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Alexis Arquette: Portrait of a Scream Queen

The Arquettes are a Fright Family. Together, they have starred in five major horror franchises, including A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Patricia, David, and Roseanna are household names, and their sister Alexis should be no exception. Like her brother David, Alexis often found roles in the horror genre, but not the ones she had always longed for. Nonetheless, whether a supernatural townie, goth wannabe, or a teenager in drag, Alexis was a magnetic presence in each horror film. Here is a retrospective on Alexis Arquette, the horror icon!

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The Arquettes are a Fright Family. Together, they have starred in five major horror franchises, including A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Patricia, David, and Roseanna are household names, and their sister Alexis should be no exception. Like her brother David, Alexis often found roles in the horror genre, but not the ones she had always longed for. Nonetheless, whether a supernatural townie, goth wannabe, or a teenager in drag, Alexis was a magnetic presence in each horror film.

This July 28th would have been Alexis’ 55th birthday. Her life was cut short on September 11th, 2016, by AIDS, a diagnosis she acquired around the time she was 18 years old. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Arquette kept her health private and was “obstinate” about utilizing new treatments available for those living with HIV/AIDS. Though she had lived openly as a queer since her teenage years, she chose not to share her status due to the persistent issues she faced while being an actor.

Sham Ibrahim, a friend who performed at drag shows with Alexis, said the actress was a Hollywood pariah in her early days, “Directors and producers avoided her. She was rightfully angry that she should have had the success and notoriety that comes with being such a talented actor and being born into a family that presents the opportunity to you.” It was not until 2004 that Alexis chose to share with the media that she was transgender, a fact that her family had always been supportive of. 

Early Life and Family Support in Hollywood

David, Patricia, and Rosanna Arquette have been fierce allies to their sister for her entire life. When Alexis was bullied at school, “I started fighting people,’” Patricia said in 2011. Alexis began dressing in drag as young as two, and would eventually disown her birth name for ‘Alexis.’ It was with Patricia that Alexis traveled to New York City in the late 1980s to pursue their acting dreams. Her sister would soon make her film debut as Kristen Parker, the protagonist of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in 1987. 

In a 1999 interview with Index Magazine, Alexis was asked about her myriad roles in horror: “I’m definitely a fan of splatter. And I like horror…” Alexis’ horror filmography includes roles in and out of drag. She frequently played troubled characters, whose piercing eyes were not without a devilish glint. An androgynous chameleon, Alexis played both masc and femme roles. While she was featured in high-profile films like The Wedding Singer and Pulp Fiction, her horror film roles, in my opinion, are the most mesmerizing. On the bloody silver screen, she is mysterious, silly, intense, and, of course, funny. Unfortunately, she had just a decade of work before being ostracized from Hollywood following her coming out in 2004. “Her career was cut short,” advocates her sister, “by her decision to live her truth and her life as a transgender woman. Despite the fact that there are few parts for trans actors, she refused to play roles that were demeaning or stereotypical. She was a vanguard in the fight for understanding and acceptance for all trans people.”

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Alexis felt that when it came to conversations about trans people, particularly trans actors, the work often gets overshadowed, and the wild imaginations of cisgender folks take center stage. When discussing the invasive and “perverse” questioning directed at newly out trans actors while a panelist for “Out in the Open: Sexual & Gender Identity Secrets” on Larry King in 2009, she stated, “I think it’s more an exposing type thing because it’s not about your work, not about what you want to contribute as an entertainer… It’s only about your very personal identity issue.”

