Reader's Diary #2069 - Joe Vallese (editor): It Came from the Closet

I've yet to watch the Shudder series Queer for Fear which claims to look at the LGQBTQ+ community in horror film. I had a friend who watched it report to me that while he found it interesting, he found some of the ideas to be a bit of a stretch, reading LGBTQ metaphors into movies that he really didn't see strong, if any, connections. I'll still try it, but I had similar initial reservations about It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections of Horror. 

Also, I should note that I had never considered before that horror films had a particularly strong fanbase in the LGBTQ community. The first time I heard anything of the sort was when Babadook surprisingly became a Pride icon.

To be clear, It Came from the Closet, doesn't necessarily assert that horror films are inherently queer. Nor does it make, at least I didn't think so, leaps of reasoning to find connections. What it did do, however, was present thoughtful, personal essays from queer horror fans. In some of these, they acknowledged that some films were more problematic than queer positive, and in such cases, there were profound reflections on as to why they were still fans. 

I was also extremely impressed by the diversity and intersectionality. Not only were the letters represented, but we also had POC writers, writers with disabilities, and so on. 

It gave me a lot to think about and I also added a few horror films to my "to watch list".