The gayest thing about Halloween this year might be what’s going down in a theater near you. We’re talking about Queens of the Dead, the queer zombie film from out director Tina Romero.
What makes it so gay? Well, the cast, for one, it’s packed with gay and sapphic faves, including Katy O’Brian, Cheyenne Jackson, Nina West, Jaquel Spivey, and Dominique Jackson—along with Jack Haven and Margaret Cho, who play a couple in the film.
But that’s far from all. The movie’s also centered on a gay club in Bushwick on the night of a zombie apocalypse, with a group of drag queens, club kids, and go-go dancers facing off against the undead. And while it might be a horror film, it’s packed with moments of queer joy, solidarity, and plenty of glittery blood.
While it would be a welcome cinematic addition to the queer canon at any time, there’s something especially poignant about the film reaching audiences now—at a time when queer visibility is increasingly fraught and queer solidarity is particularly needed.
All of this is not lost on Haven and Cho, who sat down for a talk about playing partners, the power of queer joy, and having a gay old time on the Queens of the Dead set.
Margaret Cho in 'Queens of the Dead'
Courtesy of Shannon Madden
PRIDE: This film embraces my favorite stereotype: Sapphics get it done. Do you agree? Are the sapphics the people you want to be next to in a zombie apocalypse?
MARGARET CHO: Hard agree. We have to survive in this patriarchal world together, and we have to find ways to do it. We have to find ways to be together. We've always had to find ways under the watchful eyes of men who wanted to possess us. We've always had to fight to have our bonds, to have our relationships, to have our connections, to have our truth, to have our families, and all this stuff. So many generations of this, we've gotten used to being super resourceful and finding out how we can get our way.
JACK HAVEN: Agree, 100%. Yeah… it’s like a combination of strength and intellect and willpower.
The two of you play a couple in the movie. Do you have a favorite memory, or was there something you especially loved about working with one another?
JH: It's just such an honor to work with you, Margaret. I was very shy on set, and I'm just sort of shy... I was just so grateful that you're just the warmest person in the world. You just have so much love in your heart, and it was so fun to play with you.
MC: I love working with you. We had such a good time. I also just love the way we look together. We're such a fabulous, gorgeous couple together. Yeah, we just set off this perfect visual—this stunning image of butch/femme dynamics. It's very classic. It's very 1950s. It's just so sexy and so perfect. We cut a stunning image.
Jack Haven and Margaret Cho in 'Queens of the Dead'
IFC Films
Obviously, there are plenty of queer folks in Hollywood, but this cast from top to bottom was particularly queer. How is the experience of being in a creative space, but also very much in the community?
JH: Yeah, this was the LGBT Center. It was a laugh riot all the time. I learned a TikTok dance on this set. I never thought I would learn those. I talked about what [hormone] dose I should be on. Yeah, I learned a lot on this set.
MC: And this was, you know, we filmed it, like, at the height of brat summer, so... it was just such a fabulous time to be together, to be able to celebrate this. There was still the possibility of Kamala.
So much hope!
MC: We had hope. We had hope for the future. We actually did have hope for the future—and I still believe there's hope for the future, but we're in a difficult time. But yeah, we had a lot to look forward to, and it was really special to all be together to experience that.
Katy O'Brian and Jack Haven in ' Queens of the Dead'
Courtesy of Shannon Madden
This movie speaks to the way queer folks historically have responded to crises. There’s a part in it when things are at their darkest, when all hope is lost, and Katy O’Brian’s character Dre says, “Let's have a dance party.” I'm old enough that I remember during the AIDS crisis when the response was like, “We fight all day and we dance all night,” and the dancing is what we fight for. Is that a message you hope queer audiences take from this movie, particularly right now?
JH: I think that's so beautiful, what you said. We fight so that we can dance. I think the celebration is such a vital part of it because the reason we fight is because we love life and because we love each other. These expressions of joy don't take away from the revolution. They feed the revolution, and they feed our purpose, which is the ecstasy of this pure life experience of being alive.
MC: We fight so that we can stay fucking because gay sex is so much better. It's so worth it. Like, to have to fight society and the world and religion... everything against us. We fight so that we can still be who we are. And that makes it worth it. Fighting it makes it so sweet.
The spirit of queer solidarity in the film feels especially poignant in this political climate and in a moment when we do kind of have to come together and push back. Do you hope that in addition to this just being a very fun and entertaining movie, that there’s kind of like a spirit of solidarity that people walk out of the theater with when they see it?
JH: Yeah, I think that it's important that we recognize that the revolution is now. It's ongoing. It hasn't stopped. It won't stop. There won't be a place where we get past the revolution, the revolution is now, and, like, the feeling of fighting zombies, that's something that we can take into our daily life. Because the zombies are out there.
MC: It’s a call for unity as well. There are so many things that make up our community. There are so many different parts and different aspects that make up who we are, and there's a lot of separatism too. We don't always get together, but together we have so much strength. So I think the film is really an encouragement to bind together, to have that strength so you actually have a united front, that you actually have the full spectrum of the rainbow.
This interview is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Queens of the Dead arrives in theaters on October 24. Check out the trailer below
