Need More Queer Horror Suggestions? Just Open Up “Queer Horror: A Film Guide”

October 31, 2024
HANK ORSO

Photo courtesy of Sean Abley

Well, it's almost the end of the spooky season, that time of year when queers of all stripes don their finest costumes and let their even freakier flags fly! You love going out and partying, but you also love staying in curled up on the couch and watching a scary movie. But what's that you say? You want to see something with more queer representation and don't know where to look? Or you've run out of ideas, because how many times can you watch A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge or Sleepaway Camp and convince yourself the gay content is just campy fun and not hurtful? Well fret not, mon fréres, because there's a new book out there that is just what you need to fulfill all your gay horror wishes! Queer Horror: A Film Guide edited by Sean Abley and Tyler Doupé is an exhaustive five-hundred-page collection of over nine-hundred entries from eight people working in the industry. The films included span the globe and reach back into the earliest era of filmmaking, because as Abley explains, "...we’ve been here all along. LGBTQ characters have lurked in the shadows from Day One of cinema."

Abley was kind enough to answer a few questions for yer boy Hank here, but before we get to that I need to share with you the stellar lineup of contributing writers: Sean Abley (Fangoria, Men’s Health, Attitude, “Gay of the Dead” blog); Tyler Doupé (Wicked Horror Managing Editor, Dread Central staff writer); Calpernia Addams (LGBTQ filmmaker, historian, entertainer); Molly Henery (the Uterus Horror blog); Alan Kelly (Rue Morgue magazine contributor); Daniel W. Kelly (Boys, Bears and Scares blog, horror novelist); Brian Kirst (Big Gay Horror Fan blog); and finally Michael Varrati (Midnight Mass podcast, filmmaker, Fangoria’s Chainsaw Awards producer). Whew!

The films enclosed run the gamut from classics with subversive "queer coding" to contemporary films with overt and sometimes shameless LGBTQIA characters and storylines. You'll recognize some titles, but many many of the films they write about will be unknown to you, as they were to me. And those are the films I'm most excited to track down!

Oh, and there might also be a straight-up porn film or two! Listen to Abley talk about one of those:

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Abley was so frightfully kind to answer some of my questions about our community's connection to horror films, some of his favorites, and what are "queer horror icons."

FleshBot: In your introduction to Queer Horror you mention growing up in Montana and finding ways to fulfill your burgeoning love of films, and horror films in particular. And later in life you discovered that as a gay kid who loved horror, you weren’t alone. But why horror, exactly? Why do you think queer people are so drawn to horror?

Sean Abley: Two things: First, our trauma as gay kids, at least mine, was never ending. Free floating trauma every day. But the trauma of horror movies has a beginning, middle, and end. You can observe the worst horror, have your trauma or “fight or flight” impulses triggered, and have a vicarious, cathartic experience that ends. Second, what most horror movies have in common is they’re about ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and to survive those situations, the ordinary person must become extraordinary. I can’t think of a better analogy for growing up queer, especially in rural areas.

Abley talks Carrie on A Jaded Gay:

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FB: Quickly, off the top of your head, without thinking too much, what is your absolutely favorite horror film?

SA: Dawn of the Dead! Original flavor.

FB: And what’s a quick Top Five you recommend to anyone?

SA: Dawn of the Dead, Martyrs, Dead, Thanksgiving, The Ring (original and remake)

FB: We know that A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is often seen as one of the gayest horror films ever made, but for pretty obvious reasons. Is there a gayer one? Or one that is super gay for less obvious reasons that you really enjoy?

SA: Well, I created a book with 900+ of them, so all of those! I can’t stop evangelizing about Dead, a gay zombie buddy cop comedy from New Zealand. The most charming film about gay murder you’re likely to ever see. And you should definitely check out the documentary Scream, Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street! for a thorough examination of just why NOES2 is so friggin’ gay, and the damage the industry callously inflicts on queer artists.

FB: As queer representation has increased over the years in horror films, are the representations getting better? Or more watered down and obvious as they increase? I’m thinking of the couple played by Michael McDonald and Scott MacArthur in Halloween Kills. Sure they were a likable couple, but weren’t they also just “gay padding,” throwing some gay content in because it was acceptable to do so but without any nuance or subtlety to them? Or is any representation a positive thing?

SA: There’s more of it, which is a good thing. In that specific example, those gents were a loving couple who were neither more nor less important than anyone who wasn’t a legacy character. That is absolutely progress. Now that we’ve made decent strides in representation, I’m happy to see every flavor of queer character in horror - hero or villain, final gay, or first out.

FB: Please explain to this old gay dude why the internet finds the characters M3GAN and The Babadook to be “gay icons.” Because I just don’t get it.

SA: Well there’s gay icon, and there’s gay subject matter. M3GAN is fun because she’s a super villain with style. Don’t we all secretly want to be a super villain with style? And I’ll push back on the Babadook thing every time. I call bullshit. No need to add “gay” to the mix. Let it just be a sad, overrated movie.

Full disclosure, I loved The Babadook. But I'm gonna agree with Abley about calling bullshit on it. That being said, this fake Drag Race moment is hilarious. And there's also what the filmmaker has to say about whole weird The Gay Babadook thing:

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Okay gays, put down your internet porn and pick up a great book! Queer Horror: A Film Guide is available from the publisher McFarland, or that other unmentionable place if you wanna give a bazillionaire more money. Better yet, walk into your local queer-owned bookstore and if they don't have it, demand it! (Politely.)

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