The seductive monster's greatest attraction is that their seduction can, for a few moments, trick us into thinking we're untainted. They're the corruption that makes us pure.
Unspeakable Horror ponders the Devil's abdomen and the allure of Satanic queerness...
As a closeted gay kid, raised with a mega-dose of all-American homophobia, the "allure of evil" in horror films reflected the fear of gay desire and the fear of being identified with the queer "other" in society. As the son of a preacher, no one was more "other" than Satan, and it's no coincidence that I went through a strange and horrible little phase in junior high, during which I was preoccupied with the fear of being possessed by the devil. For me, Satan was always highly charged with forbidden sexual desire.
In the seventh grade, Ridley Scott's Legend hit the theaters, and I remember picking up the record album soundtrack, despite the highly erotic image of Tim Curry as the devil on the cover of the album, which really disturbed and fascinated me. With a finely sculpted, shiny red chest and highly phallic set of massive horns, Tim Curry's devil character exudes sex. I had a very similar response of fascinated repulsion when I saw Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time at the midnight movies.
Around the same time that I purchased the Legend soundtrack, I had a nightmare about the devil, during which I was walking to school, and the devil tried to abduct me from the sidewalk — actually, all he did was ask me if I wanted a ride, but he was shirtless with shiny purple lipstick. The sexual intention of the offer was clear to my adolescent brain. He wasn't red this time, and he didn't have horns, but I knew it was Satan.
A couple years later, Lost Boys was released. Like Tim Curry, Kiefer Sutherland as the lead vampire represented the ultimate in queer sex appeal: he lives a forbidden lifestyle, retreating to the shadows and creating his own family composed entirely of boys with really cool fashion sense — and the blood drinking — clearly a Freudian metaphor if there ever was one. Just like I was afraid the devil would take over my body and "recruit" me to his team, I was terrified (and fascinated) by the allure of the vampire boys. I even had a vampire nightmare that I had been bitten and was turning into a vampire beyond my control.
Being possessed by the devil or turning into a vampire both represented my fear of losing my preacher-kid facade and becoming gay. Of course it was inevitable. For me, the sexual allure of these evil, monstrous characters was clearly connected to my own internalized homophobia and awakening to forbidden sexual desire.
Article comments