On August 8th of this year, the secretive horror film Weapons unleashed more than a memorable movie experience on its unsuspecting audience. Gays and horror fans alike were introduced to the enigmatic figure of Aunt Gladys, played to perfection by Amy Madison, and overnight, the gays adopted Gladys as one of our own. While we did also fall for Marcus and Terry Miller (Benedict Wong and Clayton Farris) and their seven hot dogs and chips platter, it was the gaudy, but commanding presence of Gladys that had the gays saying, “Who is this Queen?!?!?”
By Monday morning, Gladys was everywhere. Spoilers be damned. The marketing strategy for Weapons expertly held the character’s reveal close to the chest, mainly because Gladys is the plot twist/lynch pin to the movie’s mystery. Fans did not care about any of that and made Aunt Gladys a household name and a top contender for the must-have costume for this Halloween season. One of my favorite Instagram/TikTok content creators, Joe Hegyes, has already added Gladys to his roster of parodies, making me love the character even more.
Aunt Gladys, Queen
But what is it about Aunt Gladys that struck a chord with horror fans and horror gays alike? Maybe it’s her screen presence? Perhaps it’s her clownish makeup? Her ability to deliver the much-needed camp in a tense film? Queerness and camp usually go hand in hand like a good gin and tonic. The inclusion of Aunt Gladys in a pretty bleak, yet kooky film is pure genius on Zach Creggan’s part. However, it’s not the first time gays have found ourselves attached to someone with such balls and eccentricity in a horror (or horror adjacent) film. All queers have had revelatory moments while growing up, where we came across an eccentric diva so campy that we immediately gravitated towards them as our source for guidance, entertainment, and identity. Thinking about this made me compile a list of other campy villains and anti-heroines whom I unknowingly gravitated towards growing up:
Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns)
Now, before y’all yell, “Batman Returns isn’t horror!!!” the movie has a gothic aesthetic, and Catwoman’s ‘transformation’ is supernaturally based. Selina Kyle went from a mousy, insecure secretary to a sultry feline femme fatale and owned every scene she was in. I was a proud card-carrying member of Batmania in 1989 when the first movie dropped, but after seeing Pfeiffer in the Batman Returns trailer in 1992, I was all about The Cat and her lethal whip. Quoting only her lines from the movie and mainly buying Catwoman merch (tinged hot pink and baby blue, with a splash of purple, mind you) was probably my family’s first clue that I was a little queer baby.
Eva Ernst/The Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston, The Witches)
On initial watch, The Witches was just an entertaining romp for me and my sister, and we quickly added it to the movies we had to watch, regardless of whether we caught it on time or not. Then I started studying the Witches’ Meeting scene, and not just for scene structure. It was the Grand High Witch’s dialogue and mannerisms that only Anjelica could serve on a silver platter. Another character whose dialogue I would memorize and repeat before I had to shelve to fit in. Tragic, I know. But outside of The Witches being a great gateway horror film for kids across the globe, The Witches’ Meeting alone serves as a campy dialogue feast for us Queer 90s kids.
Angela Franklin (Amelia “Mimi” Kincaid, Night of the Demons 1-3)
One of my first favorite horror films also introduced me to the Goth Queen Angela Franklin, the mistress of demonic ceremonies and 80s puns. From her iconic dance for the devil to her shady ass quips pre and post possession, Angela gave me my first taste of the goth life, and I’ve been addicted since.
The more I watched Night of the Demons (and I’m sure my rewatches would qualify for a Guinness World Record), the more I fell in love with her and became annoyed with Judy, our final girl of the film. Angela and her cohort, Suzanne (Linnea Quigley), are just more entertaining and messier. I would’ve added Suzanne to this list, but Linnea didn’t return in the two sequels, and more shine needs to be added to Angela as a viable horror villain. The Dark Queen of Hull House will forever reign, and I thank her for opening the door to a subculture not celebrated in my conservative small-town life.
