The new ‘Fear Street’ movie heralds a queer horror renaissance

In 2021, Netflix delivered a cinematic horror event for the ages. The streamer released three movies in three weeks, crafting a horror trilogy to rival the classics: Fear Street, based on the book series of the same name by R.L. Stine. The franchise, which followed a group of teenagers working to break a centuries-old curse on their hometown, quickly became beloved by the queer community for the lesbian romance at its center and its subversion of the “bury your gays” trope.

Now, head of Netflix Film Scott Stuber has confirmed a fourth Fear Street movie is in development.

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“Obviously, there’s a lot of [Fear Street] books,” Stuber said in an interview with Collider. “There’s one stand-alone that we’re working on right now that we’re once again trying to get the script right, but I like it very much, and so does the team. So I feel like if we can get that script right there would be a great kind of extension of that franchise.”

It’s unclear if the new Fear Street movie will feature the stars of the original trilogy or if it will follow new characters, but either way, fans are in agreement: it had better keep up the queer representation.

A new installment of Fear Street is part of an ongoing renaissance for queer horror. The genre has always been a favorite of the LGBTQ+ community, thanks in part to its representations of society’s outcasts and its tendency to skew toward camp. 

Nowadays, it’s rare to watch horror media without some form of queer representation: long-running franchises like Scream have introduced queer characters like fan favorite Mindy Meeks-Martin, played by Yellowjackets star Jasmin Savoy Brown, while new media reflects the growing prevalence of queer culture in everyday life. Netflix’s own new horror miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher follows the demise of a family of six children — all of whom are horrible people, and three of whom are queer. Because gay people can be awful, too!

The first three Fear Street films are now streaming on Netflix.

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