The Devil is a gay-coded teen in ‘Fear No Evil,’ a shoddy horror with the most homoerotic shower scene ever

Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, we revisit 1981’s Fear No Evil, a confusing yet undeniably queer horror largely forgotten to time.

There’s always been a close connection between the queer community and horror. As a genre that has often used the figure of the “Other” in some of its most famous stories (from Frankenstein and Dracula to Freddy Krueger and Carrie White), there are many thematic connections that explain why we gravitate to creatures and monsters. They, and the feelings of confusion, fear, and detachment from “regular” society, often represent ourselves.

This traditional viewpoint that anything (or anyone) that is different is also inherently dangerous or evil has been ingrained very deeply in cinematic culture, particularly during its first two-thirds of history. It’s no surprise then that many villains and horror antagonists have been queer-coded. Norman Bates in Psycho, Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, practically every Disney villain… However, it’s been very rare that a gay-adjacent villain also happens to be the ultimate evil pesonified.

With Halloween just around the corner, this week we’re going back to the underseen and under-discussed (unfortunately, for good reason) 1981 horror film Fear No Evil, in which the Devil himself comes back to Earth in the body of a teenage boy that… Well, let’s just say many of us would share a lot of common ground with him.

The Set-Up

The movie retells the biblical story of Lucifer, the angel that was banished from Heaven after thinking himself higher than God. Three other angels (Raphael, Mikhail, and Gabriel) are warned about his inevitable return to Earth—which happens to be in 1963, when a young boy named Andrew is born.

Andrew is… different. Not just your regular introvert “different” but the-font-overflows-with-blood-during-his-baptism “different.” His parents decide to raise him in a secluded home, until he has to go to high school.

Andrew is awkward and without many friends. He’s intellectually brilliant with a bright future ahead, but he doesn’t seem to care much about that. Most strikingly (and in ways that are heightened by both the performance by Stefan Arngrim and the script), Andrew seems to be… well, gay. He has effeminate mannerisms, a quiet yet seemingly thriving inner life, and gravitates towards the jocks in his class.

Growing Pains

However, what follows is an incredibly convoluted, confusing and frankly not-all-that-interesting story about Andrew coming into his demonic abilities and wreaking havoc in the town. It’s never clear if he is aware that he is the reincarnation of Lucifer, or just the demon taking over a regular teenager’s body.

He doesn’t seem to have control over his own body and abilities (a common yet lazy metaphor for adolescence) and a lot of the hurt and damage he does seems more accidental than directed evil: a game of dodgeball that ends in the brutal death of a classmates, the killing of an actor recreating the life of Jesus, and a shower scene that turns into much more (we’ll come back to that shortly).

Mixed Messaging

Meanwhile, the incarnations of the three angels have also taken form in some of the citizens in town: Mikhail is an elderly woman named Margaret (Elizabeth Hoffman). Rafael is the local priest Father Damon (John Holland). And Gabriel is the most popular girl in the high school, Julie (Kathleen Rowe McAllen). The three of them join forces to battle and defeat Andrew.

Although a lot of the movie’s sequences and themes are interesting and eyebrow-raising, the film is sadly just not good. There is something intriguing about making the most famous evil figure that ever existed a very unstable queer-coded figure, but it’s never clear what the movie’s intentions are by doing that:

Is it a critique about social outcasts and the cruelty of teenagerdom? Is it a homophobic portrayal that tries to other sexually-deviant people even further? Is it neither of those and the character was just an unfortunate mix of acting choices, directing, and lack of proper storytelling? Maybe a little bit of all three?

A Wet, Sloppy Kiss

There is one moment, though—the most overtly gay moment not just in this horror movie, but perhaps across the genre.

It happens as Andrew is discovering his abilities while dealing with bullies at school. In a locker room sequence that would be shocking if it didn’t directly inspire A Nightmare On Elm Street 2, Andrew is being teased by some jocks, who corner him in the shower and dare him to kiss one of them. You know, in that way teenage boys do! However, something takes over Andrew and he does. He kisses the other boy. In the mouth, with tongue, for a long time.

It’s actually quite shocking to see such a blatant display of a gay kiss, even if, within this context, it’s a literal act of the devil. It’s two young men kissing, surrounded by other naked young men. The winky hints and erotic undertones that were replicated in Freddie’s Revenge become overt here, even if the weight of the moment had no further meaningful repercussions on the plot or identity of the character.

Related:

‘Freddy’s Revenge’, and 10 other screamingly sexy queer Halloween horror films

Each flick feature a healthy element of homoeroticism, sometimes overt, sometimes subtle, but always sexy & dangerous.

Oh, The Horror!

While the practice of queer-coding villains and monsters in film did little to help advance the humanizations of the community, there is a lot of value in looking back at those films and seeing how these portrayals often got at something more nuanced in their isolation and otherness.

Unfortunately, Fear No Evil has none of this. The premise of “the Devil chooses to come back to Earth through a gay-seeming teen boy” does not follow the many, many paths it promises. Or any path at all.

It’s an overly stuffed, overly-explained horror movie that is neither scary nor fun. Maybe someone could pick up the concept and take the story to places it had the potential to go to. While keeping the shower kiss scene, of course.

Fear No Evil is now streaming on AMC+, Freevee, Plex, ShoutTV, and Shudder. It’s also available digitally via AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube TV.