Movies
Cowabunga, Queers!: Charles Busch’s ‘Psycho Beach Party’ (2000)
Psycho Beach Party is delicious.
Originally a 1987 stage play by Charles Busch, a drag performer and PBP screenwriter, Psycho Beach Party is the quintessentially queer horror comedy satire and parody of the early-2000s, and we don’t talk about it enough. This could be due to the popularity of another horror comedy parody of the same year: Scary Movie (2000). However, while Scary Movie has queer characters, they are marred by extremely pervasive stereotypes that have persisted in film, especially horror, for decades. Psycho Beach Party, on the other hand, has more to offer horror queers than Scary Movie. It was created by a queer individual and satirizes 1950s/1960s conservatism and family values. This campy summer flick that draws from films like Psycho (1960) and Surf Party (1964) deserves more recognition for its creativity and proud queerness.
Central to Psycho Beach Party is camp. Much like Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Jawbreaker (1999), and …But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), this film has a sinister sparkle that makes it a delightful, nostalgic summer watch for millennials and Gen-Z Y2K-enthusiasts. It flirts with traditionally queer subversive subtext while making itself accessible to new viewers who love the early-aughts style as well as love the familiar faces of several actors. Psycho Beach Party falls into the subgenre of horror-comedy spoof, parody, and/or satire. Ask anyone about early-00s horror comedies, and the Scary Movie franchise would be frequently mentioned. Bridging the gap between the first horror spoof comedies Saturday the 14th (1981) and Student Bodies (1981), Scary Movie found its audience in horror and the mainstream, thanks to the wildly-popular Wayans Brothers.
There is not much satire to be found in Scary Movie, unlike Psycho Beach Party. Scary Movie suffers from an overuse of harmful queer stereotypes, while Psycho Beach Party uses queer characters and themes to analyze 1950/1960s-era misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. Scary Movie digs itself into society’s deep-rooted history of homophobia and transphobia while presenting audiences with a fun mashup of horror’s most beloved films. As a result of its popularity, the franchise would continue to perpetuate negative queer stereotypes in popular culture, further entrenching them in pop culture discourse. A prominent example is Ms. Mann, the girls’ gym coach in the franchise’s first installment. Ms. Mann, in a matter of just a few minutes of screentime, divulges to protagonist Cindy that she essentially transitioned (MTF) to gain an athletic edge (a dangerous myth within past and current right-wing circles), then proceeds to sexually harass Cindy. Scary Movie writers had the nerve to slip in just one more harmful myth perpetuated in Hollywood films for decades: Ms. Mann has a Nazi S.S. uniform hanging behind her desk.
Psycho Beach Party, thanks to screenwriter and creator Charles Busch, does not take the film in such a toxic direction. PBP feels targeted at queers with an appreciation for the horror genre and camp sensibilities, and there is a certain tenderness in how it treats its queer characters. Unlike Scary Movie’s predatory gays, the queers of PBP are not malicious, nor do they fall into the cliche of getting knocked off by the end of the film. PBP reclaims tired horror queer stereotypes from films such as Psycho while introducing new possibilities for the genre, including having a drag queen be a police captain in a 1960s beach town (the John Waters-Divine connection is not lost on me). There is even a queer history callback to Christine Jorgensen, one of the first transgender public figures, having surgically transitioned with the help of a doctor in Denmark in 1952, receiving worldwide media attention.
Now, let’s grab our surfboards and drop into this wacky, campy, and totally nectar 2000s flick!
Psycho Beach Party is a classic who-done-it. Teenage Florence Forrest (Lauren Ambrose), desperately seeks the approval of the cool surfers down by the beach, particularly the popular Starcat (Nicholas Brendon) and Kanaka (Thomas Gibson), a mythic beach fixture that hangs out with high schoolers and surfs massive waves via green screen. Florence, dubbed Chicklet by her new surfer chums, exhibits symptoms of multiple personalities just around the time murders begin in her town. Chicklet; her bookish, horror-obsessed best friend Berdine; her new flirtatious acquaintance Marvel Ann (played by the wonderful Amy Adams, giving us another fabulous iteration of her horny cheerleader character from Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)); her ragtag team of surfer bros; her secretive mother; and an aging B-horror movie star are all under the surveillance of Police Captain Monica Stark.
Meet the cast and Capt. Stark’s prime suspects:
Character: Florence “Chicklet” Forrest
Played by: Lauren Ambrose (Can’t Hardly Wait, Yellowjackets)
Surf Status: Total grommet.
Red Flags: the classic horror film affliction of multiple personality disorder.
