Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator

by Heather O. Petrocelli

Queer for Fear analyses the relationship queer people have to horror film, building upon decades of theory that previously emphasised horror’s queerness as being subtextual, allegorical and figurative. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary empirical study of the LGBTQ+ community not only offers the first inclusive understanding of the horror-loving queer spectator’s opinions, habits and tastes, but also evidences how and why queers have a distinctive relationship to horror. Leveraging original survey data, in-depth oral histories and theory, Petrocelli evidences that queer people have ontological connections to the horror genre, and concludes that horror is queer to the queer spectator. This study also establishes that queer spectators actively engage with horror to work through their trauma, knowingly have a camp relationship to horror, and joyously commune through horror screenings featuring drag performance. Queer for Fear is an overdue contribution to the fields of queer, film, horror, trauma, camp and live cinema studies.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT

376 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2023

Reviews

[Tobias Hermansson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gud skitintressant studie faktiskt, får lite dåligt samvete för att ge ens betyg för ett akademiskt arbete.

[Micah Spiece · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful empirical study on how much queers love horror and some welcome data regarding why. I expected more theoretical concerns, some suggestive hypothesizing,maybe even irresponsible suppositions, but this pretty much keeps it all in line with the raw data, making it feel like the first stats-based conclusions on queer horror fandom that puts into firmly sourced conclusions ideas we had all already guessed at.

[Amie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly thorough and thoughtful book by Heather Petrocelli about the relationship queer people have with horror film. The research at the foundation of the book is rooted in real people from around the world (not just one person's theory or idea of things). It builds upon all the theory about why people like horror with evidence. The author focusing on an avid fan-base that is not frequently focused on: people from the LGBTQ+ community. There is a lot of data presented from their original research that future researchers will be able to build upon (so it's really important for academics and researchers in related fields—although it's written so that anyone could read it and get something out of it). It also delves into three important areas to horror-loving queers: trauma, camp, and live cinema events (ie, watching movies presented by hosts with pre-shows). I learned so much about myself from this book and it made me love the horror genre even more. I also felt very inspired by the wider community and ended the book feeling very connected to other horror-loving queers. Highly recommend this book for all queer people and horror fans!

(Disclaimer: I painted the artwork featured on the cover of the book.)

[Kauranen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional, groundbreaking research.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

my official review will appear in Revenant Journal