Freeing a monster from the closet
The Age
Thursday March 17, 2011
"I THINK there's a beauty in the monster," says Melbourne playwright and horror buff Lee Gambin. "The monster is the alien Other, and as much as that's a negative thing, it can also be a source of empowerment."As part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Gambin is presenting the lecture and clip show It Came from the Closet!, billed as an exploration of queer themes in classic and modern horror films.From the outset, Gambin says, horror cinema and a queer sensibility have been closely connected. "There's a kind of an interesting queer subtext throughout every single Frankenstein film," he says, "the idea of a man making another man."This subtext becomes overt in parodies such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), but Gambin says it can equally be felt in the original Frankenstein (1931), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), both directed by the openly gay James Whale."There's a whole lot of references to unnatural birth processes," he says. "There's the bonding between Frankenstein and his servant, who create this monster together. There's also the idea of the monster as this alien being, who is misunderstood and displaced in the world."Gambin describes Frankenstein's creation as a "monster of pathos", menacing yet sympathetic. Another example he gives is the creature from the Black Lagoon, especially in The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)."The monster is trying to be cured by scientists," he says, "which kind of reflects the way that gay people have made accommodations throughout their history to try and make the straight world feel more comfortable with itself."Other sections of It Came from the Closet! will focus on stereotypical queer villains, including the lesbian vampires beloved of Britain's Hammer studio, or the transvestite serial killers in films such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991).From today's vantage point, many of these portrayals look deeply homophobic, but Gambin argues they form an important part of the history of queer representation in cinema."I'm doing the talk from the perspective of someone who really loves the movies," he says. "I think it's sad when certain groups don't get represented, and I'm a fan of stock characters, so I'm not opposed to the sissy character or the butch dyke character, I'm fine with it. Some people aren't, and that's fine as well."It Came from the Closet!, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Saturday, 4pm. Standby tickets only.The Queer Film Festival runsMarch 18-27. www.mqff.com.au
© 2011 The Age
