#hydeyapping

hey everyone!! this is an old essay i wrote last year for my sci-fi and horror movie analysis class and i thought i'd post it here along with some other horror movie essays i have that are, admittedly, much much shorter than this. enjoy!!

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INTRODUCTION - WHY QUEERS LOVE HORROR

Time and time again, the most memorable instances of body horror are intrinsically linked to the gendered experience: sex organs are twisted (The Brood) unending hunger calls back to sexuality (Jennifer’s Body), and painful transformation takes the place of puberty (Gingersnaps, The Exorcist, etc.). The female body and motherhood in particular are warped into monstrous subjects - both a symptom of misogynistic disgust towards natural processes and fear towards the feminine body.

Nevertheless, many people, especially queer women and transgender individuals, feel attached to these portrayals. These expressions of femininity are so extreme, so visceral, that they almost fall past the realm of binary woman. This is womanhood to the extreme, in a grotesque way that counteracts the stereotypical projections onto femininity. No more is a delicate, gentle, and kind expectation of what femininity is: these women are horrifying, bloody, androgynous, and angry more than anything. 

However, the genre stretches the gender binary on both ends. Oftentimes, horror challenges the masculinity of many characters as well. Put into these terrifying situations, it’s not uncommon for a final male survivor, or even the killer himself, to be emasculated. Many traditional ‘slashers’ struggle with their masculinity in some way, Psycho’s Norman Bates being the most prominent example, as he crossdresses as a way of reviving his dead mother. 

While it’s usually the villain experiencing it, gender distress is not uncommon in horror films. Many horror villains for a time were queer-coded in some way: whether that means acting “flamboyantly,” wearing gaudy makeup, or even the opposite sex’s clothes. As such, many of these killers, monsters, or villains’ identities can be read as queer and androgynous. Take this queer coding and mix it with deeply uncomfortable body distortion and the perfect storm is produced for queer horror fans to latch on to.

The motif of body horror appeals to queer (specifically transgender) audiences, as a metaphor for transition: the sense of inherent wrongness, and oftentimes disgust at one’s own body, is deeply relatable to those who experience gender dysphoria. Some also find a sense of comfort in this warping of the body. 

Transitioning, in today’s political climate, is spoken about similarly to body horror. Fears of damaging one’s body irreparably, of contorting into something no longer recognizable within male and female, or even taking hormones to enact a second puberty (the horrors of puberty are already much discussed in horror, as seen in Carrie or Gingersnaps)1. 

Taking the body given at birth and molding it into something of its own desires and expressions is already seen as something horrifying and blasphemous to the general public. Susan Stryker, a trans lesbian activist and author, speaks on the realities of how transgenders relate to the body horror genre:

“The transsexual body is an unnatural body. … It is flesh torn apart and sewn together again in a shape other than that in which it was born. … I will say this as bluntly as I know how: I am a transsexual, and therefore I am a monster.”2

 Why not embrace that? The genre appeals so clearly to queer audiences because of this ostracization, and the insistence of monstrosity. To accept the monstrous depictions of gender is to be radically prideful, radically accepting of oneself. 

One of the key texts of queer horror, though not explicitly so, is Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus. The Frankenstein story is much-beloved by queer horror fans, and for good reason: the many iterations of the story have been translated by queer people. James Whale directed the first Frankenstein movie and lived as an openly gay man; Ernest Thesiger was bisexual and played Doctor Pretorius in the Bride of Frankenstein, a very clearly queer-coded character who tempts Frankenstein away from his bride; even Mary Shelley herself was bisexual,3 writing to friends about how excited she was to get “tousy-mousy” with other women.

The blasphemous nature of Frankenstein’s creation can easily be seen as a transgender allegory: placed in a body you don’t feel at home in, without your consent, and outcast by your creator for existing in that way. Frankenstein created this being without a woman, perverting the “natural” methods of creation of life. 

It should come as no surprise then that a film directly inspired by the tale, appearing over a century later, would be claimed by the queer community. This film, released in 1985, is Re-Animator: a campy classic based off of the H.P. Lovecraft short story, Herbert West - Reanimator. 

All of the elements discussed are ultimately found in Stuart Gordon’s 1985 cult classic, Re-Animator, and its sequel, Bride of Re-Animator. The emasculated ‘final boy,’ the queer-coded villain, and the monstrous feminine all meld together for a story rife with queer interpretations.

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THE HOMOEROTICISM OF RE-ANIMATOR 1985 

The film tells the story of Doctor Herbert West, an eccentric medical student who exalts in his strangeness, and Daniel Cain, his roommate, assistant, and the prototypical hero figure. West has made it his life’s work to “reanimate” the dead using a neon green serum of his creation, usually injected into the brain. While his goal is to achieve full revitalization, what is produced is more akin to traditional zombies than anything capable of a life outside of a morgue. 

This creation of ‘life’ is a unique perversion of the procreational birth society is accustomed to. The two men are doing everything in their power to create and sustain new life together. As a result, a homoerotic subtext flows throughout the film, though unintentionally (although the cast does joke about West and Cain’s relationship on several occasions, with West’s actor quipping, “you are buff babe!” at the appearance of Cain’s actor shirtless.4) With the assistance of Daniel Cain, West makes it a point to exclude women from his work entirely - at least, until we get to the second film - as he shows disdain towards anyone trying to get in his way but particularly towards women trying to ‘steal’ Cain away from him, and subsequently away from their work. 

The secretive nature of their work alludes to this interpretation: Cain must keep West in the metaphorical closet in order to still be considered respectable by his colleagues, his girlfriend, and the dean of the school. West is intent on keeping it that way, insisting that the world simply won’t understand their work yet. After all, West is deviating him from a “respectable” life, literally coming between Cain and his girlfriend, Megan Halsey, progressively moving closer to Dan in scenes where they appear together and eventually replacing Halsey’s place in the composition, as he seduces Cain towards his work.

There’s something to be said for West’s role as an alternative to the traditional feminine and masculine heroes. West acts as a villain of sorts, his actions objectively morally unsound, but the audience can’t help but like him. He is a nebulous expression of villainy and gender itself, especially compared to the other leading characters. 

On one end there’s Cain, the masculine med student with rippling muscles and a strong heart; the pinnacle of the sympathetic hero. On the other, there’s Halsey, the lead woman in the film. She’s a badass and the primary voice of reason, as well as Cain’s path to a heteronormative, stable future. West falls in the middle. Both literally, as seen in the camera work throughout the film, and figuratively as an interpretation of his gender. He relishes in his eccentricity to Cain, though keeps it under wraps to the rest of the world, for fear they won’t understand. 

West replaces Halsey in the frame as the film progresses.5

West himself is already challenging the cis-hetero-norm with his invention of creation. As previously stated, the action of reanimation challenges the preconceived notions of what creation and continuation of life can be. West being the creator, eliminating man and woman from the scenario while simultaneously acting as both, lends itself to an interpretation of androgyny and transness. This method of ‘birth’ combined with the act of injection - syringes being a popular motif among trans people, symbolizing the injection of hormones - fits to a transgender reading of the character. 

As the film progresses, we notice a tenderness from West focused towards Cain that we don’t see him exhibit toward any other characters. This is most evident in a scene towards the end of the movie in which Cain is forced to kill his girlfriend’s reanimated father, who is also the dean of the school. Afterwards, Cain falls to the ground and cowers in fear, shaking and breathing heavily. West tenderly places a blanket over him, embracing him and reassuring him that “it’s just shock.”

At the very end of the film, it appears that both West and Halsey die, both of Cain’s apparent ‘interests.’ Cain attempts to reanimate Halsey as the film fades to black with a blood-curdling scream. The promises of a stable future with Halsey are no more, as Cain assumes the role of re-animator himself, assuming the queerness and eccentricity that West had carried with him throughout his life.

However, West makes his return.

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MONSTROUS FEMININITY IN BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1991)

The sequel continues the exploration of the gender binary, though focused on a different subject than its predecessor. The blatant homoeroticism and gender ambiguity follows through to the second film in the franchise, The Bride of Re-Animator. Despite what the title suggests, the Bride isn’t intended for West at all. Instead, the effort of creating the Bride is undertaken by West for Cain, who’s still mourning his late girlfriend, Megan Halsey. This is West’s way of providing Cain with the normal heterosexual life he so craves while still maintaining the close-knit, almost domestic relationship they’ve developed. Herbert clings onto Dan even as a rift grows between them, and in an act of desperation, reveals his magnum opus.

As Herbert is proposing this continuation of his work to Dan (this was his goal all along, after all) he literally holds his heart out to him, grasping to regain his trust by exposing the most vulnerable aspect of the whole operation. 

The bride is built throughout the film. West steals parts of various patients who have died that he deems ‘worthy’ of a new existence. Legs from a ballet dancer, the hand of a lawyer, and most importantly, the heart of Megan Halsey. 

However, one of the most memorable aspects of the film is the birth of the Bride. We see her being built throughout the viewing, a dichotomy of machine and body, bare breasts and organs, ethereally covered in gauze. Her parts are being selected for her by her ‘creators,’ West hoping to assemble the perfect proxy to regain Cain’s trust in him and the process he holds so dear. He is trying to “fix” their relationship, similar to how a heterosexual couple on the brink of separation have children to save the marriage. This further alludes to the romantic undercurrent between Cain and West’s partnership.

Throughout the film, West makes the argument that the brain and body are not separate beings, as he had previously been treating them. However, when she is resurrected, brain and body as one, she has no connection to the body that has been made for her, causing her immense distress.

The Bride was literally pieced together, an identity insisted upon her that she had no say in. When she attempts to fulfill her purpose, to act in a way pleasurable to Cain, her creators reject her for being a monstrous amalgamation of parts. Just like Frankenstein’s monster, she has been placed into this body with no say in the matter and it is devastating to see her realization.

Many transgender individuals, before coming to terms with their gender identity, find themselves ‘over-acting’ their assigned gender at birth, often by performing the stereotypes of the sex in an exaggerated way: insisting that nothing could possibly be wrong or different because they act so much like their assigned sex. This may happen before someone realizes their truth, or when they start to get the inkling that they don’t relate to their birth sex. This act of repression resonates similarly to how the Bride attempts to seduce Dan. She is trying so hard to achieve her intended purpose that it leads to her self-destruction. She is repressing the chance of developing her own identity in order to fill out the role expected of her.

The Bride, in her first real act of autonomy, tears out her heart. In a heartbreaking scene, she crumbles away while screaming, “is this what you want?” She was the “perfect woman” until she rejected her own body and existence, and failed to acknowledge her purpose. Abandoned by her creators, she was so viscerally feminine that she surpassed femininity, becoming something garnering disgust rather than the intended pleasure. 

The Bride’s being fundamentally disregards the intent for which she was built. Because she became her own individual, regardless of how little autonomy or character she had, her very existence rejects the notion that she was built upon: serving her creators. For Cain, that means a viable replacement for his dead girlfriend. For West, she was intended to be the proof of his genius and a living example of his talents as creator. The Bride does not acknowledge West as his creator, and therefore he dismisses her as a bunch of parts. 

As transgenderism becomes more and more visible, headlines echo the same sentiment: you are ruining your body, your pieces, and God’s purpose for you as a man or woman by transitioning. Queer people aren’t fulfilling their “biological role.” The Bride isn’t fulfilling hers, either and it kills West to see something so clearly made for something to deviate from that role.

West, speaking to Cain’s new girlfriend and referring to the Bride’s creation, states:

Blasphemy? Before what God? A God repulsed by the miserable humanity He created in His own image? I will not be shackled by the failures of your God. The only blasphemy is to wallow in insignificance. I have taken refuse of your God's failures and I have triumphed. There! THERE is my creation!

His act of creation both parallels and transforms the act of God. It is disgusting, overwhelmingly sexual (see: zipper vagina), and depressing but still so beautiful and sympathetic and deeply human. West takes control of the human body and molds it to his liking, refusing to allow his subjects to remain as unusable potential. He sees beauty in allowing oneself to transform into something monstrous simply because it defies God, because it can be done. 

Though the Bride only has a few moments of life and it is utterly tragic, she manages to be an incredibly relatable and memorable character. She embodies the frustrations and pain of living in a body not meant for you, no matter how beautiful it may seem to others.

West’s rejection of God in this scene is the final nail in the coffin for a queer interpretation. Once again between the two binary extremes, he has successfully made new life with another man. He is breaking free of the restrictions of traditional procreation and the gender binary imposed upon him and is finally open about his work to another who isn’t Daniel Cain. While she is not at all what he expected, and speaks to the nature of creation itself (for one can never love what they create) the secret of his work is metaphorically out of the closet. 

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CONCLUSION

While this franchise is not explicitly queer, it resonates with many queer fans for a reason. The relationship between Daniel Cain and Herbert West as lab partners displays the painful reality of experimentation, whether that be scientifically or sexually, being kept a secret so as not to disrupt socially acceptable lives. However, in the last few scenes of Bride of Re-Animator, the audience is reminded that West is ultimately proud of his work, however unconventional and perverse it may be.