Reviews tagging 'Violence'

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror by Joe Vallese

34 reviews

amaranth_wytch's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pedophilia, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Death of parent, Gore, Addiction, Bullying, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Blood, Classism, Death, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, and Transphobia

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Transphobia, Ableism, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual assault

scarroll178's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.0

As a queer fan of horror, I’m SO happy this book exists 🥰 The Healed Body, by Jude Ellison S Doyle especially meant a lot to me, as a transmasc person 💗 

On the other hand, I was not a fan of Good Guys, Dolls, wherein the writer, Will Stockton, shares personal details about his foster son’s worst, most embarrassing moments. I probably would’ve given the book a 5 if it weren’t for this particular story. I’d recommend skipping Stockton’s chapter altogether. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, and Violence

moreadsnrambles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, and Physical abuse

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I considered giving this one 5 stars, but there were a few essays that didn’t fit right within this anthology and so points off for being imperfect. But this was transcendent! 

I love horror and it hasn’t been until recently that I realized horror is inherently gay just by being horror. I love seeing the cross-section of identities and films and sexualities. I was a bit surprised Godzilla’s essay didn’t bring up their ambiguous gender, and that Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy’s Revenge was not mentioned once, but I have a bunch of new horror movies to add to my list now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Body horror, Transphobia, and Gore

An exploration of dark themes and the way LGBTQ+ culture is intertwined with the horror genre.

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

As a horror film enjoyer, I really appreciated the analyses in this collection. The writers helped me to recognize the specific appeal of a horror film for someone who, like me, is anxious and constantly thinks about mortality. As Grant Sutton says in his essay on Friday the 13th Part 2, "Slasher films gave me a way to order the violence and death that occupied most of my attention." Sutton grew up during the AIDS crisis and spent his days assuming it was a matter of time before he succumbed to the disease. Needing the order of a horror film (or story) is something that I felt to my core, even if my anxiety is rooted in a different place than Sutton's.

Another theme that ran through these essays is the idea that when a queer person is villainized in horror, it's a reflection of the Othering occurring in our culture at large. I stopped in my tracks during Zefyr Lisowski's essay on ableism and The Ring when she said, "If there isn't a supremacist culture to view things through, does monstrosity even exist?" Though the version of ourselves that we see reflected on the screen is monstrous, it still feels important to have ourselves portrayed and our rage be recognized.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Homophobia, Violence, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Racism

kairhone's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia

Moderate: Child death and Violence

amandaboyer's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Transphobia, and Homophobia

danimacuk's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Body horror, Self harm, Transphobia, Violence, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Bullying

taelights's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

While I did like some of the essays in this book and found some of the topics in it fascinating, this wasn't what I expected. I pictured more of a focus on horror through a queer eye and why the authors believe certain horror movies portray queer experiences. While some of the essays focused on this I found a lot of the essays were mainly focused on the writer's personal lives with some vague connections back to the horror movies. I did enjoy this a bit but wouldn't really recommend it because of some weak essays and a lot of them being more just memoirs than queer looks at horror. 

My favorite essays (in order of book) were:

- The Girl, the Well, the Ring 

- Imprint 

- The Wolf Man's Daughter 

- Loving Annie Hayworth 

- Blood, Actually 

- Sight Unseen 

- Bad Hombre 

- Black Body Snatchers 

- Long Nights in the Dark 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Racism, Abandonment, Addiction, Biphobia, Blood, Homophobia, Medical content, Chronic illness, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Deadnaming, Gore, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Ableism, Child abuse, Lesbophobia, Self harm, Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship