From James Bond to ‘They/Them,’ John Logan has always brought a queer eye to blockbuster spectacle
Gladiator shape, made James Bond admit he (might) have had some queer flings, and gifted us with Michael Fassbender kissing… Michael Fassbender.Yes, you may not have known it, but a gay man has been behind some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster entertainment since the ’90s.From Any Given Sunday to Skyfall to Penny Dreadful to Oscar-nominated screenplays for Gladiator and The Aviator, John Logan’s prolific career had previously stuck to the script.
But that all changes this summer with They/Them, a slasher set at a gay conversion camp—which happens to be Logan’s directorial debut.Now available to stream on Peacock, the Blumhouse-produced horror flips the tropes of the genre on its head, and gives Logan the opportunity to directly explore queer themes and characters for the first time in film.In conversation with Queerty, the writer/director goes deep on his love of slashers, shares why They/Them doesn’t make queer characters the victims like some might expect, and explains how the film’s wholly unexpected musical sequence came together.
Logan also reflects on how his perspective as “a little show-queen” has brought the drama and the spectacle to mainstream movies for the past 30 years.Be warned: Mild spoilers for They/Them are ahead!Queerty: You’ve spoken previously about your love of horror and how you’ve long felt connected to movie monsters as metaphors for “the other,” but I wanted to dive into the slasher subgenre a little bit more, because it seems to have its own unique queer appeal, right?
Is there something about slashers that feels inherently queer to you?John Logan: Well, first of all, I love slasher movies.
