Netflix’s best queer horror to make you scream this Halloween
Jillian Holtzmann, Sabrina Spellman and Theo Crain (netflix and Columbia Pictures)
It’s Halloween, that special time of the year when we all come together to celebrate fear, death and monsters.
And hey, that’s no reason to abandon your love of all things queer—after all, there’s some subversive horror out there for everyone.
Maybe you’re like the countless others who relate to It‘s murderous clown Pennywise or The Babadook because of their outsider statuses.
Babadook at 2017’s LA Pride Festival (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty)
It’s also possible that you simply love the ways in which queer horror flicks like The Rocky Horror Picture Show take on the heteronormative paradigm and the gender binary in one fell swoop.
Or you might just want to see yourself reflected on the screen at all times of year, like straight people are. Can you imagine?
Whatever your reason, look no further. We can scare the pants off you.
The Haunting of Hill House
The Netflix original series features Theodora Crain, a psychic, kick-ass lesbian whose sexuality the show reveals early on and without hesitation.
Theo is a complex, nuanced, fully drawn character with real depth, like the rest of her siblings, but is also, crucially, unashamedly gay.
She was understood to be a lesbian in the original 1959 novel by Shirley Jackson, and the fact that she is explicitly gay in this version of the story is a wonderful relief.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Chance Perdomo as Ambrose Spellman (Netflix)
Riverdale‘s sister programme— which came out on October 26—features two queer characters, in the shape of Sabrina’s cousin, pansexual warlock Ambrose Spellman, and her friend, non-binary witch Susie Putnam.
Like Riverdale, the show isn’t afraid to represent LGBT+ teenagers while scaring you silly, which makes sense with less than half of young people in the US defining themselves as straight.
It means even more that Susie is also played by a non-binary actor, Lachlan Watson, who, like their on-screen character, uses they/them pronouns.
Ghostbusters (2016)
Kate McKinnon’s Jillian Holtzmann is never explicitly defined as queer within the hit film, but let’s be serious here. This is obvious.
Whether it’s her wonderful wardrobe, flirtatious hints and winks or just outright licking her gun, Holtzmann adores coming onto women, as demonstrated by her line to Kristen Wiig’s character, Erin Gilbert: “Come here often?”
If blood and gore isn’t for you, curl up with a mug of something hot and bask in McKinnon’s glow.
American Horror Story
The Countess (American Horror Story)
Like most creations which Ryan Murphy touches, this thrilling anthology, now in its eighth season, provides more than its fair share of queer representation.
From Edward Philippe Mott and Chad Warwick to Dell Toledo, Ramona Royale, Liz Taylor and Will Drake, the series has explored a wide variety of LGBT+ characters.
And, of course, there’s no mentioning AHS without referencing the Countess. Iconic.
How to Get Away With Murder
Annalise Keating (Mitch Haaseth/ABC)
As the topsy-turvy, helter-skelter thiller kills its way through a fifth season of blood, secrets and drama, it’s worth noting that it has gifted us with some fantastic, fleshed-out queer murderers.
Viola Davis’s Annalise Keating is openly bisexual, while Connor and Oliver’s relationship brought a plethora of gay sex onto our screens, along with laughter, heartbreak and everything else which comes with a relationship.
And let’s not be like Annalise and forget Bonnie Winterbottom, who kissed her mentor and clearly has some very complicated feelings for her.
