Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror

- I have a feeling that, inside you, somewhere,

there's something nobody knows about.

Something nobody knows?

- Something secret and wonderful,

and I'll find it out.

It's not good to find out too much, Charlie.

- James Whale and Alfred Hitchcock was sort of the bridge,

to me, between horror films and queerness.

- Now, you seem very interested in the subject of murder.

- Well, no more than anyone else.

- I think you'd be hard pressed to not find a gay man

who doesn't relate, at least,

to being driven crazy by his mother's voice in his head.

It's sad when a mother has to speak the words

that condemn her own son.

- Hitchcock created a picture that, as soon as you saw it,

you couldn't look away and you couldn't let go of it.

- Like Hitchcock, James Whale's images

in those movies are so indelible.

I never really know for sure

if I should be repelled or intrigued.

- Alfred Hitchcock recognized the fear

surrounding living your life as a queer person.

- I really like James Whale in a lot of ways

because I can say "Yes, yes,

it's because he's queer that I connect with these monsters."

- Hitchcock was making these gay characters

the more interesting characters

because maybe it was a part of him.

- I think Hitchcock's kind of weird about sex in general.

I think he finds the whole thing a little bit unappetizing.

James Whale figured out

pretty early on how to get past the censors.

- Alfred Hitchcock's like balls out. He's like, "What?"

No rules.

- What you see is filmmakers being

a little bit more explicit about queer storylines

because they could get away with them.

Am I giving you bride?

- This creature of yours should be kept under guard.

Mark my words. He will prove dangerous.

- Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous?

- When you talk about queer cinema,

you have to talk about James Whale.

He did all kinds of movies,

but his kind of quartet

of horror movies are what he's remembered for.

- He created the archetypal horror film in Hollywood.

It's alive!

It's alive! It's alive!

It's alive!

- Now, I think with Whale's films, you can definitely,

you know, he's not making it hard for you

to do the queer read on them.

My name is Femm, Horace Femm.

- There's plenty of camp in those movies.

It's a, it's almost like a language, I wanna say,

for queer artists and a coded way of speaking about society

in a way that society won't necessarily catch on to.

- Can I take your coat and hat, sir,

and give 'em a nice dry in the kitchen?

No.

- So, James Whale's a fascinating figure.

He, you know, serves as an officer for the British

in World War I, spends a lot of time in a POW camp,

and in the camp, starts getting involved in these dramatics,

these little plays that are being put on

to sort of raise the morale of the men,

give them something to do,

and that's where he discovers this love of theater.

He returns to London after the war is over.

He winds up directing a play called "Journey's End,"

which is considered by many

to be like the definitive World War I play.

So, you know, he,

on the success of "Journey's End"

goes to Broadway, eventually goes to Hollywood.

Hello, Jimmy.

You got one quickly.

He was an obvious talent,

and he signed a contract with Carl Laemmle at Universal

and they gave him the pick of the properties,

and being a homosexual with a modern sense of humor,

he said, I'll do "Frankenstein," please.

- We are about to unfold the story of "Frankenstein,"

a man of science

who sought to create a man after his own image

without reckoning upon God.

- Whale created a groundbreaking film

because he incorporated German expressionist cinema into it,

camera angles that had never been used before,

all filtered through the lens of his queerness.

- He found an actor in the canteen

at Universal Studios called Boris Karloff

and said, "I think your face has possibilities."

- When I think of monsters, I'm like,

"It's all about Frankenstein."

So classic, such a good look,

a strong brow, handsome shoulders,

stitched together of corpse body parts.

I love that guy.

He's a monster.

And you know, just on the most basic level,

gay people are called monsters

and have been for a long time.

So, there's that.

There he is! The murderer!

- If you've been on the other side of the pitch fork,

you're maybe a little sympathetic to the monster.

"Frankenstein's Monster,"

how do you not fall in love with that oaf?

You know, walking around,

just looking for love

and everybody keeps chasing him with pitch forks.

This sort of empathy towards the monster is clearly a draw

for me with the genre.

It kind of begins there.

The monster is innocent.

He is brought into being.

He is what he is, and it is the society that is the monster.

- The monster never did anything to nobody.

He just, he's an innocent, in a real sense of the word,

but he looks real scary to people

because they don't get him.

- There's something about Frankenstein as a monster

that I think speaks to a really quintessential part

of queer experience

and that like you don't always realize

that you're different, right?

And once you do,

you realize that society sees you as something monstrous.

It's like this internalized self loathing.

- Horror has always been interwoven very deeply

with the idea of what it means

to be someone who is not accepted by society

but nevertheless has a soul.

- Would you like one of my flowers?

Which is the story of Frankenstein's monster

in particular.

- "Frankenstein" is one of the first movies I heard

of having a like clear queer parallel.

Is anything wrong?

I've felt it all day.

Something is coming between us.

I know it.

I know it.

- When you look at James Whale directing "Frankenstein"

and you look at the queer theory surrounding it,

it is almost always the homosexual subtext

because James Whale was a homosexual director.

But what gets lost is the transgender narrative.

Think of it,

the brain of a dead man waiting to live again

in a body I made with my own hands,

with my own hands.

- "Frankenstein" is about the idea

that science might subvert the ways

that God has set up the universe.

There is this element of science helping you find

your true form that is not, not trans,

but also society regards that science as ghoulish.

Every day, trans people are playing God for themselves.

It's moving.

They are saying,

I'm going to reanimate the parts of myself

that everyone has told me should be dead.

- Now I know what it feels like to be God!

That powerful metaphor creates

within us this kinship with this monster

who really doesn't deserve what comes to him.

- "Frankenstein," which was an immensely popular

and famous film.

- James Whale was, by that point,

becoming number one or number two director at Universal,

so he could have a little more freedom to do what he wanted.

Good evening.

- I really love "The Old Dark House."

I love the way that he seems to be inventing a genre

and satirizing it.

You are witnessing construction and deconstruction

at the same time.

He's giving us the, you know,

it was a darken and stormy night,

the spooky house and the weird people inside

and the don't go in that room and all of that kind of stuff.

And at the same time,

there's such a tongue in cheek attitude to the whole thing.

- I'm dreadfully wet and I would be so glad

if I could go and change my clothes?

What?

- I wondered if I might change my things.

- You look wet. You better go and change your things.

- There's an incredibly effeminate gentleman

running the house.

- My sister was on the point of arranging these flowers.

- And then he is got like a really dykey lesbian sister.

- You think of nothing but your long straight legs

and your white body and how to please your man.

Thinly veiled, thinly veiled.

Then there's like a hundred and something year old man