Don't Fear the Lesbians

Since yesterday was all about television, today will be about movies (though, considering every film I’ve watched in the last year and a half has been from my couch on my TV, the line is blurry — but I digress). So I’ve already gone on record repeatedly talking about how much I dislike horror movies. Slasher/Pain pics are my least favorite varieties of the genre. So I wasn’t all that thrilled to watch Netflix’s “Fear Street” trilogy. The three-part horror franchise is set in three different years - Part 1 1994, Part II 1979 and Part III 1666.

Honestly, the best thing about the trilogy and what truly makes it any different than any other teenage horrors flick is its centering of queer characters Deena and Sam (played by Kiana Madeira and Hannah Miller through the ages). Just like in “Army of the Dead,” the decision to tweak the story away our unfortunate cultural default of straight white and instead give out lesbian/queer characters (and in Tig’s case out lesbian performers) a chance to shine and see themselves as heroes just makes it so much more interesting.

And, again honestly, it’s just smart business. I would have never watched any of “Fear Street” had it been a conventional movie about a bunch of straight teenagers getting sliced and diced. But if you include people and populations unfamiliar with seem themselves as the lead character (ah, secondary character roles, how we know you all too well), it gets us interested. We become invested. It means something to us.

As always, representation matters because no one is a secondary character in their own life. We all deserve to see our stories told, and see ourselves in every situation — even scary ones.

As for the movies themselves, well Part I was mostly just perfunctory mythology building, while Part II was mostly an excuse to murder a bunch of teens. But Part III, well, that’s where things got interesting and for all its flaws and occasional horror clutches (like you name someone Goode, uh, we see what you’re doing there), I thought the final film actually tied it together nicely.

And [SPOILER ALERT: I’m about to give away the whole ending so you have been warned. Stop reading now. Now! I mean it. NOW.] the lesbians live! I mean, not the old-timey ones. But our 90s ladies, they’re our final gay girls for sure. And they stay together (indeed, their love spans centuries and drives the entire narrative which honestly is so wonderful). A happy ending for queer women in a horror film? Yeah, I watched that — sure, occasionally through a pillow and clenched shut eyes, but I watched dammit