This New Queer Zombie Movie From George A. Romero’s Daughter Tina Has a Stacked LGBTQ+ Cast
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Good news, gay horror nerds! A host of LGBTQ+ stars are set to star in the upcoming queer horror comedy Queens of the Dead — and it’s directed by Tina Romero, the daughter of the late iconic Night of the Living Dead filmmaker George A. Romero.
Co-written by Romero and Erin Judge, Deadline reports that the film follows “an eclectic group of drag queens, club kids, and frenemies [who] must put aside their personal dramas and use their unique skills to combat the brain-thirsty undead when a zombie apocalypse breaks out during their drag show in Brooklyn,” per an official synopsis.
Naturally, plenty of queer talent is attached to help bring this zombie chaos to life. Queens of the Dead will star Love Lies Bleeding star Katy O’Brian, Fire Island actress Margaret Cho, I Saw the TV Glow star Brigette Lundy-Paine, and American Horror Story’s Cheyenne Jackson.
The supporting cast, which is similarly stacked, includes Nina West (Ru Paul’s Drag Race), Jaquel Spivey (Mean Girls), Tomás Matos (Fire Island), Shaunette Renée Wilson (Black Panther), Dominique Jackson (Pose), Quincy Dunn-Baker (No Hard Feelings), Becca Blackwell (Bros), and Riki Lindhome (Knives Out).
*Them* contributors hand-picked their favorite queer horror films.
“This is the cast of my wildest dreams,” Tina Romero said in a statement shared with Deadline. “In a movie about survival, you gotta love and root for the survival crew. Every single person in this ensemble brings such a special and specific flavor — both on and off screen. The result is truly a magic sauce.”
Queens of the Dead seems poised to continue the Romero family legacy of using zombie films to deliver social commentary amid more traditional horror scares. George A. Romero’s landmark 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, which is often credited as the first modern zombie movie, also features the first Black horror lead, played by actor Duane Jones. Although Jones’ character Ben wasn’t initially written as a Black man, Ben’s prominence in Night of the Living Dead — and, spoiler alert, his death at the hands of trigger-happy humans, not zombies — struck a cultural chord with audiences when it was released in the midst of the civil rights movement.
Romero’s eventual sequels, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead and 1985’s Day of the Dead, even more explicitly condemn self-destructive human practices, from consumerism to the military-industrial complex, without sacrificing on traditional movie scares. Here’s hoping that Queens of the Dead continues that tradition, this time with a healthy dose of zombie drag and scream queens.
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