I have been hooked on horror since I was a child. My earliest memory of writing anything about horror was my fanfiction for The Ring (2002) in third grade (sorry you had to read that, Mr. Fuller). I took a hiatus from writing anything horror related for most of my adolescence, though the subject returned in graduate school. This time, instead of fanfiction, I used my education as a historian and my reality as a queer person to combine my lifelong passions into my American Studies Master’s thesis, then titled Cathartic Screams. I graduated in May 2020, two months into a global pandemic and an occupational standstill. I used my new free time to expand my thesis into a book, of which I am extremely proud. 

Queer Screams: A History of LGBTQ+ Survival Through the Lens of American Horror Cinema was a passion project-turned-obsession. I devoured hundreds of films and developed a detailed spreadsheet of all queer references, characters, actors, directors, and dialogue in each. I used these film components to then relate them to their historical periods to find correlations between American, queer, and film history. I finished the book at a time just before queer horror cinema catapulted into the mainstream with films such as The Fear Street Trilogy (2021) and Freaky (2020), the Chucky television series (2021), and, of course, the coming out of Cassandra Peterson, also known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. I am so pleased with the direction queer horror is going, and I like to think my work will have some impact on the emerging intrigue of queer horror cinema.

This book is a love letter to all the little queer weirdos out there who have clung to horror in times of need but also in celebration. Likewise, this book is an ode to all the queer artists who paved the way for substantial representation in horror, even when their careers and livelihoods were put in jeopardy.

“The horror genre mirrors the American queer experience, both positively and negatively, overtly and subtextually, from the lumbering, flower-picking monster of Frankenstein (1931) to the fearless intersectional protagonist of the Fear Street Trilogy (2021). This is a historical look at the queer experiences of the horror genre’s characters, performers, authors and filmmakers.

Offering a fresh look at the horror genre’s queer roots, this book documents how diverse stories have provided an outlet for queer people—including transgender and non-binary people—to find catharsis and reclamation. Freaks, dolls, serial killers, telekinetic teenagers and Final Girls all have something to contribute to the historical examination of the American LGBTQ+ experience. Ranging from psychiatry to homophobic fear of HIV/AIDS spread and, most recently, the alienation and self-determination of queer America in the Trump era, this is a look into how terror may repair a shattered queer heart.”

Queer Screams is available now on McFarland Books and Amazon.