Sapphic outlaw moviesNew Line Cinema; A24; Samuel Goldwyn Company
There are so many great lesbian movies out there, from heart-wrenching dramas to hilarious raunchy comedies to movies features lesbian dirtbag characters, but our favorite kind of sapphic film are lesbian crime thrillers.
Give us sapphic outlaws, hot lesbian chemistry, and thrilling criminal enterprises, and we will binge watch them all.
We love movies that feature complicated female characters who don’t act the way society has deemed appropriate. Normal crime thrillers can be boring, but throw in women behaving badly — especially if those women are lovers — and we are IN!
Basically, we love the kind of movie where the TLDR is: Be Gay. Do crime.
It used to be hard to find movies in this subgenre, but in the last couple of years we’ve been getting more and more films featuring lesbians committing crimes in the most entertaining way possible. So, here are 11 lesbian movies to scratch that particular sapphic criminal itch.
Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleeding
A24
Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian play lesbian lovers in a bloody crime movie. 'Nuff said. Ok, we'll say a little more. In Love Lies Bleeding, Stewart plays Lou, a gym owner/criminal, and O'Brian stars as a bodybuilder named Jackie, in this erotic thriller throwback. The movie is hot, steamy, and incredibly violent. Basically, it's everything we love in a film. Plus, KStew as a tank top-wearing buthc lesbian is our new favorite thing.
This mob-revenge movie has all of the crime, vengeance, and hot sex scenes between Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon that we could ever ask for in a lesbian thriller. There is a reason Bound sparked a queer awakening in so many ’90s teens!
The second chapter in Ethan Coen’s planned lesbian crime trilogy, Honey Don’t, stars Margaret Qualley as a private eye investigating a shady church leader (Chris Evans), and her love interest is none other than gay icon Aubrey Plaza.
Based on a popular manga series, Ride or Die follows Rei, who must go on the run with her longtime crush Nanae, after she kills the woman’s abusive husband. The rest of the film is a fugitive road trip move that focuses on the women’s complicated relationship and growing feelings.
This 1995 erotic thriller features Anne Heche as a bank executive-turned-escort who falls in love with the wife (Joan Chen) of a notorious money launderer played by Christopher Walken.
The movie credited with the start of Angelina Jolie and Jenny Shimizu’s relationship, Foxfire features a cast of high school girls who turn the tables on a teacher who made sexual advances.
We love movies about women behaving badly, so a film where Rosamund Pike plays a lesbian grifter who is constantly outsmarting men is right up our alley.
In this heist movie starring Vivica A. Fox and Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah play a butch lesbian bank robber. Need we say more? We didn’t think so.
In Monster, Charlize Theron plays real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, and Christina Ricci plays her love interest, Selby Wall. It's gritty and bloody and gives you a fuller picture of why Wuornos became violent. If that's not enough to grab your attention, Theron won an Oscar for Best Actress for the role, and it was directed by Patty Jenkins, who went on to helm the two Wonder Woman movies.
Eileen stars Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway in a dark and twisted film about what happens when the boundaries of friendship become dangerously blurred.
While not textually queer, we’re still counting it because both Thelma and Louise leave behind unfulfilling relationships with men and commit to each other. Then there’s that farewell kiss that Susan Sarandon improvised! Plus, Sarandon said later that she thought her character would be a lesbian if the film had ended differently.
Butterfly Kiss is a twisted ‘90s thriller about an unhinged drifter, played by the talented Amanda Plummer, who travels around northern Britain killing men and women while searching for her former lover. Think Thelma and Louise meets the depravity of Natural Born Killers or Monster.
Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke star as Drea and Eleanor, two high school students who band together to get revenge on their tormentors in this sapphic teenage crime movie set in this movie that is dripping with ‘90s references.
Gay horror films 'Death Drop Gorgeous,' 'Midnight Kiss,' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2.'
Dark Star Pictures; Hulu; New Line Cinema
Gay horror films 'Death Drop Gorgeous,' 'Midnight Kiss,' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2.'Dark Star Pictures; Hulu; New Line Cinema
Horror is a queer genre through and through and has been since the early days of the genre — thank you, James Whale — but sadly, most movies are still overwhelmingly straight.
But fear not, because while heteronormativity may win out most of the time, in horror, there are plenty of sapphic, trans, and gay horror movies to choose from.
Not only are there movies brimming with gay subtext, but now, the genre is full of queer text, openly gay characters, and LGBTQ+ themes.
So now that there are so many gay scary movies to choose from, which ones do you need to put on your spooky season watch list?
