Four LGBTQ Monster/Horror shorts (and three games) for Pride Month!
Happy Pride month everyone!
These are trying times. I think we need something to cheer us up this pride month (I know I’m late :| gulpplb).
And what better way to celebrate than with horror and monsters?
Here’s to all the LGBTQ+ animation, monster, and horror fans out there looking for some representation in the mediums we love.
Ratings (Trigger or Content Warnings marks TW and CW):
Family = Kids can watch it.
Horror = Classic horror/thriller with some good scares and creepy imagery.
Goth = Less horror and more on the macabre or suspense side of things.
Surreal = Weird stuff that crosses into the other genres.
Comedy = Funny stuff w. maybe some cuteness too.
Drama = Horror and monsters used to make you sad or tell a gripping story.
MATURE = Not for kids. Maybe for teenagers but NOT FOR KIDS. These are films with cursing or high-octane nightmare fuel+graphic imagery such as violence or disturbing subject matter. Read the video disc before knowing if you want to watch.
Dirty Paws by Karina Farek (Family|Comedy)
About a couple, one of whom is a werewolf and has to be carefully looked after by his boyfriend each full moon else he gets into all sorts of trouble (like eating his neighbor’s pets). It’s clearly a rough situation, but somehow, they really do make this relationship work.
It’s a very cuuuute slice-of-life piece and it’s nice to see a more functioning wereperson, let alone one in a relationship, in one of these shorts.
Her Lips are Mine by Soft Blanket Productions - (Horror, MATURE)
CW: Stalking, gore and violence.
This is a suspense/horror short so it’s not exactly empowering as much as it is taking the “othering” out of same-sex couples. This could’ve been a short about a woman stalked by an insane man who wants his girlfriend’s lips back, but they made it another woman instead. Dysfunctional mad-love knows no gender and the topic is rife for horror in the right areas, you just need to know how to do it and not paint demographics with broad strokes. To me, this one did that, but I suppose any lesbians reading/watching this will have to be the true judge of that.
Butter Lover by Kinga (Comedy|Surreal)
Swears kiddos oopsie doodle!
What? It has a monster in it!
It’s also very clearly about a guy who has trouble admitting he’s into men. It’s just where this would usually be the beginning of heart-felt Wes Anderson-style dramedy, here the potential love interest and main character bond over what I think is an Elderitch abomination...
Succubus by AngelaFlatt (Horror/Drama)
This is a bit more of a horror/drama like a bad-end lesbian version of Dirty Paws. A girl thinks she’s found the woman of her dreams. That is, until her friend catches a glimpse of her fiance cheating on her with several men...or so it seems. One wonders if they would be happy and work through their monster/human relationship woes, or if maybe this woman is better not knowing the truth about her lost love.
Either way I feel bad for poor succubus lady ;_;
The Parsnip series (Parsnip, The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith, and Three Lesbians in a Barrow) by DigitalPoppy - (Horror|Comedy|Drama)
Swears again. As Parsnip would say, we don’t use put down’s here!
This is a bit off the cuff since these are games, not shorts, but having watched the Lets Plays of them, I found them rather enjoyable. And they are slightly horror-related and you know what? I’MTHEBIRTHDAYRATTHATMAKESALLOFTHAROOOOLES!!!! So it goes on the list.
After Her Lips are Mine and Succubus I think we’re due for a happier lesbian story. In the Parsnip series by DigitalPoppy, (SPOILERS) we do get a bit of that at the very end of Three Lesbians in a Barrow. In the first two however, point-and-click adventure Parnsip and light-novel The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith, we get wrapped into a plot full of cults, satanic rituals, possession, spirits, and madness. First we follow the offputting Parsnip on his quest to make a delicious pie. Then we follow Trixie, a transwoman with a low self esteem who finds herself in an increasingly dangerous situation courtesy of her friend, Nikita.
ToTGM is my favorite; as Parsnip went by very quickly while TLiaB was a nice wrap up, but desperately needed a scene transition or two. Trixie’s just a button and where other cynical-drowsy-quirky characters come off as try-hard, I just really liked her. Besides, as a cisgendered person, I personally feel it made the trans issues Trixie deals with very accessible to someone not going through that - and thus made her feel more real! Most of ToTGM is about Trixie’s want for confidence which she ends up needing to have in order to properly talk down Nikita in the end and fight the force that’s haunting them both.
There’s this really homely warm feeling to these games with an underlying theme of danger or forewarning. I just dig that. This is also my kind of anthro animal story; grimdark with a purposefully misleading style that makes me think 90s educational games.
