I find myself in something of a predicament every June. I want to stay home and watch all my favorite queer horror films, but I also want to throw dollars at every drag king and queen in a ten-mile radius. As a result, by the time July 1 rolls around, my Letterboxd diary (like my wallet) often looks emptier than I’d like, and I’m left with a profound sense that there was much more to see.
That got me thinking: are there queer horror movies perfect for other holidays and celebrations? What about those long, slow months in between, when it feels like nothing much is happening and your couch and TV beckon?
June might be over for another year, but this queer horror calendar is here to tide you over until it rolls around again. After all, LGBTQ+ horror movies aren’t just for Pride Month: they’re forever.
Looking for more queer horror streaming guides? Check out Here to Slay for even more year round streaming ideas!
A Year of Queer Horror: Monthly LGBTQ+ Horror Movie Recommendations
Psycho Beach Party (2000)
July: Soak up the Summer Sun With Camp Kills and Sweaty Beach Shenanigans
I’m led to believe from the movies that all American kids go to camp over summer break, so let’s start our queer year there. Infamous slasher Sleepaway Camp (1983) takes a sudden, arguably transphobic turn into LGBTQ+ territory in its final moments when it’s revealed that the introverted Angela (horror icon Felissa Rose) is not only behind the murders that have terrorized Camp Arawak, but was assigned male at birth. However, my pick for a good queer summer camp movie for July would be its first sequel, the joyfully silly Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988).
Here, an all-grown-up Angela (now played by Pamela Springsteen, sister of Bruce Springsteen) has gotten a gig as a camp counselor and makes short work of misbehaving teens. Far from the near-mute traumatized child we met in the first movie, this vision of Angela is chirpy, camp, and impossible not to root for. As Tracy Gossage writes in an article for Gayly Dreadful, “Other than the intro and Angela’s monologue at the end, Angela’s gender is really not that important to the film other than giving us a rare female slasher villain. Moreover, the film gives us a queer villain whose motivations do not lie in some implied psychosis regarding their LGBTQ+ identity, but instead in their Type-A insistence that things should be done a certain, proper way.”
Of course, camping isn’t for everyone. If your version of fun in the sun involves more sand and surf than log cabins and campfire songs, consider taking a stroll down to the Santa Carla Beach Boardwalk to party with the definitely-straight-for-real vampires of The Lost Boys (1987). Or, grab your board and head down to Malibu, where a series of murders are taking place at the Psycho Beach Party (2000), written by drag performer Charles Busch. And if you’re looking for a little summer lovin’, consider meeting a Stranger by the Lake (2013) for queer erotic thrills.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
August: Head Back to School With Jennifer’s Body, Fear No Evil, and More
With many schools going back in August, this month is a prime time to remember why high school is such a drag. Luckily, there’s a wealth of LGBTQ+ horror centered around the classroom experience. (It’s almost like a lot of us queers had a bad time in school and need to process it…)
Jennifer’s Body (2009) is often the first film that comes to mind when people discuss queer fear in a school setting, and while it is overrepresented in discussions of sapphic scares, it’s also a bloody fun watch that I return to year after year. The same could be said of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (1985) in terms of gay male horror—not your only option, but a damn good one all the same. Check out the documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019) as a fascinating companion piece.
For more obscure high school-set queer viewing, try Fear No Evil (1981), in which a 17-year-old twink learns he’s the antichrist. Fellas, is it gay if you bully the devil by making out with him naked in the shower? Because that’s a scene that happens in this movie. For similarly homoerotic subtext between wet, half-naked men, The Covenant (2006) is also a good option. And there’s literally never a bad time to revisit Jane Schoenbrun’s incredible I Saw the TV Glow (2024), but it’s especially fitting here, with some of its most pivotal scenes taking place in and around a school and its adjacent sports grounds.
Death Drop Gorgeous (2020)
September: Toast a Hard-Working Gay on Labor Day
September brings Labor Day, so let’s raise a glass to all the hard-working queers creating our fears. I’m talking housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) in Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), who keeps the Manderley mansion spotless despite her all-consuming obsession with the late Rebecca de Winter and her campaign of terror against the pretender to Rebecca’s throne, the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine). I’m talking Eleanor (Isabelle Fuhrman) in The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021), a maid whose illicit affair with one of the women she works for sadly exposes them both to a world of pain. I’m talking Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)—running a motel seems hard at the best of times, even when you’re not experiencing the urge to stab. And I’m obviously not forgetting the gays in the hugely fun Slay (2024) and Death Drop Gorgeous (2020), who hustle for dollars while trying to fend off vampires and masked maniacs, respectively.
Honestly, this category is pretty broad. If they’re queer and have a job, they’re a candidate for your watch list this month.
September also marks New York Fashion Week in my neck of the woods, so feel free to stick on a few movies showcasing killer looks, like the bold stylings of The Babadook (2014) or the fearless fetishwear of Hellraiser (1987). (Are we including Buffalo Bill in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs in this category? Probably shouldn’t, even if he does know how to rock a caftan…)
Hellbent (2004)
October: Party With the Cast of Hellbent for Halloween
Halloween is basically second Pride, so let’s dig up some queer All Hallows’ Eve-set horror for the month of October. Surprisingly, this task is harder than it sounds.
I would be remiss not to mention the seminal Hellbent (2004), one of the very first queer slasher films (though pre-dated by the lesbionic Make a Wish from 2002) and perhaps the only one set entirely over Halloween. Four gay friends just want to have a nice time at the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval but find themselves stalked by a “Devil Daddy” who introduces them to the sharp end of his sickle. It’ll make you ask: “Why the hell aren’t more queer horror films set on Halloween?!”
Other than that, you could revisit Scream VI (2023), which takes place over a Halloweekend in New York City. Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) finally gets a girlfriend (Devyn Nekoda), though, uh…. Well, let’s just say she’s not gonna be in the sequel, Mr. Ghostface.
Ravenous (1999)
November: Frolick in the Snow With Ravenous and My Animal
As the weather starts to get colder, cuddle up with your partner or polycule and enjoy some queer chillers like Antonia Bird’s Ravenous (1999). One of my all-time favorite queer-coded horror movies, this wildly underrated film is set at an isolated military outpost in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, where accidental cannibal Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce) crosses paths with the very intentional cannibal Colonel Ives (a sublime Robert Carlyle). Ives is lonely and wants a partner in… Crime? Life? Bed? As Carlyle explains in one interview, his character “[doesn’t] just want to eat Guy Pearce; he’s going to have Guy Pearce at the same time.”
A more recent favorite of mine also fits the bill for November nicely: 2023’s My Animal. A romantic take on the werewolf subgenre, this delicious slow-burn from director Jacqueline Castel follows a lycanthropic teenage outcast (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) falling for a figure skater (Amandla Stenberg) in the snowy wilds of Canada. I promise you’ll have the score by Boy Harsher’s Augustus Muller on repeat for weeks after watching.
It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023)
December: Make the Yuletide Gay With It’s a Wonderful Knife and Carnage for Christmas
If the holidays weren’t gay enough already (and take it from a former Sunday School teacher, they’re so extra), give yourself the gift of some queer Christmas kills this December. It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023) is exactly what it sounds like: a slasher spin on the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life, only with more lesbians. Jane Widdop plays Winnie Carruthers, who is struggling to move on after taking down a masked killer on Christmas Eve. When she wishes she was never born, she gets to experience what the world would be like without her—and, spoilers, it’s a lot worse! Along the way, Winnie falls for town misfit Bernie (Jess McLeod), a relationship that the actors personally helped to shape. It’s sweet, it’s sapphic, and it’s guaranteed to make your heart grow three sizes.
Another recent addition to the queer Christmas horror canon is 2024’s Carnage for Christmas. I’ll confess, I haven’t actually watched this one yet, but considering it comes from trailblazer Alice Maio Mackay, the Australian filmmaker behind the superb T-Blockers (2023), I feel confident in recommending it nonetheless. The plot centers on true-crime podcaster Lola (Jeremy Moineau) returning to her hometown after transitioning only to discover a gruesome urban legend come to life. It’s top of my watch list for December, and it should be on yours, too!
Midnight Kiss (2019)
January: Ring in the New Year Queer With Midnight Kiss and Life Blood
When the ball drops, the horror keeps on coming. Part of Hulu’s Into the Dark collection, Midnight Kiss (2019) is the ideal way to ring in the new year. Carter Smith (Swallowed, The Passenger) helms this entry in the anthology series, which follows a group of gay best friends and their one gal pal as they head to Palm Springs for a New Year’s Eve soiree. There, they plan to play the titular “Midnight Kiss” game by finding a stranger to kiss consensually at midnight. Unfortunately, someone in a fetish mask doesn’t know that consent is sexy and is killing people against their will (wow, rude).
Another option for your midnight viewing is Life Blood (2009), a trashy little flick about lesbian vampire angel assassins (?) on a killing spree on New Year’s Eve. Is it good? Uhh… Let’s just call it unique and move on.
