Best gay horror films

James Whale was instrumental to launching the Universal Monsters series, and The Bride of Frankenstein is arguably the queerest of his films. The outsiders now haunt the inside, and we are remaking the genre in our own ghastly image while tracing our presence throughout its history.

Gay sex buddies Nathan and Justin are united by their passion for slasher, vigilante, serial killer and zombie films. From ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ to ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies,’ Them contributors select the best LGBTQ+ horror movies of all time.

Bored and frustrated with their lives as students at an obscure college in impoverished New Haven, Connecticut, they decide to teach a self-important classmate, Andy, a lesson by raping him. The monster, at long last, is getting its revenge. Is it any wonder, then, that we see ourselves in vampireswerewolvesghosts, and other twisted creatures?

Not all of us are fans of every entry on this list, and some choices are bound to be controversial, but we believe it includes much of the finest horror cinema has to offer. Even during the censorious Hays Code era, which spanned from tofilmmakers simply coded characters as queer using brushstrokes that are as obvious today as they were to trained eyes back then.

All that, and Angela Lansbury staking her claim as an early gay icon as doomed tavern singer Sibyl Vane. All products are independently selected by our editors. Dorian may be a typical Evil Gay and arguably the original Murder Twinkbut society helped force his hand: Had he not had to hide his true self, he might not have gotten so good at hiding his actual crimes.

This deceptively simple film about Irena Dubrovna Simone Simona fashion designer who believes she will transform into a panther if she and her new husband are intimate, holds so much beneath its skin.

21 LGBTQ+ horror films :

In bringing his unmistakable style to RKO Studios in the s, iconic horror producer Val Lewton assembled the perfect team of collaborators, notably director Jacques Tourneur, to create the perfect little horror film that is Cat People. Those of us who grew up picking at representational scraps like little gay vultures are finally in the position to make our own overtly queer horror media.

Fortunately, they weren’t creative enough to drive the big bad Other away. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission. Queerness, like horror, is defined by tensions: between the inside and the outside, the normal and the abnormal, the celebrated and the rejected.

But whether we identify with horror or not, the genre has always been about us, from its literary origins to its contemporary boom. The real villain here? During the Hays Code era, which began inqueer characters were reduced to subtext to appease the censors.

The premise is essentially the same: a group of strangers find themselves trapped in a mysterious mansion during a storm, during which all manner of curious and disquieting events begin to occur. Here was Whale, a gay man, building horror in his own image and having astounding box office success as some groups were lobbying Hollywood to censor queerness out of existence.

One of the first openly gay filmmakers in any genre, horror or otherwise, James Whale directed several spooky stories have been reinterpreted through a queer lens. Watch them all if you dare. Picking up where his adaptation of Frankenstein left off, Bride finds Henry Frankenstein Colin Clive reunited with his campy mentor, Dr.

Fellas, is it gay to run off with another guy and obsess over the man you created on your wedding night? We are what society fears, but we are also what society is fascinated by, and horror resides at that painful intersection, simultaneously insisting that the monster must be slain to maintain the social order while remaining fixated on it to the very last frame.

Look no further than the sheer explosion of queer horror titles in the s and beyond. That we empathize with villains who are cast out, stabbed through the heart, and burned at the stake? Click here to jump to a decade: ssssssssss.