1990s Horror Roles: From Buffy to Bride of Chucky

After Arquette made her film debut as transgender sex worker Georgette in Last Exit to Brooklyn in 1989, she began landing small roles in independent films, many of them thrillers and horror. She played the uncredited role of Vampire DJ in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer in 1992 (alongside her brother David), and a corporal in Ghost Brigade in 1993. This same year, Alexis would star as the protagonist of Jack Be Nimble. Hers was an incredibly dramatic role of an abused young man in search of his sister. “[V]ery Carrie-esque,” according to Arquette. She would star as Punk (victim #3) in Frisk two years later, a queer thriller about a serial killer. When shown in Manhattan in 1996, The New York Times reported that “its gory scenes of drugged-out punks being sodomized, strung up and murdered were enough to send a number of viewers scurrying to the exits.”

Simultaneous to her film career, Alexis was performing in drag shows in New York as Eva Destruction. She starred alongside Lady Bunny and RuPaul at the 1994 Wigstock Festival, and Eva was featured in the film Wigstock (1995). “Drag can do a lot of things for people,” explained Arquette in 1999. “It can make them look at their ideas of femininity, masculinity… Our ideas of sexuality are all learned, they’re all in our heads, they have nothing to do with emotions or reality or, you know, love, which is what we’re all looking for.” Donned in drag, Alexis portrayed bad girl Lisa Marie Blair in the low-budget horror short Scream, Teen, Scream! (1996). This slumber party slasher spoof has it all: drugs, pizza, boys, a Ouija board, and the ghost of Karen Carpenter. Scream, Teen, Scream is a severely underrated horror parody and showcases a fabulous comedic performance by Arquette.

Alexis had range. She became a bad boy in Sometimes, They Come Back… Again (1996), the sequel to a Stephen King short story adaptation. The straight-to-video horror film is over dramatic, includes questionable dialogue, and is unintentionally funny. Arquette plays Tony, a complete slimeball and villain. She effortlessly acts circles around future Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank. Her piercing eyes made her a shoo-in for this role. Two years later, Alexis reaches her peak in horror. No, not as Greg in Children of the Corn V: Field of Terror, but Bride of Chucky. Starring opposite queer icon Jennifer Tilly (Bound), Alexis plays Damien, Tilly’s goth lover. Creepy yet sexy Damien is revealed to be dweebish Howard Fitzwater, a poser. Though her character doesn’t last long, Alexis’ role is a memorable one. She holds her own with bombshell Tilly, and along with her on-screen lover, sets the tone for the rest of this revamped entry of the Child’s Play franchise. 2000s emo kids and other Spencer’s gifts-customers owe a lot to Alexis’ portrayal. This would be the final horror role of her career.

Alexis Arquette’s Trans Advocacy and Hollywood Legacy

According to Patricia, “[Alexis’] career was cut short, not by her passing, but by her decision to live her truth and her life as a transgender woman.” After coming out in the early 2000s, Alexis’ career stalled. However, she used this time to become a leading voice in Hollywood for trans rights, using her platform to advocate for trans acceptance. “Despite the fact that there are few parts for trans actors, she refused to play roles that were demeaning or stereotypical,” explained Patricia. “She was a vanguard in the fight for understanding and acceptance for all trans people.” Patricia’s comment came at the heels of the 2017 Academy Awards after Alexis was not mentioned in the “In Memoriam” segment. Alexis’ omission was negligent. “We’re living in a time right now,” continued Patricia to Vanity Fair, “where trans kids can’t even go to the bathroom in schools… It’s really unfortunate that the Oscars decided they couldn’t show a trans person who was such an important person in this community. Because—trans kids—it could have meant a lot to them.” 

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As Alexis’ health deteriorated, she slowly abandoned her femme presentation. In a 2009 YouTube post, Alexis urged she would “rather die on a hospital table than never [surgically transition].” However, the emotional toll accrued after years of public transphobia proved too heavy to bear, and her ailing health made it difficult to put on make-up and a wig every day. Her brother David divulged months before Alexis’ death that she then preferred to be known as “gender suspicious.” 