Character: Captain Monica Stark
Played By: Charles Busch (Addams Family Values, Die, Mommie, Die!)
Town Gossip: She has a past with the legendary Kanaka!
Red Flags: A cop.
Character: Marvel Ann
Played By: Amy Adams (Drop Dead Gorgeous, Enchanted, Sharp Objects)
Surf Status: None, groupie
Red Flags: Too horny
Character: Berdine
Played By: Danni Wheeler (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
Town Gossip: she reads far too into cheesy horror films for feminist and queer subtext…
Rainbow Flag: yes.
Character: Starcat
Played By: Nicholas Brendan (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer)
Surf Status: the insufferable Leader
Red Flags: a big-headed psychology major who knows way too much…
Characters: Yo-Yo & Provoloney
Played By: Nick Cornish (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek) & Andrew Levitas (writer and producer)
Surf Status: two bros who love waves and chicks and oily beach wrestling
Rainbow Flags: yes.
Character: Kanaka
Played By: Thomas Gibson (Dharma & Greg, Criminal Minds)
Surf Status: A GOD.
Red Flags: exclusively hangs out with high schoolers.
Character: Rhonda
Played By: Kathleen Robertson (Beverly Hills 90210, Scary Movie 2)
Town Gossip: None, starts it all.
Red Flags: definitely uses antigay slurs.
Character: Ruth Forrest
Played By: Beth Broderick (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Sharp Objects)
Town Gossip: lover of the Armed Forces…
Red Flags: questionable parenting choices.
Character: Lars
Played By: Matt Keeslar (Waiting for Guffman, Scream 3)
Town Gossip: None, beloved quiet foreign exchange student.
Red Flags: a foreign exchange student in a horror movie.
Psycho Beach Party (2000) is streaming on Tubi.
Movies
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Netflix in March
Netflix did not give me a lot to work with this month. I may have also zoomed through many of my favorite things on the platform these last few months. So, many of these are titles I have been meaning to check out, and I hope they are worth the wait. However, I cannot promise the carnage, chaos, and confusion I normally provide for this column. This means you’ll have to forgive me for having less razzle dazzle and a little more uncertainty while I list some stuff off the less beaten path. Gather around, and I’ll tell you what I am trying to get into this March!
Archive (2020)
In 20238, George Almore’s newest AI prototype is nearly complete. However, this humanesque machine is also hiding one of George’s secrets that must remain hidden. While I love some British sci-fi and believe we should watch as many of the 2020 movies that slid under our quarantined radar, I’m pulling up for another reason. I want to see Theo James in something that isn’t The Monkey. Literally. I didn’t enjoy that movie, and I seem to be the last person I know who was unfamiliar with James before that. So, I’m trying to rectify that and see what he can do in anything else. Hopefully, after catching this on Netflix, I will have a new movie that comes to mind when he is mentioned. Fingers crossed, friends!
Green Room (2016)
A punk rock band gets trapped in a venue where skinheads want to kill them. So many people have told me this movie is worth my time, but because it’s always too soon for violent racists in this decade, I keep putting it off. However, I am so curious to see what Patrick Stewart, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, and the late Anton Yelchin are doing in this movie. Green Room is also one of the few A24 horror movies that I have not seen, which makes it even more intriguing. While I doubt 2026 will calm down enough for this not feel too real, I think it’s time for me to be brave and cross this movie off my list already. So, I might have to grab a drink, a weighted blanket, and remote so I can open Netflix.
M3GAN 2.0 (2025)
Two years after M3GAN’s murder spree, she is rebuilt by her creator to take down a military-grade weapon made from her stolen tech. Is this movie as good as the original written by Akela Cooper? Obviously not. No one can do what Cooper does and we shouldn’t hold people to that very high bar. Is this movie way too damn long? Also, yes. However, was there still a lot of fun to be had along the way? I thought so. While M3GAN 2.0 isn’t the sequel we wanted, I’m happy to rewatch it for free at home. We lose a lot of the threads I loved in the first one, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t the new Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day anyway. In a perfect world, Akela Cooper will reopen the computer (after receiving a very large check from Blumhouse) and give us a third installment to bring our dancing diva back into the horror fold.
