Glen/Glenda, Frank N. Furter, Ellie

From Michael Myers to Sydney Prescott to Eleven, horror films and shows have been home to iconic characters for decades. And more often than not, amid all the slashing and stabbing and paranormal forces, these horrors will feature a prominent queer character.


RELATED: Queer Horror Movies That Make You Question Who The Actual Monster Is

Unlike the LGBTQ slasher They/Them and almost every single queer character on The Walking Dead where they seem to be continuing the “kills the gays” trope, some horror movies and shows let their queer characters shine.

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Jake Wheeler (‘Chucky’)

SyFy’s Chucky series combines the horror of Chucky’s murderous reign with one of the sweetest, queer love stories currently on television.

At first, Jake Wheeler is outcasted for being gay and owning a creepy Good Guy doll, but throughout Season 1, Jake slowly starts becoming accepted for exactly who he is and finds both a friend and a love interest in his fellow classmate Devon.

Sam And Deena (‘Fear Street’)

Similar to Chucky, Netflix’s Fear Street series kept its queer characters front and center with the relationship between the show’s frontrunners Sam and Deena.

Instead of following in the footsteps of so many queer characters in slashers before them, Sam and Deena survive the series’ serial killer, and so does their love for each other.

Will Byers (‘Stranger Things’)

Will Byers has been a beloved character on Stranger Things since Season 1 when he disappeared to the Upside Down, all the way to Season 4 when this character’s sexuality began coming to the forefront of his storyline.

RELATED: Storylines ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Needs To Wrap Up

While fans have speculated about Will’s crush on his best friend Mike for a while, it was all but confirmed in Season 4 with that heartfelt and heartbreaking scene between Will and Mike in the back of the van when Will projects his own feelings onto Mike and Eleven’s relationship.

Glen/Glenda (‘Seed Of Chucky,’ ‘Chucky’)

Seed of Chucky was when the franchise went all-in on representation with Chucky and Tiffany’s adopted doll child Glen/Glenda, who was basically one of the first non-binary icons in entertainment.

Because they couldn’t figure out the doll’s gender, Chucky named their child Glen while Tiffany named their child Glenda, who eventually goes by both names. In Season 2 of Syfy’s Chucky,the characters will be played by non-binary actor Lachlan Watson, who previously played transgender character Theo Putnam on Netflix’sChilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Mitch Downe (‘ParaNorman’)

Back in 2012, it wasn’t as common to find much LGBTQ representation in film, let alone a children’s movie. But the family-friendly horror comedy ParaNorman broke the mold with animated queer representation long before Steven Universe or Onward.

It may not be at the forefront of the film, but the hunky jock Mitch Downe appears openly gay in one scene where he says, “You’re gonna love my boyfriend. He’s like a total chick-flick nut!” While it’s the only indication of the character’s sexuality, the scene acted as a groundbreaking moment for animation with the genre’s first openly gay character.

Theo (‘The Haunting Of Hill House’)

Theodora Crain, aka Theo, is a major character in the horror novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, as well as both film adaptions in 1963 and 1999, and in every version of the story, Theo is implied to be a lesbian.

But for the 2018 Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, Theo’s sexuality is made clear by her growing relationship with Trish which ends with wedding rings in the series finale.

Lestat And Louis (‘Interview With The Vampire’)

Who needs Bella and Edward when you’ve got Lestat and Louis? In the 1994 gothic horror Interview with the Vampire, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt played two vampires with an underlying romance.

RELATED: ‘Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire’ Renewed for Second Season Ahead of Premiere

While the film kept the characters’ relationship just as subtle as the Anne Rice novel it was based on, AMC’s new TV adaption is out and proud with its queer take on Lestat and Louis.

Ellie (‘The Last Of Us’)

It wasn’t until the expansion of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us video game that main character Ellie’s sexuality was in question. In The Last of Us: Left Behind, Ellie shares several romantic moments with her friend Riley before her lesbian sexuality was confirmed in The Last of Us Part II with her relationship with Dina.

When The Last of Us series premieres on HBOin 2023, Ellie will be played by Bella Ramsey and the show has promised to remain true to the game and keep Ellie’s character lesbian.

Frank N. Furter (‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’)

There seems to be no closet in sight for who has become the biggest queer icon in horror: Frank N. Furter, played by Tim Curry in 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

While his sexuality is never specified, it’s revealed that Dr. Frank N. Furter is queer by all meanings of the word for his plot to create the perfect man to serve all of his sexual and murderous desires.

Basically Every Character (‘Hellbent’)

While Hellbent may kill off most of its gay characters, it also happened to be the very first slasher film to star gay characters and get a theatrical release in the United States with its 2004 premiere.

The openly gay Eddie leads the film along with his group of LGBTQ friends who are stalked by a killer on Halloween night, and while the villain called Devil Mask may not be high on the list of notable killers, he may just be the first queer one.

NEXT: ‘Queer for Fear’ Trailer Explains the Connection Between Queerness and Horror

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