Horror has all the time been queer, reclaimed lately by numerous LGBTQ+ writers and administrators, and 2024 proved to be a banner 12 months. From mainstream business successes to indie gems, the style flourished over the previous 12 months – with quite a few queer-focused horror bringing within the huge bucks and stirring up dialog on-line. In relation to the socio-political panorama nowadays, we want extra numerous voices than ever.
In our breakdown, we take a look at 10 titles that precipitated essentially the most brouhaha within the theaters and thru on-line discourse. There are even just a few which may have flown underneath your radar, but nonetheless provided tales and views resonant and related to as we speak.
I Noticed the TV Glow
The movie that finest encompasses the angst and uncertainty of id is Jane Schoenbrun’s I Noticed the TV Glow. Rightfully acclaimed, the function follows Owen (Justice Smith) as he reckons with himself and deep-seated anxieties about popping out. His love for The Pink Opaque, a TV present launched to him by Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who turns into a lifeline for him. By their shared obsession, they develop nearer and extra intimate. Whereas dissecting id, the author/director explores nostalgia and its results on our lives.
Schoenbrun makes use of Owen’s wrestle to seize the expertise of so many queer youth. No matter background and social standing, popping out isn’t a straightforward threshold to cross. What transmits via the display is a relentlessly emotional and agonizing portrayal of 1 younger particular person’s try to just accept themselves and discover the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel. Many years from now, I Noticed the TV Glow shall be mentioned as a pivotal second in queer cinema.
Love Lies Bleeding
Rose Glass veers away from straight spiritual horror (Saint Maud) for an erotic thriller. Love Lies Bleeding won’t adhere to the standard style construction or conventions, but there’s loads to ruminate on and hold you hooked. Kristen Stewart stars as Lou, a gymnasium supervisor, who falls in love with Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a bodybuilder. Whereas Jackie has ambitions of going to Las Vegas and making it huge, she’s pulled into homicide by Lou’s felony household. Her goals dashed, the movie takes a tough left flip within the finale, resulting in fairly the climax.
With robust performances from Stewart and O’Brian, Glass unfurls a darkish, harmful story of two lovers turning into inextricably tied. What’s most attention-grabbing is the messiness of queer relationships taking heart stage – the friction between characters permits for an intense give and take of feelings. Every harbors their very own intentions, permitting for funding by the viewers. Love Lies Bleeding would possibly vault into absurd territory by the credit, however there’s no denying it as an important piece of queer cinema.
Cuckoo
Cuckoo is probably essentially the most low-key queer movie on this record. Director Tilman Singer invitations the viewer into an outrageous premise that follows Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) after she strikes to the German Alps. Whereas there, she begins having scary visions and hears unusual noises. She takes up a put up as a clerk at a close-by resort, the place she meets a younger girl named Ed (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) checking into the resort one night. The 2 strike up a fast infatuation, which leads Gretchen to steal cash from the resort and run away along with her new lover.
However the two don’t get very far. Gretchen can’t appear to go away the mountain, pulled again into its net by some unseen power. Whereas the connection is only a blip, it nonetheless leaves a mark on Gretchen and her story. Her realization that maybe destiny has a hand in conserving her there shakes her right down to the core. Their automobile crash leaves Gretchen confined to the resort, the place she figures out precisely what’s happening with the hooded woman. Cuckoo won’t function a lot queerness, nevertheless it nonetheless stays one of many 12 months’s finest.
Femme
Billed as a thriller, Femme greater than earns its place on this record. Co-directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping of their function debut, the movie tells the darkish story about Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), who’s viciously attacked by Preston (George MacKay) and his gang of cohorts. Three months later, Jules struggles to beat the assault and has even given up drag efficiency. He’s wilted from who he was once, and nothing can appear to make it okay.
When he encounters Preston once more, the pair strike up a dangerously poisonous bodily relationship. Their dynamic – an brazenly homosexual man and a closeted, self-loathing homosexual man – permits for a poignant, and finally tragic, dialogue about revenge, violence, and accountability. With electrifying performances and nice consideration to nuance, Femme captures the difficult nature of popping out, self-hatred, and what it means to let another person in.
Slay
Slay arrived on Tubi with little or no fanfare in March 2024, however has slowly and certainly cultivated a cult following on-line. With its incisive glimpse into small-minded bigots, dressed up as a vampire story, the movie suggests self-expression and group stay the most effective instruments to fight hate. By a splendidly campy efficiency of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” a troupe of drag queens – Mama Sue Flay (Trinity the Tuck), Olive Wooden (Cara Melle), Robin Banks (Heidi N Closest), and Bella Da Boys (Crystal Methyd) – teardown homophobia brick by brick.
