Lurking on the Bookshelves: Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator
As a filmic genre, horror has always contained subtle Queer undertones and themes. Even before explicit representation was accepted, queerness was present in subtextual form. From the work of out gay filmmaker James Whale in the 1930s (including Frankenstein [1931] and The Old Dark House [1932]) and the coded lesbian characters of Dracula's Daughter (1936) and Cat People (1942), through to the pansexuality of Dracula (1958), the internalised homophobia of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (1985) and the genderqueer Cenobites of Clive Barker's Hellraiser (1987), horror has always discreetly (and not so discreetly!) featured stories of the marginalised and the outsiders, vilified and rejected by society, 'othered' and rendered monstrous. Published in September last year, Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator is a ground-breaking academic study of the relationship Queer people have with horror films. Author Heather O. Petrocelli is an interdisciplinar...
