Once upon a midnight dreary, Queer Lit pondered all things eerie… and believe me, this episode is quaint and curious queer horror galore! Horror writer and researcher Lucy Holmes take us on a trip down vampire lane and chills me to the bone with everything from 1930s gay directors to 1970s lesbian bloodsuckers to nonbinary and trans representation in contemporary horror shows. Lucy also reminds us that horror, just like your queer identity, can mean anything you want it to mean. And yes, of course, we talk Buffy and Alien!

If you’re not too spooked out, follow @lulu_pew and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram and Twitter and tell all your scary friends.

Texts by Lucy mentioned:

“Horror in the Closet” in Hear Us Scream ( @hearusscream )
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hear-Us-Scream-Voices-Horror/dp/B09M7F3SN3
“Breaking Bloody Binaries”
https://www.hearusscream.com/editorials/breaking-bloody-binaries
“Silencing Sapphics”
https://www.hearusscream.com/editorials/silencing-sapphics-a-mirror-image-between-killing-eve-and-bly-manor
“Sapphics Bite Back” in Ghouls Magazine

Other texts and concepts mentioned:

Hays Code
Ghoulfriends Podcast ( @GhoulFriendPod )
https://mobile.twitter.com/ghoulfriendpod
“Queerness and Race in Gothic and Horror” with Maisha Wester
Abigail Waldron’s Queer Screams
Dragula
James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931)
Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope
Fear Street
Chucky
#UntoldTales
Ripley
Alien
Evil Dead
Murnau’s Nosferatu
Max Schreck
Killing Eve
Bly Manor
First Kill
Dracula’s Daughter
Buffy
True Blood
Freaky (Blumhouse)
Misha Osherovich
They/Them
Scream
Wings
Marlene Dietrich
Dandy
Bury your gays trope
The L Word
The Wilds
#SaveGentlemanJack with Sarah Wingrove
Yellowjackets
Assassination Nation
Bit
Interview with a Vampire
Daughters of Darkness
Vampire Lesbos
The Vampire Lovers
The Hunger
Final Girls Podcast
Queen of the Damned
Let the right one come in
Elizabeth Bathory
Vincent Price
House of Haunted Hill
“Medieval Disney Queers” with Amy Louise Morgan
Sleepaway Camp
Candyman
Shudder
Queer for Fear
Hannibal
Mads Mikkelsen
Tag
Gillian Anderson
Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy
Velvet Buzzsaw
Buffering the Vampire Slayer
Carol Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.How would you define horror?
2.Why might queer people be drawn to horror as a genre? Which possible answer does Lucy give? What do you think?
3.What is potentially problematic about queer representation in horror?
4.Have you ever identified with a monster? If so, which one?
5.Please look up Jack Halberstam’s work on queer monsters. What do you notice about his approach?