LGBTQ themes in horror films

LGBT themes in horror films refers to figurative or literal representations of non-normative gender and/or sexuality within horror films. This may include characters or narratives that are coded as or openly LGBTQ, the appearance of themes and images specific to LGBTQ experiences, or the reading of horror from an LGBTQ perspective.

The horror genre serves as a medium for exploring and expressing societal anxieties. Fears surrounding LGBTQ identities and threats to heteronormativity have thus been projected into the horror genre. Often through the construction of the Other, a figure that exists as opposition to a supposedly normal, functioning society, such as the famous monsters, serial killers, and other antagonists that make up the horror genre. Perceived as a threat to the assumed heterosexual spectator, LGBTQ themes have often been pushed into the shadows, and must be coaxed out through close analysis and theory.

Film scholar Harry Benshoff posits that there are at least four different ways that LGBTQ elements may intersect with the horror film: films with identifiable LGBTQ characters; films written, produced, and/or directed by a member of the LGBTQ community; through subtext or connotation; and through LGBTQ spectatorship.

Many horror films link sexual transgression to racial transgression, such as White Zombie (1932), thus signaling both the queer and racial "other" as monstrous.

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