Skeletons (1997)
Smalltown Secrets
An almost respectable film from David DeCoteau about a journalist uncovering the disappearance of a gay man in a town that eliminates those who do not conform to its wholesome lifestyle
LGBT Themes
LGBT Themes refers to the depiction of gay, bisexual and transgender themes within fantastic cinema. Such was generally speaking not widely accepted until the 1980s-90s apart from occasional depictions (which were not always in a positive light). The sole exception was a small niche of lesbian vampire films during the 1970s, all of which are made for straight titillation.
The gay serial killer, both real-life examples such as Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy and fictional ones, has been a regular feature, although these have drawn protests from the gay community.
There has been Queer Cinema made by and for the gay community and a number of works from among this that reinterpret genre material. From the late 2010s, the greater call for diversity and inclusion in mainstream cinema has seen the positive depiction of LGBT characters become commonplace.
This topic is not a list of all LGBT characters that appear on screen and is kept to works in which such appears as a significant element.
Slash (2016)
The World of Slash Fandom
Film that concerns itself with slash – a form of fan fiction that imagines sexual relationships between the two male leads of various film and tv series. Some passable discussion of the fandom has been grafted onto a Coming of Age story in ways that only awkwardly gel
Space Station 76 (2014)
1970s TV SF Parody
This has an irresistible premise – of doing for 1970s tv SF what GalaxyQuest did for Star Trek – parodying the sets, costumes and cliches. On the other hand, the superb conception fails to ever play out as comedy and the film centres around a series of singularly dull personal dramas
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Android Housewife Replacements Comedy
Frank Oz conducts a remake of The Stepford Wives, which becomes a broad comedy take on the gender wars in the modern world
Stereo (1969)
Psychic Powers Experiments
The very first film from David Cronenberg. An incredibly experimental work even today, which consists of people wandering the halls of a university and the soundtrack of voices discussing psychic powers experiments in a dryly funny parody of an academic paper. Fascinatingly oblique
Strange World (2022)
Disney Animation/Lost World Adventure
Disney’s 61st animated film. A lost world adventure that emerges as Fantastic Voyage by way of Avatar
The Summer of Massacre (2011)
Anthology of Slasher Tales
The unique idea of an anthology made up of five different slasher tales. Unfortunately, the film’s only raison d’etre is serving up serial gore scenes, which have the effect taken out of them because they are all conducted digitally and look biologically preposterous
Temptation (2009)
Lesbian Vampires
An all-girl lesbian vampire film that sets out to reclaim the genre that had previously existed as a focus of male titillation and tell it as a story of women’s empowerment
The Tenderness of the Wolves (1973)
True-Life German Serial Killer
Interesting portrait of a true-life serial killer that was produced under the auspices of Rainer Werner Fassbinder concerning a vampire-like gay killer who operated in Germany during the 1920s. Not without some shock value, this is more arthouse film than it is horror
Thelma (2017)
Psychic Powers
Essentially a Norwegian version of Carrie. The ingenious spin it places on the Carrie story is to tell it as an LGBT story and have the psychically empowered heroine not bullied and tormented but struggling against a lesbian attraction to another girl.
1313: Cougar Cult (2012)
Were-Cougars
Another of David DeCoteau’s bizarre homoerotic horror films featuring a trio of former 80s Scream Queens who are were-cougars
Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives (2010)
Abused Trannies Take Revenge
Imagine Baise-Moi or Thelma and Louise by way of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – a film that hits a perfect note in terms of tongue-in-cheek spirit
Treasure Island (1999)
Surrealism
Unrelated to Robert Louis Stevenson, this is a bafflingly surrealist parody of a 1940s thriller
Tropical Malady (2004)
Thai Anthology/Ghost Tiger
An early film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, two tales – the first a gay love story, the second about a ghost tiger
The Unwanted (2014)
Possible Lesbian Vampire
An interesting adaptation of the classic lesbian vampire story Carmilla. This modernises and relocates it to Middle America and plays the vampirism with a psychological ambiguity
Vampire Boys (2011)
Gay Vampires
This is essentially intended as a gay version of Twilight and features a near-identical plot in which a vampire fixates on a youth and decides he is his true love.
Vampire Diary (2006)
Lesbian Vampire/Found Footage Film
Not to be confused with tv’s i>The Vampire Diaries, this is a British film that sets out to reconstruct the lesbian vampire film within the frame of modern LGBT relationships. It is also Found Footage, an early and rather amateurish variant, but not without some effect
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Lesbian Vampires/Hammer Film
The first in Hammer’s trilogy of lesbian vampire films, an adaptation of the classic story Carmilla. Unfortunately in Hammer’’s hands, the story’s subtlety is killed by an emphasis on softcore titillation
Vampyros Lesbos (1970)
Lesbian Vampire
Another film in the cult of Jess Franco. Jumping aboard the early 1970s fad for lesbian vampire films, Franco offers up a sofctore take on the story of Dracula but cast with women.
The Velvet Vampire (1971)
Lesbian Vampire
From cult director Stephanie Rothman, a provocative and intriguing entry in the 1970s lesbian vampire film
Voodoo Academy (2000)
Voodoo Rites in a College Dorm
Completely ridiculous David DeCoteau film about voodoo rites in a boys boarding school that gets hijacked by DeCoteau’s typical homo-erotic predilections
WΔZ (2007)
Serial Killer Thriller
Serial killer thriller that eventually emerges as I Spit on Your Grave reimagined as a police procedural. Much effort is made to portray a grim urban environment but little to engage as a thriller, although Selma Blair owns the show as the avenged woman in the latter third
The Weight of Water (2000)
Historical Murder Mystery
One of Kathryn Bigelow’s less successful films, an adaptation of an Anita Shreve historical murder mystery that tells a story in two different time periods
The Well (1997)
Body in the Well/Psychological Horror
An incredibly spooky film about two woman on an Australian outback farm that believe they are haunted by a dead body in the well
The Wolves of Kromer (1998)
Gay Werewolves
British werewolf film that wittily uses being a werewolf as a metaphor for being gay
Woman on Top (2000)
Magical Realism
Frothy work of Magical Realism with Penelope Cruz as a woman whose cooking weaves a magical spell
Years and Years (2019)
Near Future Family Saga
Exceptionally written UK mini-series from Doctor Who producer Russell T. Davies following a diverse family throughout the 2020s that become a projection of current trends turned nightmarish
Yeti: A Love Story (2006)
Gay Yeti/Troma Film
Troma film about a group of trampers attacked by a Yeti only for one of the group to discover gay love with the Yeti
Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)
Zombie Social Satire
The social metaphors of George Romero’s original zombie films has been missing from the modern equivalents. This takes them up again with great enthusiasm, making a critique of USA attitudes post 9/11, hammering its message home with all the subtlety of a 26-point headline