This movie is not exactly the best image of gays, but it was avant-garde for 1981. In case it isn't obvious by the inclusion of the film on this site, the psychotic fan is gay. We learn this in several ways, the more coded ways is that he is simply by being a younger attractive man pursuing an older diva, albeit in a completely obsessive fashion. The other is more obvious when we see him pick up another man and then kill him during their sexual escapade, leaving a suicide note behind to throw the police off.
This film typifies an unfortunate time for Hollywood. With the destruction of the Hayes Code, gays could now be shown openly on screen, and with a visible and assertive GLBT community beginning to form, Hollywood decided to demonize the images, turning gays and lesbians from a harmless and funny stereotype into a group of psychopathic monsters bent upon destroying all that is good. Unfortunately there is little redeeming in this movie, and it appears to be a film whose soul purpose is to get this message across.
