The Queer Monster: Putting Séance and Bit in Conversation
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This video essay places Bit (Brad Michael Elmore, 2019, US) and Seance (Simon Barrett, 2021, US) in conversation. I show how both of these queer horror films move beyond the questions of representation and investigate how the very genre of horror can be utilised to reflect ideas of queerness. I incorporate Robin Wood’s psychoanalytical perspective on the monster reflecting what society represses. However, unlike the films Wood analysed in the 70s/80s, these modern films do not just relegate queerness to subtext. Queerness is now present, alive, in the text. And here, I interrogate how the role of the monster in both films reflects ideas of queer lived experience.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).