TEC Pete Dinunzio Sidenote (Pride Bonus)
This doesn’t really have anything to do with the prior analysis I did of Pete, it was more just something I noticed that I wanted to talk about.
So in the beginning “Bring Me The Head of Boba Fett”, Pete is defending Interview With the Vampire (1994) and going on his usual rants when he mentions the original book written in 1976 by Anne Rice.
I have read Interview With The Vampire, and one thing to note about the book is that it is not a light read. Pages are dense with environmental descriptions of where the characters will be staying. The pace is slow and has sections dedicated to going into Louis’s contemplation on what it is to be a vampire. Groups of vampires debate each other about the existence of God and if He does exist, are they still His children despite their unholy transformation.
It is very different in tone from books in the splatter punk genre or horror comics where the focus is on provoking discomfort in the reader.
I mention all of this because this contrasts a lot with the general assumptions of who Pete is. Yes he does have an interest in slasher films and gore, but horror as a genre encapsulates more than that. It’s shown from how he talks about special effects and make up in “The Marathon Men” that he has a lot of interest in the process it takes to make the final product. Genres like Classic Horror and Asian Horror cover a variety of films that involve a discussion of the other and how they are connected to society despite their monstrous appearance.
As much as he talks about gore and kills and hot women, he still has a clear interest in classic monster literature, and that’s a space that was never really discussed because of the comic’s short runtime.
To briefly touch another thing, vampires have historically been queer coded. Bloodsucking can parallel a kiss, but also a sexual act. It happens in private at night, and can be seen as a metaphor for sex. Here’s some examples from Interview With The Vampire (1976):
Louis himself during the interview when asked to describe what it was like to have his blood sucked compared it to attempting to describe sex to someone who has never had it. It is an indescribable intimate experience between two people, in private, involving bodily fluids.
When he is being turned into a vampire, he is being overwhelmed by the powers he has just obtained, giving him a completely different view of the world.
**Hell the book itself focuses on the relationship between Louis and Lestat as they raise their adopted vampire daughter, do I need to explain further on about how the book is queer coded.
Interview With The Vampire (the book and movie) is really fucking gay. It has been discussed in several essays and video essays before about how it is queer coded. The book was and has been popular with gay readers since its release so this is not a new reading of the material.
I highly doubt all of this would have gone over Pete’s head when reading it. Yes he can be dense, but he is not that dense. He called it “homo-erotic”, he’s semi-acknowledging it without addressing the elephant in the room.
So yeah Josh was right, Pete is pretty queer for vampires. Happy pride everybody!
Sources:
“Anne Rice and Her Homoerotic Vampires Left an Immortal Mark on Gay Culture.” NBC News, www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-pop-culture/anne-rice-homoerotic-vampires-left-immortal-mark-gay-culture-rcna8632.
Rice, Anne. The Vampire Chronicles 1 Interview With The Vampire. Ballantine, 2009.
Dyer, Richard. “IT’S in HIS KISS! Vampirism as Homosexuality, Homosexuality as Vampirism.” The Culture of Queers, Routledge, 2002, pp. 89–112, search.worldcat.org/title/172980952?__cf_chl_f_tk=2rRxLjpGJdDwIXiGq4vipLzcH3MI3XEAIpQnfH4Z38o-1782847122-1.0.1.1-IBwPgk9w374ibDGzF_ERZZCbQ7bIipSymPwCRxpFLks. Accessed 30 June 2026.
Book was initially published in 1976 by Knopf, was republished in 2009 by Ballantine.
Stina. “Interview with the Vampire: An Essay.” Playinggodwithmonsters, 21 Aug. 2011, playinggodwithmonsters.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/41/.
