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 industrial successes to indie gems, the style flourished over the previous 12 months – with quite a few queer-focused horror bringing within the massive bucks and stirring up dialog on-line. With regards to the socio-political panorama lately, we want extra numerous voices than ever.
In our breakdown, we have a look at 10 titles that brought on probably the most brouhaha within the theaters and thru on-line discourse. There are even a number of which may have flown below your radar, but nonetheless provided tales and views resonant and related to right now.
I Noticed the TV Glow
The movie that greatest encompasses the angst and uncertainty of identification 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 means of their shared obsession, they develop nearer and extra intimate. Whereas dissecting identification, 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 simple threshold to cross. What transmits by way of the display is a relentlessly emotional and agonizing portrayal of 1 younger individual’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 will likely 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 everyday style construction or conventions, but there’s lots to ruminate on and preserve you hooked. Kristen Stewart stars as Lou, a fitness center supervisor, who falls in love with Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a bodybuilder. Whereas Jackie has ambitions of going to Las Vegas and making it massive, she’s pulled into homicide by Lou’s prison household. Her goals dashed, the movie takes a tough left flip within the finale, resulting in fairly the climax.
With sturdy performances from Stewart and O’Brian, Glass unfurls a darkish, harmful story of two lovers changing 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 may vault into absurd territory by the credit, however there’s no denying it as a significant piece of queer cinema.
Cuckoo
Cuckoo is maybe probably the most low-key queer movie on this checklist. 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 together 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 internet by some unseen drive. 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 automotive crash leaves Gretchen confined to the resort, the place she figures out precisely what’s occurring with the hooded woman. Cuckoo won’t function a lot queerness, nevertheless it nonetheless stays one of many 12 months’s greatest.
Femme
Billed as a thriller, Femme greater than earns its place on this checklist. 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 in the end tragic, dialogue about revenge, violence, and accountability. With electrifying performances and nice consideration to nuance, Femme captures the sophisticated 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 absolutely 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 neighborhood stay the very best instruments to fight hate. By means of 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 exhibits up, the group – which additionally consists of hilarious native Sheila (Robyn Scott) – should put aside their variations and battle for his or her lives. Author/director Jem Garrard exhibits the ability of being your self by way of bar proprietor Rusty’s (Neil Sandilands) emotional transformation. The abrasive and scruffy Travis (Daniel Janks) additionally learns to just accept the LGBTQ+ as worthwhile human beings. Slay bottles up right now’s local weather (pronouns included) and presents an essential 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. Common podcaster Lola (Jeremy Moineau) returns dwelling for the vacations solely to search out {that a} killer has risen once more to kill. It’s the primary time Lola has been dwelling 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 completed up to now. Whereas it actually permits for loads of holiday-tinged homicide and violence, the thematic underpinnings provoke essential conversations about household and identification.
Lowlifes
This Tubi authentic is the 12 months’s largest shock. Lowlifes, co-directed by Mitch Oliver and Tesh Guttikonda, takes what you assume you understand and flips it on its head. What begins as a beautiful household street journey throughout the nation twists into one thing else solely. Amanda Repair performs Amy, a jaded teenager searching for a connection by way of her telephone. When Amy and her household are pressured to spend the evening 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 by way of and flooring the viewers. Lowlifes won’t interact in any socio-political commentary like many different entries on this checklist, however generally, all you want is an efficient time to get you by.
Ganymede
Co-directed by Sam Probst and Colby Holt, Ganymede addresses spiritual extremism, trauma, and sexuality. Very similar to 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 dwelling, 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 together with his religion. When is dad and mom uncover the reality, they drive him to hunt steerage from their native pastor, who forces him to bear 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 neighborhood, it turns into essential to know the enemy and fight the hate spewing from alt-right mouthpieces. The home could be burning, however we’ve got queer voices like Probst and Holt daring to talk reality to energy.
Departing Seniors
Clare Cooney delivers one of many all-time greatest friendships in horror. In Departing Seniors, a campy slasher with large 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, one among 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 bundle. 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’ massive 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 Previous Darkish Cashel Home” exhibit the filmmaker’s strengths as a horror storyteller.
What’s much more, Brennon delivers a various solid and tales. As we watch numerous firms rolling again their DEI initiatives, we will depend upon horror films to no less than goal for numerous expertise in entrance of and behind the digital camera. Hauntology is a testomony to that.
