At the Horror Rookie Academy, a very interesting exchange of opinions emerged in the spring of 2022 on the topic of queer roles in horror. In the following, I will explain why I think it is both okay and important to lift queer roles in horror films. The text represents the author's opinion.
In the wake of a really interesting analysis done by Dread Central (a must-read!), it was suggested that queer roles may take the focus away from the horror in horror films. This got me thinking. Thinking real good. Could it be that queer roles, roles protraying people like me, among the majority may be perceived as unnecessary to the plot in horror films?
As something forced?
Queer people are very used to seeing a different type of love than our own being central to the films we watch.
One of the things that makes me love films in general, and horror in particular, is that you get to enter situations where you are sort of exempt from constantly having to connect your own situation to what is happening in the story (a task our brains are otherwise very busy with).
This is the escape from reality in film. You enter a situation that is not your own. That is precisely why films and series can be of significant importance for the formation and development of tolerance, respect and empathy in each of us. Through film, we get to experience the situation of others, and if the film is well made, the impact it has can be solid. I guess (and hope) that the start of IT 2 really hurt even in the straightest hearts.
The fact that someone's love is someone else's hatred is a problem that concerns society as a whole, and that the horror community is now dealing with to a greater extent than before. This is a way for horror to show social responsibility.
The goal of equality in society is -and should be- to give natural space for our differences while at the same time safeguarding everyone's rights.
I understand to a certain extent that people who have never experienced their orientation and their love as an illness, as a crime, as a sin, as politics, as a problem may find that "all this orientation stuff" is so strained, so flashy, comes too much into focus.
But I don't accept it at all.
We have to understand each other here on earth, and we do that by learning about each other, putting ourselves in other people's situations. We have to apply our empathy broadly.
If you replace the concept of "orientation" as disturbing in horror films with concepts such as appearance, disability, gender, then suddenly the reasoning becomes a little more complicated. Race.
Jordan Peele's films become relevant for such a discussion.
Peele has chosen to make horror based on his own culture and background, and I believe that by doing so he is actually helping to drive the development towards a more equal world. It can be painful to watch, and it is somewhat inherent in the nature of things that when horror like this is made by and for minorities, the majority will perceive the angle as alien, but the world needs to see it.
The world, on the whole, needs to become a little less alien to itself.
So, one can ask oneself: what role does horror have in society? What role do we want horror to have?
Personally, I want horror to snap the viewer right in the eye, peel the skin off the audience and leave us hurt and confused. And make us think. In this sense, queer characters can be both a means (IT 2) and a backdrop (Spiral) that has its natural place in horror.
The world has surely seen enough straight final girls with wet hair and grime in their face wearing bloody tank tops and knives in hand...?
It is time to let the world see more final queers! 👬👭🌈
Skrevet av Henning Øverby Klausen, Skrekkruttskolen.