When a horde of vampires reveals up, the group – which additionally contains hilarious native Sheila (Robyn Scott) – should put aside their variations and battle for his or her lives. Author/director Jem Garrard reveals the facility of being your self via bar proprietor Rusty’s (Neil Sandilands) emotional transformation. The abrasive and scruffy Travis (Daniel Janks) additionally learns to just accept the LGBTQ+ as invaluable human beings. Slay bottles up as we speak’s local weather (pronouns included) and presents an necessary dialog in regards to the nature of individuality and the way we deal with others.
Carnage for Christmas
There aren’t any up-and-coming filmmakers which have the output of Alice Maio Mackay. Coming off such important successes as So Vam and T-Blockers, she tackles the slasher style with Carnage for Christmas, a slasher that greater than lives as much as its identify. Widespread podcaster Lola (Jeremy Moineau) returns house for the vacations solely to search out {that a} killer has risen once more to kill. It’s the primary time Lola has been house since she left city and transitioned, so Mackay provides loads of emotional friction between the characters so as to add dimension. In doing so, she depicts a poignant story about one younger girl’s wrestle to confront her previous.
Carnage for Christmas stands in stark distinction to Mackay’s earlier work however stays nonetheless as highly effective as something she’s carried out so far. Whereas it definitely permits for loads of holiday-tinged homicide and violence, the thematic underpinnings provoke necessary conversations about household and id.
Lowlifes
This Tubi unique is the 12 months’s greatest shock. Lowlifes, co-directed by Mitch Oliver and Tesh Guttikonda, takes what you suppose you already know and flips it on its head. What begins as a stunning household street journey throughout the nation twists into one thing else solely. Amanda Repair performs Amy, a jaded teenager in search of a connection via her cellphone. When Amy and her household are pressured to spend the night time in a secluded homestead, Amy hooks up with one of many daughters. However because the household tour takes a tough left flip, her will to outlive is examined.
The movie excels in conserving its playing cards near the vest, solely revealing the reality part-way via and flooring the viewers. Lowlifes won’t interact in any socio-political commentary like many different entries on this record, however typically, all you want is an effective time to get you by.
Ganymede
Co-directed by Sam Probst and Colby Holt, Ganymede addresses spiritual extremism, trauma, and sexuality. Very like many equally themed movies, Probst and Holt’s providing explores the injury fanaticism does to 1’s psychological and emotional states. Lee Fletcher (Jordan Doww) comes from an extremely spiritual house, the place the Bible and its flawed teachings have been hammered into his mind. When he develops a crush on an brazenly homosexual classmate, his emotions throw a wrench into his reconciliation along with his religion. When is mother and father uncover the reality, they power him to hunt steerage from their native pastor, who forces him to endure extreme bodily punishment.
There’s no higher time to have a movie like Ganymede. Throughout a time when spiritual texts are weaponized in opposition to the marginalized, significantly the trans group, it turns into essential to grasp the enemy and fight the hate spewing from alt-right mouthpieces. The home may be burning, however now we have queer voices like Probst and Holt daring to talk reality to energy.
Departing Seniors
Clare Cooney delivers one of many all-time finest friendships in horror. In Departing Seniors, a campy slasher with super coronary heart, Javier (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) and Bianca (Ireon Roach) increase the bar on what makes nice relationships. Their loyalty to 1 one other is intoxicating, lending weight to the in any other case fluffy fare. As Javier contends with a bunch of bullies, considered one of which is his low-key lover, a masked killer begins stalking and killing these round him.
Departing Seniors affords up a very good time, wrapped up tightly in a generational trauma package deal. Is matching violence for violence the reply? What if the antagonists by no means get their comeuppance in any other case? The movie asks and solutions these questions, inflicting the viewers to replicate upon their very own lives.
Hauntology
You won’t know Parker Brennon’s identify but, however you’ll quickly sufficient. Their new anthology movie Hauntology, which options Nancy Kyes’ huge horror comeback, feels ripped from Are You Afraid of the Darkish? (a praise) and finds Brennon commanding consideration with each single phase. “Paint and Black Lace” and “The Outdated Darkish Cashel Home” display the filmmaker’s strengths as a horror storyteller.
What’s much more, Brennon delivers a various forged and tales. As we watch numerous companies rolling again their DEI initiatives, we will rely on horror motion pictures to at the very least purpose for numerous expertise in entrance of and behind the digital camera. Hauntology is a testomony to that.
