We’re a full week into Pride Month, and the Hauntology Kickstarter is still going strong! If you’re able, we’d love to have you check out the film, meet filmmaker Parker Brennon and their incredible crew, and donate to support the production of this queer horror road trip anthology!
Click here to donate to the Hauntology Kickstarter!
Queer horror is a peculiar beast. Before filmmakers like Parker came around in the last decade or so, the subgenre was about as far from the mainstream as it was possible to get. Thus, it might be somewhat disingenuous to call anything on this list a “deep cut,” but I’ve done my best to dig around for entries that are intriguing, even if some of them are, let’s say imperfect. Also – this list is a bit of a sausagefest, but a lot of the sapphic entries I found were a little too well-known for consideration, so let’s call them runners-up.
Runners-Up: Daughters of Darkness (1971), The Perfection (2018), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Seed of Chucky (2004)
#6 Otto; or, Up with Dead People (2008)
This film from prolific gay weirdo Bruce LaBruce isn’t for everyone (hell, it’s not even for me), but it’s filled to the brim with cinematic vim and vigor. Imagine a horny Wener Herzog making a film about a gay zombie that’s a metaphor for the soullessness of modern life, then add 1 completely unpredictable formal experiment every 10 minutes or so, and you’re about halfway to whatever the hell this movie is delivering.
#5 Make a Wish (2002)
OK, the acting and filmmaking in this flick about a serial killer stalking a group of lesbians camping in the woods are amateurish, but it’s still refreshing to see a slasher movie this traditional come out of the realm of the early 2000s. Also there are some epic stupid slasher movie moments that this film comes by very genuinely.
#4 Ghost Writer (2007)
You may recognize this Alan Cumming directorial feature from me forcing Tim to review it this year. While it has been incredibly divisive among the people I’ve asked to sit down with it, it can’t be denied that this is an inimitable film. Every act is completely different, going from one-act play to gonzo torture film to supernatural mayhem in the blink of an eye, and in addition to its leads (Cumming and David Boreanaz), it boasts a thrilling ensemble cast that includes Jane Lynch, Anne Heche, Carrie Fisher, Karen Black, and Henry Thomas!
#3 You’re Killing Me (2015)
This indie horror-comedy is one of the purest satirical delights to come from the low-budget horror sphere in some time. It’s a stiletto-sharp savaging of the self-obsessed denizens of Los Angeles that follows a young gay man who is too into his own web series to notice that the guy he’s dating is a serial killer. A standout in this cast is Bryan Safi, who went on to something approaching a solid television career in 9-1-1 and Netflix’s You season 3, so clearly somebody else noticed him too.
#2 Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings (2011)
This Filipino horror-comedy doesn’t quite have a grasp on what a gay person is (there seems to be no distinction between a gay man and a drag queen), but it’s got a darling approach to the material that feels somewhere between Looney Tunes and John Waters. It dashes merrily between J-horror imagery and absurdism in a fascinating kaleidoscope.
#1 Killer Condom (1996)
I waxed poetic about this film on a podcast with Carrie recently, so forgive me for repeating myself. Killer Condom is a genius film, wrapping a potent metaphor about the government’s lack of response to the AIDS crisis in a hilarious B-movie schlockfest about a condom that bites off people’s dicks. A condom designed by H.R. Giger, no less!
Brennan Klein is a millennial who knows way more about 80’s slasher movies than he has any right to. He’s a former host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast and a current senior movie/TV news writer at Screen Rant. You can find his other reviews on his blog Popcorn Culture. Follow him on Twitter or Letterboxd, if you feel like it.