Tina Romero, daughter of George A. Romero, carries on the modern zombie tradition that her father pioneered with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. However, her feature debut, Queens of the Dead, is an unabashedly queer horror comedy with drag queens and zombies front and center. The movie has lots of glam, plenty of jokes, and divas ready to take down the undead.
Based on Romero’s experience DJing at gay clubs in New York City, Queens of the Dead is set in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood. The film stars Katy O’Brian as Dre, a DJ struggling to keep a club afloat. She has to compete with a hot new venue in town that’s been poaching drag queens, including superstar Jasmine (Dominique Jackson), who ditches Dre’s planned show for a gig at the new joint that pays better.
The film also stars Tomas Matos as Nico, who goes by the stage/drag name Scrumptious, Riki Lindhome as Dre’s partner Lizzy, the always entertaining Margaret Cho as Pops, Jaquel Spivey as another drag artist named Sam, and Quincy Dunn-Baker as Barry, who, if not for family ties, would never work at such a club as a handyman. He definitely doesn’t understand drag, though his character arc does progress over the film’s runtime.
It’s a big cast, though Romero certainly lets most of the drag queens have their time in the spotlight. The moments where they’re on stage are some of the film’s strongest, especially the visuals and costume designs. However, this is a relatively big cast for an indie horror film, and too many characters don’t have enough time to breathe and develop.
Queens of the Dead also somewhat addresses the attacks on the drag and even trans communities, namely through some of Barry’s early comments, but again, not enough is done to allow those aspects to fully play out. It feels like a missed opportunity, considering the current political climate. That said, this film does very much celebrate and elevate said communities.
Queens of the Dead – Courtesy Shudder / IFC
Despite the large cast, there are some standout character moments. The relationship between Dre and Lizzy has some real stakes, especially when Dre learns, at the outset of the zombie outbreak, that Lizzy is pregnant. Matos is also good as Nico, who wants to be taken more seriously by the drag community as an up-and-coming artist. This element deserved more attention because it adds a very human element and that familiar need to belong to a community.
As for the zombies, they’re much more stylized than anything we’ve seen previously. They don’t look like rotting corpses. Instead, they’re rather glamorous. Mind you, some of them were drag artists before they turned, but it’s a feature that sets the director’s film apart from previous zombie lore. Her undead have a distinct style fitting for her film.
Romero does nod to her father’s legacy. The synths and soundtrack from Day of the Dead float in and out of the film. There’s a great cameo by special effects legend Tom Savini, who worked on several of George A. Romero’s films. He plays the mayor, and, at one point says, “This is not a George Romero movie” over an emergency broadcast. There’s also a zombie in a Pittsburgh Steelers coat, a nice tribute to the city where several of George A. Romero’s early films were shot.
As for the gore, it really doesn’t ramp up until about the halfway mark, when the zombies encroach upon the club. The effects look good, though this isn’t an out and out blood-soaked feature. Until that point, we spend a lot of time with the drag queens, as they crack jokes, including at each other. Most of the jokes land, though not always. Still, there’s some good one-liners aimed at the zombies and it’s fun to watch the queens impale the zombies with their heels and other elements from their wardrobes. There are more than a few creative kills in Queens of Dead.
Overall, Queens of the Dead is a stylish romp where drag queens unite to battle the undead. Tina Romero has some endearing nods to her father’s legacy, but this is very much her own feature and a nice addition to the growing queer horror canon. Queens of the Dead is an entertaining and bloody ride dusted with glitter.
Queens of the Dead releases in theaters on October 24. It will stream on Shudder at a later date.