Unspeakable Horror!

I recently came across a short film by Jonathan London called Gay By Dawn (2004) on YouTube.  The film presents a wonderful and funny satire about homophobia.  The film also presents a lot of key concepts about Queer Horror in a fresh and campy way.  Watch the video:

 
Here come the spoilers (watch the film first -- it runs about 9 minutes): 

I like this film for a number of reasons.  I think the main reason is that the redneck characters are as stereotypical and ridiculous as the queer monster that emerges from the forest at the end.  The feather boa acting like tentacles is simply brilliant.  I love the bursts of techno music and the disco lights.  The subtlety of these props without showing the actual gay "monster" is a perfect balance.  The props are iconic and stereotypical enough to serve the storytelling purpose without going too far (like for example, Queerwolf).  

I went to college in Greeley, Colorado, a town that boasts one of the largest feed lots in the world.  As a closeted gay English Major in Greeley, I was absolutely terrified of the resident rednecks.  The rednecks in this film are a wonderful, stereotypical embodiment of my concept of homophobic rednecks, complete with exaggerated tobacco chewing and names like Cletus, Jimbo, and Jethro.  I think my fear of rednecks as a college student was almost as ridiculous as these characters' fear of the gay man who is supposedly lost in the forest. 

The filmmakers do a great job with the campfire storytelling situation.  The story begins with a variation on the traditional "hook" madman urban legend, a perfect choice to set the scene for the ensuing satire.  Many hilarious lines!

I also wanted to comment on how this film represents the Queer Horror genre, emphasized by the satirical nature and exaggerated, stereotypical characters.  In the film, the alignment between monstrocity and queerness is obvious, making explicit what traditional horror films have kept implicit (in the closet).  When Cletus is abducted by the gay monster at the end, it is clear that his body will be violated (the end of the feathered boa penetrates his bottom).  This violation of the body is a brilliant manifestation of the homophobic imagination that translates fear and hatred into symbolic mutilations of the body.  

I also love how the rednecks around the campfire quickly turn against each other.  Their homophobia is immediately transferred to paranoia within the group -- just brilliant.  

Awesome theme song! 

I just added a new Queer Horror bookstore to Unspeakable Horror's list of interesting attractions.  You can access the bookstore by clicking on "Horror Bookstore" in the navigation column on the right, or you can click below:

Unspeakable Horror's new Bookstore

The new bookstore draws from items in amazon's database.  In addition to the major titles in the Queer Horror canon, it also picks up some odd titles that don't quite fit under the Queer Horror umbrella, but have an interesting tangential connection.  It also finds excellent lists that other folks out there have compiled, which is a major bonus. 

Help support Unspeakable Horror by shopping the new bookstore, and don't forget my evolving lists of book and DVD recommendations, which can also be found in the right-hand navigation column.   

Stay tuned for lots of new and exciting stuff coming up in the very near future! 

The Harrow, an online journal of fantasy and horror, has published  "Five Flash Frights" by Chad Helder, author of The Pop-Up Book of Death and the founder of UnspeakableHorror.com and Queerpoetry.com. 

Each of the "Five Flash Frights" presents a horror "movie" in the form of a 500 word flash-fiction/prose-poem. 

The "frights" present a blend of satire, shocking imagery, queer themes, and surprise endings while paying homage to the tradition of campy horror movies. 

Read Chad's "Five Flash Frights" in the latest edition of The Harrow: Click Here!