By Miruna Tiberiu
GagaOOLala is a Taiwan-based streaming service which aims to bring together queer stories of all genres from around the world. As the first LGBT-focused media platform in Asia, GagaOOLala curates feature films, shorts, documentaries, and series from the past few years, as well as producing its own original content. This month’s bulletin is dedicated to all things Halloween. Whether a biting political satire portrayed through the hazy supernatural lens, an uplifting musical about lesbians in the 1940s, or a psychological study on love and power relations, these films provide new and refreshing takes on what it means to make a queer horror film today.
Pyotr495 (2016), dir. Blake Mawson
[TW: body horror, gore, homophobia, and torture]
Set in 2014 Moscow against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and new moves towards state-sanctioned homophobia with the country’s LGBT Propaganda Law, this horror short explores the body politic gone wrong. Stylised, smoke-filled rooms in brutalist apartment blocks, lit by dark violet and red hues, form the film’s space, to what can only be described as a Rocky Horror meets ‘Soviet Doomer’ aesthetic. Our protagonist, Pyotr, agrees to hook up with a stranger on a dating app. But something isn’t right. Faced, instead, with a set up of homophobic criminal design, he is tied up and tortured. Making it through these heart-breaking first 7 minutes, where the reality of queer life under post-socialist dictatorship is condensed to a horrifying degree, does, however, pay off. Reaching a breaking point, Pyotr’s body finds a supernatural power to fight back. He transforms into the very ‘monster’ he has been deemed to be by the Russian state, but a monster who will not bow down to oppression. In an electrifying sequence, Pyotr rises from his torture chamber and torments his perpetrators, tearing their hearts out – for what use does a torturer have for a heart? Folkloric elements, such as a nationalist flag and Slavic myths of man turning into beast, are here reclaimed by the film’s queer protagonist from the hands of the toxically-masculine majority that tries to silence his identity. The film argues that violence can only incite more violence. The body cannot be controlled completely; it will always fight back.
Sweet Dreaming (2016), dir. Katie Escane
Next up on our list is a film which captures the joy of Halloween for the queer community, when dressing up and becoming someone else, somewhere else, is the norm. Sweet Dreaming takes us back to a deliciously pastel-tinted 1940s sweet shop in Melbourne, owned by Penny, a charming entrepreneur who also happens to be in love with her honey supplier, beekeeper Charlie. After receiving a letter from an important sweet manufacturer with a business proposal that would both change her life and separate her from true love, Penny must decide, by way of song and dance, what she will choose. Populated with an all-female cast playing a range of 40s stereotypes – the suburban housewife, the career-centred entrepreneur, among others – who all vouch for their lifestyles in an effort to convince Penny to follow suit, Escane’s short film draws back to drag culture, complete with stunning period costumes and intricate dance scenes. Our queer couple is given the happiest of endings, as the post-war suburbia of Sweet Dreaming is triumphantly queered.
Zerch (2015), dir. J. Xavier Velasco
[TW: suicide]
This award-winning Mexican short horror film explores the repercussions of an all-consuming power of love. Two lovers, Zerch and Cano, traverse a desert expanse, dunes and hills stretching out past their human figures, making them seem ever so small. What could well be the landscape of a Western is given an apocalyptic edge. Zerch asks Cano, ‘Do you really love me?’ He asks him, ‘Would you do anything for me?’ Cano faithfully answers yes, taking, with it, the responsibility of drowning Zerch as requested. Cano does not, however, know that this is only the beginning to the pact he has made with the Devil. Love ends up quite literally consuming him, penetrating into his very skin and latching itself to the depths of his flesh. In the film’s final moments, he is transformed. Velasco’s short, driven by two powerfully subtle performances from his male leads, portrays the gradual unravelling of emotional manipulation, rendered physical by the supernatural horror elements he weaves together. It is a film whose culmination urges you to watch it back, scanning for clues as to how Zerch and Cano got where they got. Velasco’s answers don’t come easy, but then again, neither does his subject matter.
If you liked the sound of these, have a look through the “7th Heaven” curated list, and check out more of what is on offer on GagaOOLala!
Miruna Tiberiu is the Managing Editor of GAY45. She is a student at Cambridge University. Tiberiu has written for numerous publications, including The Cambridge Review of Books, and the Cambridge Language Collective. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Cambridge’s first all-queer magazine, Screeve. Tiberiu is currently long-listed for the International News Media Association (INMA)’s “30 Under 30” Awards 2023.
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