Shudder — the streaming service for horror and thrillers — announced it is making a documentary about the history of queer horror on film. The documentary will be directed by Sam Wineman and executive-produced by Fangoria editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr. and Kelly Ryan of Stage 3 Productions. Nobile Jr. and Ryan were also executive producers on the recent, excellent, doc Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror., which is currently streaming on Shudder.
The new film explores the works of pioneering queer creators like James Whale and Clive Barker and examines the coded, sometimes problematic, depiction of LGBTQ+ characters in films like Sleepaway Camp, High Tension, and Jennifer’s Body. It will chart the course of queer subjects and creators in the horror genre from the silent era through the present day.
“Growing up I loved watching Andy, a kid like me, outsmart a killer doll in Child’s Play,” Wineman, who will write and direct the documentary, said in a statement. “When I was older, I found strength in fierce and feminist final girls like Sidney Prescott in Scream. I was seeing so many parts of myself in these stories, but it wasn’t until I taught a slasher film course that I realized these and so many of the films I connected to were written by members of my own community.”
“When Ashlee Blackwell (Horror Noire producer and co-writer) and I were pitching Horror Noire, we felt a strange sense of urgency,” said Nobile Jr., “like the story was on the tip of everyone’s tongue and had to be told right then. We’d wake up every day and wonder why someone else wasn’t already doing it. I have that same feeling again with this documentary.”
