by Matthew Crump, Staff Write

“Wait, no! You can’t [kill me]! There’s rules! I’m gay- I’m gay! ....If it helps.” —Robbie Mercer, Scream 4

Don’t look behind you but the slasher genre is having a bit of a revival. Whether you’re a die-hard horror aficionado or casually put on a thriller every once in a full moon, it’s unlikely you haven’t run across this subgenre at some point. You know, the whole ch-ch-ch, ah-ah-ah caboodle; butcher knives, cut phone lines, and large groups of unruly teenagers just ripe for the picking. 

Without going too deep into the history of The Straights™ slashing, most people know that the golden era of this type of horror was the 80s. Freddy, Michael, Jason, yada, yada. Thanks to the Scream franchise in the mid-90s, a kind of post-modern slasher was born and now, with more recent entries like Cabin in the Woods, Final Girls, and Happy Death Day, the genre is entering a new wave of more socially conscious characters and somehow even more self-awareness. Meta-modernist slashers? I dunno, don’t put me in charge of making the labels.

Whatever you decide to call it, this resurgence of inventive slashers has finally embraced one of its most dedicated fanbases: the gays. Recent films like Knife + Heart, Midnight Kiss, and The Fear Street trilogy not only slice and dice, but also offer some major queer themes. So, since everything straight people have ever done has been carefully documented, let’s try to balance out the scales and have a quick crash course on two films that are considered the founders of the Queer Slasher sub-sub-genre. Two subs? Kinky.

Let’s start with the L in LGBTQ and take a look at Make a Wish! (2002). Written and directed by certified lesbians, this film digs its tent poles into seven very messy women who all cheated on the same woman and are gathered together for said woman’s annual birthday camping trip. The film’s one positive review boasts on the DVD cover “If anyone can think of a better set-up for a horror film than lesbian ex-lovers camping in Texas, I’ll pay to hear it.” Well, get ready to read the second positive review, because I concur.

From an opening kill sequence akin to something out of Texas Chain Saw Massacre to all the extremely heavy-handed hints to the ultimate reveal of the killer, there are so many gems in this movie along the way. Perhaps the cheesiest line from any movie ever comes from a hickish man trying to defend the birthday girl against a jealous stalker boyfriend. “I just don’t like seeing ladies being bothered by people who’re botherin’ them… It’s bothersome.”

For all it’s cheese, the film delivers some truly fun kills and thrills, and it did it all on a micro-budget of $100,000 with a whopping $500 for Special Effects. You read that right. A horror movie with a $500 special effects department. The make-up artist, Heather Attra, deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. With no money for a Steadicam, crane, or any of the other film equipment that other sets have, this addition to the slasher genre is not only groundbreaking in terms of its out and proud queer characters, but it is quite simply a miracle that it even happened. At one point the crew had to create a makeshift dolly on a four-wheeler. Turns out queer people aren’t just resilient, they’re also handy as hell.

For all its merits, which based on its reputation on the internet only I somehow see, there are certainly also faults. I’m not going to take any cheap shots at the film’s technical problems that are a direct result of its lack of resources. I will however dig into some of the social issues in the script that pretty much comes with the territory of anything made in the early 2000s. There’s definitely a lot of biphobia and bi-erasure wrapped up in the character with the stalker boyfriend. It’s also definitely not a coincidence that the first character from the main crew to die is black. Similar to High Tension (2003), I also think the reveal of the killer’s motive is a bit reductive BUT at least this one was actually written by a lesbian. We’ll let that one slide.

So don’t get me wrong: this is a bad movie. But, honestly? So is the first Friday the 13th. You can barely see half of those scenes and none of the characters are the least bit interesting. The thing is, no one would ever dream of saying that out of respect for its place in horror history. My argument is that director Sharon Ferranti’s Make a Wish deserves a similar unspoken contract among queer horror fans. For my next birthday, I’m blowing out the candles and wishing that she gets the chance to make a long-awaited sequel with a legitimate budget. Until then, the original will do just fine.

The second movie that we have to dig into for our queer slasher history lesson is none other than Hellbent (2004). This slasher’s premise is essentially the same, just find and replace “lesbians” with “gays” and “camping” with “a West Hollywood Halloween Carnival.” All of the slasher character archetypes are there but just with a fun gay twist. The final girl is a hopeless romantic final boy, the jock is dressed in drag, the nerd is strapped into a leather harness, and the class clown is described by the director simply as a “pansexual urban cowboy.” If that doesn’t sell you on Hellbent, I’m not sure what will.