While on her deathbed, surrounded by family, Alexis drifted away to David Bowie’s “Starman,” per her wishes. Alexis was a truly magnetic and otherworldly talent. She showcased her ability to transform, particularly in horror – a medium that has always lent itself to tales of transformation. Alexis’ ascent in the 1990s as an openly queer actor began as optimistic, a potentiality for a queerer film landscape and Hollywood acceptance. Though her career was cut short by discrimination, she represented the possibility for a better and more malleable Hollywood, one not so bent on the binary. How beautiful it could have been for Alexis to see the careers of young actors flourish amidst transition and gender fluidity, as many of them do today. And maybe her own could have been revived.

Thank you, Alexis Arquette. We miss you.

Abigail Waldron is a queer historian who specializes in American horror cinema. Her book "Queer Screams: A History of LGBTQ+ Survival Through the Lens of American Horror Cinema" is available for purchase from McFarland Books. She resides in Brooklyn, New York.

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Misc

Our Halloween Giveaway Is Here!

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Halloween and our final giveaway of the month is also here to spice up your Fall before the Holidays take a snowier, and less creepy turn. So be sure to enter now for a chance to win this prize that’ll be sure to keep the thrills going all season long! Don’t miss out—grab your costume, some BBQ and join the fun.

Enter Our Halloween Giveaway!

How to Enter:

Step 1. Make sure to FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP!

Step 2. LIKE AND SHARE the giveaway post!

Step 3. This is the most important step, email us at contact@horrorpress.com with your FULL Facebook name (so we can verify you’re in the group) and who your favorite character is from the Texas Chainsaw franchise.

**Giveaway entries are limited to addresses in the United States.**

**All entries must be 18 or older to enter**

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What You’ll Win

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Limited Edition 4K UHD from Arrow Video

  • 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
  • Original DTS-HD MA 7.1 and 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Brand new audio commentary with Dread Central co-founder Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton and co-host of The Spooky Picture Show podcast Chris MacGibbon
  • Archival audio commentary with director Marcus Nispel, producer Michael Bay, executive producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form and New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye
  • Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, director of photography Daniel Pearl, production designer Greg Blair, art director Scott Gallager, sound supervisor Trevor Jolly and composer Steve Jablonsky
  • Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, writer Scott Kosar, Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and actors Jessica Biel, Erica Leerhsen, Eric Balfour Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel and Andrew Bryniarski
  • Reimagining a Classic, a brand new interview with director Marcus Nispel
  • Shadows of Yesteryear, a brand new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
  • The Lost Leatherface, a brand new interview with actor Brett Wagner
  • Masks and Massacres, a brand new interview with makeup effects artist Scott Stoddard
  • Chainsaw Symphony, a brand new interview with composer Steve Jablonsky
  • Chainsaw Redux: Making A Massacre, a making-of documentary
  • Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, an in-depth look at the infamous killer who inspired the character of Leatherface
  • Severed Parts, a look at the cutting room floor and some of the scenes excised from the final edit
  • Deleted scenes including an alternate opening and ending
  • Screen tests for Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour and Erica Leerhsen
  • Behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Cast and crew interviews
  • Theatrical trailers and TV spots
  • Concept art galleries
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
  • Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
  • Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Gingold
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Misc

NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights: A Sneak Peek at ‘The Lost Boys’ Musical, ‘Resident Evil: Requiem,’ and More!

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As soon as New York Comic Con announced that its 2025 theme would be “haunted,” I started lacing up my comfy shoes and making a beeline for the Javitz Center! Horror has always been represented at the con, but it felt fitting that it should play a central role in this year’s event at a time when the genre seems more popular than ever. 

From beloved family-friendly properties like The Nightmare Before Christmas to pants-dampening titles like the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem, horror appeared in countless shapes and forms. Here are all the best and scariest insights I gleaned from the show floor, panel rooms, and pop-ups of New York Comic Con 2025! 

