Queer.Horror.Movies

The curated portfolio of film journalist Joe Lipsett

Horror Queers

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My writing partner, Trace Thurman, and I write monthly editorials for Bloody Disgusting entitled Horror Queers. The series focuses on films with LGBTQ themes, a high camp quotient or both.

Podcast (New for 2019!)

Horror Queers has launched as a podcast as part of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network. Tune in weekly on your podcatcher of choice (iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Soundcloud, TuneIn) for new episodes:

  • The Craft feat. Valeska Griffiths (June 24, 2020)
  • Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker feat. FriGay the 13th (June 17, 2020)
  • Lord of Illusions (June 10, 2020)
  • Hellbent / Killer Unicorn feat. Sam Wineman (June 3, 2020)
  • The Handmaiden feat. Jenny Nulf (May 27, 2020)
  • Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II feat. Leigh Monson (May 20, 2020)
  • Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island feat. Haleigh Foutch (May 13, 2020)
  • Grace feat. Anya Stanley (May 6, 2020)
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street (April 29, 2020)
  • Poltergeist 2: The Other Side feat. Tyler Jensen & Roman Chimienti (April 22, 2020)
  • Reefer Madness (April 15, 2020)
  • American Psycho feat. Eric Charmelo (April 8, 2020)
  • April Fools Day (April 1, 2020)
  • Vamp feat. Cecil Baldwin (March 25, 2020)
  • The Ranger feat. Annie Rose Malamet (March 18, 2020)
  • Jason X (March 11, 2020)
  • The Blob feat. Meagan Navarro (March 4, 2020)
  • Zombeavers (Feb 26, 2020)
  • Martyrs (Feb 19, 2020)
  • Single White Female feat. Double A Horror Highway (Feb 12, 2020)
  • Hellraiser: Bloodline (Feb 5, 2020)
  • The Boy Next Door feat. Matt Donato (Jan 29, 2020)
  • All Cheerleaders Die (Jan 22, 2020)
  • Hostel: Part II (Jan 15, 2020)
  • Scream 2 (Jan 8, 2020)
  • Speed Dating 2 (Jan 1, 2020)
  • American Horror Story: Asylum feat Emily VanDerWerff (Dec 18, 2019)
  • Black Christmas feat. Alex Wiggins (Dec 11, 2019)
  • Blade: Trinity (Dec 4, 2019)
  • The X-Files: I Want To Believe feat. Ari Drew (Nov 27, 2019)
  • Jawbreaker (Nov 20, 2019)
  • Alien: Covenant feat. Drew Dietsch (Nov 13, 2019)
  • Interview With The Vampire (Nov 6, 2019)
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge Live From Fantastic Fest (Nov 1, 2019)
  • Phantom of the Paradise feat. BJ Colangelo (Oct 30, 2019)
  • House on Haunted Hill (Oct 23, 2019)
  • The People Under The Stairs feat. Carter Smith (Oct 16, 2019)
  • The Perfection (Oct 9, 2019)
  • I Know Who Killed Me feat. Anthony Hudson (Oct 2, 2019)
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation feat. Stephanie Crawford (Sept 25, 2019)
  • Cursed feat. Tim O’Leary (Sept 18, 2019)
  • Jason Goes To Hell feat. Alice Collins (Sept 11, 2019)
  • IT: Chapter One feat. Michael Roffman (Sept 4, 2019)
  • The Loved Ones feat. Dirty Little Horror (Aug 28, 2019)
  • Good Manners (Aug 21, 2019)
  • Tragedy Girls feat. Dani Ryan (Aug 14, 2019)
  • Audition (Aug 7, 2019)
  • ParaNorman feat. Brenna Clarke Gray (July 31, 2019)
  • Orphan feat. Sade Sellers (July 24, 2019)
  • In The Flesh feat. David Opie (July 17, 2019)
  • Scream: Resurrection (July 10, 2019)
  • Lake Placid feat. Brian Particelli (July 10, 2019)
  • Tales From the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight feat. Sarah-Tai Black (July 3, 2019)
  • Ginger Snaps feat. Ariel Fisher (June 26, 2019)
  • Seed of Chucky feat. Chris Eggertsen (June 19, 2019)
  • Final Destination feat. Terry Mesnard (June 12, 2019)
  • Knife + Heart (June 5, 2019)
  • Otto; Or Up With Dead People feat. Kyle Turner (May 29, 2019)
  • The Brood (May 22, 2019)
  • Calvaire / The Ordeal (May 15, 2019)
  • Fatal Frame feat. Jenny Nulf (May 8, 2019)
  • The Wicker Man feat. Cap Blackard (May 1, 2019)
  • Cemetery Man (April 24, 2019)
  • Psycho 2 feat. Michael Varrati (April 17, 2019)
  • Oculus (April 10, 2019)
  • Stage Fright (April 3, 2019)
  • Daughters of Darkness feat. Ale Gonzalez (March 27, 2019)
  • Ravenous (March 20, 2019)
  • Cherry Falls feat. Brennan Klein (March 13, 2019)
  • The Rage: Carrie 2 (March 6, 2019)
  • Always Shine (Feb 27, 2019)
  • Lyle feat. Stacie Ponder (Feb 20, 2019)
  • Happy Death Day (Feb 13, 2019)
  • Dead Ringers (Feb 6, 2019)
  • Swimfan (Jan 30, 2019)
  • Jennifer’s Body (Jan 23, 2019)
  • Hostel (Jan 16, 2019)
  • Scream (Jan 16, 2019)
  • Speed Dating (Jan 16, 2019)

