Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator

Queer for Fear is an interdisciplinary empirical study that explores the relationship between queer people and horror film, offering the first inclusive understanding of horror-loving queer spectators' opinions, habits, and tastes. It demonstrates that queer people have ontological connections to the horror genre and actively engage with it to work through their trauma, have a camp relationship to it, and joyously commune through horror screenings featuring drag performance.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2023
Publisher: University of Wales Press

Queer for Fear delves into the intricate relationship between queer individuals and horror films, building upon decades of theoretical frameworks that previously perceived horror's queerness as subtextual, allegorical, and figurative. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary empirical study of the LGBTQ+ community presents the first comprehensive exploration of the perspectives, habits, and tastes of horror-loving queer spectators. Moreover, it provides evidence of how and why queers have a unique connection to the horror genre. Through the utilization of original survey data, in-depth oral histories, and theoretical frameworks, Petrocelli establishes that queer people have ontological connections to the horror genre. Furthermore, he concludes that horror is inherently queer for queer spectators. This study also establishes that queer spectators actively engage with horror to process their trauma, cultivate a camp relationship with it, and revel in the joy of communal horror screenings featuring drag performances. Queer for Fear represents a significant and long overdue contribution to the fields of queer studies, film studies, horror studies, trauma studies, camp studies, and live cinema studies.

Dimension: 216 x 138 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781837720514