Our NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights

Resident Evil: Requiem Is Going to Test Your Bladder Strength

Full disclaimer: I’m not a gamer. I’m honestly pretty bad at games, which made my Resident Evil: Requiem play session all the more frightening because I was convinced that everyone around me would realize I’m a fraud. But with easy-to-grasp controls, even for a newb like me, the latest installment in the iconic horror franchise quickly sucked me in and left me on edge for entirely different reasons. 

During my 30-minute session, I was introduced to FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, Requiem’s central character. She swims to consciousness to find herself strapped upside down on a gurney with a needle in her arm, siphoning her blood. After Grace managed to free herself, the controls were handed over to me to explore the creepy facility through Grace’s eyes, looking for a fuse. Some spaces were bathed in red light; others were lit only by flickering bulbs that left me white-knuckling the controller, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows and swallow me whole, not helped by Grace’s anxious, stuttering breathing in my ear. 

I took a moment to appreciate how detailed video games have become since my childhood experiences playing Evil Dead: Hail to the King on the original PlayStation (seriously, you can see the dust drifting in beams of light now?!), only for the sound of movement somewhere in the facility to yank me back to the present. I renewed my frantic search for the fuse, only to run blindly into a pitch-black room and encounter something enormous that dragged me into the darkness. Sorry, Grace!

You can find out what happens next when Resident Evil: Requiem releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27, 2026.

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Megan Fox Is Among the New Cast Members in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—And Blumhouse Hasn’t Given Up on Its Other m3gan Yet

Blumhouse made several announcements at their NYCC panel, most notably that Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) is voicing Toy Chica in director Emma Tammi’s highly anticipated sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, coming to theaters on December 5. Other new additions to the cast include YouTuber Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, who cameoed in the first movie and will voice Toy Bonnie, and Kellen Goff, who has voiced multiple characters in the game series and will now lend his pipes to Toy Freddy.

I’m interested in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, not least because my best friend is terrified of the franchise and makes a wildly entertaining moviegoing companion—but I’m more interested in the future of another Blumhouse franchise, M3GAN. After the sequel underperformed, likely due in part to its hard genre pivot away from horror and into action territory, the future of the killer doll is uncertain. But in a special industry presentation on “The Business of Fear,” Jason Blum revealed that “we’re all working to keep M3GAN alive,” adding that Blumhouse is exploring other potential mediums before trying to resurrect her on film. 

Does that mean a M3GAN video game might come our way in the future, or perhaps a TV series? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the silicone diva.

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.

The Lost Boys: A New Musical Will Feature Flying Stunts and a Live Vampire Band

My queer heart is a sucker for musical adaptations of horror films I love, so you can be certain that I’ll be heading down to the Santa Carla Boulevard—aka Broadway’s Palace Theater—for The Lost Boys: A New Musical, which begins previews on March 27, 2026. At their NYCC panel, producer Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring franchise), director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and cast members LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries revealed why they feel Joel Schumacher’s 1987 classic translates so well to the stage, and what audiences can look forward to. 

“There’s something that I see with both horror movies, musicals, and superhero movies—there’s an element of melodrama that’s really rewarding,” says Wilson, who began his career in musical theater and worked with Schumacher on the director’s 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “Some people view it as camp, but there’s a reality of it being heightened that felt like this story cemented itself so much to being a musical.”

“They’re a biker gang, after all, and there’s a level of theatricality to that in and of itself,” says Arden. “Our biker gang also happens to play instruments.” 

That’s right: the vampires will be playing instruments live on stage, which made casting twice as hard. Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film, reveals that he plays guitar. And that wasn’t the only unusual request in the casting call: auditions included a flying test. (Presumably wires were involved, unless Arden has found himself a real cabal of vampires in his cast.)

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Other highlights that fans can look forward to include killer music from one of Arden’s favorite bands, The Rescues. You can listen to the song “Have to Have You” right now, featuring instrumentals from Slash. The director also teases that many fan-favorite moments from the film will feature in some way in the musical, including the bridge scene and, yes, even the sexy saxophone guy. 

