![]() A rare and refreshing queer character is announced one who is not coming to terms with his sexuality or struggling with self-acceptance but is comfortably and unapologetically himself. He is out, proud and (spoiler alert) doesn’t even get killed off like the comparable character Adrien (Rabah Nait Oufella) in Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016)! Far from subtextual or coded, Byron’s queerness is explicitly declared by his first line, “work it, girl,” exclaimed as he sashays across the screen. Ostensibly fulfilling the sidekick role, Byron is more than just the female protagonist’s best friend. It is the character Byron and the film’s treatment of him that are significant and misunderstood. But Michael’s washboard abs-baring wardrobe and ball busting, homoerotic horseplay are not the only notable elements for queer horror fans. Described by the police upon arrival as, “one of them testicular standoffs,” Michael and Billy violently grip each other’s testicles and squeeze, refusing to let go as a crowd of overzealous teens cheers on. Only five minutes after his stirring introduction, Michael confronts Tammy’s punk ex, Billy ( George Pilgrim), resulting in one of the most bizarre fight scenes of all time. Twenty-one years old when the film was made, he rather unconvincingly portrays a high school student. And yes, it is okay to appreciate Walker’s chiseled physique. Then hunky jock Michael ( Paul Walker) struts on screen wearing white football pants and a crop top, a costuming choice almost as considerate of gay viewers as James Brolin’s tighty-whities in The Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg, 1979). And its overlooked queer character Byron ( Theo Forsett) deserves to be crowned a queer horror icon.įrom the opening credits where the title incorrectly reads Tanny & the Teenage T-Rex, and Tanny…er, Tammy ( Denise Richards), performs a cheerleading routine set to a rock song written from the perspective of a love-struck dinosaur, Tammy and T-Rex is established as a campy trashterpeice. Much has been written about how this preposterous film came to be, but its uncharacteristically progressive queer positivity has been generally unacknowledged or misconstrued. A mashup of midnight movie genres including gross-out comedy and science fiction, Tammy and the T-Rex earns its horror badge of honour with the restored gore in Vinegar Syndrome’s 2019 “Gore Cut,” now streaming on Shudder. This craving for comfort viewing led to Tammy and the T-Rex (Stewart Raffill, 1994), the only teen love story where the obstacle for the star-crossed couple is not disapproving parents or opposing cafeteria cliques, but a mad scientist transplanting the boyfriend’s brain into an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex. To alleviate anxiety and combat cabin fever during quarantine, I have been turning to silly, schlocky, so-bad-they’re-good horror films. ![]() Growing up, it was sometimes difficult reconciling my queerness with my passion for horror cinema when LGBTQ+ characters and references were typically excluded, coded or relegated to ridicule. Knife+Heart (Yann Gonzalez, 2018), Lizzie (Craig William Macneill, 2018) and Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (Roman Chimienti, Tyler Jensen, 2019) garnered accolades, and out actors were portraying out characters in mainstream Horror films and TV shows helmed by out directors. Before the COVID-19 pandemic paused the film industry, queer horror was gathering momentum.
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