{"id":147188,"date":"2025-10-27T03:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147188\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T03:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:35:09","slug":"queens-of-the-dead-review-tina-romero-queers-the-zombie-film-exuberantly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147188\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Queens of the Dead’ review: Tina Romero queers the zombie film, exuberantly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThey\u2019re coming to get you, Barbara\u201d is the most famous line from 1968\u2019s revolutionary \u201cNight of the Living Dead.\u201d<\/a> It\u2019s a mean taunt that comes from a sibling, unaware that civilization is crumpling around him. In a few moments, his sister will be fleeing across a field barefoot from an undead zombie (terms that are never used in the movie because it\u2019s so ahead of its time) and any Boris Karloff impressions will quickly be forgotten.<\/p>\n

The line also sounds remarkably comfortable coming out of the mouth of a drag queen \u2014 one of the many sides of shade served in the generously funny and sharp \u201cQueens of the Dead.\u201d Directing and co-writing the film is 42-year-old Tina Romero, daughter of George Romero, \u201cNight\u2019s\u201d original progenitor, whose death in 2017<\/a> was met with the kind of belated cultural praise usually reserved for Oscar winners.<\/p>\n

Tina Romero understands the legacy of her father better than most. It\u2019s not just a matter of gathering a bunch of bickering survivors inside a besieged location \u2014 here it\u2019s a converted Bushwick warehouse \u2014 while the outside world goes to hell. (Adding to the film\u2019s bona fides, legendary makeup artist Tom Savini makes a cameo as the city\u2019s mayor on TV: \u201cThis is not a George Romero movie,\u201d he warns.) Shrewdly, \u201cQueens of the Dead\u201d also foregrounds the deeper meanings that gore-obsessed knockoffs sometimes miss: the idea that working together across differences is harder than it seems and maybe the monster is already calling from inside the house.<\/p>\n

Pink-hued and queered so aggressively that only a prig won\u2019t be able to find some RuPaul-adjacent enjoyment in it, \u201cQueens\u201d stars Katy O\u2019Brian, last seen as Kristen Stewart\u2019s sculpted lust object in \u201cLove Lies Bleeding.\u201d<\/a> Here O\u2019Brian has much more to do emotionally as Dre, a wanna-be impresario with big dreams for her drag event, Yum, even if her attractions keep bailing and her target audience of influencers is in the process of turning into lumbering flesh-eaters. (They still clutch onto their cellphones, a nice touch.)<\/p>\n

Within the makeshift club \u2014 a dressing room, a bar, some dance cages that will figure later \u2014 tensions flare and Dre has her hands full. Ginsey (Nina West), a hardworking diva, holds down the fort while unreliable prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Sam (Jaquel Spivey) chooses this moment to show up and ruffle feathers. Unhappy with second billing, a younger queen (Tom\u00e1s Matos) insists on being called Scrumptious while a gruffly accommodating handyman named Barry (Quincy Dunn-Baker, a smart inclusion of George Romero\u2019s blue-collar streak) tries to keep all the pronouns straight.<\/p>\n

Confidently, Tina Romero makes room for a wonderfully dumb makeover montage and a daring escape via Pride Parade float. If the comedy overcompensates at the expense of landing every gag, then good on her. It\u2019s long overdue and there\u2019s something touching to the idea that the end of the world might unleash leadership qualities in those who\u2019ve had a rough time existing in the old one.<\/p>\n

But a film this well-made and cut (the pacy editing by Aden Hakimi calls back to the elder Romero\u2019s own cutting of his major titles) shouldn\u2019t be relegated to just one kind of audience. Anyone who appreciates horror should find something to smile at here. Maybe it\u2019s the side plot \u2014 as satisfying as a worn-in pair of shoes \u2014 of Dre\u2019s wife, Lizzie (Riki Lindhome<\/a>), a hospital nurse, racing across town in an old Impala.<\/p>\n

Or, true to zombie movie form, there\u2019s the mid-film arrival of a game-changing character, the synthesizer music pumping. Here it\u2019s Margaret Cho on a motor scooter, cruising through a cloud of exhaust. \u201cYou all look healthy enough,\u201d she tosses off, an action hero in the making. And yes, that\u2019s as thrilling as it sounds.<\/p>\n

‘Queens of the Dead’<\/p>\n

Not rated<\/p>\n

Running time:<\/b> 1 hour, 41 minutes<\/p>\n

Playing:<\/b> In limited release Friday, Oct. 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey\u2019re coming to get you, Barbara\u201d is the most famous line from 1968\u2019s revolutionary \u201cNight of the Living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[7715,26521,86807,86808,18,117,86811,84802,86812,19,17,39930,327,9433,86810,86805,1142,86809,31390,86806],"class_list":{"0":"post-147188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-daughter","9":"tag-dead","10":"tag-dre","11":"tag-dressing-room","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-few-moment","15":"tag-george-romero","16":"tag-horror-royalty","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-kind","20":"tag-movies","21":"tag-night","22":"tag-outside-world","23":"tag-queens","24":"tag-review","25":"tag-target-audience","26":"tag-tina-romero","27":"tag-zombie-film"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115444037879165756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}