Queer Representation On Screen

The summer of 2026 has been taken over by the queer horror scene. With this sudden influx of popularity at the box office, I felt it only right to touch on why this kind of representation is so important by discussing two of the best films featuring queer characters this year. As a queer person, it is incredibly exciting to see these stories do so well as it helps provide the opportunity to engage in more thoughtful discussions about the complexity of these topics. It also encourages us to explore what we can do to push for further representation in all forms of media, but especially film.

Leviticus (2026)

Released in late June of 2026, Leviticus is a film that received a great deal of hype pending its premiere. The plot focuses on two teenage boys from a religious community who must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person you desire most. For them, it's one another. Its focus on the complex intermingling of religion and queer love through both psychological and body horror compels audiences to take a deeper look into their own belief systems and truly see the internal struggles of queerness as a physical entity. In the end, it's a film about yearning, fear, and the hope that follows a forbidden love.

By bringing a story like this to life, it provides a sense of validation to other young queer individuals struggling in rural religious environments. Sworn to secrecy and excluded from their own communities, these kids often have nowhere to turn. Seeing a film like Leviticus may be something that changes their life forever and gives them the courage to live their truth. In a place where you are judged simply for who you love, this can be an extremely powerful sentiment to hold.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma:

This is a recent release that has now surpassed Obsession as the highest-rated horror movie of the year. Directed by Jane Schoenbrun who also brought us the well-known queer fantasy/horror film I Saw The TV Glow, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma provides an equally eerie sense of nostalgia through a constructive critique of and appreciation for the vintage slasher film genre. Through VHS tapes, final girls, and a snow-capped cabin utopia, we are led into a fantastical space that shows us the beauty that can result from desire.

The plot follows up-and-coming director Kris as she is hired to create a sequel for the famous Camp Miasma film franchise. Wanting to make something other than just another money-grab remake of a classic, she journeys into the wilderness to convince the final girl of the first film to return and star in the project. Instead, both women are thrown into a sea of psychosexual revelations, gruesome murders, and the warmth that comes from being truly understood by someone you never knew you needed. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma discusses both queerness and sexual disassociation in a way that works to demystify decades-long stigmas surrounding sex and love. Although it may not be a topic everyone is ready to come to terms with, it is extremely relevant and needs to be both recognized and normalized.

In first writing this article, my goal was to curate a list of the best queer representation in films released this year. What I came to realize is that there was very little good representation. You see, there is a difference between simply assigning queerness to a character and creating a meaningful depiction of it. For example, the highly anticipated film, Mother Mary, left many audiences feeling that they had been queerbaited by the trailer. There is no shortage of films that do exactly this. Many films choose to lure audiences in with the mystery of queer sensuality, but offer no depth to this portrayal, let alone actually make the characters explicitly queer.

What both Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and Leviticus bring to the table is a welcome contrast to the usual heteronormative gaze we see throughout cinema. They don't try to conform to conventional audiences and, instead, prioritize queer individuals. In the end, these stories are written from a place of queer understanding to which not everyone can relate, and that's more than okay. In order to accomplish true representation in film, we as a society first have to become comfortable with the idea that, sometimes, certain spaces aren't created specifically for us. Other perspectives, experiences, and feelings need a place to be expressed by and for those who aren't included in the typical majority group. By creating this space, we expand our own minds and, just maybe, grow to become more empathetic beings at the end of it all.