I once read a comment that always sticks out in my head that said, paraphrased, "Trans people love body horror, because we know what it's like to watch out bodies change against our will, and become something strange and unrecognizable." And I think that was such a wonderfully visceral way to describe it.

For queer people specifically, but for all oppressed peoples in general, horror is an intimate part of everyday reality.

I never understood how anyone could watch creature from the black lagoon and NOT feel sorry for the creature. And the fact that it DIDN’T is what really made the movie stand out in my very young mind.

Yeah there is definitely an argument to be made that Mina Harker is bisexual. While she is engaged with and in love with Johnathan, she comments multiple times on Lucy's attractiveness. And is said to have been very close to her in her youth.

It is always quite amazing to see that horror binds a lot of groups who feel like "the other", it's also interesting to see if or when people say the monster or Villain was right.

In Australia there's a thriving indie horror scene, chock full of low-budget camp and homemade fake blood. Some of my earliest memories are of helping my parents and their friends put an indie horror film together, making fake intestines from stockings, shopping for pieces of outfits and making props with papier maché. In that experience as a baby trans I was able to try on wigs and zombie or vampire makeup and all these little instances of gender nonconformity, and in a more recent indie horror film called "Rib Spreader" I played the part of a crowd member at a punk show where the band was a real local queer punk band, hanging out with them and their mates before and after filming and learning how cool and accepting they were.

The LGBT+ retrospective of the Chucky series has really made Phelous and Nostalgia Critic's dual review of the first 3 films age poorly. I also find it funny how this video was uploaded right after Universal uploaded their Dark Universe/Classic Monsters preview video for their upcoming Epic Universe theme park in Orlando.

Honestly, LOVE this take. I truly believe many of the best horror is when the character cant figure out whats 'wrong' with them

VerilyBitchie did a great bunch of videos on the queer history of Dracula, and the lesbian vampire movies modeled after Carmilla. Well worth a watch!

Having worked on horror films before, I always found them fun to be on during actual production. Everyone’s always pretty nice and there’s usually at least something interesting going on, even on slow days.

I would just like to add that the first horror novel in the modern sense "The Castle of Otranto" was written by Horace Walpole, who was very queer.

Please talk about Clive Barker. I love his take on the monstrous. The monsters are not the villains and that is a very queer perspective. And of course there is his weaving in bdsm

I've never really thought about it, but I think that as a queer person, one reason that I love horror so much is because people make me out to be a monster just for existing in an authentic way. When I watch horror, I tend to empathize with the monster, because I know how it feels to be "othered".

It’s so fascinating to me that the NOSFERATU trailer dropped right after you posted this and Eggers himself clearly has the same rumination as Carpenter on his mind, as Lily-Rose Depp’s alternate Mina says “does evil come from within us, or from beyond?” in that trailer. Your finger was right on the pulse with this one, awesome!

A lot of horror by trans women centres around having like one foot in the grave and since realising i was trans i've been looking back on the stuff i've always been drawn to and realised it's like, deeply rooted (a lot of us seem to have gone through a Wicca phase too which was shocking to find out so many queer people have had similar preoccupations, i used to wear the name of a death goddess around my neck). There's a great video by Lily Alexandre called Girls Own The Void that just captures it perfectly. Even non-horror trans fiction like Detransition, Baby literally opens with like, a whole thing about self-annihilation, or comics like The Filth that Morrison wrote as part of their exploring the Tree of Death in mysticism. And the trans superheroine in The Invisibles has a special relationship with the Mexican god of death (she tells him a joke and it endears her to him, and her encounter with him is tied up in her actively seizing the right to her gender by literally facing death directly).

i think horror will always be a place for anyone who is “othered” by society. nerudivergent, disabled, and queer people. the dramatics of it can be comforting to slip into and lose ourselves in that world. we can be comforted by seeing what WE feel on screen. we can see the monsters and see ourselves and our struggles in society

My biggest issue with Silence of the Lambs is the "he's not trans, but he thinks he is." it really stings when trans people are accused of not knowing who they are all the time. Combined with the idea that trans people are passive Buffalo Bill seems like the writer wants to have their cake and eat it too. Lots of queer horror stories that I adore but I loathe Silence of the Lambs, even if it has no ill intent.

