In our sequel to 2022’s Essential Queer Horror Movies list — which included newer films “Titane,” “Stranger By the Lake,” and “Fear Street” —we bring you even more of the best recent LGBTQ films in the genre.
Queue up these queer-friendly slashers such as “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and “Scream VI,” truly mind-bending A24 offerings like “Saint Maud” and “Climax,” as well as some terrific under-the-radar horror comedies like “Dead” from New Zealand.
“Scream VI” (2023)
Jasmin Savoy Brown’s character Mindy Meeks-Martin, the savvy rules-follower and survivor of 2022 installment “Scream,” has a much bigger storyline as she and girlfriend Anika Kayoko (Devyn Nekoda) tangle with another Ghostface killer.
Stream on Paramount+
“Attachment” (2022)
In this underrated horror film that draws from Jewish mysticism, British academic Leah (Ellie Kendrick) and Danish actress Maja (Josephine Park) meet cute at a library in Denmark and are instantly attracted to each other. When it’s time for Leah to go home to London, Maja offers to go with her, particularly as Leah has injured her leg. When Maja meets Leah’s devout mother Chana (Sofie Gråbøl), she worries that Chana exercises too much control over her daughter. She begins to hear strange things at night in the apartment and suspects Chana is behind them. Or is something else going on?
Stream on AMC+ and Shudder
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” (2022)
In this very funny and very Gen Z thriller, things go spectacularly wrong when Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to a weekend party while a hurricane is brewing. Sophie’s wealthy friends look down on Bee and she’s the first suspect when one of the partyers turn up dead. Rachel Sennott and Pete Davidson slay (and no, that is not a spoiler).
Stream on Fubo and Showtime
“Hellraiser” (2022)
David Bruckner (“The Night House,” “The Ritual”) brings back Clive Barker’s iconic Pinhead, who’s played here by trans actor Jamie Clayton of “Sense8,” for even more bloody, gorey horror.
Stream on Hulu
“Huesera: The Bone Woman” (2022)
When Valeria (Natalia Solián) begins having disturbing visions after becoming pregnant and boyfriend Raúl (Alfonso Dosal) dismisses them as mere dreams, she seeks out ex-girlfriend (Octavia) Mayra Batalla to reclaim her sense of self. Mexican director Michelle Garza Cervera’s film brings the legend of Huesera, a woman who gathers bones in the desert, to terrifying life with haunting imagery and bone-crunching sound effects.
Stream on AMC+ and Shudder
“Sissy” (2022)
Wellness influencer Sissy (Aisha Dee) runs into former best friend Emma (Hannah Barlow), who invites her to “hen” weekend with her fiancée and new friends — one of whom is not over a traumatic incident with Sissy when they were younger and suspects the worst of her. Is Sissy actually dangerous or just misunderstood? Nifty, stylish Australian comedy horror.
Stream on AMC+ and Shudder
“Wendell & Wild” (2022)
Orphaned teen Kat (Lyric Ross) finds a way to bring her parents back from the dead when two demons (Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key) escape from hell with some magic hair cream in this Image-award-winning animated film. At her new school, she is aided by fellow outisder Raúl (formerly known as Ramona), who is played by trans actor Sam Zelaya. Also features the voices of Angela Bassett, James Hong, Ving Rhames and David Harewood.
Stream on Netflix.
“Super Hot” (2021)
Pizza delivery girl Jackie (Kandace Kale) is too shy to make her feelings known to crush Carmen (Sierra Michelle), until she realizes that Carmen’s sorority is crawling with vampires! Backed up by her best friends and some unlikely allies, she’ll do whatever it takes to save Carmen from being sacrificed at midnight. As low-key as it is low-budget, it’s also pleasingly funny with a winning cast.
Stream on Prime Video, Tubi, Plex and Vudu
“Dead” (2020)
“Marbles” (Thomas Sainsbury), a stoner who can talk to the dead, is recruited by gay, recently murdered cop (Hayden J. Weal, who also directs) Tagg to catch the serial killer responsible in this hilarious New Zealand horror comedy. Against his better judgment, Marbles begins investigating the deaths of several gay men, even posing as a rent boy to flush out the truth after Tagg styles him appropriately.
Stream on Roku, Tubi or Pluto
“Saint Maud” (2019)
This British A24 film is a dreamy, strange trip which may have you Googling what exactly happens at the end. Newly devout Maud (Morfydd Clark) is a hospice nurse who’s assigned to dying dance star Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). She believes she can save Amanda’s soul, never mind that Amanda is proudly gay and agnostic.
As Maud becomes more and more obsessed with her patient, it’s not clear if she disapproves of Amanda’s female lover or if she envies her. Clark gives an all-out committed performance that invokes both Carrie White (Sissay Spacek) and her insanely religious mother (Piper Laurie) in Brian De Palma’s 1976 classic.
Stream on Prime Video, Paramount+, Fubo and MGM+
“Climax” (2018)
A pansexual dance troupe loses its collective mind in Gaspar Noé’s nightmarish, real-time descent into madness and chaos. Actual dancers, including “Atomic Blonde” star Sofia Boutella, rehearse after hours at an abandoned school ahead of their big American tour. Slowly, they realize that their punch has been spiked with a hallucinogenic. Terror, epic freakouts and accidental deaths follow.
Stream on Fubo and Showtime
“Good Manners” (2018)
Wealthy pregnant Ana (Marjorie Estiano) falls for nurse Clara (Isabél Zuaa), who she’s hired to be her nanny in this poetic Brazilian film. The baby’s father, who was a one-night stand, wasn’t quite human, as it turns out, and neither is the baby.
Stream on AMC+, Kanopy, Shudder or Tubi
“Knife + Heart” (2018)
Set in Paris in the summer of 1979, this ultra-stylish French ode to the giallo films of the ’70s stars Vanessa Paradis as the director of cheap adult films whose set is haunted by a mysterious slasher. Director Yann Gonzalez was nominated for the Palme d’Or and the Queer Palm and has won a number of genre and film festival awards.
Stream on AMC+, Kanopy, Shudder, Tubi or Freevee
“The Quiet Room” (2018)
Director Sam Wineman makes the most of a small budget in this chilling short that boasts terrific creature makeup. After a suicide attempt, main character Michael (Jamal Douglas) and his new friends at a mental facility are stalked by a ghoul only he can see.
Stream on YouTube
