10 Queer Horror Films to Watch This Halloween

Here is our list of 10 horror movies we recommend for this Halloween:

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

It’s a well-known fact that Rocky Horror is one of the queerest movies ever made.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O’Brien, who is also a member of the cast.

The story centres on a young engaged couple whose car breaks down in the rain near a castle where they seek a telephone to call for help. The castle or country home is occupied by strangers in elaborate costumes celebrating an annual convention. They discover the head of the house is Dr Frank N. Furter, an apparent mad scientist who actually is an alien transvestite who creates a living muscle man named Rocky in his laboratory. The couple is seduced separately by the mad scientist and eventually released by the servants who take control.

2. The Hunger (1983)

The Hunger is a 1983 erotic horror film directed by Tony Scott.

This cult classic stars Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock, a vampire who’s losing her companion, John (David Bowie as a goth ’80s dream), as he begins to rapidly deteriorate — and who seeks to replace him with Sarah, a young scientist played by Susan Sarandon. The trailer advertises The Hunger as “a modern classic of perverse fear,” and it remains one of the coolest and damns sexiest queer horror films ever made.

3. The Lost Boys (1987)

The Lost Boys is a 1987 American supernatural horror vampire film directed by Joel Schumacher.

Teenage brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move with their mother (Dianne Wiest) to a small town in northern California. While the younger Sam meets a pair of kindred spirits in geeky comic-book nerds Edward (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), the angst-ridden Michael soon falls for Star (Jami Gertz) — who turns out to be in thrall to David (Kiefer Sutherland), leader of a local gang of vampires. Sam and his new friends must save Michael and Star from the undead.

Vampires are often queer avatars, but it’s Sam who seems to be the gayest thing happening in Lost Boys, with a pin-up photo of Rob Lowe on his bedroom wall, and a T-shirt that says “Born to Shop” making an appearance at one point.

4. Interview With the Vampire (1994)

Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American gothic horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on Anne Rice’s 1976 novel of the same name

As we know, vampire movies are very queer at baseline. In this movie, you have Tom Cruise as vampire Lestat, who together with Louis played by Brad Pitt are locked in a centuries-long tangle of love, hatred, and obsession as undead soul mates who also start co-parenting a little girl they spoil into being a total princess.

5. Seed of Chucky (2004)

Seed of Chucky is a 2004 American black comedy slasher film, the fifth instalment of the Child’s Play series, and sequel to 1998’s Bride of Chucky.

Gentle Glen (Billy Boyd) is a ventriloquist’s dummy, the offspring of evil doll Chucky (Brad Dourif) and his doll bride (Jennifer Tilly), both of whom are now deceased. When the orphaned Glen hears that a film is being made about his parents, he goes to Hollywood and resurrects them in an attempt to get to know them better. He is horrified when Chucky and his lover embark on a new killing spree, and Chucky is equally horrified that his son has no taste for evil.

Glen or Glenda is the name of a 1953 Ed Wood film about a man coming out as a cross-dresser to his wife. Glen and Glenda are also the two names of Chucky’s offspring with his girlfriend, Tiffany, who have a gender nonbinary child in Bride of Chucky. In the most outrageous Chucky instalment of them all, a surprising secondary plot is the doll child sorting out his/her gender identity.

6. Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Jennifer’s Body is a 2009 American comedy horror film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama. The film stars Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, and Adam Brody.

When Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) is turned into a demon by a blood sacrifice gone wrong, she begins feeding on men (and only men) to stay young and vital. None will be spared, not even the good ones, as long as Jennifer’s spree goes unchecked, and her totally devoted but a so-tired-of-this-bullshit best friend, Needy (Amanda Seyfried), is the only one who can put her down — as long as she can sort out some complicated feelings first.

7. Otto; or, Up with Dead People (2008)

Otto; or, Up with Dead People is a 2008 Canadian and German queer cinema horror film. The film was directed by Bruce LaBruce and stars Jey Crisfar, Marcel Schlutt, Nicholas Fox Ricciardi and Gio Black Peter.

Fresh from his grave, confused young gay zombie Otto has memory problems, so he goes in search of the truth in the seedy underground art squats and S&M clubs of present-day Berlin. It is here that he meets crazy avant-garde lesbian filmmaker Medea and her girlfriend Hella, who both encourage him to star in their political horror porn movie. However, things get complicated when Otto discovers he had a dishy ex-boyfriend, Rudolf, and pines of rekindling their relationship. Will Otto find his old flame and if he does, how will he resist eating him! Packed with oodles of undead gay sex and outrageous zombie satire, Otto; or, Up With Dead People is Bruce LaBruce’s most audacious piece of cult cinema yet.

8. The Craft (1996)

The Craft is a 1996 American teen supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Fleming from a screenplay by Peter Filardi and Fleming and a story by Filardi. The film stars Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True.

The Craft is responsible for the awakening of many a bicurious teenager’s first sexual stirrings.

After transferring to a Los Angeles high school, Sarah (Robin Tunney) finds that her telekinetic gift appeals to a group of three wannabe witches, who happen to be seeking a fourth member for their rituals. Bonnie (Neve Campbell), Rochelle (Rachel True) and Nancy (Fairuza Balk), like Sarah herself, all have troubled backgrounds, which combined with their nascent powers lead to dangerous consequences. When a minor spell causes a fellow student to lose her hair, the girls grow power-mad.

9. Killer Condom (1996)

Killer Condom (original title Kondom des Grauens (English: Condom of Horror)) is a 1996 German horror comedy directed by Martin Walz. It is based on the comic books Kondom des Grauens and Bis auf die Knochen (“Down to the Bones”) by Ralf König.

This German horror-comedy concerns a hard-boiled gay detective named Luigi Mackeroni who is determined to solve the case of a raging condom that’s castrating men.

The movie also gets name-checked in the book Culture and the Condom, which notes its existence within the context of a “post-safe sex” era (read: in the wake of AIDS), and gave it credit for signifying “the many competing discourses concerning sexual activity in our culture,” and “imbuing comic relief while reflecting tensions and anxiety over sexual activity for procreation versus merely for pleasure.”

10. Chillerama (2011)

Chillerama is a 2011 horror-comedy anthology film consisting of four stories (or segments) that take place at a drive-in theatre playing monster movies. Each segment is a homage to a different genre and style.

Within this collection of shorts is the vignette “I Was a Teenage Werebear,” a musical segment set in the 1960s, in which a closeted gay man comes to terms with his sexuality when he encounters a group of werebear leather daddies who transform when they become aroused. This is the dream of coded mid-century monster films fulfilled.