On your subject of vampires, even look at animated vampires like Dio who is canonically Bi, even as current as Astarion who might be Pansexual because he refers to Sébastien an NPC vampire he kinda had feelings for that he was forced to bring to his master. Edit because I also forgot Lady D in RE8 who is a "vampire" (really just a BOW) based on her affection towards female characters, but despises male characters

I realized I was gay around 10/11. Before age 12, I was *extremely* frightened of horror movies. It wasn’t until I begged my mother to watch SCREAM 2 from start to finish on cable one cold evening in January 2005. Watching Neve’s character *fight back* at the end changed my perspective. I was terrified of Freddy and Jason and Michael because they were unkillable and unstoppable. But Ghostface was unmasked every movie and still a flesh and blood villain you could destroy. And suddenly all my fear melted away. Sidney HELPED me grow up and mature. I wasn’t that scared little kid anymore. I loved the Final Destinations and Evil Deads and Halloweens. I loved American Werewolf and Hellraiser. And considering Scream goes into campy territory and grand drama monologue, it appealed to a young gay me, who appreciated the “performance” of it.

Excision is a queer horror movie that I often think on. The main lead is heavily coded as asexual as well as aegosexual and it is the only film I'm aware of that dwells on the disconnect for that sexuality between fantasy and actual physical wants. Of course making the lead characters sexual fantasies so dark and morbid in nature can not be called anywhere close to good representation, but I do feel a great pull towards the film in just knowing that they have the same sexuality I do, even though their version of it is so much more dark, twisted and disturbed.

Frankenstein is a story about how you need to own up to and embrace all the weird experimentation you did in college or it will destroy your life. It's about how if you feel like you're different, like youre kind of a freak, you really should just live that and love that because it will come following you if you don't, angry and warped by the contempt you feel for that part of yourself.

reanimator not being mentioned is criminal!! very good video tho

I am not part of the LGBTQ community, nor have I been big into different genres. If a story's premise sounds interesting I'll enjoy it. If there is one thing I want to say, as a person with disabilities I can relate and pity with some of the villains even though I don't condone their actions. Out of all the horror films I relate to Carrie because as a person with disabilities I had to ignore or get used to fitting in. I did had friends but sometimes it was frustrating to fit with a bunch of neurotypical people. She may not be neurodivergent like me, but I relate to how the students treated me. Not like over the top bullies but indifference. It doesn't help that as a person with the spectrum aka autism, one student who had autism was named Issac trying to fit in. I tried my best to be nice, befriend him even or try to understand him. But it's frustrating when many people tell him to stop even when he tried to bond with others with special interests. During a group project I wanted to understand him, yet to the students who wanted him to "shut up" he complied. I wanted to help him but I was unsure what to do and many students urged me to not be associated with him so I sadly complied. It got even worse when I got into High School. One day I had a bad day after struggling with Algebra as well as stress. I had to go to the clinic and because the nurse was unavailable I needed to check my blood sugar. So the vice principal offered to help me. Until the principal misinterpreted I was swearing at her and punished me and forced me to eat there. Was even worse was the Vice Principal I had was the same science elmentary teacher. And it was even worse that she accidentally used her power over me. Because of that incident I was recommended by my Kaiser Doctor and Psychologist for ABA and yeah ABA was the equivalent of LGBTQ conversion therapy. I was unaware I was forced to act like a Neutrotypical and because of that my mental health is now a slippier slope. Today after I got into an emotional breakdown from College and I quit College because I was terrified I would be made fun of as an Autistic person. Which is why I feel terrified revealing my condition especially with many people saying, "Oh she's not autistic" or "She acts normal to me". Which is why I understood Carrie and I understand why it resonated with me. That I had to follow authority and dealing with people who didn't know it, and despite trying to fight back I would be seen as a disobedient girl. There's also Heriditary where while my family situation isn't as bad as the main characters, I feel lost with family. Ever since the mocking and terrible Mega Churches are rising, and fake pastors and horror stories in the church I slowly became disillusioned with religion as a former christian. I decided to be an agnostic and not associate with religion heavily. There's also me trying to make my parents proud yet it gets draining as the only child. That's why it's hard for me. Sorry this isn't from an LGBTQ person, I come from a Religious family and my family isn't discriminatory against LGBTQ. Just indifferent or aware of it. They do tolerate it thankfully but even then they get confused with pronouns I had to correct them. I never knew Horror resonated with LGBTQ like how The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Nightmare on Elm Street's Second Movie, or Hellraiser. So if you're seeing this to those of LGBTQ I understand why you guys love horror media and I understand your points on horror. Horror is still not my favorite but I'm happy you guys resonate to its themes and stories. I hope someday society would be more welcoming for us with different oritentations and disabilities.

As bad as it is I have to thank Ace Ventura for one of my early sexual awakenings, that and Rocky Horror which my mother thought was appropriate for a 8 year old

Once again, another great video essay. I Never realized just how queer themed horror could be.