Both movies even open up with a strikingly similar kill sequence set in a parked car. However, the stakes in Hellbent are a lot higher and a lot steamier. The night before Halloween, two men try to make whoopie in a car full of balloons for his mom’s birthday party or something (I dunno, to be honest, I was a little distracted). Being that there isn’t enough room, one of them hangs his head out the window right as a masked killer happens to be walking by with a scythe. Talk about bad timing.

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to WeHo gays but I think it’s summed up best by a character hypothesizing what the recent initial slaying was motived by: “Probably some 40-year-old gay guy that just came out of the closet. He's probably jealous of all the nice hot guys like us walking around. Shit. l mean, think about it. Wouldn't you want to kill us? We're fucking fabulous.” …Listen, I’m not saying they deserved it. I’m just saying that in some ways seeing these specific gay men get picked off is a bit cathartic.

That’s one of the many beautiful things about Hellbent, there really is no defined motive. Or rather, the motive is up to you and your preconceptions about the world as to what you’ll project onto the killer. The late queercore musician who supplied a few songs to the tracklist, Nick Name (also known as Kent Bradley James), was also hired to put on the devil’s mask and parade around the set. He played the sexy, silent killer whose backstory and psyche was intentionally left vague by writer/director Paul Etheredge. This allows the movie to bring all the fun of a slasher without being overburdened by any kind of lofty moral or life lesson. 

It’s also just incredibly clear that Etheredge did his homework when it comes to the slasher subgenre. Every box is checked in the best possible way. Each and every kill is memorable, one of which on the dance floor so much so that it’s been replicated by countless other movies and shows. There’s glittery blood, handcuffs, and severed heads a-plenty. One final twist (which is somewhat spoiled by the movie poster) was so unexpected that I still remember the gasp that left my body upon my first viewing. No matter how many times I see it, it still makes me squirm.

Much like its lesbian camping predecessor, Hellbent is still a product of it’s time. Going into the film, one or two uses of the f-slur were expected but the use of the t-slur will never be okay. It also just doesn’t sit right with me that all of the main cast was white and “straight.” That last part gets big air quotes around it for obvious reasons. A small defense on the part of Etheredge is that he did write the lead character as Latino and sought a more diverse casting call for other characters but allegedly not enough POC actors auditioned.

It also can’t be ignored just how busted the jock character’s interpretation of “drag” is. If that wig is as expensive as he says it is, I really hope he kept the receipt. Beyond that though, the real-life gay men behind the creation of the film seem to have approached its gay characters with a bit of a double-edged sword. While Etheredge and the producers wanted to represent the younger generation of gay men who have fewer hang-ups about their sexuality, they decided to do so by offering characters so secure in their masculinity that they all seem to suffer from “I’m-not-like-other-gay-guys” syndrome. This conformist approach was likely chosen to help not completely deter the straight market audience, as having too many femme gays would simply be too outrageous (this coming from a movie where a “flaming penis” cocktail is ordered). The two femmes who do manage to make it on screen for 30 seconds spend it finding a body in a comedic position and running away comedically squealing, never to be seen again.

While Hellbent is also vaguely labeled as microbudget with no specific number attached, I would venture to guess they were working with significantly more than $100,000. Not only are the kills much more gruesome, but the actual set design and lighting is so much more stylized. If Make a Wish! Is comparable to Friday the 13th then Hellbent is closer to Nightmare on Elm Street. You might prefer one to the other, but ultimately it’s just a matter of taste (your sexuality may or may not influence your opinion as well).

The early 2000s were not exactly a time of the most comprehensive social representation. Because producers only want to put money on something they know will sell, many uncharted scripts never even make it to their desk. Then, there is the extreme indie market, not exactly trailblazing a path but certainly attempting to carve one out so that one day, other, queerer scripts might have a shot at being made. If a movie like Killer Unicorn (2018) isn’t proof that Make a Wish! and Hellbent didn’t make more room on that desk, then I don’t know what is. 

While both of these movies hold a near dear place in my heart for slashing away at that path, my hope is that one day they will seem like nothing but cave drawings on what will eventually become a rich, vast expanse of the Queer Slasher sub-sub-genre. Don’t worry, I’m bent on making that future our reality.