Swallowed
Swallowed
Momentum Pictures
Starring Cooper Koch before he shot to superstardom, Swallowed is a low-budget gay body horror movie that follows Ben (Koch) as he sets out for Los Angeles to become a gay porn star. Once there, he and his friend get caught up with some criminals and are forced to swallow what they think are drugs inside condoms, but turn out to be something far stranger that have aphrodisiac properties. The film also features gay horror icon Mark Patton, but more on him later...
This fun slasher movie is part of Hulu’s Into the Dark series and follows a group of gay besties who gather to celebrate New Year’s Eve only to be stalked by a dangerous killer hellbent on ruining their good time. It also stars Lukas Gage and features a killer wearing a leather pup play mask to disguise his identity.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 might not have an out gay character — it came out in 1985 — but it is widely considered to be a gay horror film because of the film’s overt gay subtext, homoerotic undertones, queer imagery, and the fact that final boy Mark Patton was closeted at the time of filming, but came out later.
ParaNorman is a sweet and funny animated horror movie that is perfect for kids and people looking for Halloween vibes without the nightmare fuel. It’s about a young kid with the ability to speak to the dead who has to save his town from a witch’s curse. In the final act, you find out that the popular quarterback is actually gay and has a boyfriend, making him the first canonically LGBTQ+ character in a mainstream American animated film.
Slay is not only incredibly gay, hilarious, and has slapstick gore that will make you giggle, but it also stars Drag Race royalty Trinity the Tuck, Heidi N Closet, Cara Melle, and Crystal Methyd. The film follows a group of drag queens who get stuck at a redneck biker bar when vampires start attacking.
Death Drop Gorgeous is another drag queen horror movie that you have to watch asap. It’s a low-budget, campy ride that is full of offensive, trashy humor that will have you cackling. It follows a deranged maniac who stalks and kills drag queens using a dating app to lure them out.
Michael Urie and Frankie Grande (Ariana’s brother) star in this darkly comedic horror movie. Summoning Sylvia is about a gay bachelor party that goes wrong when the sinister spirit of a woman who murdered her son a century ago is summoned during a séance. This may be horror movie, but it’s also campy, sassy, and gay as hell.
While Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope is never explicitly queer, it is the gayest film the auteur director ever made. Based on the true story of Leopold and Loeb, Hitchcock’s Haye’s Code dodging adaptation is full of homosexual subtext. There is even a murder early in the movie that was filmed to act as a stand-in for a sex scene between the two main characters, who were played by Farley Granger and John Dall, both of whom were queer in real life.
One of 2025’s best horror movies, the satirical horror comedy Companion follows a group of friends on a weekend getaway at a remote cabin that goes wrong when Josh’s (Jack Quaid) subservient android companion (Sophie Thatcher) turns violent. Anytime sexual and societal norms are subverted in film it feels queer-coded, but this film also features a gay couple played by none other than Harvey Guillén and Lukas Gage, who are central to the plot of the film, and not just queer set dressing.
A promotional poster for the upcoming fantasy film 100 Nights of Hero features a shirtless Galitzine as he drips in blood. The movie also features a prominent Sapphic relationship as the plot is based on a love story between two women living in a patriarchal society.
Naturally, fans couldn't resist thirsting over the wild photo, so check out some of the reactions below. 100 Nights of Hero will be released in theaters on December 5.
Love Lies Bleeding and Honey Don’t both proved to us how much we love the “Be Gay Do Crime” film subgenres, especially when they include lesbians breaking the law.
Basically, if there are queer people committing crimes, we are sat.
A trailer for the upcoming Stone Cold Fox was just released, and it looks like it’s going to have everything we love: hot sapphics, gritty crimes, ‘80s nostalgia, and a lot of dark humor and action.
This neo-noir ‘80s throwback follows Fox (Shipka), who escapes an “abusive commune in search of her family. But when the queenpin (Ritter) kidnaps her little sister and sends a crooked cop (Kiefer Sutherland) after her, Fox has no choice but to infiltrate the very place she escaped,” the official synopsis reads.
The film hits theaters on November 7, but while we wait, let’s take a look at the moments in the trailer that have us waiting with bated breath for it to premiere.
Krysten Ritter in lingerie
Vertical
We’re not sure we need to say more, but getting to see Ritter play a badass criminal mastermind who also has us drooling seems like it’s going to be a highlight of 2025.
That wink
Vertical
A wink will always make us a little weak in the knees, but when it’s Ritter doing it, we're gone!
This kiss
Vertical
Ritter and Shipka kiss multiple times in the trailer, which has us hopeful that this film isn’t going to sanitize the sapphic elements and will maybe lean towards being an erotic thriller. We know not every movie can be Bound, but there’s no harm in hoping!
The ‘80s vibes
Vertical
The second we saw the glass Gatorade bottle, we were instantly transported back to the ‘80s. Some people may be sick of ‘80s throwback movies, but we’re not! Also, this shot is more erotic than it has any right to be.
Vertical
We love a training montage, but Shipka training to fight back against the criminal underworld by doing pushups and showing off her biceps is our new favorite thing.
The fight scenes
Vertical
The ‘80s comic book style fight choreography looks like a blast, and we didn’t know how much we needed to see Shipka turn into a badass fighter in a leather jacket until this moment.
The long-awaited follow-up, titled Red, White & Royal Wedding, is finally in the works, and this week, it was announced that Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez will be reprising their roles, with But I’m a Cheerleader’s Jamie Babbit set to direct.
The first film was based on Casey McQuiston’s novel of the same name, but since they have yet to write a sequel, the second film won’t have source material to draw on. Luckily, McQuiston and Matthew López (who directed the first movie) are set to write the screenplay for the new movie.
Without a novel to adapt, the new movie can go in any direction — although it looks like we’re guaranteed a wedding at the very least — which means we could finally get some of the things fans have been dreaming of since the first movie dropped. But, of course, there is also a risk that it could drift too far away from what made the original an instant hit with fans.
When the original film premiered back in 2023, fans went wild for the sweet romance and the chemistry between stars Galitzine and Zakhar Perez, but now that we’re guaranteed at least one sequel, what are we hoping to see, and what we hope stays on the cutting room floor?
The title of the upcoming movie suggests there will be a wedding, but we’re hoping they don’t gloss over the proposal. We want to see Alex down on one knee, giving a heartwarming speech and asking Henry to marry him. If the movie starts with wedding planning, we’ll be disappointed — we don’t want to miss out on their special moment!
2. Another cake mishap
— (@)
The enemies-to-lovers rivalry all started with Alex and Henry falling into a cake together so it seems fitting that there should be some kind of repeat performance at their own wedding.
3. Don't forget the side characters
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McQuiston excels at writing compelling and funny side characters, but the first movie didn’t explore this enough. We want to see lots of quirky side character interactions and above all else, more Zahra!
4. Politics
Hear us out! When the first film came out in 2023, we were well past Trump’s first reign of terror, and a Democrat was in office, so things felt more hopeful. The idea of Alex and Henry getting married was always a fantasy, but now the very existence of an out gay First Son seems outlandish. So in the sequel, we’d love to see them tackle the current political climate, but with the film’s signature humor.
5. A new sex position
Prime Video
Straight people were shocked to find out that gay men can have missionary sex when they saw the first movie, so let’s shock them again! The movie needs to get creative and show the boys in a new compromising position.
6. And, of course, the wedding
— (@)
Duh. We want to see Alex and Henry get their happily ever after and walk down the aisle at a lavish wedding with all of their friends and family there to celebrate with them.
What we don't want to see
1. A rushed plot
— (@)
While the first film was a lot of fun and is a fan-favorite for a reason, the enemies-to-lovers plot felt rushed, and there wasn’t nearly enough gay longing for our liking. So this time around, we don’t want them to rush the characters to the altar. Allow the chemistry to build, and their relationship to develop without sprinting toward “I do.”
2. A rehash of the first film
Prime Video
In any rom-com, even a sequel, there has to be conflict, but what we don’t want to see is a rehash of the arguments from the first film that kept Alex and Henry apart. Give us fresh conflict, and then great makeup sex!
3. Sanitized gay sex
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Speaking of sex, some fans complained — and we agreed — that while we loved the scene where Alex and Henry have sex for the first time, it was too tame and there should have been more of it. Yes, it’s a fun and light-hearted rom-com, but we also want it to ooze sexuality. We loved the tender and affectionate moments between the two main characters (please give us more of that), but we also want it to be hot! The first film was rated R and if the sequel follows suit, we’re hoping they don’t tone down the sex scenes this time around.
4. Cutting June out…again
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June, Alex’s older sister and a key part of the book, was entirely left out of the movie adaptation. In the novel, June is Alex’s confidant, and even fakes dates Henry to keep them from getting caught. Characters and plot lines always have to be cut for adaptations to work, but excising June was a mistake, one we hope they rectify in the sequel.
5. Cheesy dialogue
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Listen, RWBW was a lot of fun, but we can all admit that some of the dialogue was super cheesy. So let’s leave that behind in favor of smart writing, funny jokes, and clever barbs.
We probably won’t get everything we want out of a sequel, but we love the characters enough that we hope it’s not the last one they make. Zakhar Perez thought “it could be a nice trilogy,” so maybe we’ll get a third movie too!
Sapphic outlaw moviesNew Line Cinema; A24; Samuel Goldwyn Company
Gay horror films 'Death Drop Gorgeous,' 'Midnight Kiss,' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2.'Dark Star Pictures; Hulu; New Line Cinema