Not to steal away from the queer narrative, or I guess I am sort of although I don't doubt this would be relatable to a lot of queer folk as well. Anyways, I'm Neurodivergent and either legitimately the ugliest person on the East Coast or I have body dysmorphia and I gotta thank you for touching on the social isolation that permeates Frankenstein and its inspired works. The Bride of Frankenstein has always hit particularly hard because I've had the exact though that even someone somehow tailor made to love me would ultimately find me repulsive like everyone else.

James Whale brough the old dark house (A brilliant film more people need to see) and The Invisable Man to Universal to avoid to make The Bride movie.

Nightmare on Elm Street 2 made me realize I was Bi. And it's absolutely true what you've said here. You what have a excellent voice for commentary. Very pleasant to listen to.

Talking about Hitchcock, one word: Rope. That movie screams queerness.

that was truly amazing, I don't read much in the way of comics, but your movie and TV analysis are always so good, and this may be one of my favorite analysis of the year, Would love to see more about Clive Barker, and in general your take on queerness, and underrepresentation being more represented in the media, Thank you again

Recommending the Claymore manga on the basis of being classified as 'dark fantasy horror' and a fair amount of queer-coding [the lesbian subtext is as strong as their swords] and a nuanced examination of different kinds of love and humanity, but only to those who can handle graphic violence and some really messed up body horror.

For more on clive barker and hellraiser, may I suggest the video by "in praise of shadows" and as a warning it is like a 2-3 hour long deep dive video essay. Really well done.

Just stumbled upon your channel, I really enjoyed this in-depth examination of horror films through a queer lense. Something I wanted to note about Fright Night in conjunction with the relationship between Jerry (antagonist vampire) and his overseer-- is the queer codedness of the protagonist best friend/frienemy, Ed. Ed is presented as a loner and outcast; a third wheeler to his friends' hetero relationship. His other-ness is even seductively acknowledged-- and weaponized-- by the Vampire; Jerry tells Ed that once he capitulates-- "no one would ever make fun/bully him again." To add, Ed's brutal and sad end/ fate, is in line with the "tragic gay" trope, which dominated any storyline that attempted to explore queerness. Lastly, the fact that the actor who portrays Ed, actually identifies as a gay man-- really drives this point home, in my opinion.

YAY! Like I said in VC last night dark media helps those that are others in society to explore their identities. I'm so excited to see your take on this. My favorite horror movie is Santa Sangre :3

Love the video, and would definitely love to see a Clive Barker deep dive. Horace Walpole is worth mentioning within the queer horror timeline. He, at the very least, popularized Gothic Horror w/ Castle of Otranto (1764), and was ever so gay.

Haven't watched the rest of the video yet but I want to react to that quote at the start too, cause there is also the horror of the world being indifferent to your own existence, where there is no evil and danger is just... there, not malicious, it simply exists. And this feels very tied to a queer experience in the cosmic horror kind of way of realizing the world is just not designed with us in mind, there is some maliciousness at play but there is also a scarier part about simply not having room to exist. This generally feels more deeply tied to disability from my experience of both but it's also present with queerness (and on the opposite end of the spectrum can be what biggots fear too, having a world that doesn't revolve around them anymore, that is neutral and indifferent to them)

i am subscribing specifically because i really, really want to see your clive barker video. i read imajica a few months ago & have not stopped thinking about it since. just like, the way gentle & pie's relationship is treated in that book + pie's gender (or lack thereof) is fuel for 45 minutes alone. great work!

NOW i get why i love horror movies.... damn it makes so much sense now.

I completely stumbled upon this video and I am HOOKED. This is a great video essay and I LOVE IT. Thank you!

i just like blood, violence and monsters, darkness, morbidity

I would love to hear what you have to say about Clive Barker. He’s truly on of the greats of horror, especially his books.

The Lost Boys is one of my favorites that I see as queer. I always like to think that Michael joined the lost boys for Star but stayed for David

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles are very queer, I think general public only know about the first book but Lestat is an explicitly queer character. His two main Loves are his first boyfriend Nicki who he meets before he becomes a Vampire and Louis who is his life long love. Lestat's mother could easily be described as gender queer or nonbinary Vampire and Armand's romantic feelings towards Lestat and Louis causes the major conflict of the second half of Interview. Armand also has one of the most beloved relationships of the series when he makes the young writer Daniel his immortal lover.

