This Pride Month edition of Sitting in the Dark shines a lavender light on the long-standing but often invisible relationship between horror cinema and queer identity. Host Kynan Dias traces horror’s appeal to outsiders—particularly LGBTQ+ viewers—who find coded representation in monsters, victims, and the margins of genre storytelling.
The episode dives deep into three genre-defining films.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
James Whale’s campy sequel is reevaluated as a foundational queer text. The panel explores how Whale, an out gay director, infused the film with coded themes of same-sex companionship, rejection, and theatricality. From Dr. Pretorius’s foppish villainy to the Bride’s brief, iconic scream, the film is bursting with subtext—much of it retroactively interpreted through the lens of queer longing and societal othering. The group also riffs on Whale’s tonal whiplash, Elsa Lanchester’s cultural impact, and why “We belong dead” might be the most tragic queer line in horror history.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
Often derided as a messy sequel, this film is now embraced by many as a camp classic of queer horror. The conversation covers the now-notorious creative denials around its subtext, the dynamic between actor Mark Patton and the filmmakers, and the striking presence of a “final boy” whose journey blurs lines between possession, repression, and queer awakening. The film’s overt homoeroticism—locker rooms, leather bars, and sweaty dance sequences—is discussed not just for laughs, but as meaningful queer coding in the Reagan-era horror landscape. The panel also reckons with Freddy as a metaphor for internalized shame, and what it means when a horror film can’t quite let its subtext become text.
Titane (2021)
Winner of the Palme d’Or and easily the most divisive film of the trio, Titane pushes the panel into complex conversations about gender fluidity, body horror, and the relationship between performance and identity. Is this a trans allegory? A critique of binaries? Or just a deeply weird tale of trauma and transformation? The hosts wrestle with the film’s ambiguity, discussing its uncompromising visuals, unexpectedly tender surrogate father-son relationship, and what it means to build a chosen family amidst radical bodily change. Some saw it as alienating; others, transcendent. All agreed: this one will be analyzed for decades.
This episode doesn’t wrap everything up with a rainbow bow—and that’s the point. Horror isn’t tidy, and queerness rarely comes with clean lines or clear labels. But if you’ve ever felt like the monster, the final someone, or the person who’s just a little too into the firetruck, this conversation might feel like coming home. Or at least like sitting in the dark with people who see what you see.
Film Sundries
- The List on Letterboxd
- Watch the movies discussed:
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- The Bride of Frankenstien: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd
- Titane: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd
