If there’s one thing we here at Dandy Dicks love about October, it’s that it’s the perfect time of year to have a scream fest (breaking out our favorite fall sweaters is a close second). While most of these movies are full of tits and lady ass, genuine moments of homoeroticism and queerness manage to sneak in through the cracks. So join us as we open the crypt, push away the cobwebs, and unearth our favorite gay skeletons in the horror movie closet.

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic is generally credited with creating the slasher film genre, but any movie that includes the line “A boy’s best friend is his mother” has to got to be as queer as a piano bar. Woefully under-appreciated for his hotness, Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates gets his kicks by dressing up as his mother and killing female embezzlers who sexually excite him. Is he really so different from Michael “Party Monster” Alig? The queerest moment has to be Norman’s final unveiling as “Mother”. He’s in her nightgown and in his element. Avoid the Gus Van Sant shot-for-shot remake; it has no reason to exist.

Insidious Chapter 2 (2013)

This movie is a perfect example of what happens when straight guys try to write strong women. You get pure camp. The queer moment in this godforsakenly dumb franchise comes when, for reasons too stupid and convoluted to get into, we discover that the movie’s villain, the “Bride in Black”, was forced by his scenery-chewing mother to dress and act as a girl. Horrors! Danielle Biscotti plays the mother and she gives a performance of such violent, unbridled cosmic anti-subtlety that Faye Dunaway’s performance in Mommie Dearest looks like mumblecore in comparison. Not only virulently transphobic and really really dumb, the most horrific thing in the entire movie is Ms. Biscotti’s makeup. Little heavy on the eyeshadow, sweetie!

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

If Psycho made “cross-dresser equals killer” concept mainstream, then Sleepaway Camp puts in back in the closet. Honestly, this movie is insane in all the right ways. Any movie that starts with gay lovers frolicking at a lake until there’s a “death by runaway speedboat” moment is a movie that every homo needs to see. And Desiree Gould’s performance as the daffy “Aunt Martha” puts the “camp” in Sleepaway Camp. Don’t think this movie has enough queer bonafides yet? There’s death by a curling iron! There is nothing gayer than murder by hairstyling accessory. Sleepaway Camp also has one of the most delightful “bitchy teen girl” characters that we’ve seen in a slasher movie. Brilliantly played by Karen Fields, she’s sassy, she’s rolling her eyes like they’re made of ball bearings, and she has had it with your bullshit. Her name is Judy and the fact that she isn’t on every ironic T-shirt in West Hollywood says everything that’s wrong with modern gay culture. Queerest moments: the first 10 minutes and the final 30 seconds (which I can’t share, and don’t you dare spoil it for yourself – just watch the entire movie!).

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

The granddaddy of all queer horror movies, Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is generally regarded as one of the weaker entries in the franchise, which it is, but this is also one of the most unabashedly gay movies you’ll ever see. Nightmare 2 (as we Fred-heads refer to it) is brimming with more overt homoeroticism than a Scientology gala. Despite the film’s writer, David Chaskin, being gay, the crew seemingly had no idea they were making the horror movie equivalent of a Falcon Studios production. The movie ends up being a metaphor for self-loathing closeted queers and the terror that can unleash, centering around the flamboyant ninny Jesse (played by real gay Mark Patton), who’s terrified of the dark impulses inside himself (get it?). When he tries to kiss his girlfriend in a cabana, he has a complete breakdown and literally jumps into the bed of his hunky best friend. It’s impossible to pick one queer moment since the entire film is composed of them, whether it’s Jesse’s trauma over the “something trying to get inside” him, or the scenes set in the gay leather bar, or the locker room whipping – the entire movie feels like a gay porno without the money shot.

For more on Freddy Krueger, stay awake all night and keep your eyes peeled for him to pop up on Dandy Dicks in the near future.

Mark Rennie is a writer based in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram at @markrennie.

Photo: Paramount Pictures, FilmDistrict