Fantastic video!! Take my subscription lol One duo of queer coded movies I'm kind of sad to see you didn't talk about in the Frankenstein section was Re-Animator and Bride of Re-Animator (i ain't gonna even think ab the third one 💀). Definitely not a perfect set of movies by any means - it's treatment of women is not the best, especially in the original where you've got the infamous "head gives head" scene, but also the fact they cut out most of the scenes that actually made you CARE about Meg AND scenes that really added SO MUCH to the queer subtext of the film, seriously the uncut version of Re-Animator is superior to the video release in every way and I stand by that - but it is absolutely oozing with queerness, ESPECIALLY Bride. a lot of people joke about how the second movie is basically a gay couple going through a very messy divorce. Hope to see you cover those films one day bc they're a favorite

Thank you for your videos! Always excited when I get a notif you have a new one out. Have a comment for the algorithm! More people needle to see your work. :)

This is the 1st video of yours that I've come across. The topic brought me in and your pacing, editing, etc. kept my attention. Thanks so much! - a new subscriber

first time viewer of your work, this was wonderful! i am currently navigating some identity challenges and my partner is very queer and very into horror, this felt made for me! thank you for your work

Watching this in the middle of my Hannibal hyperfixation is amazing! I’d recommend Penny Dreadful to everyone here, it’s pretty darn queer and definitely horror.

this is going to be one for the books, I can feel it

This autoplayed for me, and I'm so fucking excited to watch. 👀 What a treat to be surprised by this🥰💞💯

This is so off topic but I spotted the grishaverse books 👀 good choice!!!

Well done overview/retrospective. I've been thinking a lot about the intersection of horror and queerness personally. This has been a good way to orient and give a historical context to the way this community and genre are related.

In some ways I think certain entries that are representative of LGBTQ+ horror get focused on too much as SOLELY LGBTQ+ horror. Movies like BUTCHER BAKER NIGHTMARE MAKER and TV shows like CHUCKY are chockful of LGBTQ themes, but I think people forget that those same movies/shows have elements that can be related to even if you're not LGBTQ+. But that probably just goes without saying.

Yes please do a video on Clive Barker! I really enjoyed this video and would love to see you talk about him as he is my favorite author.

Has any one seen these three movies that oddly have a psycho sub plot. The first one perhaps shoehorned in. 1. It curse of the golem 2. Dead alive 3. Santa Sangre

I would love a video about Clive Barker. I was always obsessed with the DVD covers of the Hellraiser movies i saw at Blockbuster as a kid, and i love the first two movies (and weirdly the fourth one is pretty good). I've been reading the books of blood. Definitely my favorite horror author.

Another example I can think of that is horror-adjacent is Denise Bryson from Twin Peaks played by David Duchovny. Not much horror happens in the scenes involving her, but for the time it was pretty progressive with a few hiccups here and there

I just want to say that I like giving videos like this a try even though many I've seen haven't been very well done, but this one was. As an outsider (ie not gay/queer), my love of horror comes from the fact it's probably the only genre where you can address cultural taboos by disguising it as something else and get away with it. One of my biggest issues with more recent horror is that the gay characters tend to have no real personality past the fact they're gay, whereas in the past they had to sorta lampshade it by having that character stand out in other ways. This was by biggest problem with They/Them, that and the movie didn't have the guts to kill off any of the good characters. A movie that was not mentioned in the video I sorta interpreted as gay was Daniel Isn't Real. It seemed to be very much inspired or riffing off of Nightmare 2.

great video!

Its a natural reaction for those that have been subjected to abuse or bullying but not capable to figthing back to surround themselves with scary imagery in the hopes of scaring those that would hurt them, its why I think so many queers love "horror" But they dont really love horror to be scared, they want to see what they consider their abusers suffering at the hands of the other, the monster, a projection of themselves on screen, nothing but petty revenge fantasies and delusions

I'd like to see a video on Dracula's Daughter underrated movie in my opinion, honestly, I'd like to see the Universal Monsters as a whole get a video but that one specifically.

Great video!

Bride of Frankenstein is one film I watch a few times a year. Expertly done, and the monster looking for love and acceptance with the good Christian townsfolk hunting him down as 'an abomination' sure reminds me of growing up in 1970's Indiana lol. Plus Dr. Pretorius, such a flaming queen with his crush on Dr. Frankenstein, love him.

Let's hear it for nuance! 🎉🎉

Love Clive Barker's work

So, for the horror movie suggestions, I would like you to do the A Nightmare on Elm Street Series. A whole video doing them all in chronological order would be great. I also think House of Wax could be cool and maybe even The House that Jack Built. For comics, do Iron Man and then Hulk, and Thor. That's for now.

I would love to see you talk about the film; Sleepaway Camp. Mainly because the movie is a very layered film in my opinion, whether intentional or not. It 's also to me just an interesting dichotomy of representation of queer people in horror.

More Clive Barker is always a good thing! Jennifer’s Body is great as well, and I def would watch that video but I feel like because the Hellraiser sequels become so awful (I just finished binging the series-I needed if the post-Bloodline films were really that much worse,) & all the nonsense that happened around Nightbreed and it’s different cuts, Barker’s works are likely less known than even Jennifer’s Body. Anyway, this video was great, thanks 🙏🏼☺️

What is the creepy music at 16:50 - 17: 40 please????

Freddys Revenge!!! Underrated Queer movie!!! ❤❤❤ And a GREAT final boy!!

Hell yeah, Clive Barker.

Hey can I ask you a question plan on making a discord server?

pleaseeeee make a video about jennifer’s body it’s one of my all time favorite movies!!!

How do you feel about lair of the white worm?

Wasn't Bram Stoker also involved in early musical theater? 🌈

Bram, Stoker and Oscar Wilde also “dated” the same women

if anyone want to make a horror comicbook, i can draw! 👀

Of all the vid titles I expected in my feed, this was not one

More tranformatice content as always good on ya

I love Kaz Rowe!

No mention of bride of reanimator 😔

Would you say mister Hyde is a monsters from the idd

More like ✨️Fruity Kruger ✨️ 💅

I think one film that has queer coating that I think you missed Ravenous from 1999 that’s a good movie

Lot of people that are not horror fans think that horror is toxic masculinity. But it’s actually the opposite, horror is hyper feminine. At least for my generation of queer males, 90’s kids, we grew up on slashers were it was her feminine strengths and qualities that helped the final girl survive the killer. Laurie, Nancy, Sydney, Ripley, Sally are all incredibly strong and queer horror icons. And now a days we’ve had movies exploring female rage, Suspiria (remake), US, VVitch, Barbarian, Mid Sommar, a lot of those themes really appeal to queer males because of these close relationships we tend to develop with straight women and we can identify with these characters.

Damn the conservatives in the comments really got their panties in a twist

So here's a story about how my friends thought i was gay in high school. One night when i was 12 i was was watching some late night horror movies on tv and they played, Nightmare on Elm Street 2. I thought i was the koolest shit id ever seen. Completely missing the overtly gay overtones. Seriously its one of the gayest movies you'll ever watch. So, cut to 3 yrs later im at the swap meet with my friends and they're selling Nightmare 2 for $5. I immediately snatch it up and start singing its praises. All day im talking about this thing until like 7-8 o'clock and its starting to get dark. We throw it on and 15 minutes in theres a montage of the main character wearing sparklly glasses using a flute as a penis while dancing, later he runs from sex and straight into a bdsm gay bar. You get the idea. The whole time im getting sideways looks from my friends. Anyway. They thought i was gay for 2 years until i got a girlfriend

Hammer horror and most of the 60s horror are prime Gothic the new stuff like Brom stokers Dracula is exaggerated motif. Almost like combining German expressionism/film noir with stark gothic motifs. With a little art nouveau for good measure

You missed the gayest Frankenstein & Dracula movies.

46:00 not sure why you refer to Clive Barker in the past tense here, he's still alive today at 71.

If you look at Nosferatu ... his seducing of the Real estate agent looks like the rich person version of gay cruising. With the using you to get to Lucy feeling kind of tacced on for the str8’s benefit. There is is even the parallel of satisfying the str8 audience mirroring the satisfying the white audience. With the no white and ethic screen kisses. Or adapting a novel/storing featuring ethic characters .... but having white character play the main rolls

call me a freak of nature and i will be

the thing about Buffalo Bill and the disclaimer that he isn't really trans is that imo, wanting to be trans does in fact make a person trans. What does "he wants to be trans but isn’t" even mean? So I don't give the film any credit for the disclaimer.

My cat liked.they/them better than i did

Off topic Not horror but Johnny quest as a modern satire these days is a gay coded Adventure story

There was no werewolf in fright night The partner was a ghoul The wolf was the shape shifting evil Ed The used Dracula as the template for the vampirism. The partner was like wrenfield minus the insect eating

Because they're good

Norman Bates Isn’t gay. In Psycho 4 he falls I love with woman

It's shame how many public speakers use, "LIKE" every other word.

Yet another desperate reach attempting to 18:05 change the meaning of, reason for and story behind the creation of one of the greatest stories in literature. Knowing full well in doung so you're able to erase the FACTS. Frankenstein was written by a heterosexual married woman. Lord Byron relationship was actually with Mary and it was not sexual. Their😢 relationship revolved around writing. That's literally how Frankenstein came into being in the first place.