Oscar Garcia

Date of Award

1-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hernandez, Sarah

Area of Concentration

Social Sciences

Abstract

Many queer people hold a particular affinity for horror films, despite the history of harm to queer people that those films have helped to perpetuate. Previous explorations of this relationship have focused on timelines of queer and film history, personal anecdotes, and theorization about these films and the audiences who view them, with no broad study examining how queer people themselves interact with and perceive the media. This study explores how queer people engage with horror films using a multi-method approach that involves a survey and qualitative interviews, examining queer horror fans’ opinions about subgenres, identifications, preferences, impacts of horror films, and reasons for enjoying horror films. My findings offer support for my hypotheses that queer people are able to enjoy horror movies by using identification with antagonist characters and camp reclamation as mitigating factors for the potential harm of the films. This study also offers several other factors for consideration, such as the time period in which a horror film was released and the current political climate, as well as testifying to the diversity of opinions among the queer community through showing the differences of interpretations, opinions, and experiences that participants carry with them into the surveys and interviews.

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