Book Review: It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror

Cover Photo Courtesy of The Feminist Press

Joe Vallese, in his introduction to It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (The Feminist Press, 2022) explains that while the current horror film landscape is slowly coming to terms with Queer centered themes and stories, members of the LGBTQIA+ community often read themselves into movies they love. In this anthology, twenty-five queer and trans writers examine the horror films that influenced and shaped them. Readers who approach this anthology expecting works of film analysis may be a bit disappointed as the essays in this book vary widely in both content and style. Most of the pieces offer writers’ reflections about specific films alongside their own personal experiences. Every essay is worth reading, as this book marks an important entry in discussions concerning identities in the LGBTQIA+ community.

 Some of the films examined in this anthology are relatively recent. For instance, Jennifer’s Body, a movie that was once panned by critics and audience members alike, is praised by Carmen Maria Machado who says, “Jennifer’s Body is terrifically smart and gut bustlingly funny, gross and tender and nimble all at once, a punchy tribute to small-town survival and a sendup of the saccharine stupidity of post-tragedy rhetoric.”   Machado blames misogynistic judgements against actress Megan Fox for the film’s original poor showing and praises its newfound popularity. Indeed, while Machado does relay personal stories within the critique of the film, she comes back to celebrating the two main characters in the film: “Needy’s bisexuality comes in fits and starts, serves her and fails her and confounds her; Jennifer dives teeth-first into hers.”

In another essay, Bruce Owens Grimm writes a braided essay by looking at Hereditary and intertwining thoughts about the film’s examinations of ghosts and family secrets with his own story of coming out to his wife. And Zefyr Lisowski looks at both The Ring and Pet Sematary in her essay, by examining the role of disability in both films.  (This essay also appears in Lisowski’s essay collection, Uncanny Valley Girls: Essays on Horror, Survival, and Love published in 2025).

Other horror films that are explored in this anthology often fall into the classic horror/thriller genres. For instance, author Laura Maw looks at The Birds in her essay, “Loving Annie Hayworth.”  Besides providing reflections about her own life, she imagines what Melanie and Annie’s relationship would have been like if Annie had not died in the film. Other classics that are explored are essays dedicated to The Leech Woman, Eyes Without a Face, and Godzilla. Like most of the essays in this collection, the writers relay how they believed their lives were reflected in these films.

Still, it would seem that no other horror movie evokes such mixed emotions and reactions as Sleepaway Camp. This particular film serves as a bookends of sorts to this anthology. In his introduction, editor Joe Vallese calls the film a "deeply transphobic and effusively homoerotic cult slasher.” He notes that the movie offers no social commentary and that the incorporated queerness in the film is “at best, a sloppy framework for getting its film to its shocking finale, and at worst, it dangerously conflates mental illness, child abuse and transness.”  Still, he relays that he was eight years old when he first saw the film, and he remembers that the famous ending scene left him with both unending questions and a great sympathy for Angela, the main character in the film.

In a similar way, the last essay in this anthology titled “Notes on Sleepaway Camp” by Viet Dinh chronicles his personal experiences, many of these memories focusing on his own memories of summer camp, alongside relaying reflections concerning Sleepaway Camp. This particular essay is written as a list, and some of the numbered elements are paragraphs of facts about the movies, while other paragraphs provide analysis. All in all, Dinh comes back to a simple reflection, concluding, “And there in Sleepaway Camp, I found myself: a swirl of gender confusion; the first stirrings of desire; the nexus of rage and confusion; and perhaps, the hope of love.”

Essay anthologies are successful when they bring together a variety of voices that focus on a common theme. Obviously, It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror does just that. More importantly, however, this book represents one way to start difficult conversations. As Joe Vallese notes in his introduction, this book should not serve as a conclusion, but as a “vibrant continuation” of such conversations that need to continue.