{"id":14315,"date":"2025-10-23T23:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/14315\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T23:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:01:26","slug":"queens-of-the-dead-puts-a-queer-twist-on-a-zombie-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/14315\/","title":{"rendered":"“Queens Of The Dead” Puts A Queer Twist On A Zombie Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tina Romero<\/a> is proud to be carrying on a family tradition with her latest movie, which she describes as \u201ca fun ride packed with laughs, jump-scares, fun characters and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cQueens of the Dead,\u201d which opens in theaters<\/a> Friday, follows a diverse group of New York City drag queens and club kids as they fight to survive a zombie apocalypse on the eve of a Brooklyn warehouse party. <\/p>\n

HuffPost caught a sneak peek at the horror-comedy \u2015 which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival<\/a> in June and was screened at NewFest, New York\u2019s LGBTQ+ Film Festival<\/a>, earlier this month \u2015 via the below clip. In it, event organizer Dre (played by Katy O\u2019Brian) is thrust into full-on crisis mode when her forthcoming party headliner, Yasmine (Dominique Jackson<\/a> of \u201cPose\u201d), calls out sick. <\/p>\n

Catch a sneak peek at \u201cQueens of the Dead\u201d below. <\/p>\n

\u201cQueens of the Dead\u201d is Tina Romero\u2019s feature directorial debut. The New York writer-director is the daughter of late horror icon George A. Romero<\/a>, whose credits include the \u201cNight of the Living Dead<\/a>\u201d series as well as \u201cCreepshow<\/a>\u201d and \u201cTales from the Darkside,\u201d among other creepy classics. <\/p>\n

In an interview with HuffPost, Tina Romero said O\u2019Brian and Jackson were the two actors in the cast she was \u201cmost nervous to work with,\u201d a profound statement given that the film also features appearances by Margaret Cho<\/a> and \u201cA Strange Loop\u201d actor Jaquel Spivel<\/a> as well as another horror icon, Tom Savini. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn our early conversations, Katy \u2015 more than anyone \u2015 asked me incisive questions about the script, and I knew she did not come to play,\u201d she said. As for Jackson, she added, \u201cFor me, she\u2019s a larger-than-life legend, and I was worried our scrappy set wouldn\u2019t be fit for a true queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DominiqueDominique Jackson and Tom\u00e1s Matos star in “Queens of the Dead,” due out Oct. 24. <\/p>\n

Shannon Madden\/An Independent Film Company and Shudder<\/p>\n

Fortunately, she added, \u201cEach of them made me feel comfortable right away, and working with them was collaborative, delightful and so fun. They\u2019re both down-to-earth, smart as hell, naturally comedic and incredibly talented. They made my job easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like her dad, Tina Romero could have a potential franchise in the making if \u201cQueens of the Dead\u201d succeeds. Early reviews have been mostly positive, with Variety describing<\/a> the film as \u201ca zombie farce that wears its bedazzled heart on its sleeve\u201d while praising its \u201cremarkably well-formed characters.\u201d <\/p>\n

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We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.<\/p>\n

Thank you again for your support along the way. We\u2019re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While The New York Times offered a more mixed take<\/a> on the movie as a whole, it nonetheless emphasized the story\u2019s relevance in the current sociopolitical climate, noting \u201cthe apocalypse outside might be seen as a story of queer life under assault.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"KatyKaty O’Brian (center) “asked me incisive questions about the script” and “did not come to play,” said filmmaker Tina Romero. <\/p>\n

Courtesy of Shannon Madden\/An Independent Film Company and Shudder release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tina Romero is proud to be carrying on a family tradition with her latest movie, which she describes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[10584,5922,158,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-14315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-drag-queens","9":"tag-horror","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}