Tobe Hooper’s Leatherface ( Gunnar Hansen) of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Alfred Hitchcock’s Norman Bates ( Anthony Perkins) of Psycho could be considered precursors to that controversial Silence of the Lambs figure Buffalo Bill ( Ted Levine). Stephen King and Brian DePalma’s Carrie can be read as a queer character coming-of-age in a religiously oppressive home. But that didn’t stop queer people from seeing themselves reflected in many of the iconic films that followed. This set off a chain reaction that became a trope. This all began when Hollywood executives decided to take a more controlling role regarding censorship in film and in 1934 instituted the Hays Code– a set of rules that included the clause that anyone embodying queerness, or any other “amoral” liberated behavior, needed to be punished in the stories they were present in. The issue is that queer people or queer-coded characters have usually been relegated to the role of villain. And queer people have always resonated with horror stories.
