For those that weren’t able to catch the video essay on the evening of the festival – here’s a direct link to watch it via Vimeo:
Here’s the blurb:
‘Pride and Pathology’: Queer Horror and Mental Anguish
This video essay brings together some of my recent works on zombie/monster theory and queer hauntology to consider how queer horror film depicts queer Otherness and tends to highlight the mental health implications of growing up queer. Zombie and undead narratives (The Cured, 2018, Otto; or, Up With Dead People (2008), Jamie Marks Is Dead (2016) and the BBC Three zombie drama In the Flesh (2013-2015)) showcase the isolation and alienation felt both from within and without certain queer sub-cultures and communities. Furthermore, films like The Nature of Nicholas (2002), and, more recently, Closet Monster (2015),demonstrate the impact of conservative familial repression on queer youth, resulting in the split between self and Other which is often visualised in monstrous form.
I want to suggest that these queer horror texts work to depict queerness as fragile and susceptible to mental anguish – particularly in relation to queer masculinity. The performative elements of these living and undead queer figures present themselves in the corporeal reality of their experience from panic attacks, self-harm, anxiety, ‘passing’ as normative, the use of therapy as a ‘cure’ and the marginalisation of the queer community.
Pride and Pathology from OutForBlood on Vimeo.
Warning: This video essay contains scenes of violence, references to suicide, rape, self-harm and mental illness and contains some scenes of homophobic and queer-phobic violence.
It also contains scenes of gore, offensive language and sexually explicit moments.
Films included:
Carrie (De Palms, 1976)
Otto, or; Up With Dead People (La Bruce, 2008)
Jamie Marks is Dead (Smith, 2014)
The Nature of Nicholas (Erbach, 2002)
Killer Unicorn (Bolton, 2018)
The Wolves of Kromer (Gould, 1998)
Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968)
Gay Zombie (Simon, 2007)
Rift (Rökkur) (Thoroddsen, 2018)
The Quiet Room (Wineman, 2018)
Spiral (Harder, 2019)
It: Chapter Two (Muschietti, 2019)
LA Zombie (LaBruce, 2010)
Good Manners (Rojas and Dutra, 2018)
Hereditary (Aster, 2018)
Starfish (White, 2018)
The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix, 2018)
In the Flesh (BBC Three, 2013-14)
The Cured (Freyne, 2017)
Closet Monster (Dunn, 2015)
American Horror Story: Asylum (FX, 2012-13)
Soundtrack:
‘Atrocities’ by Antony and the Johnsons (2000) taken from the OST of Otto; or Up With Dead People (2008).
This Video Essay has been produced for educational purposes and is a transformative piece of work as conducted under the Fair Use Act, I do not own any of the images/music used herein.
Written and edited by Darren Elliot-Smith 2020.