Life After Beth (2014)
A man discovers his dead girlfriend is back, and that might be for the worst. I never watched this horror comedy, but I’m sad and hoping Aubrey Plaza can change that. After all, if she can’t wake us up after a long winter, then who can? I also imagine Plaza as a zombie is kind of great. Along for the ride is Molly Shannon, so between the two of them, I expect some chuckles and guffaws. Maybe the powers that be at Netflix knew we could all use a laugh, and that’s why this is waiting for us on the other side of February. Or possibly they wanted to apologize for that last season of Stranger Things. Or maybe it’s just a wacky coincidence, and I’m looking for meaning where there is none. Either way, I have a date with this movie, and you might want to check it out too.
Teen Wolf (2011-2017)
Getting bitten by a werewolf turns life upside down for a high school student and his best friend. Hear me out! I doubt there is a world where I will watch all six seasons of this. Hell, I doubt I’ll even finish the first season. However, I skipped this MTV moment when it originally aired. Which is why I didn’t know who Dylan O’Brien was when Send Help was announced. So, I’m using this Netflix account to see where he started now that I have seen him in something. You can join me in this or mark your time as safe and watch something else. I don’t blame you either way, and I hope you’ll respect my privacy during this adventure.
That’s what I’m doing with my Netflix account this month. Here is hoping April gives us more scary movies because some of us deserve it. Most importantly, I deserve it.
Movies
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Shudder in March 2026
Shudder is still that girl even in March. Our beloved streamer is adding classics like The Fog and Messiah of Evil. They are also adding a couple of films that are precious to my generation, like May. The app always has an eclectic lineup, but this month is an embarrassment of riches. At least if you are like me, and looking at a list of movies you have had on your watch list forever. That is why it took me a hot minute to figure out which five titles should be this month’s priority. However, I cracked the code and think I have something old, something new, and definitely at least a couple of things that will turn blue. Check out what I am trying to see on Shudder this month. Also, be sure to let me know if you are as geeked about these titles as I am.
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
The Last Horror Film (1982)
A New York taxi driver stalks an actress during the Cannes Film Festival. I love 80s slashers and have been on a quest to watch them all. This one has eluded me for a couple of years, and I am so happy Shudder is finally letting me cross it off my list. I am not expecting this to break my top 1980s slashers. I’m not even counting on it to be one of the best movies about a stalked actress of that era. However, I’m excited to finally see it for myself with an adult beverage in hand.
You can watch The Last Horror Film on March 1st.
Fade to Black (1980)
A film fanatic begins murdering people who betray him while stalking his idol. I finally caught this on Shudder in the last couple of years and will be using its return as an excuse to rewatch it. Very few movies cater to the slasher kids and film nerds as well as this one. Fade to Black is the kind of psychological horror comedy that is the reason 1980s horror remains unmatched. The costumes, the obsession, and the kills are the most fun you can possibly have on a Shudder Saturday. Do yourself a favor and hit play immediately.
You can watch Fade to Black on March 9th.
Hostile Dimensions (2023)
Two filmmakers travel through alternate dimensions seeking out the truth about a missing graffiti artist. This found footage film has been on my list for years, and I am so grateful that Shudder is finally letting me see it. I have heard so many great things, and the FOMO was killing me. Hopefully, Hostile Dimensions lives up to the hype. Otherwise, I have to ask my nearest and dearest to explain themselves and then stop accepting recommendations from them. Will it scratch the found footage itch I have this month? There is only one way to find out, and that is why I will be sat the day this drops on the app.
You can watch Hostile Dimensions on March 9th.
1000 Women in Horror (2025)
Women have been an integral part of the genre since Mary Shelley started thinking about Frankenstein. However, we do not always get the credit and respect we deserve. Which is why I am thrilled 1000 Women in Horror is celebrating the badasses who revolutionized horror films. Not only is the documentary opening the libraries for us, but it’s also bringing current faves along for the ride. Akela Cooper, Toby Poser, and Jenn Wexler are just some of the names I know who are about to inspire so many women to get serious about making their movies. I cannot stress enough how happy I am that Shudder is adding this to its lineup.
You can watch 1000 Women in Horror on March 20th.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
College friends backpacking through Britain are attacked by a werewolf. As a werewolf film enthusiast, I know they are not all made equally. That is one of the many reasons why this is easily one of the best werewolf movies the genre has. The transformation alone is worth the price of a Shudder subscription. So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that this is one of the five titles I’m most excited to see this month. Hell, it’s probably in everyone’s top five to be completely honest. I cannot think of a better way to close this month out than with a top-tier werewolf flick.
You can watch An American Werewolf in London on March 31st.
I told you, Shudder is that girl. Whether you’re on spring break, taking a mental health day, or just dissociating, this app has got you covered. Make sure you dig into some of this sick, twisted, and cool cinema. As for me, I will see you next month with more recommendations.


