By Maria Lewis
It’s 2017 and horror is changing, thankfully and finally. The most talked about horror film of the year – and one that is shaping up to be a genuine Oscar contender – is a biting commentary on racism in America. Jordan Peele’s Get Out did a lot more than break box offices and genre conventions this year, it helped reclaim a space that has often pushed People Of Colour to the margins of ‘first to die’ and ‘sassy best-friend’ status (Graveyard Shift Sisters dived into this more deeply in an earlier column). Then there’s the upcoming Tragedy Girls starring a black actress alongside an openly gay one, shaking up the pre-set narrative of what kind of roles women – especially teen women – can play in horror movies. We’ve got more than just Final Girls now: we’ve got Final Villains that are creating, causing and leading the bloodshed. Then there’s Let It Kill You, the gay werewolf movie the world deserves and the one it needs right now.
“Find what you love and let it kill you,” is a quote often attributed to German-American poet and novelist Charles Bukowski. That’s the through line for Let It Kill You, a werewolf movie out of America that follows the love story between two men played by Adam Huss and Adam Bucci (who both serve as writers on the project). Also starring out actor Victor Garber, the filmmakers said they wanted to tell a story that “transcends societal stigmas”. “How many mainstream horror movies have you seen where the leading couple is unconventional?” they said. “Don’t get me wrong, Let It Kill You is a fun supernatural horror movie, but it’s also a horror movie that says something.”
The plot sees a small-town outcast on a mission to prove that a series of brutal attacks are the result of a wild beast on the loose, which leads to crossing paths with a mysterious drifter. Their unexpected love affair brings the town’s long held prejudices to the surface and makes him question who the real monster might actually be.
Queerness within the narrative of a werewolf story is something that has intrigued filmmakers and audiences alike for some time. In 2007’s Trick ‘r Treat, one of the several horror stories featured in the movie revolves around an all-female werewolf pack that includes Anna Paquin, Rochelle Aytes and Moneca Delain. They hunt and prey upon unsuspecting men, flipping the predator roles on their head before they strip down into their final werewolf form. It’s never overtly stated what the sexual orientation of the female werewolves is, but fans keen to read between the lines have noted there’s a suggested queerness.
At most, all horror fans from the LBGTQI+ community have had to go on is implied notions or films shot with a queer gaze: think The Covenant, The Lost Boys, A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Interview With A Vampire, Jeepers Creepers, Talented Mr Ripley and The Forsaken (to name a few). Let’s not even touch on the frequently shirtless, male and sweaty wolf packs from The Twilight Saga and Underworld franchises. Interestingly the best rendition of a gay werewolf story is by American animator Karina Farek, who had a viral hit on her hands this year with the short film Dirty Paws. It follows a young, gay couple as they navigate the full moon and their relationship in a way that’s touching, intimate and strikingly mature in its approach to storytelling. It’s also hella romantic.
It took time for women in horror to transition from the victims to Final Girls and often with every step forward in the genre (It Follows, The Descent, Byzantium) it can feel like there are two steps back (the violently sexist and misogynistic Killing Ground). And it’s still taking time for those Final Girls to not be white and straight by default. Representation in front of the camera is inching forward, while the battle for representation behind it is still raging. Horror movies from female directors are rare, but with any luck that’s changing with the release of exceptional entries like Prevenge, Berlin Syndrome, The Babadook, The Love Witch and all-female horror anthology XX. Peele’s voice has become a loud and important one, which will hopefully be joined by other ‘own voices’ breaking into the genre telling their stories: like Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi with What We Do In The Shadows. As for the LGBTQI+ community, their time is coming too. As a horror fan and relentless consumer of the genre, one can only hope that Let It Kill You is a marker of what’s to come. Horror has long been an avenue for filmmakers to tell stories that can’t – and won’t – get told elsewhere. And when the time arrives that those stories are being told by everyone, the genre itself will be that much better for it.
Maria Lewis is a journalist and author previously seen on SBS Viceland’s The Feed. She’s the presenter and producer of the Eff Yeah Film & Feminism podcast. Her debut novel Who’s Afraid? was released in 2016 with the sequel – Who’s Afraid Too? – out now. Her new book It Came From The Deep is available worldwide in eBook format. You can find her on Twitter @MovieMazz
