The Hays Code and horror movies, LGBT History Month

Close up portrait of young girl at home in a dark room with a popcorn bucket playing with her dog and sits in front of a monitor or TV.

Girl and dog watching horror movies (teksomolika (123RF))

October is LGBT History Month, and it also happens to be spooky season. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight the Hays Code and queer coding in horror movies.

The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945.

This Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. One of the aspects they censored was sexuality; therefore, when films wanted to portray sexuality, they were driven to try different and more elaborate ways to imply the act.

Homosexuality was a big no-no; thus any queer reading of films was done through its subtext or queer coding. Additionally, positive portrayals of homosexual characters were barred, and the only characters in fiction that could be perceived as homosexuals had evil roles and were punished throughout the work. Thus, villains had effeminate characteristics, behaviors or gestures that could be perceived as LGBTQ.

While many examples can be pulled from Disney (Gaston and LeFou in the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast and Jafar from the 1992 film Aladdin were created by an openly gay animator named Andreas Deja), the trend of queer coding villains in prominent media and film extends beyond the corporation.

A werewolf with a full moon and night scene (leolintang (123RF))

Most of the monster movies of the era (“Wolfman” or “Cat People”) are queer-coded: they rely on stereotyping characters to imply that a character is LGBTQ. Themes often included the fear that your repressed identity will be found, as well as the resistance to committing to a heteronormative marriage. Additionally, prominent horror movies such as “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein” (James Whale) and “Nightbreed” and “Hellraiser” (Clive Barker) were created by gay directors.

Alfred Hitchcock may not be the first person who pops into your head when you think of a queer ally, but there is a surprising amount of queer representation throughout his filmography, as in “Rope,” “Psycho,” “Rebecca” and “The Lady Vanishes.” While some of the queer representation in his films aren’t great, it’s important to remember that Hitchcock purposefully added queer elements to his films. “Psycho” highlights two interconnecting stories: Norman’s effeminate manner and crossdressing as his mother, and Anthony Perkins’, the actor who plays Norman, own sexuality. Perkins died of AIDs in 1992. His story is a sad one; I encourage you to do your own research regarding Perkins and check out Psycho 2 and 3, which he directed and starred in.

The Hays Code has detrimentally affected queer representation in pop culture and has almost solidified the social standard of queer-coded villains. Even after the repeal, film continued to vilify the community as late as the 1990s, which has been damaging and problematic. While some queer-coded representation after the repeal was done by gay directors including “The Lost Boys” (Joel Schumacher) and “Child’s Play” (Don Mancini), other directors still depicted the community as villains because of homophobia (“Sleepaway Camp,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Dressed to Kill” and “Ace Ventura”). These movies perpetuate the dangerous screen myth that gender dysphoria and homicidal urges are somehow connected. Films like “Jennifer’s Body” still include queer villains but do not conflate their evilness with queerness.

This has been a quick history of queer coding, the Hays Code and queer media. This LGBT history month I encourage you to do your own research and maybe you’ll find out one of your favorite horror movies is queer-coded.