Goy, M.
(2024)
Gay Love, Identity, and Visibility in Contemporary Horror:
The Magnus Archives (2016-2021), Hell Followed With Us (2022) and The Last of Us (2023).
Masters, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Abstract
Queer Horror offers surprising solace to those haunted by real world queerphobia. Historically, this has been a truth; in positive ways, queer folk have found themselves (accidentally) represented in the monsters shunned by society. On the other hand, horror purposefully perpetuated stereotypes by prescribing gay characteristics to the genre's worst monsters. To see how this double-edged sword has developed recently, three media were analysed: The Magnus Archives anthology podcast, Hell Followed With Us young adult book and an episode of the The Last of Us TV adaptation. In doing so, it was found that aspects of gay love, visibility and identity are beginning to exist in more complex ways within the horror genre, without being necessarily tied to evil monsters and horrible moments. The gay characters' humanity stands front and centre and, while questioned, is never truly lost. Struggles with monstrousness have nothing to do with gay identity but rather, gay love is represented as a deeply human condition that can aid in staying human and resisting the horrible moment. The gay characters' ability to engage in romantic pursuits that are both driven and threatened by but also only possible due to the horrible moment shows that queer representation has become more well-rounded. LGBTQ+ characters are allowed to occupy spaces where historically only cisgender and heterosexual characters have previously been found (cf. Benshoff 36-7).
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