a cult classic that took a razor-sharp scalpel to 80s America, exploring the widely accepted, toxic behaviours surrounding homophobia.
Billy (Jimmy McNichol) is a kindhearted, sensitive, caring, loving seventeen-year-old who accepts differences and is always considerate of others. He’s a great basketball player, cute, and has a loving, caring girlfriend (Julia Duffy), but Billy also has an aunt who loves him more than any aunt should.
Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell) adopted Billy when he was a toddler after his parents died in a freak car accident. Cheryl lightly strokes Billy in his sleep, often drugs him and wants him all to herself. She is an abuser, manipulating and controlling Billy at every opportunity, as she attempts to keep him locked away, at home, with her. So when Billy announces he has been offered a basketball scholarship at a university far from home, Cheryl hatches her own deadly Oedipal plan to keep him with her at any cost.
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is a groundbreaking queer slasher in so many ways. First, this is an ’80s horror movie that places its gay character centre stage while rejecting the stereotypes surrounding gay men at the time. Billy’s basketball coach, Tom Landers (Steve Eastin), doesn’t have AIDS, is not camp, and is never predatory; he is just your average gay guy, living with his boyfriend who wants his star basketball player to go to the best university possible. Second, the homophobic arseholes surrounding Billy are the real villains of the piece.
The corrupt Detective Carlson (Bo Svenson) uses homophobia as a weapon throughout the film as he calls people fag’s, blackmails Lander and insinuates that Billy is Lander’s young lover. Far from being a protector, he is a reflection of the corruption, discrimination and hate of many 1970s and 80s police officers, reminding us that just because someone wears a badge, it doesn’t mean their motives are sincere. Meanwhile, Billy’s aunt, played brilliantly by Tyrrell, who delightfully pays homage to nearly every Bette Davis character ever seen on the silver screen, makes statements like “Homosexuals are very, very sick!” before drugging and abusing Billy.
It may have been slated by critics on its release, with few praising or understanding its cutting-edge exploration of the toxicity of homophobia. But since its release, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker has finally earned the accolades it deserved.
On May 13, Asher’s queer horror classic finally gets a 4K Blu-ray release from Severin Films, bringing it to a whole new audience. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is the forerunner of A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2, and Jimmy McNichol’s Billy is undoubtedly the model for Mark Patton’s Jesse a few years later. Unconventional, bold and ballsy, Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is so much more than an oedipal slasher horror, like Willard, Psycho and Cat People before it; Asher’s movie is a proudly queer horror classic.
Follow Us