‘Queer For Fear’ Documentary Proves That Horror Has Always Been Gay [Watch]
Horror is queer. Sure I’m biased as a queer woman, but how can you deny it? Horror is subversive, challenging, and a place to explore identities and extreme emotions. Yes, the genre has not always been kind to explicitly queer characters. But fans such as myself have reclaimed and labeled films as queer thanks to subtext and pretty obvious coding. In the vein of the great Horror Noire, Shudder is releasing a new documentary exploring the gayer side of the genre: Queer for Fear.
Read the full synopsis below:
From executive producer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), Queer for Fear is a four-part documentary series about the history of the LGBTQ+ community in the horror and thriller genres. From its literary origins with queer authors Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde to the pansy craze of the 1920s that influenced Universal Monsters and Hitchcock; from the “lavender scare” alien invasion films of the mid-20th century to the AIDS-obsessed bloodletting of 80s vampire films; through genre-bending horrors from a new generation of queer creators; Queer for Fear re-examines genre stories through a queer lens, seeing them not as violent, murderous narratives, but as tales of survival that resonate thematically with queer audiences everywhere.
Check out the documentary’s new trailer:
Importantly, queer horror doesn’t need explicit queer representation to fall under that umbrella. Fuller told Entertainment Weekly, who exclusively premiered the trailer:
“[We’re taking] a broad definition of queer horror which includes Hitchcock films and women-in-prison films. In certain interpretations, a movie like Blade Runner can be seen through the lens of queer horror as a very specific story about marginalized people who want more rights and more life. So there’s a wide variety of interpretations of queer horror and also of queerness. It just seemed that the project is so sprawling this really cannot be contained into an 80- or 90-minute narrative, because there are so many letters of the LGBTQ+ alphabet to cover.”
Shudder previously released four incredible posters for Queer For Fear, featuring drag queens as iconic horror figures.
Queer for Fear‘s first part drops on Shudder on Friday, September 30 with new parts premiering weekly.
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