Written by Alec Conwell
Photography by Sylvie Goodblatt and Alec Conwell
Creative Director, Styling: Sophia Querrazzi
Production Management: Jazzi Almestica
Models: @najmmuhammadd @belledaydiggins @loganbaker.m @malia.corinneeee @colin_cardwell2 @hadadechicle
Horror is a long-standing genre that has existed for centuries and has made its way through folk tales, novels, films, and TV shows. There’s something incredibly intriguing about the macabre, and many queer folks like myself have found themselves drawn to the genre in one way or another. What is it about the horror that has queer fans so entranced?
Well, to go back a couple hundred years, many classic horror/gothic novels, such as Frankenstein and Dracula, had very queer themes. The authors’ identities could also have contributed to this; Dracula’s author, Bram Stoker, was thought to have been a gay man, and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) was possibly bisexual. Another gothic horror novel is Carmilla, in which the title character Carmilla, the vampire, has romantic feelings for the other female main character. This is only the beginning of queer themes and allegories in horror.
As we entered the 20th century and began to see a rise in horror films, there was an undeniable trend of queer-coded villains and antagonists. Vampires have always been very inherently queer creatures, and who can blame them? Why would an immortal being seek out romantic partners of only one gender?
Of course, the queer-coding of villains and monsters was not an innocent mistake, and it was intentionally done to make it seem as though queer people themselves were monstrous and bad. It just so happens that when you continue to spread that sort of rhetoric about a community, they will end up reclaiming it once more.
This article cannot exist without a mention of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The film is a testament to camp, which comes from writer Richard O’Brien’s love of old science fiction and horror movies. The film is a whirlwind of glitter, rock music, drag, and, naturally, blood, and its incredibly bizarre story has gained it a cult following since its release in 1975. I’m going to hope that if you’re reading this article, you will have seen this movie, but in the small chance you haven’t: go watch it right now.
Moving into the 80s, a supernatural horror film called Hellraiser was released. The movie was written by Clive Barker, a gay writer, who adapted the screenplay from his horror novels. The monsters in the movie, called cenobites, were directly inspired by S&M clubs, and the creatures themselves are removed from any typical view of gender. After an abundance of sequels, another Hellraiser movie was released last year, with the main antagonist being played by trans actress Jamie Clayton.
In 1994, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire was adapted into a film, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Though the movie was plenty queer in its own right, I have to rave about the recent television adaptation on AMC. They gave us the bloody gay vampire show we’ve been yearning for, with brilliant acting by leads Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson, who play Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac, respectively. The first season wrapped up in late fall of 2022, and while the teaser trailer for season 2 has been released, there is no definitive date for season 2 aside from “early-to-mid 2024.” Here’s to hoping the AMPTP will pay their writers and actors properly.
Another iconic queer horror movie is Jennifer’s Body, released in 2009, starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. Fox plays the title character, Jennifer, who becomes possessed and kills and eats her male classmates to survive. She has a pretty homoerotic friendship with her best friend, Needy (Seyfried), and the two kiss at one point. The movie also features an iconic line when Needy says, “I thought you only ate boys,” to which Jennifer responds, “I go both ways.”
Naturally, I have to mention my personal favorites in this article, so next on the list is the show Hannibal, which aired on NBC from 2013 to 2015. The show was inspired by Thomas Harris’s novels, particularly the first of the tetralogy, Red Dragon. The series follows FBI profiler Will Graham and his odd relationship with Hannibal Lecter, who is his sort of psychiatrist/friend, turned enemy, turned indescribable relationship combination of friend, enemy, and romantic interest. Though the relationship title is ambiguous, the feelings and homoeroticism are very much present. The series also features a sapphic couple in the third season! If you’re someone who is intrigued by the metaphors associated with cannibalism in horror and gothic romance, this show may be for you.
Another recent horror show is Yellowjackets, an ongoing series that began in 2021, which follows a group of high schoolers after their plane crashed on their way to a national soccer tournament. The show goes back and forth between the 90s when the kids are stranded in a forest following the plane crash, and the present day, when some of the characters are dealing with the repercussions of their trauma. It does include quite a bit of violence, cannibalism, and psychological horror. Furthermore, the show features at least one sapphic couple, though many of the characters have very complex friendships and relationships. Multiple actors on the show are queer themselves, and two of them are nonbinary.
There are so many other examples I could mention, from a variety of periods, but that would be an incredibly long piece of writing. Queerness has been a part of horror for a very long time, as a way of expressing a desire that was seen as monstrous by society as well as reclaiming the villainous projections placed on us. My only hope is that we continue to get more queer horror content that is made by and for queer people in the future.
Written by Alec Conwell
Photography by Sylvie Goodblatt and Alec Conwell
Creative Director, Styling: Sophia Querrazzi
Production Management: Jazzi Almestica
Models: @najmmuhammadd @belledaydiggins @loganbaker.m @malia.corinneeee @colin_cardwell2 @hadadechicle