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Celebrate the release of It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, a collection of essays by queer and trans writers on the films that deepened and illuminated their own experiences. This program at the Brooklyn Museum brings together contributors Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties and the best-selling memoir In the Dream House, and Sarah Fonseca, writer, film programmer, and coeditor of the forthcoming book New Lesbian Pulp, for readings, discussion, and an audience Q&A.

About IT CAME FROM THE CLOSET:

Through the lens of horror—from Halloween to Hereditary—queer and trans writers consider the films that deepened, amplified, and illuminated their own experiences.

Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.

It Came from the Closet features twenty-five essays by writers speaking to this relationship, through connections both empowering and oppressive. From Carmen Maria Machado on Jennifer’s Body, Jude Ellison S. Doyle on In My Skin, Addie Tsai on Dead Ringers, and many more, these conversations convey the rich reciprocity between queerness and horror.