Patreon Podcast

If you want even more Horror Queers, you can subscribe to our Patreon account for more exclusive content:

  • June 2020: Creature Feature Theme
    • Audio Commentary: Sneaks on a Plane (2006)
    • Full episodes: Deep Rising (1998) and Arachnophobia (1990)
    • Minisodes: “Thirstiest Horror Crushes” and “Scream 5 Predictions”
  • May 2020: Possession Theme
    • Audio Commentary: Evil Dead – Unrated Cut (2013)
    • Full episodes: The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) and Insidious (2010)
    • Minisodes: “Memorable Mothers” and “Celebrating F13th at 40”
  • April 2020: Home Invasion Theme
    • Audio Commentary: You’re Next (2011)
    • Full episodes: Hush (2016) and The Strangers (2008)
    • Minisodes: “Trapped in Your House Horror” and “Best Opening Scenes”
  • March 2020:
    • Audio Commentary: Hollow Man (2000)
    • Full episodes: The Invisible Man (2020) and The Hunt (2020)
      Minisodes: “Spoilers in Trailers” and “Flawless 5 Star Horror”
  • Feb 2020:
    • Audio Commentary: Valentine (2001)
    • Full episodes: Gretel & Hansel (2020) and Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (2020)
    • Minisodes: “The 2020 Hereditaries” and “Worst First Date Horror”
  • Jan 2020:
    • Audio Commentary: Scream (1996)
    • Full episodes: The Grudge (2020) and Underwater (2020)
    • Minisodes: “Q1 Most Anticipated Horror” and “Is January Horror Bad?”
  • Dec 2019:
    • Full episodes: Black Christmas (2019) and Into The Dark: Midnight Kiss (2019)
    • Minisodes: “Best Horror of the 2010s” and “Best Horror of 2019”
  • Nov 2019:
    • Full episodes: Doctor Sleep (2019) and Primal (2019)
    • Minisodes: “Horror Gatekeepers: What are They and Why Do They Suck?” and “Must-Includes in a Holiday Horror Movie Night”
  • Oct 2019:
    • Full episodes: In The Tall Grass (2019) and Zombieland 2: Double Tap (2019)
    • Minisodes: “TIFF/Fantastic Fest Wrap Up” and “Most Annoying Final Girl”
  • Sept 2019:
    • Full episodes: 3 From Hell (2019) and IT: Chapter Two (2019)
    • Minisodes: “Stephen King” and “PG-13 vs R”
  • August 2019:
    • Full episodes: 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) and Ready Or Not (2019)
    • Minisodes: “Controversial Horror Hot Takes” and “Do Horror Fans Lack Empathy?”
  • July 2019:
    • Full episodes: Midsommar (2019) and Crawl (2019)
    • Minisodes: “4th of July Horror” and “Aquatic Horror”
  • June 2019:
    • Full episodes: Ma (2019) and NOS4A2 (AMC, 2019)
    • Minisodes: “Comfort Food Horror” and “Most Anticipated Third Quarter Horror Releases 2019”
  • May 2019:
    • Full episodes: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) and The Perfection (2019)
    • Minisodes: “Traumatizing or Triggering experiences” and “Remakes”
  • April 2019:
    • Full episodes: Pet Semetary (2019) and The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
    • Minisodes: “SXSW Recap” and “Best Pranks in Horror”
  • March 2019: The Last House On The Left (2009) and Us (2019)
  • Feb 2019: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) and Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
  • Jan 2019: Escape Room (2019) and Glass (2019)

Written Editorials

Monthly posts are available on Bloody Disgusting. The series has covered the following films:

[Review] ‘A Moment In The Reeds’ Is A Lush, Evocative Romance

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Janne Puustinen, Boodi Kabbani

It appears that at least once a year, LGBTQ-hungry audiences are being gifted with a quiet, introspective gay love story that delivers both the romance, the passion and the geography porn. It truly is a marvelous time to be alive.

Following in the footsteps of Brokeback Mountain, Call Me By Your Name and – most closely – God’s Own Country, writer / director Mikko Makela’s debut feature film is the latest entry in a recent trend of gay art cinema films that chronicles a forbidden romantic relationship between two men from different backgrounds.

In this case, it’s Finnish graduate student Leevi (Janne Puustinen) – back home for a long weekend from his studies in Paris, France to help his father, Jouko (Mika Melender), fix up the family’s lakeside cottage for sale – and Syrian refugee, Tareq (Boodi Kabbani) who is brought on as a handy man. Almost immediately the men are forced together because Tareq does not speak Finnish and Jouko’s command of English doesn’t extend beyond polite chit-chat, meaning that Leevi must act as translator. He’s also required to be the mediator, explaining Tareq’s frustration to his father because the refugee is unable to procure better work despite his expertise as an Architect; Leevi is also negotiating his father’s volatile xenophobia, which adds an additional layer of complication to their already strained familial relationship.

The tension eases up when Jouko is called away overnight on business and the pair of younger men are left getting to know each other. Makela wisely takes his time developing their relationship: for the better part of their dockside chat, their discussion in the sauna, their romp in the lake and finally their nighttime drinking on the porch, the topics are shallow and general. In fact there’s barely any sense of a romantic connection; these are guarded men circling the wagons. Still, a few lingering glances from one when the other isn’t looking serves to build anticipation and by the time the pair finally lock eyes in a knowing fashion at night’s end, both the characters and the audience are ready to put an end to the slow burn and get down to action.

Makela expertly employs a handheld style, as well as tight framing and slightly disjointed editing to convey the impassioned intimacy of their first sexual encounter. Leevi and Tareq’s coupling has a hungry, desperate vibe; the scene teeters somewhere between graphic and carnal and Makela’s script allows it to play out longer than usual before cutting to the next morning. From this point on the connection between the men shifts and their interactions, both verbal and physical, are more charged, sexualized and meaningful. Conversation about the weather is replaced by startlingly frank revelations about Tareq’s double life in Syria and his flight to Finland, as well as Leevi’s memories of his deceased painter mother and his uncertainty about love following a prior relationship back in Paris.

Janne Puustinen, Boodi Kabbani

A Moment In The Reeds spells out its central conflict in its title: this is a film that traffics in a fleeting fantasy. The reintroduction of Jouko and the realities of the external world quickly threaten to upend the romantic connection between the new lovers. In this way, comparisons to God’s Own Country are certainly apt and unavoidable, particularly the gorgeous, empty countryside playing host to forbidden desire and brooding spectacle.

The natural beauty is amplified by Makela’s exquisite direction and the naturalistic performances by the two leads. Puustinen and Kabbani wisely underplay their attraction until the men act on their desires, at which point their sexual chemistry and affection comes on strong. Although I’m not in favour of a requirement to hire LGBTQ actors to play queer characters, the ease with which the two men interact, particularly in the sex scenes, belies a comfort by the real life gay actors that is absent in other projects.

The film is not without criticism. Despite all of the groundwork laid in advance, the ending of the film feels sudden and abrupt, which won’t satisfy fans of the film’s otherwise languid pace. Narrative-focused audiences, meanwhile, may find that their attention drifts: this is a simple, straightforward story about a brief, fleeting encounter between two men. At one point Tarek mentions “a fantasy experience” and that’s what the film is for the majority of its runtime, for better or for worse.

Still, the political and social framework of the two men’s backstories is relatable and/or extremely topical. Leevi’s story is familial: he’s working through a communication rift between him and his estranged father and other unresolved issues in the wake of his mother’s passing. Tarek’s story is more global: he’s an immigrant recovering from the experience of being closeted in a country that’s hostile to the LGBTQ community at the same time as he struggles to establish a new life in a place where he doesn’t speak the language and can’t practice his own profession.

Both Leevi and Tareq are hungry – nay starving – for intimacy and someone who will listen to them (sexually, romantically, and emotionally). Considering how memorable and impassioned Mikko Makela’s film is, audiences may find themselves devouring A Moment In The Reeds with similar enthusiasm. It’s a strong contender for queer film of the year.

4/5

[Rant] Where Are All Of The Queer Female-Identifying Horror Directors?

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Kimberly Peirce and Stewart Thorndike

At a recent panel on queer horror last month, I was struck by a comment from co-panelists Katie Connell and Joshua Dare about the current state of queer female-identifying horror directors. The discussion began with a definition and brief historical overview of queer horror, then shifted into a survey of the current state of representation. Concerns about the tendency to spotlight films featuring gay men at the expense of their lesbian counterparts gave way to a cautiously optimistic listing of recent films featuring out and proud women. As we rattled off a number of films, however, we discovered a strange pattern: nearly all of these films were directed by straight white men.

Let’s backtrack a little to consider the current state of queer horror, which has notably made a number of gains and increased prominence in the last twenty years. A recent guide created by Vulture entitled “55 Essential Queer Horror Films” identified key shifts in the 21st century that reduced the stigma around queer characters, thereby enabling them to move from marginal to central, sometimes even lead, roles. In the 2000s, films such as Hellbent, High Tension and Seed of Chucky offered visible, albeit problematic, depictions of gay men, lesbians and trans characters.

With the advent of gay marriage in the 2010s, queer figures in horror have become even more normalized, nuanced and fleshed out. The result has been some of the most intriguing texts to date, the vast majority of which are about queer females. Films such as Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009), All Cheerleaders Die (McKee, 2013), The Neon Demon (Winding Refn, 2016), Thelma (Trier, 2017), What Keeps You Alive (Minihan, 2018) and Blue My Mind (Bruehlmann, 2018) all feature complicated and fascinating lesbian characters.

Bruehlmann’s Blue My Mind

A cursory glance, however, reveals that all but two of those films were directed by straight white men – a number that is worth pausing over. While there is obviously nothing that restricts one group from telling the stories of another, the lack of female directors is note-worthy, particularly given the problematic historical depiction of lesbians as a source of titillation for the male gaze.

This disjunction is not severe when compared to publicly “out” gay male directors, who have become increasingly prominent in recent years. Renowned master of horror Don Mancini has kept Chucky and the Child’s Play franchise alive and sexually subversive for 30 years. Up and coming directors Chris Peckover (Better Watch Out) and David Freyne (The Cured) have both delivered horror films that play with notions of masculinity and lends themselves to queer takes. And recent Oscar winner Luca Guadagino’s Suspiria, featuring a nearly all-female cast, is filled with sexual connotations and feminist readings.

Stewart Thorndike’s Lyle

The simple fact is that representation and visibility matters. Even in horror fandom, there remains a frustrating need to explain why female characters and creators matters, although the recent uptick in feminist horror criticism that began with AxWound and Women in Horror Month and continues now with publications and sites such as Grim Magazine, Anatomy of a Scream, Suspiria Magazine, Graveyard Shift Sisters and Diabolique Magazine bodes well for the future.

Let’s return to the question at the heart of this debate: where are all of the queer female-identifying directors? Despite the disheartening statistics about the ratio of female to male directors (and in spite of Jason Blum’s hastily corrected statement about the lack of women interested in directing horror), the horror genre is flush with talented women. “Out” female queers, however? Not so much.

A deep dive online (and help from HorrorTwitter) revealed only two feature filmmakers: Kimberly Peirce, who directed the 2013 remake of Carrie, and Stewart Thorndike, who directed indie micro-budget “lesbian Rosemary’s Baby” film Lyle (2014). Singer St Vincent (nee Anne Erin Clark) directed one of the segments of the all-female horror anthology, XX (2017), though she seems unlikely to return to the director’s chair in the near future. There are undoubtedly a number of other up and coming talents working in horror shorts, including Monika Estrella Negra, who is currently crowdsourcing the funding for her first feature, Two Sisters.

Despite advances in queer visibility both on and offscreen, there remains a gap in the horror genre. It is possible that filmmakers prefer to leave their mark on the screen rather than publicly disclose details about their personal lives, but the fact that there are so many heterosexual white men telling stories about lesbian characters in horror films is a potentially problematic trend. On the cusp of what Vice is calling “the rebirth of lesbian horror movies”, let’s hope that a number of proud, “out” queer female-identifying directors emerge from the shadows to ensure their onscreen proxies bear an authentic touch.