It’s slasher and infected chaos with gay and trans characters as I take a look at two indie flicks by queer filmmakers.
INHERITANCE (2021)
Michael Kenneth Fahr, director/writer/star of the gay film Victimized, is back with a second film, and it’s a slasher meets Clue with a dose of queer camp so perfectly understated that it makes for a good midnight movie.
The tension-building opener has a wealthy couple being terrorized by a masked intruder wielding a knife and an axe. Awesome.
Next we meet Fahr’s character and his brother, who have gathered together family and friends for the reading of their parents’ will. Everyone thinks they deserve a piece of the pie, which means everyone could be the killer…or the next victim.
Before long, people are getting killed off so fast and furiously that I was convinced the runtime was going to run out of victims too soon. But Fahr has tricks up his sleeve to keep the pace going right up to a grand finale.
Despite the bitchy attitudes being thrown around by all the catty characters, I was at first thinking this one wasn’t going to offer any genuine queer aspects. But twists and red herring that would make Agatha Christie envious provide plenty of queer elements, along with an interracial gay couple that shows up for the gathering, landing this one on the does the gay guy die? page.
The camp and killings kick into high gear for a big party massacre at the end, and there’s just the right balance of overacting, underacting, and even acting to make this one a goodie for a gay horror watch party.
T BLOCKERS (2023)
Queer horror filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay (So Vam, Bad Girl Boogey) makes a trans positive, in-your-face commentary on the anti-trans movement taking place in UK politics with this 74-minute horror flick drenched in 80s neon light. It also highlights the intersection between trans rights and feminism (the closing punk track “Dead Men Don’t Rape” says it all) and is both a therapeutic and cathartic exploration of trying to find love and success as a trans person.
Drag queer Etcetera Etcetera plays hostess in black and white in a movie within the movie. Our trans lead Joni, a wannabe filmmaker, is watching a lost horror movie of the 90s that plays an important role in dictating the events that occur within the movie.
After a date that doesn’t work out as planned, Joni begins having an extra sensory perception when near guys who have somehow been infected and have vicious, cannibalistic tendencies. Joni and friends at a local queer bar decide they must become vigilantes and take out these zombie-like incels and skinheads since the government isn’t going to protect them.
It’s a great plot and there’s some gooey gore and a retro horror vibe, but the film actually falls short in the horror aspects. A great percentage of the runtime focuses on the main character navigating life as a trans woman, and there’s a lot of dialogue.
With only 18 minutes remaining, they finally locate the “nest” of the infection, and even that battle with a bunch of the infected has very few infected for them to contend with.
I’m sure budget constraints had a lot to do with not delivering hordes of infected incels, but the plot really lends itself to a whole lot of action featuring queer folk taking down monstrous, hateful bigots.
