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This article was originally published on June 25, 2018.
It has been updated with additional films.
From 1934 until 1967, Hollywood movies were shaped bythe Production Code, otherwise known as the Hays Code.
to make it get queer stories onscreen, filmmakers had to find creative ways to subvert the system.
Below is a beginners guide to the most essential queer horror of the past 90 years.
), before finally being allowed to exist as multidimensional characters onscreen.
Horror fans thus found themselves awash in some of the genres most iconic queer-coded characters of all time.
Taboo topics like homosexual behavior, androgyny, and sexual deviance are all hinted at throughout the movie.
Whale also cast the famously campy actor Ernest Thesiger to play one of the Femm siblings.
This is an Ur-text for haunted-house cinema and one of the gayest films of its decade.
Almost 80 years later, Mrs. Danvers remains one of the great coded queer icons of all time.
A classic tale of haunting.
A classic tale of gay erasure!
But the 50s also laid the foundation for the coming post-code era.
Girl, read the room and stay home next time!
Dr. Frankenstein wants total control over him and demands he call him Sir.
), and yes, he has a girlfriend, but Frankenstein also watches his monster workout while shirtless.
Our main concern is with your physique, Frankenstein tells his sexy monster.
Say no more, doctor.
(Similar narrative arcs can be seen inThe Neanderthal ManandMonster of the Campus.)
The 1960s Farewell to the Hays Code
The 1960s were a time of cultural upheaval.
Feminist and civil-rights activism were both on the rise.
Antiwar protests would break out in response to the conflict in Vietnam.
The Hays Code was about to be scrapped in favor of the rating system.
It starred Annette Vadim as an early screen version of the infamous undead character.
Two women are invited to a haunted mansion by a male scientist who is investigating paranormal activities.
(For Catherine Zeta-Joness great take on the queer character, see the 1999 remake.)
1970s The Lesbian Vampires Are Loose!
As a result, Jekyll transforms into a woman, Sister Hyde.
The Blood Spattered Bride(1972)
This take on the story ofCarmillais a Spanish horror classic.
For one more take on this story, see the Spanish and German co-productionVampyros Lesbos.
Lesbian vampires dont get to have all the fun.
(As Patton told BuzzFeed, It just became undeniable.
Like Im a bukkake video.
Its the queer as monster hiding behind queer performance to make people trust him.
Its one of those movies where the tension is so obvious you just start screaming KISS!
If youre into punishment and BDSM, that might not sound like too bad of a proposition.
Clive Barkers demons are here, theyre queer, and theyre definitely bringing chains and hooks.
Lethal lesbians were made into complex heroes in movies likeHeavenly Creatures,Fun, andButterfly Kiss.
Brothers and sisters, it is time to fight!
The directors cut particularly features plenty of gazing shots of an undressed Boone.
What a modern family!
While the film received a mixed-to-poor reviewfromthe New YorkTimes, its critic did issue some light praise, too.
Queer characters had friends and social structures.
For more queer-girl horror from this same cinematic moment, see Pascal Laugiers even more violent,Martyrs.
Watch this withMake a Wishas a double feature and reminisce about the gay slasher wave of the aughts.
Get wise:Childs Playis the most progressiveand adaptable of all the 1980s super-killer franchises.
The Covenant(2006)
The Covenantis shorthand billed as The Craft, but with guys.
There are female love interests in this movie, but also are there?
Also, Sebastian Stan enters the picture, and theres a witch fight between good and evil.
Sorry, cis-het folks, this one has been claimed by the gays.
For plenty more gay thirst-trap horror (and perhapsthe true origin of the murder twink?
Eli becomes the only companion of Oskar, and takes the role of his protector.
Undeterred, Oskar still asks if he and Eli can be together.
The cheap titillations of the 70s lesbian vampire craze are adorable by comparison.
2010s Theyre Here.
Get Used to It.
This is the dream of coded mid-century monster films fulfilled.
Call me by your murderous name, and Ill call you by mine.
Its a harrowing thriller where the main characters just happen to be gay.
The Babadook(2015)
What?
(As one user said, Its canon basically.
I mean he created a pop-up book of himself for the drama of it all???
(Isnt it obvious that hes supposed to be Rick Owens?).
The Neon Demon(2016)
This Nicolas Winding Refn movieis light on plot andheavy on aesthetics.
Theres sex, cannibalism, and the near-orgasmic experience of encountering transcendent beauty.
This isnt just great queer horror.Its great horror full stop.
The two leads are sexual without being overtly sexualized.
She is simply an antagonist in a horrifying context, as opposed to a monstrous queer.
We dont have to like everything simply because we are subsisting on scraps.
Its homos all the way down, and the monster is normatively now, baby.
Even the cis people can see it.
Jane Schoenbrun is creating movies for the coolest studio in town.
The war for more full representation has not been won, and frankly, it never will be.
Thankfully, nobody fights back like the queers.
So it was only natural that her Palm dOrwinning sophomore effort reflects such explorations.
And so,Titanes queerness is baked in at a genetic level.
A teenage boy is walking around pregnant with the offspring of a Cadillac inside them.
The queer protagonist is impulsive and cruel, but also vulnerable and afraid.
Happy pride to that.
Fear StreetTrilogy(2021)
Horror is likely the most franchised genre in all of cinema.
Super-killers like Jason have become juiced-up sci-fi killing machines in space.
Leatherface has been re-introduced over and over.Screamcemented the viability of dual final girls.
Released over the course of a summer, theFear Streettrilogy is adapted from the books by R.L.
It really feels like the gays have made it when Being Gay isnt the point anymore.
Now thats gay culture.
The old rules were dont ask, dont tell.
The new rules say tell all even if no one asks to make the party as messy as possible.
Do it for the drama!
But ultimately, things really arent that deep here.Bodies Bodiesis just so gay.
The freefall of utter precarity.
Of one life that never felt real ending, and a new one struggling to begin.
The creatures of the night should band together, and they should be fully uncensored.
