Article by: Abbie Stutzer
The spooky season is upon us. Once you’ve had your fill of pumpkin carving, Halloween costume shopping, and Halloween party drink planning, treat yourself and your friends to a night in, and host a scary movie marathon.
Although we’ve already published a comprehensive list of killer
LGBTQ horror movie options, we wanted to highlight a few more picks.
The following list contains 3 of our favorite LGBTQ horror characters (movie and television). So, get your popcorn and streaming queue ready; we’ve got some killer suggestions.
1. Theodora Crain, “The Haunting of Hill House,” streaming on Netflix
Yes, I am just one of the many people singing the praises of—and still terrified by—”The Haunting of Hill House.” The 10 episode series is full of great performances, but Kate Siegel’s Theodora “Theo” Crain takes the ghost-laden, family drama-filled cake.
Theo is one of five Crain children who spend one very long and haunted summer in Hill House. While all of the Crain family’s stories are intriguing, Theo’s works well for a few reasons. First, Theo’s written as a person first. Often times, gay characters in film and television tend to be just that—a one-dimensional gay character.
“In many ways, Theo’s sexuality is played as incidental to her character; her family is a little surprised but not upset when they learn about it, and despite Theo’s melodramatic performance of emotional stonewalling, her and Trish’s not-quite-relationship is maybe one of the more functional on the show … ,” explains Autostraddle. “… Her relationship to intimacy feels honest and sad, true to her specific identity…”
Secondly *spoiler alert*: Theo is one of the few gay people in horror—or in fictional pop culture—who doesn’t become a victim. Theo miraculously survives and thrives.
2. Luis Carruthers, “American Psycho,” streaming on Amazon Prime
Luis Carruthers did what hardly any other person in “American Psycho” could do—he survives Patrick Bateman’s deadly grasp.
Although Carruthers has a small role in the film, his mere presence— and survival—make him a notable horror character. “The film skewers the notion of homophobic machismo in a particularly poignant scene when the character of Luis Carruthers (Matt Ross) escapes the clutches of the killer simply because his gayness scares Bateman so much that he can’t kill him,” explains Morbidly Beautiful.
This particular scene most likely comes across so well because the film was directed by Mary Harron, who happens to be a lesbian, and was co-written by Guinevere Turner, who also happens to be a lesbian.
3. Aaron from “The Walking Dead,” streaming on Netflix
Although Aaron isn’t the most bombastic character in “The Walking Dead”—I mean, he’s never owned a pet tiger or carried around a bat wrapped in barbed wire—he does have a lot of heart.
Fans of the AMC show first meet Aaron in season 5. The character is “out on a run” designed to recover and invite new people to join a society called Alexandria.
Although Aaron is currently single--he lost Eric, his longtime boyfriend, a season ago—he’s still fighting the good fight and has become even more valuable to his community.
Thankfully, it appears that Aaron’s story is far from over. There are rumors that he and Jesus, another popular “Walking Dead” character, will get together this year. But this is “The Walking Dead,” so, no one really knows when a character’s time is up.
