It’s Halloween time… and if you’re trying to get into spooky mood, there’s nothing better than a good (and queer) horror TV show!
Chucky was created by Don Mancini, a gay man, and several of the films feature queer characters and themes, including Chucky’s child Glen. In the recent Chucky series, the main character is a queer teen boy named Jake. Throughout the series, Jake and his boyfriend fight against the possessed doll.
Chucky (2021) | TV Series Trailer | Chucky Official
One of the best comedies on TV, What We Do in the Shadows, is also one of the gayest. Matt Berry plays Laszlo Cravensworth, a pansexual and hedonistic vampire, and Kayvan Novak plays Nandor the Relentless, who is also bisexual, and is currently in a will-they-or-won’t-they relationship with his former familiar Guillermo, played by out actor Harvey Guillen.
What We Do in the Shadows | Season 6 Official Trailer | FX
The new TV adaptation of this classic novel turns up the gayness to 100. AMC’s Interview With the Vampire stars Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid as Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, two vampires and lovers. If you want horror that’s dripping in gay sex, this is the show for you.
Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire - Official Trailer (2022) Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid
What We Do in the Shadows, The queer-themed vampire show that broke new ground for LGBTQ+ representation, will come to an end after six seasons of Staten Island shenanigans.
On Tuesday, a source from FX confirmed to Vulture that when the beloved vampire mockumentary series resumes production in January, it will be for the last time. Based on the 2014 movie written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows follows a group of vampires living in a crumbling New York City mansion: Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, and the “energy vampire” Colin, as well as Nandor’s familiar Guillermo, memorably played by queer actor Harvey Guillén.
Sean's Pride Parade - Scene | What We Do in the Shadows | FX
Premiering in 2019, the show quickly earned a following with hilarious fish-out-of-water-antics and, of course, Matt Berry’s unforgettable line readings. LGBTQ+ fans were particularly enraptured by the queerness of What We Do in the Shadows, which advanced from subtext to full-on text over the years. In the show’s fourth season, Guillermo came out as gay, not to mention even more titillating recent developments like the, ahem Bi-Annual Vampire Orgy.
“I reckon what makes Ed happy is you,” says Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) in an unexpectedly romantic, sunset-lit moment of the HBO Max pirate rom-com Our Flag Means Death. Both this show and FX’s vampire mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows are produced by Waititi (and in the case of Shadows, co-created by him). Both are loving send-ups of well-established genres.
Both feature a group of misfits of that genre uneasily tossed together and learning to work and live side-by-side. And both are powered by a deep, abiding, and gleeful silliness that never takes itself (or asks us to take it) too seriously. But both are also able to play surprisingly moving emotional notes without ever abandoning their shows’ absurd melodies. It’s this central silliness that helps each show land its emotional blows — and their layering of comedy and pathos, often in the very same moment, maximizes both.
Our Flag Means Death, which completed its (hopefully!) first season in March, follows the not-quite-daring exploits of Stede Bonnet, a wealthy landowner from Barbados who gives up his comfortable life to take to the high seas as a pirate captain. The only problem? He doesn’t know how to sail, his sensibilities when it comes to violence are delicate, and he has generally no idea how to be a swashbuckler.
To fill in the gaps, he has assembled a ragtag crew including first-mate and seagull enthusiast Buttons, snarky scribe Lucius, mysterious and mute Jim, and sensible and pragmatic Oluwande. This misfit bunch goes from sewing flags and debating mutiny (Bonnet is saved in part by the fact that he does all the voices during their nightly story time) to trying their bumbling best to protect him from the British Navy officers who board their ship in an attempt to execute him.
Throughout, Bonnet and the fearsome Blackbeard are falling in opposites-attract love, much to the chagrin of Blackbeard’s first mate Izzy Hands, who wants Blackbeard to return to his bygone bloodthirsty days. The well-worn swashbuckling pirate genre is mined for both exhilaratingly silly comedy and for a touching and heartbreaking love story, both romantically and among the Revenge’s found family of a crew.
