Gay thriller films
From police procedurals to heists, American production noir and French policiers via South Korean serial killers, Criminal Record is a column delving into the wealthy and heady cinematic history of crime films. This week, a look at gay thrillers of the last ten years.
Sex, crime and danger have lengthy been a potent mix in production. In an industry long dominated by straight male anxieties, sex and peril have often been associated with honeytraps and femme fatales, a fear of women using their natural charisma and good looks to subjugate and acquire power over the alpha male. Where would the crime genre be without that uniquely Western anxiety about sex?
For most of cinema’s existence, the statement of gay desires has been mostly closeted or veiled, as it has with wider social mores regarding queer desire. Often, homosexuality in cinema is either coded with danger and malice, or gay characters in crime films are victims of the ‘bury your gays’ trope, where their sexual transgressions are punished by heteronormative society.
The list of genre cinema in which lgbtq+ desire is a matter-of
Best LGBTQ+ Thriller Movies, Ranked
The thriller and horror genres have always lent themselves well to queer and trans stories. Using these genres to explore themes of otherness and the feelings that come with that marginalization comes naturally. Depictions of monsters or fear and paranoia easily create parallels with these experiences of vilification that members of the LGBTQ+ community go through. It is also within narratives containing dark or scary storylines that moments of love and joy are the clearest, which mirrors finding companionship in spite of said vilification. Result workarounds with allegory and metaphor so that those in the know will understand what you’re referencing and others will peek past it is a significant part of Queer history — and a practice that continues today.
However, thrillers can also be a great vehicle for depicting morally questionable or corrupt characters that are enjoyable to root for anyway. While some like their LGBTQ+ characters to be heroes, it can also be exciting to see just the antonym. Colin Minihan, director of
The 25 best LGBTQ+ thrillers
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Victimis a striking film for a whole host of reasons. Unlike many other British (or, for that matter, American) films made before the s, it treats homosexuality in a way that verges on sympathy. It focuses on Dirk Bogarde, a successful barrister ensnared by blackmailers who threaten to reveal his homosexuality and ruin his career. It’s an expertly suspenseful film, and it uses the conventions of the noir thriller to travel the social problem of homosexuality, condemning those who would use its linked stigma as a weapon. It also features one of the best performances Dirk Bogarde ever gave.
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If there’s one director whose name is synonymous with the thriller genre, it would be Alfred Hitchcock, and Rebeccaremains one of its finest masterpieces. Though its story focuses on the nameless narrator (played by Joan Fontaine) as she navigates her new marriage to the enigmatic Maxim de Winter (played by Laurence Olivier), J
10 great LGBTQIA+ thrillers
Tension and suspense may be key components of thrillers but often, unfortunately, they are often joined with a healthy dose of homophobia.
From Russia with Love () is one of the best Bond films, and Lotte Lenya’s Rosa Klebb one of the best Bond villains, but there is no doubt it sees her lesbianism as evidence of her wickedness. Costa-Gavras’ Z (), which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes as well as the Oscar for best foreign film, went one worse, featuring a same-sex attracted pederast as an assassin. Oliver Stone’s fast-with-the-facts but entertaining JFK () offered a chorus line of simpering queens, who, the film affirms, had a hand in the president’s assassination. Transphobia runs rife too – The Silence of the Lambs () is terrific, but its references to trans people in relation to serial killer Buffalo Bill jar.
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