Melissa and Lucinda Cavender (Shari Belafonte and Jonelle Allen, The Midnight Hour)
Most people say Hocus Pocus was a gateway horror film for them, but for me, I have to go with The Midnight Hour, a 1985 made-for-TV horror comedy that aired on ABC. The film is a cult classic, but it’s not well-known to most people, except for deep cut horror fans. Two of the reasons I love this film are because of Melissa Cavender and her ancestor Lucinda, the latter who put a curse on the town of Pitchford Cove 300 years earlier as a witch. Not only was Lucinda a witch, but she was also a vampire.
When Melissa and her friends read the curse aloud, they unknowingly unleash every type of ghoul imaginable upon the town on Halloween night. Lucinda and said friends descend on Melissa’s Halloween party, turning the unsuspecting partygoers into vampires, werewolves, and other ungodly beings. The duo of Melissa and Lucinda brought me great joy, because seeing two Black vampires take charge and lead a whole ass dance number stuck with me more than the Sanderson Sisters doing “I Put A Spell On You” ever did. Also, this movie introduced me to The Smiths with their seminal hit “How Soon Is Now?” which prepared me for the following subject on my list.
Nancy Downs, Rochelle Zimmerman, Sarah Bailey, and Bonnie Harper (Fairuza Balk; Rachel
True; Robin Tunney; and Neve Campbell, The Craft)
Ahh, The Craft. The movie that really jettisoned me into the world of witches, bitchery, and goth culture. Mind you, Clueless came out a year prior, and the Gemini in me needed a dark twin to correspond to the rose-colored glasses atmosphere of the Beverly Hills High crew. Enter the St. Benedict’s Coven, the antithesis of everything Cher Horowitz and her crew stood for. These ladies introduced me to the Wiccan culture and the concept of whatever you send out, you will receive threefold (I would later learn this principle is universally used throughout all religions, but still), and I’ve gone by this motto ever since.
Each of the girls represented shades of me as if they were the Planeteers and I was their Captain Planet, yet they were my heroines instead. The Craft was the first movie I’d seen where outcasts were treated as truly human people, not just comedic fodder, if that makes sense. It was another pivotal moment where that queer boy inside me felt seen, even when I wasn’t trying to acknowledge him at the time. While the campy nature of the film is nowhere near the level of Aunt Gladys, it’s still a moment where 90s queer kids found their voices and started to rage.
Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
The previous entries on this list shaped my personality. The illustrious Dr. Frank-N-Furter helped awaken my sexuality before I was ready for it. Discovering this midnight feature post Batman Returns, Night of the Demons, and The Witches, yet before The Craft and The Midnight Hour, The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit my eyes right when I was going through puberty. The confusion became a bit murkier, yet strangely clearer at the same time. Talk about a goddamn oxymoron… The movie answered questions while imposing more. All I knew was that I loved what I was seeing and wanted to take part in the Rocky Horror games at the Frankenstein Place.
While the entire cast can be seen as daycare workers for queer children, it’s the Grand Dame of them all, Dr. Furter, who truly captivated me. It wasn’t the introductory number “Sweet Transvestite” that drew me in, but rather the lyrics of “Fanfare/Don’t Dream It, Be It.” It was that song that solidified something in me during the first viewing, and it stuck with me until I was able to see it again without trying to hide that I was watching it.
Queer Awakening
Consecutive viewings were all about the Frankie of it all and how he/they handled their staff, as well as the mousy duo of Brad and Janet. I wished I had Dr. Frank-N-Furter as a friend, a paternal guide even, to help navigate my daily life in high school. If I had Frank’s gumption and confidence while walking the halls of my alma mater, God knows I would’ve been a menace. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be at that time. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the antics of Frank, Magenta, Columbia, and Riff Raff helped jump-start the queer awakening from within with the others, and I’m damn sure that Aunt Glady would’ve fit in quite nicely with the bunch.
In conclusion, Queer horror fans have all had some type of Aunt Gladys type horror villain – male, female, and in between – pop on their respective screens at a time when they were in the midst of sussing out their identities. I’ve always said Fright Night Part II’s Belle was my first, but the ones I listed kept reaffirming that even when I was denying myself to accept that fact at the time. So I am almost positive that a baby queer went to see Weapons, and once they met Aunt Gladys, they finally saw their Queer Fairy Godmother.
