The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has become an indie hit by blending slasher-film satire with queer romance. When it was over, I thought about other films that outwardly resembled horror, but actually used the genre as a means of exploring sexuality and who in our culture gets labeled as a “monster”. Here are three memorable recent queer horror romances.
[imbd.com]Back in 2009, I called it a silly killer cheerleader movie. However, so much has happened since then that, upon rewatching Jennifer’s Body, I got what director Karyn Kusama was going for. Here, we follow the story of two very close high school friends: Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried), a shy student. Needy’s lifelong best friend is Jennifer Check (Megan Fox), a gorgeous and popular cheerleader. After a local cult kills Jennifer, a high school cheerleader becomes possessed by a demon and begins killing her male classmates. Revisiting the film, it’s clear this is a story about rape and trauma. A group of boys has violated the main character, and she goes from being a victim to being a demonic victimizer. What elevates the film is the complex friendship between the man-eating demon girl (Megan Fox is pretty decent in this role) and her best friend. There’s a hefty amount of violence in this story, but what’s memorable here is the relationship between the two friends. Their relationship may be non-sexual but still contains a high degree of physical closeness and extreme familiarity that borders on romance. There’s dark humor and genuine empathy given to these two friends who realize that one must destroy the other. ★ ★ ★
[imbd.com]If you want a good werewolf movie, Good Manners centers a sapphic love story. Unfolding as a Brazilian version of The Howling crossed with Rosemary’s Baby, we meet Clara, a lonely live-in nanny who falls for a lady who happens to be pregnant with a baby werewolf. Now, to protect the woman she loves, the two must form a family unit and protect their werewolf child together. A different sort of film would have played the material as camp, but Good Manners wisely treats the same-sex relationship sincerely. So much so that we end up rooting for their lycanthropic child when an angry mob of norms comes looking for him. Specifically, Good Manners uses the werewolf narrative as an allegory to address real-world issues of race, class, and sexual identity in modern São Paulo. The result is a rare but satisfying monster movie where the creature generates both fear and sympathy. ★ ★ ★1/2
[imbd.com]How can I describe Leviticus? Think of It Follows and The Entity crossed with Boy Erased, and you get this brutal and bloody supernatural horror film with a tender gay love story at its center. Here we meet Naim and Ryan, two teenage boys living in a conservative religious community. After a series of mysterious deaths begins to occur, they try to escape from a violent entity that takes the form of the person you desire most. First things first, I liked Niam and Ryan. Not only does this movie make the religious community feel like a real place, but I appreciate how the movie spends most of its first act establishing their awkward romance of coming out to each other and sharing a first kiss before any blood is drawn. Plus, the movie is scary on multiple levels. The first is on a tactile level of body horror. The supernatural entity doesn’t just mentally torture its prey; it brutally assaults them, leading to plenty of ripped flesh and broken body parts that stand in stark contrast to the physical intimacy between Niam and Ryan. What’s disturbing is how the monster isn’t nearly as scary as the religious authority figures that desperately try and “cure” our couple with a form of conversion therapy. That’s what appealed to me about this film. Our protagonists are being attacked on all sides. Not only must they survive a bloodthirsty monster and fight their communities’ homophobia, but they also must overcome their own fears of true intimacy with one another. ★ ★ ★1/2
