Recently a movie titled The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror, a fun romp about a terrifying gay bed and breakfast, popped up on my radar. My first thought was "Now that's what I call a descriptive title!"; my second thought was a complex tapestry of critical analysis -- regarding the history of both horror and gay cinema, the evolution of gays in horror, and how I haven't had any French fries in quite some time and it might be nice to change that. French fry cravings aside, what my thoughts boil down to is this: Gay horror cinema is becoming a subgenre in its own right and it's about time.

The Lesbian Vampire
Of course, there have been gay characters in horror movies since the genre's earliest days, even if, at times, the gay relationships were implied rather than actualized. Take, for example, that ol' standby trope, the lesbian vampire. The sapphic sucker subgenre finds its roots in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella Carmilla, in which the titular vampiress beguiles the nubile young Laura. The story has been translated to the screen (in varying degrees of faithfulness) countless times, and its cinematic influence is felt as early as 1936 in the Universal picture Dracula's Daughter, a sequel to the successful Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.

The movie features Gloria Holden as Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter in question who tries to fight her vampiric urges to no avail, eventually putting the bite on a beautiful young model. Universal was well aware of the lesbian overtones and attempted to both avoid and court controversy -- though some scenes were altered to downplay the notion that Marya suffered from a bad case of The Gays, the promotional material for the movie insinuated the very same notion, as is evident in the tagline "Save the women of London from Dracula's Daughter!" Dracula's Daughter is often viewed as a negative, if implied, portrayal of lesbianism: Marya's attempts to cure her vampirism certainly work as a ripe metaphor for the theory that homosexuality can be cured. In the 80 years since Dracula's Daughter graced the screen, the lesbian vampire has proven to be a tried and true star of horror movies; women still put the bite on each other in everything from European art films (such as Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses) to the laughable soft-core flick, such as The Sexy Adventures of Van Helsing. One thing is for certain: The lesbianism is certainly no longer merely implied.

Homosexual = Homicidal
The "homosexual as homicidal deviant" theme is also evident in horror, such as the 80s slasher Hide and Go Shriek. Enjoyably bad, the movie pits a group of obnoxious teenagers against a mincing gay killer who, uh, can't seem to let his prison boyfriend go. It should come as no surprise that the movie comes off as more homophobic than homofriendly, a charge also railed against Jonathan Demme's Oscar-winning horror/thriller The Silence of the Lambs. Gay rights activists protested the movie's release, citing it as yet another example of "homosexual = homicidal." The villain of the movie, Jame Gumb, is, after all, a transvestite. While it's admirable to expose cinematic homophobia (especially when it's so recurring that the "gay killer" is a familiar stereotype), activist missed the mark here. As even Silence's Dr Lecter explains, Gumb isn't a homosexual or even a true transvestite -- he's simply a vicious outsider trying on personalities until he finds one that fits, just like those snazzy "woman suits" he fashions.

Killers Who Just Happened to Be Gay
The advent of gay horror movies means that there will be gay killers; what separates progression from stereotype, however, is that in gay horror films the villain's psychosis isn't necessarily a direct result of his or her sexual preference. In other words, a gay cuckoo nutso is just a cuckoo nutso who happens to be gay. This notion is explored in Make A Wish, a movie touted as the first lesbian slasher. To celebrate her birthday, Susan takes a camping trip with all of her ex-girlfriends. The only thing that makes this idea even worse is that a killer shows up and offs the women one by one. Though I admire the fact that it's the first of its kind (hard to believe it took until 2002 for someone to come up with the idea), Make A Wish ranks as one of the worst slasher movies I've ever seen... and that's really saying something. Though the intentions behind the flick are noble, it comes across as a horror movie made by people who have never seen a horror movie -- a simple case of great idea/bad execution. Still, it's a start, and the idea evolved into something better two years later with HellBent, the first gay slasher. This story of a masked killer stalking the West Hollywood scene is a fine example of a horror film that happens to also be a gay film: It's gory, fun, and at times scary -- exactly what you'd expect from a slasher.

The gay horror genre is still coming into its own, but it's certainly a burgeoning cottage industry. As more and more of these films are produced, gays and lesbians will no longer have to watch a movie that derides their sexuality; there won't be any more grasping at overtones, hoping that maybe that quick glance between two same-sex characters hints at a relationship; a character's sexuality won't necessarily foretell his or her doom. Meanwhile, if the genre continues to grow and flourish, straight audiences will be treated to some good horror movies. Isn't that what we're all hoping for anyway?

A fan of horror movies and scary stuff, Stacie Ponder started her blog Final Girl so she'd have a platform from which she could tell everyone that, say, Friday the 13th, Part 2 rules. She leads a glamorous life, walking on the razor's edge of danger and intrigue.