As a queer person who loves all kinds of horror movies, perhaps especially post-apocalyptic survival tales, I was thrilled to hear about the upcoming film, Queens of the Dead, which is being described as a “big gay zombie movie.”
If you, too, are a fan of zombie apocalypse movies, you may have heard of George A. Romero, creator of such classics as Night of the Living Dead. This queer spin on the genre has been taken on by his daughter, Tina Romero. Tina (who wrote this movie with Erin Judge) was inspired to create this when one of the co-promoters of Hot Rabbit (an NYC-based queer dance party) broke off to make a rival event, and the original poster asked, “When will the queer community stop devouring its own?” Suddenly Tina knew she could bring her own unique voice to the genre she grew up watching her dad play in. In fact, the movie will use his vocabulary and play by his “rules.”
Queens of the Dead follows Dre (Katy O’Brian), a — you guessed it — party promoter trying to host a queer warehouse rave and drag show when the zombie outbreak starts. She’s joined by a gaggle of gays played by such icons as Margaret Cho, Jack Haven, Dominique Jackson, Nina West, Julie J, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Riki Lindhome and more.
They didn’t have a big budget, and they had to borrow Katy O’Brian from filming Mission: Impossible, but they had that scrappy spirit queer people tend to have and they made it work, and I can’t wait to see how it turned out.
Queens of the Dead premieres on June 7 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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