The Queer Horror Blerd: “They Saved Me!” When Offbeat Villains and Anti-Heroes Save Baby Queers in Horror
On August 8th of this year, the secretive horror film Weapons unleashed more than a memorable movie experience on its unsuspecting audience. Gays and horror fans alike were introduced to the enigmatic figure of Aunt Gladys, played to perfection by Amy Madison, and overnight, the gays adopted Gladys as one of our own. While we did also fall for Marcus and Terry Miller (Benedict Wong and Clayton Farris) and their seven hot dogs and chips platter, it was the gaudy, but commanding presence of Gladys that had the gays saying, “Who is this Queen?!?!?”
By Monday morning, Gladys was everywhere. Spoilers be damned. The marketing strategy for Weapons expertly held the character’s reveal close to the chest, mainly because Gladys is the plot twist/lynch pin to the movie’s mystery. Fans did not care about any of that and made Aunt Gladys a household name and a top contender for the must-have costume for this Halloween season. One of my favorite Instagram/TikTok content creators, Joe Hegyes, has already added Gladys to his roster of parodies, making me love the character even more.
Aunt Gladys, Queen
But what is it about Aunt Gladys that struck a chord with horror fans and horror gays alike? Maybe it’s her screen presence? Perhaps it’s her clownish makeup? Her ability to deliver the much-needed camp in a tense film? Queerness and camp usually go hand in hand like a good gin and tonic. The inclusion of Aunt Gladys in a pretty bleak, yet kooky film is pure genius on Zach Creggan’s part. However, it’s not the first time gays have found ourselves attached to someone with such balls and eccentricity in a horror (or horror adjacent) film. All queers have had revelatory moments while growing up, where we came across an eccentric diva so campy that we immediately gravitated towards them as our source for guidance, entertainment, and identity. Thinking about this made me compile a list of other campy villains and anti-heroines whom I unknowingly gravitated towards growing up:
Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns)
Now, before y’all yell, “Batman Returns isn’t horror!!!” the movie has a gothic aesthetic, and Catwoman’s ‘transformation’ is supernaturally based. Selina Kyle went from a mousy, insecure secretary to a sultry feline femme fatale and owned every scene she was in. I was a proud card-carrying member of Batmania in 1989 when the first movie dropped, but after seeing Pfeiffer in the Batman Returns trailer in 1992, I was all about The Cat and her lethal whip. Quoting only her lines from the movie and mainly buying Catwoman merch (tinged hot pink and baby blue, with a splash of purple, mind you) was probably my family’s first clue that I was a little queer baby.
Eva Ernst/The Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston, The Witches)
On initial watch, The Witches was just an entertaining romp for me and my sister, and we quickly added it to the movies we had to watch, regardless of whether we caught it on time or not. Then I started studying the Witches’ Meeting scene, and not just for scene structure. It was the Grand High Witch’s dialogue and mannerisms that only Anjelica could serve on a silver platter. Another character whose dialogue I would memorize and repeat before I had to shelve to fit in. Tragic, I know. But outside of The Witches being a great gateway horror film for kids across the globe, The Witches’ Meeting alone serves as a campy dialogue feast for us Queer 90s kids.
Angela Franklin (Amelia “Mimi” Kincaid, Night of the Demons 1-3)
One of my first favorite horror films also introduced me to the Goth Queen Angela Franklin, the mistress of demonic ceremonies and 80s puns. From her iconic dance for the devil to her shady ass quips pre and post possession, Angela gave me my first taste of the goth life, and I’ve been addicted since.
The more I watched Night of the Demons (and I’m sure my rewatches would qualify for a Guinness World Record), the more I fell in love with her and became annoyed with Judy, our final girl of the film. Angela and her cohort, Suzanne (Linnea Quigley), are just more entertaining and messier. I would’ve added Suzanne to this list, but Linnea didn’t return in the two sequels, and more shine needs to be added to Angela as a viable horror villain. The Dark Queen of Hull House will forever reign, and I thank her for opening the door to a subculture not celebrated in my conservative small-town life.