Greg Nicotero’s Guts & Glory Marks a New Challenge for a Legend of the Business

If you like looking at gnarly practical effects in horror movies, chances are you’re familiar with Greg Nicotero’s work, whether you realize it or not. The legendary SFX artist has worked on everything from George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II to Kill Bill and, more recently, The Walking Dead. The impressive extent of his resume was made clear at the panel “Shudder is Here to Scare the S*** Out of You,” in which almost any film mentioned by the other panelists was met by a small smile and a humble murmur of “worked on that” into the mic, often followed by a wild anecdote. Nicotero seems like the most interesting man in the world to grab a drink with, and his new horror competition show for Shudder—Guts & Glory—will let us see more of the man behind the makeup brush.

Guts & Glory is one of the most fun times I’ve had on a show,” Nicotero says, teasing that the series is “part Sam Raimi, part Halloween Horror Nights, and part Survivor.” 

In the six-episode first season, contestants are dropped into an Alabama swamp, where there’s an urban legend about an evil spirit. “One of the contestants gets possessed by the evil spirit, people start dying off, but in the meantime, they’re still competing and there’s a prize,” Nicotero explains.

Guts & Glory is effects-heavy, which was challenging to do in an unscripted series relying on real people’s real-time reactions. “You do a movie, you can cut and try it again,” Nicotero explains. “[This] was completely out of my wheelhouse and out of my comfort zone, but I’m really, really proud of it.”

Nicotero’s Creepshow was one of the first original shows to debut on Shudder, so he’s truly part of the DNA of the horror streamer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Guts & Glory premieres on October 14 as part of Shudder’s Season of Screams programming.

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Horror Short The Littles Deserves the Big-Screen Feature Treatment

Some short films are perfectly suited to their bite-sized format, while others contain the seeds of something much bigger. At the New York Premiere of The Littles, a new short written and directed by American Horror Story producer Andrew Duplessie, I could immediately see the potential for the feature film that Duplessie hopes to make. 

Equal parts charming and unsettling, The Littles stars M3GAN’s Violet McGraw as a little girl with a loose floorboard in her bedroom. One night, a scuffling sound and a crack of light between the boards lead the little girl to discover that her family isn’t alone in the house… 

Duplessie says The Littles was inspired by his own experiences growing up in a creaky old house with a no-doubt overactive imagination. The short features creepy-cute stop-motion animation from Anthony Scott (The Nightmare Before Christmas), puppets by Katy Strutz (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), and some truly adorable miniature sets by Aiden Creates, all blended perfectly with the live-action scenes. Check it out if it’s playing at a festival near you, and watch this space for a (fingers-crossed) future feature! 

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.

Disney Publishing’s New The Nightmare Before Christmas Tie-in Novel Welcomes Younger Fans into the Scary Fun

NYCC’s horror happenings weren’t all geared toward an adult audience. Disney Publishing took over Daily Provisions Manhattan West for a pop-up experience inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring themed food and drinks like a delectable Pumpkin Potion coffee that I could honestly drink all season long. 

At a media and creator event in the space, I took a look at the newly released Hour of the Pumpkin Queen from New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd, who also wrote the official novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2023. In this new tie-in novel, Sally and her rag doll apprentice, Luna, embark on a time-bending adventure to save Jack Skellington and Halloween Town after falling through a mysterious portal.

I was gifted a copy of the book by Disney, but all opinions are my own here. I’m looking forward to giving it a read during the inevitable Halloween hangover that takes place in November, before likely passing it on to my young nieces when they’re old enough. It’s a full novel, not a picture book, so definitely geared more toward a YA audience, but between the beautiful artwork on the cover and the seasonal theme, it might just be the perfect gift for the budding horror lover in your life. 

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That’s a wrap on New York Comic Con 2025! Be sure to bookmark Horror Press if you haven’t already so you never miss our coverage of conventions, festivals, and more. 

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