A ghoul, a monster that lives on dead human meat, is terrorizing the town, getting most of its victims in the cemetery run by the teenage Timmy (Nolan Gould) and his abusive Dad (Dane Rhodes). Timmy gradually realizes that Dad is assisting the ghoul, and has even kidnapped a woman from town to become its mate.
Timmy's friends agree to help him look for the ghoul, but they have problems of their own.
One is being sexually abused by his mother.
The other is being emotionally abused by his father.
The real monsters are the adults.
In the book, the Steve character is quiet, passive, rather chunky, probably gay, and interested in Timmy (who, unfortunately has a girlfriend). He is the one who gets eaten by the ghoul.
I wonder why Steve's mother is the abuser. In real-life, the father is the offender in 90% of cases of sexual abuse. Maybe he didn't want to reflect the myth that same-sex abuse causes kids to "turn" gay. Or maybe he wanted to add some diversity by making one of the evil parents a woman.
The ghoul ends up kidnapping Timmy's girlfriend (of course), but after a cliche last-minute rescue, they all escape.
But not entirely. Twenty years later, when Timmy returns to the cemetery to bury his father, he sees that Steve is now the caretaker, and his son has bruises consistent with abuse.
The real monsters are the adults.
I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know if the gay subtext was retained, but the reviews are terrible: 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. It starred Nolan Gould of Modern Family as Timmy, Mattie Liptak, left, as the potentially gay-vague Steve, and Zach Rand and Brett Lapeyrouse (top photo) as other friends.
Gay characters appear often in the works of Brian Keen, including the protagonists of The Rising and of Dead Sea.
See also: Modern Family, Episode 5.17: Gay stereotypes, traditional gender roles, Nolan Gould's abs, and a nude Dylan bonus