Moving Beyond the ‘Bury Your Gays’ Trope:
Reclaiming Queerness in Horror Films
It’s no secret that queer folks adore horror: for so long, it’s been the genre we were most likely to show up in, even if the representation we got wasn’t exactly positive. Modern creators, however, have a chance to do something our gay horror forefathers, like director James Whale, didn’t have; we get to flip the script on those harmful stereotypes and cliches like “bury your gays.”
In INTO’s first cover story, writer Alani Vargas talks to queer and trans directors, actors, and creators like Mariama Diallo, Gretchen Felker-Martin, and T’Nia Miller about the parts of horror that need salvaging and the stereotypes that need to be retired. Vargas digs into the queer origins of horror and brings us up to the present, in which we can see an exciting new wave of creators transforming the genre for the better.
Henry Giardina
INTO editor-in-chief
“We found ourselves feeling like monsters, feeling horrified and finding ourselves reflected in these classics [referencing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, Psycho, etc.]. And that’s really extraordinary.”
- Filmmaker Kimberly Peirce
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