Fright School: Queer Horror 101 and the Freaky Kiki Horror Ball
By Cesar A Reyes
Welcome to Fright School, a podcast that explores horror films through the eyes of someone who is experiencing them for the first time. Each week, Joshua (the horror nerd) pushes Joe (the unsuspecting newbie) to the edge of the Mountains of Madness, as they discuss the cultural attitudes, conditions, and events that have shaped some of the most terrifying horror films. Now on its 8th year the student has almost become a teacher, and we are there for it. And because October is the spooky month, they have a great event coming up that combines the elements of horror films and the fabulousness of the Ball scene. Sit down and get to know more about the School, the ball and Queer Horror.
Please introduce yourselves:
I’m Joshua Napier! I am the OG horror hound at Fright School, but Joe is fast catching up! I recently graduated with my master’s in marriage and family therapy and will be working full time as a triage coordinator and therapist at Community Research Foundation here in San Diego.
I’m Joe Fejeran (he/him), co-host and co-creator of the Fright School podcast. My co-host, Joshua, hosted these weekly watch parties of American Horror Story. I started attending during the Coven season (the best season, in my opinion) and found that it was such a good way to watch something scary. Prior to this, I would watch the show by myself. This was when my threshold for horror was much lower, and I would get scared easily. At these watch parties, people would get excited when the show would reference other horror movies, and I would not get the reference. Joshua just couldn’t abide this, so I started going over to his place to get my “education” on the classics. Those movie nights were the basis for the first season of Fright School; a 16-week course focusing on the foundational horror films of American cinema.
Tell us about fright school and how the podcast came to be:
I host a weekly television watch group on Wednesday nights that started with American Horror Story. Many of the attendees were horror fans who recognized the homages to famous horror films within AHS. Joe, despite an extensive film knowledge, did not have much exposure to the horror genre and so I decided he needed an education, at least in the films that were referenced in AHS. Then we had the idea that this “education” could be documented in a podcast and here we are 8 years later!
It’s October, what’s in the works for the month?
This month we are throwing the Freaky Kiki Horror Ball, an event that has been years in the making and we are so excited about it. We have an amazing team working on the ball and it will benefit Lambda Archives!
We also plan to celebrate 50 years of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) on the show.
What are the top 5 Queer Horror films people should know about?
I wonder what Joe will list? This is hard! As usual, I am thinking in terms of a unit of films I could teach. SO, if I could only pick 5 to represent the history of Queer Horror they would be:
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Rope (1948)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Hunger (1983)
Knife + Heart (2018)
There are so many great films though! I could probably list 20 or so that I also think are important, this is just what I’m considering now. Vulture’s 61 Essential Queer Horror Films by Jordan Crucchiola is a fantastic list. https://www.vulture.com/article/best-queer-horror-movies.html
How can people connect with Fright School?
We are everywhere on social media as @FrightSchool and on all your favorite pod catchers!