In the late nineties, teen slasher films entered their third production cycle following the box-office successes of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2. These films are often described as being “like Scream,” criticised as copycats and cash-ins, in which they have become apolitically synonymous with terms such as “metatextual,” “self-reflexive,” “pastiche,” “postmodern,” etc. While such cynicism suggests that the teen slasher film has become a self-deprecating mockery of itself, Daniel Sheppard brings into consideration the role of the gay screenwriter and, in doing so, demonstrates how Kevin Williamson’s use of camp in Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2 created new generic possibilities for other gay screenwriters, directors and producers working in Hollywood at the turn of the millennium—as well as now—including Silvio Horta (Urban Legend), Don Mancini (Bride of Chucky), Gus Van Sant (Psycho), Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination), Aaron Harberts (Valentine) and Victor Salva (Jeepers Creepers).

Where critical accounts of gay screenwriters, directors and producers have, until now, been near exclusive to “queer horror,” this illustrated lecture calls for a revaluation of what it means for gay screenwriters working in Hollywood to script heteronormative (“straight”) narratives that consciously erase LGBTQ+ representation. Where the teen slasher film has historically been approached in heteronormative terms, then—which itself has “straightwashed” histories of mainstream production—this lecture demonstrates how these films critique heteronormative ideology through camp, thereby encouraging queer positionalities for audiences.

Daniel Sheppard is a PhD Candidate and Visiting Lecturer in Film Studies at Birmingham City University, UK. His thesis is called “Gays, Women, and Chainsaws: Queer Approaches to Characterisation and Identification in Contemporary Slasher Film and Television, 1996-2019,” and is fully funded by the AHRC Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership.