Haunting Heteronormativity

HAUNTING HETERONORMATIVITY

WRITTEN BY SOFIA CARLOS ILLUSTRATION BY TRICIA VU

Horror is much more than the blood, gore, and scares that scratch the surface of the genre. LGBTQ+ representation in horror movies and television shows has become more common and accurate in recent years. With movies like Fear Street and shows like American Horror Story, LGBTQ+ characters have become more realistic in the horror genre. However, in the past, representation in horror movies and television was rare and if there was any it mostly didn’t cast the community in a favorable light.

As much as I love horror, I can’t deny that some of the classic films used troubling tropes in them. Take the 1960 horror movie Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho is regarded as one of the most famous horror films of all time and Hitchcock one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema. However, even though Psycho changed the game of horror movies, it did it in a way that was and is troubling to the LGBTQ+ community. The end of the film reveals that the main character Norman Bates has a split personality, one of which is his deceased mother. In the film this is revealed by showing Bates dressed in his mother’s clothing and a wig. It’s explained that his mother’s personality took over his mind and became the dominant personality between the two. This scene is an example of a trope that can be found in the horror genre where the killer in the movie is revealed to be trans or expresses their gender outside of the binary. This trope can perpetuate that trans individuals or people in the LGBTQ+ community are killers. Given the time of the 1960s when Psycho was released, this only added fuel to the fire of fear of LGBTQ+ people. It can be argued by some that Bates isn’t trans, but whether or not he is, the association between crazed killer and trans is still there for the audience to absorb. This isn’t the only film where the killer of a horror movie is in some way revealed to be trans or express their gender outside of the binary. Insidious: Chapter 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs are also horror movies that include similar tropes in each respective film. It’s an unfortunate trope that has become a pattern in horror movies throughout the years.

Historically, horror movies have mostly featured a non-diverse cast and characters. The characters most of the time being straight, white, and cisgender. In many horror movies and shows there’s usually a “final girl,” otherwise a trope known as the last character standing after the rest have fallen victim to the killer. Think of Sidney Prescott from the Scream movies or Laurie Strode from the Halloween movies, both characters who were left to take down the killers on their own. Another similarity connects final girls in many horror movies, they’re usually white, cis, and straight. It’s very rare that the audience gets to see anyone with a different background survive the events of a horror movie, that is if they are even in the movie to begin with.

The Fear Street trilogy changes this formula by having the two main characters, Sam and Deena, be Queer and love interests. The pattern of the final girl trope is also broken in the Fear Street trilogy, with Deena, the film’s final girl, being a Queer woman of color. The films follow a group of teenagers who are trying to break a curse set upon their town allegedly by a witch over 300 years ago. The trilogy’s movies are set in 1994, 1978, and 1666 and through different characters we see the recurring theme of homophobia throughout the different periods to be explored. Unlike movies like Psycho, Fear Street doesn’t connect queerness with being villainous. Instead, throughout the storylines of the films, a main theme explored is how queerness has been ostracized and vilified throughout different periods of time. Fear Street also does away with the long standing “bury your gays” trope, in which shows and movies kill off or give LGBTQ+ characters sad endings. In a rare move, the last film of the trilogy, Fear Street: 1666, ends with main characters Sam and Deena alive and reconciled.

Fear Street’s twist ending is not only well written but also disarms the villainous tropes that LGBTQ+ characters have faced in the past. The ending reveals that the supposed witch who set a curse was indeed not a witch but a Queer woman in the 1600s who was equated to a witch due to her queerness. The actual villain and curse setter was a straight man and his descendants, who maintained the curse to hold positions of power in their neighboring town. This ending shows how Queer people throughout history have faced tragic repercussions, including losing their lives, just for being who they are.

The Haunting of Bly Manor is another horror show that featured a Queer character in a lead role. The show, set in the 1980s, centers around Dani, who works as an au pair in England to a family and lives in their large manor. Throughout the show Dani develops a relationship with the gardener of the manor, Jamie. The show visualizes the dynamics of Queer relationships at a time when society wasn’t as accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. The Haunting of

Bly Manor also visualizes heteronormativity and identity exploration through the lead character, Dani. We’re shown how Dani is pressured into an engagement in which it’s clear she wants out. Dani’s character development provides a visual for someone becoming more comfortable with their identity. Additionally, Dani’s character serves as a way to portray the immense amount of stress it can feel to be a closeted person in the LGBTQ+ community, especially during a decade marked with homophobia like the 1980s.

Like Fear Street, American Horror Story is a television show that put LGBTQ+ characters in more prominent roles in the horror genre and in TV. While the show may not be perfect, it brought LGBTQ+ characters and storylines to mainstream horror. Season eleven’s overarching storyline was the AIDS crisis in New York in the 1980s. With its own American Horror Story twist, this season visualized the tragic toll AIDS took on the LGBTQ+ community, death and widespread prejudice and hate. Horror was defined in multiple ways in season 11, gruesome kills from a masked serial killer and the deadly effects homophobia had on the LGBTQ+ community.

American Horror Story allows for its LGBTQ+ characters and storylines to develop throughout the season instead of just sidelining them. While many characters in the show meet untimely demise, including LGBTQ+ characters, their queerness was never written to be a deciding factor in their fate. The show’s characters, including LGBTQ+ characters, are often portrayed as having their fair shares of flaws but unlike horror in the past this was done for the purpose of character development not to vilify one’s sexuality or gender identity. Characters were allowed to be Queer and flawed without being used as a scapegoat to make a great plot twist.

Horror movies and shows haven’t always been the best at representing the LGBTQ+ community. Past films including tropes that only added to the already bigoted attitudes toward the community in previous decades. While representation in the horror genre still has a long way to go, newer films and shows have made an effort to include Queer characters and storylines that allow for accurate representation.