Attachment (2022)
February: Celebrate Queer Love in All Its Forms With Attachment, The Hunger, and More
Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to eat chocolate hearts and watch romantic horror. There are plenty of options out there with a queer twist, including the many, many adaptations of Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 lesbian vampire novella Carmilla. I’m especially fond of 1970s The Vampire Lovers from Hammer Film Productions, featuring the gorgeous Ingrid Pitt who, in one especially memorable scene, emerges from the bathtub only to chase the virginal Emma (Madeline Smith) around the room and fall on top of her on the bed. Like most of Hammer’s films, The Vampire Lovers can perhaps best be described as a cozy gothic romp. For a wilder adaptation, albeit a very loose one, 1977’s Alucarda is an absolute blast.
Sticking with vampires, The Hunger (1983) features one of the sexiest casts in horror (Catherine Deneuve! Susan Sarandon! David Bowie!) and some frighteningly hot sapphic lovemaking. If you prefer your relationships a little healthier, however, don’t miss heartfelt horror film Attachment (2022), which has lesbians and demons—though, refreshingly, one isn’t caused by the other.
Fear Street (1994)
March: Mark International Women’s Day With Raw, Fear Street, and Beyond
International Women’s Day is in March, so let’s use this month to revisit all the great women directors making horror queerer.
One of only three women in history to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Julia Ducournau’s first two films—2017’s Raw and 2021’s Titane—are both queer masterpieces. Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies, meanwhile, presents the unselfconscious queerness of a new generation alongside the mistrust and mayhem of a supposed killing spree. And before she brought us the sapphic body-building thrills of Love Lies Bleeding (2024), Rose Glass directed Saint Maud (2019) with a distinctly queer gaze. All come highly recommended.
Special shout out to the women ensuring their gays stay very much unburied. Nia DaCosta’s Candyman (2021) features a gay couple who (spoilers, but yay!) get to be totally okay, much like the central lesbians in Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street trilogy (2021), whose love and survival symbolically end the true curse plaguing their town: centuries-old bigotry.
Queens of the Dead (2025)
April: Rhinestone Some Easter Eggs Ahead of Queens of the Dead
There isn’t a whole lot of Easter-themed horror for April, but I’m pleased to report that upcoming zom-com Queens of the Dead is not only set at Easter, but features a bunny-themed drag performance. Directed by Tina Romero, daughter of the zombie maestro himself, George A. Romero, the film sees a group of drag queens, club kids, and one rude straight man holing up in a Bushwick bar as the dead walk the streets outside. Horror Press’s own Chloé Harper Gold called Queens of the Dead a “delightful zombie horror-comedy that’s hilarious and heartfelt,” and after catching it at Tribeca, I wholly concur. Shudder just acquired the flick, so hopefully we’ll see it on the small screen by next April.
Of course, to make it to Easter, we first have to survive the annual nightmare that is April Fool’s Day. In horror, pranks have a habit of going drastically wrong, as is the case in 1987’s Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. Though not explicitly queer, this sort-of-not-really sequel about a prom queen (Lisa Schrage) who is accidentally burned to death and returns to enact her revenge is so gloriously camp (not to mention wildly inventive) that not including it feels like a crime.
Lyle (2014)
May: Let’s Hear It for the Moms in Lyle and Huesera: The Bone Woman
Forget flowers: celebrate Mother’s Day in May with some good old pregnancy horror! Often referred to as the lesbian Rosemary’s Baby, 2014’s Lyle from Stewart Thorndike is a tight, suspenseful exercise in unease that clocks in at just over an hour. Leah (Gaby Hoffmann) is pregnant and still grieving the sudden death of her first child, the eponymous Lyle. Unlike her predecessor Rosemary, Leah is married to a woman, June (Ingrid Jungermann). Turns out, women can make sketchy firstborn-sacrificing pacts too, and that’s beautiful.
Another great watch for Mother’s Day is Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022). From director and co-writer Michelle Garza Cervera, the film explores the central character’s ambivalence toward her own pregnancy, as she tries desperately to want and appreciate the comfortable life she’s built with her husband, while finding herself drawn inexorably back to an old queer flame. Plus, there’s a spider monster. Good stuff, and the kind we don’t see enough of, frankly.
Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
June: All Queer Horror, All the Time
Congratulations—you made it back to June! If you have any gaps in your Pride Month schedule, you’ll find plenty more queer horror films to fill them, from coded classics like Dracula’s Daughter (1936) to affirming oddities like Nightbreed (1990) and underseen gems like Spiral (2019). Seeking out a shadowcast-accompanied screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is also a must.
If this year of queer horror can teach us anything, it’s that it’s a scary world out there, but there’s real power in community. Stay safe, tip your drag queens, stand up for trans rights, and watch more horror movies.