As Prime Month comes to a close, what better time than now to shine a light on some of our favorite LGBTQ horror films.
Lyle
Lyle is a tale of a mother grieving her toddler’s death, all while pregnant with another child. Her grief turns to paranoia when she begins to suspect her child’s death was no accident. Lyle is a modern day Rosemary’s baby, Leah playing the part of the grieving mother and June, her career-driven wife. It is a beautiful slow burn, which promises all the unsettling terror with none of the jump scares.
-Lona Zhao
Knife + Heart
A super stylistic, retro/throwback Giallo that revolves around a gloved killer picking off porn stars. The movie takes place in a homosexual soft core porn studio during the 70’s, right before the AIDS epidemic fully hit. It’s freeing, indulgent, and not afraid to be exactly what it wants. Directed by Yann Gonzalez, this movie was my 3rd favorite of 2019, and I can’t recommend it enough.
-Jacob Sever
What Keeps You Alive
A one year anniversary between married couple Jackie and Jules goes horribly awry when Jules discovers that the person she thought she married is a bit of a black widow. What follows is a tense cat and mouse thriller led by two female powerhouses who carry the story entirely on their backs. At its premiere at SXSW, Minihan revealed to Deadline that while the plot was initially inspired by stories of husbands who had murdered their wives (and gotten away with it), the film changed for the better when a stroke of fate caused a last minute casting change. When the actor initially slated to play the villainous husband dropped out of the production, Minihan decided to cast a female instead, embracing the opportunity to write a bit of a role reversal off of the typical “psychotic husband” story. This resulted in the film’s couple being same sex.
-Felicia Schembari
The Old Dark House
James Whale’s pre-Code haunted house thriller, The Old Dark House, was nearly lost before being rescued from obscurity by Curtis Harrington, a forerunner to the New Queer Cinema movement and a personal friend of the aforementioned director James Whale. The plot follows a group of travelers seeking refuge in the spooky secluded house…inside they find a family with some dark secrets. Shot between Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, the openly gay director explored many queer themes within The Old Dark House including the casting of homosexual actors, gender-bending roles, lesbian desires, and more just beneath the surface of this 1932 major studio release. For fans of the classic Univeral Monster movies, James Whale’s The Old Dark House delivers much more than first appears.
-Danny West
