Horror cinema’s transgressive nature grants storytellers the freedom to explore taboos, most prominently around sex and death. Sometimes these topics are addressed with care and insight. Often, they’re not. Gender-nonconformity, in particular, often appears as a source of evil. Movies like Silence of the Lambs, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Death Spa, Dressed to Kill, In Dreams, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sleepaway Camp, the more recent Titane, and the grandmother of them all, Psycho, feature gender-bending homicidal maniacs. In pre-internet times, trans kids might first see a character like themselves in a rented VHS—and then, immediately after, see themselves as monsters to be destroyed.

From blog via This RSS Feed.