Event Recap: FRIGHTGOWN Hosts First Annual Queer Horror Pride Celebration
Frightgown celebrated Queer voices in a virtual lineup of films, shorts, panels, hangouts, podcasts, exclusives, and more for its first annual commemoration of Pride and Queer horror over the weekend, staining the town neon in support of the Transgender Law Center!
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Salem Horror Fest and the Horror Queers podcast teamed up to present Frightgown, a new 3-day virtual Pride festival that was hosted June 25th-27th. The festivities included a Killer Prom designed to look like an 8-Bit video game allowing for real-time video interactions and live screenings with other virtual ticket holders. The high school horror prom setting created nostalgia for films like Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), the Canadian supernatural slasher film directed by Bruce Pittman that also happens to be super queer. The Killer Prom offered guests a variety of Queer Horror samplers including podcast episodes and a special issue of GRIM magazine.
The program was headlined by a duo of Grindhouse features including the premiere of Bad Girls (2021) directed by Christopher Bickel and Salem Horror Fest 2020 Audience Winner Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) directed by Michael J. Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, and Brandon Perras, a Queer Slasher that doesn’t quit and continues to surprise and delight until the very end. Frightgown also featured over two hours of shorts, panel tributes to Clive Barker’s film Nightbreed (1990) a clear allegory for queerness and coming out, Queer horror trivia, Q&A sessions, and a virtual drag show.
Other film tributes included BIT (2019) with a panel featuring Ten Backe and Wren Crain, the creative team behind the upcoming anthology Transploitation that explores trans and non-binary representation in horror and an interview with writer and director Brad Michael Elmore hosted by Dani Bethea, Editor and Chief of We Are Horror Zine. The event even featured a live watch party for the film on Friday night with commentary from the Transploitation duo.
Also Read: The History of Horror is the History of Queerness
Queer creators had the ability to donate to the program by submitting panels, lectures, podcasts, articles, and feature or short films for consideration. Some of the featured content available to Frightgown ticket holders included:
Scream Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street, a Q&A panel with Mark Patton, directors Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen moderated by Bryan Christopher from Daily Dead.
Bad Bitches: Sex & Power From the Stake to the Sanitarium presented by Valeska Griffiths and The Homoerotic Othering in NOES 2: Freddy’s Revenge & Stranger Things presented by Nicole Mello, both educational lectures covering queer horror history.
META a Queer horror short film directed by Sydne Horton follows self-concious trans boy Artie Talbot at the prom with his best friend. Artie goes through a metamorphosis that mirrors the emotional and physical transformation of the transmasculine experience.
Sundown Town a Queer horror short directed by Mylo Butler is a harrowing film exploring the traumatic experience of racism, homophobia, and police brutality inspired by Butler’s own experiences.
Unmarked Graves: Women and POC in Horror History a panel featuring horror fans and creators Sapphire Sandalo and Sabina Graves sharing stories of women and people of color that were hidden in horror history.
The celebration included eleven short films, a Joe Dante tribute, eight horror film retrospectives on popular horror staples throughout the years, eight frightful panels, 13 lectures, 14 filmmakers Q&As, horror readings, and much more. VIP ticket holders received on-demand access to all of the incredible Frightgown content throughout the weekend while others enjoyed a live feed of Queer horror each day with some content locked to Salem Horror Fest annual subscribers. There was something for everyone and a sense of belonging and community at Frightgown.
Also Read: Queer Tragedy in THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR
Let it be known that horror is Queer and there is a space for queer voices in the horror community that this event sought to carve out. It was exciting and bittersweet to be part of the first Frightgown celebration. This queer horror fan is looking forward to the festival returning in 2022.
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