"Crazy Fun Park": Dead gay teens come to life in an abandoned amusement park in Australia

 

Crazy Fun Park, on Hulu:  Chester's best friend Mapplethorpe has died in a tragic accident at an abandoned amusement park. He is "grief-stricken without his soul mate," until he discovers that "the soul of his mate may not be alive, but is very much kicking."  Don't get too excited -- in Australia "mate" just means "friend."  Still, I wonder if there are any gay subtexts here.

Episode 1: "I Don't Want to Grow Up."  Ugh, are they going to present same-sex romance as something you grow out of to pursue a "real" grown-up heterosexual romance?

Scene 1: Mapplethorpe (Stacy Clausen, left), an energetic, goofy blond, is hanging all over the button-down, "that's not a good idea" Chester (Henry Strand) as they work on their history presentation, Zombie Joan of Arc fighting zombie Da Vinci.  Whoa, these guys are hot for each other.

Scene 2: Time for school, so they skateboard through Asphodel Heights (get it?  it's the flower of the underworld) and arrive ten minutes late.  The teacher makes them re-do the assignment.  They grin at the new girl, Violetta.  Uh-oh, a Love Interest, but at least she's not walking in slow motion, hair blowing in the wind.

Scene 3: Out in the hallway, they're accosted by bullies, but at least no one makes a homophobic slur: Mapplethorpe is called "rat-licker" and "bleached brains."

On to a mountain overlook.  Chester wants to move to Melbourne, where they won't be laughed at all the time.  Maphethorpe counters that they have everything they need in Asphodel Heights: a butt-tree (what do they do to it?), a Pride Rock (nothing gay-specific about it), and an Ambiguous Pole (it's actually called nonbinary).  We're getting some gay references that you'll only catch if you're looking for them.  

Scene 4:   Hanging on each other, the guys stand at the entrance of Crazy Fun Park, which opened way, way back in the Dark Ages (1979!), and closed after some accidental deaths.  They've never had the nerve to go inside (through a scary demon mouth?  I wouldn't, either).  Suddenly they encounter Violetta (naturally), who belongs to a club that photographs abandoned structures.  This is all a tease; One of the guys is going to fall in love with her, guaranteed.

Scene 5: The inside: a roller coaster, a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, and a parody of famous statue of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse (if you look from the right angle, Walt has an erection).  

Uh-oh, the fortune-telling machine lights up!  But the park has no electricity.  I'd be running, but they stick around. Mapplethorpe reads his fortune-card, but won't tell the others what it says.  A spider causes them to run screaming from the park.

Scene 6: Violetta joins the guys on their walk home from school.  Her family runs a funeral home!  

She invites them inside to help her develop the pictures she took yesterday, but she can't find her film roll.  Besides, Mapplethorpe is scared, so Chester hangs all over him, and they leave.

Scene 7:  Split screen of the guys going home, greeting their parents, and texting each other about asking Violetta to help them write their horror comic.  Mapplethorpe is against it. Chester; "You didn't have to be so rude to her today." Well, he was jealous.  She's the competition.  

Mapplethorpe: "We need her as much as a turkey needs a ukelele." I've heard a phrase like that about lesbians, so maybe he's saying "We're gay. We don't need women hanging around."

Scene 8:  In the morning, the guys are late to school again.  This time there's a presentation on Melbourne Creative Arts High School. The teacher wants him to apply: don't let "misguided loyalty" stand in your way of artistic greatness!  Uh-oh, the eternal question, love or career?

Later, Mapplethorpe finds Chester in the library, re-doing their Joan of Arc report into something conventional.  But when Mapplethorpe touches the scanner, it crashes, and the keyboard catches fire!  Chester is irate, thinking that he ruined the report on purpose, and tells him to "grow up."  Maplethorpe lashes out at Violetta, who happens to be watching, and storms out.

Scene 9:  At home, Mapplethorpe tries video-calling Chester, but gets rejected.  "He hates me!" he exclaims.  Mom disagrees; "You two have a bond that is so special, it could survive anything"  Not that special -- it's called "being in love."  It happens to most people. 

Apprised that you should never go to bed with bad feelings, Mapplethorpe goes to Chester's house to make up. He tries to apologize, but Chester says "It's not me you should be apologizing to."  "So this is about her?"  Durn women, always interfering.  Why can't it be just two guys, living together and doing the things that married couples do? 

"We've got to grow up eventually," Chester says.  Yep, their same-sex love is temporary, to be abandoned for mature hetero-romance.  "What if I don't want to?" Mapplethorpe asks, but of course he has no choice.  He gazes longingly at Chester and then steps aside: "Let's go to the Crazy Fun Park and find her lost film roll.  That will get her to like you again, right?"  Chester won't do it; too dangerous

Out on the street, the jilted boyfriend reads his fortune-card: "Can you surrender that which you desire most?"  Looks like you already did.  He goes to Crazy Fun Park by himself and walks through the scary demon mouth. Violetta wakes up, precognitively aware that something is wrong.

Scene 10:  In the morning, Chester is waiting to walk Mapplethorpe to school.  He never shows up.  Assuming that he's upset over the breakup, Chester rushes to school by himself, but Mapplethorpe isn't there!  His Mom calls: he didn't come home last night!  Then the police: "Was there any reason Mapplethorpe would go to the park alone."  I thought this was a comedy.  It is definitely a drama. 

We cut to the body being taken to Violetta's funeral home, as she gazes mournfully.  Chester goes to the park and calls for Mapplethorpe, hoping that this is just a prank.

Wait -- things start to turn on, a display of stuffed animals barks, and a scary clown squirts him with jizz (it's actually pink, but ok).  The mask comes off: it's Mapplethorpe!  "Welcome to Crazy Fun Park!" he exclaims.  The end.

In future episodes, Mapplethorp and Chester will meet other teens who died in the park, in tragic (and gruesome) ways, and are trapped there, coming to life every night.  Fortunately, the park comes to life, too, so they can go on rides and such.   A few are heterosexual, but most seem to be gay: the Peter Pan Syndrome, gay as arrested development, being a kid forever.

So, Mapplethorpe is obviously in love with Chester, but is it subtext or text?  I can't tell for sure, but:

1. Episode 8 features Mapplethorpe befriending another park resident, a boy ghost named Zed.   He doesn't remember his real name, or anything about his life before dying -- until he remembers that he is trans 

2. Henry Strand has played a gay character before.

3. Writer/director Nicholas Verso also wrote and directed Boys in Trees: a boy named Corey encounters his old friend Jonah, whom he left behind to "grow up."  As they walk home,  we gradually realize that Jonah has died, and his home is in the cemetery.  Sounds like a similar set-up, with a similar theme of LGBT people as stalled on the way to adulthood, unable to "grow up."

So maybe it's text, but done so obliquely that you won't see it unless you're looking for it.  Everyone else will read them as platonic pal.