Recent Lesser Known Queer Horror Films

Queer horror isn’t always easy to find, mostly because it exists in indie and low-budget genre fare that don’t receive any sort of marketing push or big release. I’d like to offer a few brief reviews on queer horror movies that have come out in the last five years for anyone who’s tired of finding the same few flicks every time they google some derivative of “LGBT horror” (Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Hell Bent, High Tension, Seed of Chucky, Otto: or Up with Dead People, The Hunger).

I’ll be briefly discussing general plotlines, but no deep spoilers. I saw most of the following with zero expectations and little foreknowledge, which is often the best scenario for films like these.

YOU’RE KILLING ME (2015)

This is my all-time favorite rom-com. It asks the question I’d never thought to ask but always needed answered: what if a slasher killer and a “final girl” were two good-looking gay dudes who fall for each other?

After suffering through a group game night, Joe (Matthew McKelligon, Eastsiders) murders his date (Matt Wilkas). Turns out shy Joe is an out-patient recovering from bloody fantasies. Single again, Joe turns his attention to his on-line crush, YouTube celebrity wannabe George (Jeffery Self, also the co-writer). While Joe is honest about his stalking and murdering proclivities, George simply thinks he has a morbid sense of humor and falls for the quiet weirdo.

The body count rises while oblivious George obsesses over YouTube fame in a film that’s somehow hilarious, touching, and gory with a large cast who will make you say, “Oh, hey, it’s that actor from that show; um, you know that one?”

At a lean eighty-eight minutes, this is a campy, bloody good time with a dose of social commentary that never takes itself seriously. The characters may not be relatable or likeable, but they are entertaining.

DOLLY DEADLY (2016)

Written and directed by indie filmmaker/artist Heidi Moore, and starring her own son, Dolly Deadly is a one-of-a-kind film about a boy whose only friends are dolls.

In Benji’s fantasy life, he’s a beloved dancer/magician and occasional baptizer. In reality, he’s an eight-year-old boy who gets shit on by everyone in his trailer park, especially his beautician grandmother, her unemployed boyfriend, and a young bully (played by Moore’s other son). Benji is constantly berated for being effeminate, playing with dolls, and having a dead mother (in a satirical take on how bullying is completely unfounded).

There’s only so much Benji can take before he starts acting out his fantasies in gory ways.

This movie isn’t for everyone. I wouldn’t recommend it to your grandpa – unless he’s Lloyd Kaufman, in which case he’s already seen it! It’s bizarre, most of the characters are unlikeable, and there’s gross-out humor and child abuse, but it’s all trash art fun.

A sequel, described as a “slasher rock musical” has long been in production, set to be released by Troma.

PITCHFORK (2016)

Award-winning dancer/choreographer Glenn Douglas Packard wrote and directed this film inspired by his early days growing up closeted in a small Michigan town (which is where the film’s shot).

Hunter, an NYU dance student, returns to his home town with a van full of supporters to help him come out to his conservative parents while a tall, lean man in a puppy mask goes on a slasher killing spree. The story is equal parts predictable and weirdly surprising.

The script and acting are clunky at times, but it feels sincere. The straight jock asks why Hunter can’t just choose to be straight, which is something Packard surely heard when he was twenty, but feels outdated in 2016 (thankfully). This begs the question, if you’re going to make a movie inspired by your twenties, why not set it in the ’90s, when you were in your twenties?

That said, I hope Packard’s got a sequel in him, although I’d recommend a co-writer. Both Pitchforks, the film and its titular killer, demonstrate a lot of potential.

DEVIANCE (2017)

Written and directed by indie filmmaker Jimmy Hennigan, Deviance explores the traumatic ramifications of being forced in the closet by following two characters through very different storylines that kind of thematically work together.

Connor (also Jimmy Hennigan) just wants to go to college to get away from his alcoholic, bigoted dad, but he’s too poor for tuition, so he resorts to prostitution. Yeah. The melodrama is thick and the characters are stock.

Meanwhile, fidgety Milton Mason (scene stealer Tim Torre) lusts after a teammate on his high school basketball team while his abusive Christian parents try to set him up with a girlfriend. Oh, and Milton’s turned on by violence and blood.

Unfortunately, the film would work better if Hennigan remained behind the camera. I don’t completely buy his soft-spoken portrayal of a cynical rent boy. On the other hand, Milton’s storyline feels genuine and grounded in thanks to Tim Torre’s committed portrayal. At only eighty-eight minutes, Deviance manages to feel much longer, as if you’ve sat through two features in one.

BOARDING SCHOOL (2018)

Writer/director Boaz Yakin used the connections he made from big studio filmmaking (Remember the Titans, Now You See Me) and producing Eli Roth’s early films to tell a smaller, more personal tale inspired by Judaism and exploring gender identity issues.

Twelve-year-old Jewish Brooklynite Jacob (Luke Prael, Eighth Grade) starts wearing his dead grandmother’s clothes and experiencing visions of the Holocaust, so he gets shipped off to an isolated Christian boarding school in Upstate New York.

Jacob discovers the school houses a very small student body and all of them are unwanted “freaks,” chief among them is troublemaker Christine (Sterling Jerins, The Conjuring 1 and 2) who questions Jacob’s masculinity. The school is run by Dr. Sherman (Will Patton, Remember the Titans and Halloween [2018]), a disciplinarian who doesn’t hesitate to punish the children whenever he deems fit.

This may well be my favorite movie of all time and space. It’s a beautifully shot film filled with compelling performances with a nuanced story that bears repeat viewing whose story maneuvers between the subtle and outrageous.

KNIFE+HEART/UN COUTEAU DANS LA COEUR (2019)

If you ever binged on the giallo films of the 1960s and ’70s and wondered where all the queer people were at, Knife+Heart has the answer: Paris. Written and directed by Yann Gonzalez of the band M83, this is a modern-day French film that perfectly captures the feel of the Italian mystery/horrors of yesteryear.

During the summer of 1979, gay porn director Ann (Vanessa Paradis, actress/model mother of Lily-Rose Depp) discovers someone is brutally murdering her cast and crew and the Paris police don’t care all that much. On top of the murders, Ann’s long-term partner, Lois, breaks up with her, but since she’s also Ann’s editor, they have to keep working together. Like Ahab, Ann bases their next porno on the on-going police investigation into the murders in a mad effort to win back Lois, but it also attracts the mysterious killer and his dildo-knife.

Giallo films can be an acquired taste, often celebrating artistic expression and emotionality over realism, and Knife+Heart is a love letter to the sub-genre.