Melissa and Lucinda Cavender (Shari Belafonte and Jonelle Allen, The Midnight Hour)
Most people say Hocus Pocus was a gateway horror film for them, but for me, I have to go with The Midnight Hour, a 1985 made-for-TV horror comedy that aired on ABC. The film is a cult classic, but it’s not well-known to most people, except for deep cut horror fans. Two of the reasons I love this film are because of Melissa Cavender and her ancestor Lucinda, the latter who put a curse on the town of Pitchford Cove 300 years earlier as a witch. Not only was Lucinda a witch, but she was also a vampire.
When Melissa and her friends read the curse aloud, they unknowingly unleash every type of ghoul imaginable upon the town on Halloween night. Lucinda and said friends descend on Melissa’s Halloween party, turning the unsuspecting partygoers into vampires, werewolves, and other ungodly beings. The duo of Melissa and Lucinda brought me great joy, because seeing two Black vampires take charge and lead a whole ass dance number stuck with me more than the Sanderson Sisters doing “I Put A Spell On You” ever did. Also, this movie introduced me to The Smiths with their seminal hit “How Soon Is Now?” which prepared me for the following subject on my list.
Nancy Downs, Rochelle Zimmerman, Sarah Bailey, and Bonnie Harper (Fairuza Balk; Rachel
True; Robin Tunney; and Neve Campbell, The Craft)
Ahh, The Craft. The movie that really jettisoned me into the world of witches, bitchery, and goth culture. Mind you, Clueless came out a year prior, and the Gemini in me needed a dark twin to correspond to the rose-colored glasses atmosphere of the Beverly Hills High crew. Enter the St. Benedict’s Coven, the antithesis of everything Cher Horowitz and her crew stood for. These ladies introduced me to the Wiccan culture and the concept of whatever you send out, you will receive threefold (I would later learn this principle is universally used throughout all religions, but still), and I’ve gone by this motto ever since.
Each of the girls represented shades of me as if they were the Planeteers and I was their Captain Planet, yet they were my heroines instead. The Craft was the first movie I’d seen where outcasts were treated as truly human people, not just comedic fodder, if that makes sense. It was another pivotal moment where that queer boy inside me felt seen, even when I wasn’t trying to acknowledge him at the time. While the campy nature of the film is nowhere near the level of Aunt Gladys, it’s still a moment where 90s queer kids found their voices and started to rage.
Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
The previous entries on this list shaped my personality. The illustrious Dr. Frank-N-Furter helped awaken my sexuality before I was ready for it. Discovering this midnight feature post Batman Returns, Night of the Demons, and The Witches, yet before The Craft and The Midnight Hour, The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit my eyes right when I was going through puberty. The confusion became a bit murkier, yet strangely clearer at the same time. Talk about a goddamn oxymoron… The movie answered questions while imposing more. All I knew was that I loved what I was seeing and wanted to take part in the Rocky Horror games at the Frankenstein Place.
While the entire cast can be seen as daycare workers for queer children, it’s the Grand Dame of them all, Dr. Furter, who truly captivated me. It wasn’t the introductory number “Sweet Transvestite” that drew me in, but rather the lyrics of “Fanfare/Don’t Dream It, Be It.” It was that song that solidified something in me during the first viewing, and it stuck with me until I was able to see it again without trying to hide that I was watching it.
Queer Awakening
Consecutive viewings were all about the Frankie of it all and how he/they handled their staff, as well as the mousy duo of Brad and Janet. I wished I had Dr. Frank-N-Furter as a friend, a paternal guide even, to help navigate my daily life in high school. If I had Frank’s gumption and confidence while walking the halls of my alma mater, God knows I would’ve been a menace. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be at that time. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the antics of Frank, Magenta, Columbia, and Riff Raff helped jump-start the queer awakening from within with the others, and I’m damn sure that Aunt Glady would’ve fit in quite nicely with the bunch.
In conclusion, Queer horror fans have all had some type of Aunt Gladys type horror villain – male, female, and in between – pop on their respective screens at a time when they were in the midst of sussing out their identities. I’ve always said Fright Night Part II’s Belle was my first, but the ones I listed kept reaffirming that even when I was denying myself to accept that fact at the time. So I am almost positive that a baby queer went to see Weapons, and once they met Aunt Gladys, they finally saw their Queer Fairy Godmother.
Mark O. Estes
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