The monsters weren't intended to be gay, except possibly when director James Whale was behind the lens, but they read as gay to me. For me and my fellow queer youth growing up in the gay-intolerant era of the mid-twentieth century, these monsters spoke to our lives. That they flourished in marvelous gothic fantasy films, some brillant, most ridiculous, all imagination-stirring, only made them more special.
Hollywood's message may have seemed clear: You're gay; you're a monster. The villagers must hunt you down and destroy you. However, there was a more subversive underside to them. Almost without exception the monsters are presented sympathetically: Frankenstein's Monster was a lonely innocent, persecuted for existing, and good with children (some of the time). And there was his enormous schvancestucker. The Wolfman was a heroic fellow who acquired a cursed life when he came to the aid of a damsel in distress. Even soulless Dracula is often presented as a lonely, isolated figure seeking love, burdened by a curse acquired in defense of his country. The villagers are usually frightened, ignorant yahoos, with a hair-trigger lynch-mob response to almost any stimulus.
These movies said to me, It is intolerant society that is wrong. Hang in there. Fight the good fight. If you get enough sequels, eventually everyone will love you. Once Abbott and Costello show up, you're home free.
There is hope.
--Douglas McEwan, The Q Guide to Classic Monster Movies
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| 1944-2024 |
Oh, herr doctor! Young Frankenstein! I mean shteen!
ReplyDeleteThat Douglas McEwan quotation is great. Today the Monsters' role of speaking covertly to queer lives and realities is found in the X-men mutant movies. (And now, of course, such truths can be and are presented directly and openly in gay-themed movies as well, thank goodness). And "villagers [who] are usually frightened, ignorant yahoos, with a hair-trigger lynch-mob response to almost any stimulus" -- hellooooooo, MAGA Trumpsters.
ReplyDeleteRIP Teri Garr. She was a favourite of mine, in "Young Frankenstein" and elsewhere.
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DeleteDebra, the picture at the top of the post is from the classic 1931 film version of Frankenstein, but they DO look like they'd fit right in at a Madison Square Garden rally, don't they?
DeleteHello Kirk, I never knew that Teri Garr was from Lakewood, Ohio. C'mon, Kirk, you have to be a little more direct about Cleveland promotion here!
ReplyDelete.
Not only monster films, but any show or movie with witches or other "I've got a secret" characters have been said especially to appeal to gay audiences, because anyone outside the norms is considered a monster and potentially dangerous to the hoi polloi, and therefore must go into hiding, even when the "outsiders" show extra promise for good.
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Another lesson absorbed from watching late-Friday-night horror movies was that Santo gold and Diamelles were better than real gold and diamonds. I never gave it any thought, but perhaps this was meant to appeal to budding drag queens in the audience.
--Jim
Totally forgot she was from Northeast Ohio, Jim. Thanks for reminding me.
DeleteYou're mention of witches reminds me that Bewitched has sometimes been described as an allegory of the LGBTQ experience, mostly because Samantha Steven was expected to suppress her powers. It may be just a coincidence, but Bewitched regular and semi-regular cast members Dick Sargent (the second Darren), Agnes Morehead (Endora), George Tobias (Abner Kravitch), Maurice--pronounced Morris--Evans (Maurice, pronounced Maw-reese), and Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur) have all been said to been gay.
Hi again, It is kind of weird, but at first your pictures for this blog were not showing up, and another blog urging people to vote is not loading at all. Coincidence perhaps, but frankly, we all know who the real monsters are, and they are not Frankenstein and Dracula.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Monster don't just have to be green, Jim. As you know, one comes in orange.
DeleteI wonder if you have a gay Halloween film recommendation? Hellraiser, 1987, was one but there is nothing really gay about it.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, like James Whale (who directed Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein), Hellraiser director Clive Barker is gay. Also like Whale, if you don't know that he's gay, and you're not gay yourself, you're unlikely to, as you put it, find anything that's "really gay."
DeleteFemale-on-female action has had greater acceptability, at least as far as mainstream entertainment is concerned, than male-on-male action, so accordingly the first horror movie with an out-and-out same-sex sex scene that comes to my mind is 1983's The Hunger, in which Susan Sarandon and vampire Catherine Deneuve lustily go at it.
There's nothing nowhere near that explicit in 1994's Interview with a Vampire, but Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt DO make a hot couple.
Really, though, going back to almost the very beginning of film, the intimacy of a bite on the neck has always given vampire flicks a much more erotic component than any other monster movie. And while Dracula normally confines himself to women, he DOES threaten men from time to time (Professor Van Helsing driving a stake through Drac's heart--perhaps a gothic version of a gay panic defense?)
Then there's 1975's The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which has male-and-male, female-and-female, and as a change of pace, even male-and-female sex. Of course, TRHPS is just a parody of a monster move, but one of the things it may be parodying are the homoerotic overtones of more straightforward horror films.
Finally, Andrew, as much as this blog deals with pop culture, I haven't been engaged with it as much in the past 20 years as I had in the forty years before that. For all I know, every recent horror release may have an explicit gay sex scene (though if that were true, I think it would have been an election-year issue.)
Thanks for you detailed reply. I watched TRHPS again on a plane last year, and it had lost some of its appeal to me, after so many years. I've seen Interview with a Vampire but I really can't remember it now, so clearly it didn't excite me.
DeleteYoung Frankenstein. Google knew!
ReplyDeleteMike, you just can't trick AI.
DeleteI only know a little of Teri Garr. RIP.
ReplyDeleteHappy Hallowe'en Kirk :-D
Happy Hallowe'en to you too, Ananka.
Delete" If you get enough sequels, eventually everyone will love you" - that's a great quote! I am not sure how it applies to my life personally.... but I still love it!
ReplyDeleteMay you never run out of sequels, Jenny.
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