A look at how queer horror films have evolved over time, asssg more than 50 films that span the gay ghosts of the early 20th century to The Babadook.
Contents:
THE 5 MOST UNTENTNALLY GAY HORROR MOVI
From Nosferatu to A Nightmare on Elm Street, LGBTQ+ viewers have long tected a queer unrtone many horror films. Now the genre is brgg s gay subtext to the surface * horror movies with gay subtext *
But as wh so much of Hchck, ’s hard to say that this is an outright homophobic visn, pecially when the script has the souciance of Osr Wil: “Before this day is out I fear we’ll hear that terribly old-fashned but que exprsive term ‘foul play, ’” Sanrs says, all while munchg on a chicken leg. ” The remarkable thg about all this is that Hchck mak you intify wh Perks (who was gay and closeted real life) as much as he did Marn Crane herself, to the pot that, as Hchck often did at his perverse bt, you’re kda rootg for him. A prolific and succsful horror fictn wrer who began directg to adapt his work himself, out gay filmmaker Clive Barker is rponsible for two of the films on this list, “Nightbreed” and “Hellraiser.
Takg the token gay iend to his rightfully sensual ends, her roommate Adrien luxuriat his sexualy, brgg boys home and flntg the pleasur of the flh that seem so out of reach to the raveno Jte. For 2019’s “Midnight Kiss, ” a sexy gay slasher set amongst a group of LA gay iends on New Year’s Eve, Blumhoe tapped out gay talent — wrer Erlgur Thoroddsen and director Carter Smh, who also hired all queer actors for the queer rol.
A rare slasher film wh a group of entirely openly gay characters, Hellbent is an outlier of s time that’s also a fe example of a story wh queer protagonists that go beyond the tradnal “g-out” narrative. Mdy beg openly queer is a ls fg character tra, which is admirable and mak Scream an antidote to the e of homosexualy as a punchle s precsor, where the character Robbie Mercer blurts that he’s gay jt to avoid Ghostface’s wrath. More fixated on his pannship wh his male partner and antagonizg a society uneasy by his mere prence, Griff is a figure wh his own queer unrcurrent like the monster Frankenste, another horror masterpiece om openly gay director Jam Whale.
HORROR MOVI WH GAY SUBTEXT
1930sThe Old Dark Hoe (1932)One of the first openly gay filmmakers any genre, horror or otherwise, Jam Whale directed several spooky stori have been reterpreted through a queer lens.
While many of the lbian vampire films of old ed the predatory lbian and “bury your gays” trop, this 1936 horror film is an trospective piece that leans to the experience of ternalized homophobia.
Dorian may be a typil Evil Gay (and arguably the origal Murr Twk), but society helped force his hand: Had he not had to hi his te self, he might not have gotten so good at hidg his actual crim. Screenwrg and theater legend Arthur Lrents — who was gay real life and romantilly volved wh the film’s -star, Farley Granger — claimed later life that he liberately wrote the film so the dience would realize the characters were gay, whout explicly sayg so due to Hays Co censorship and ntemporaneo attus.