'Queens of the Dead's Tina Romero reinvents the zombie film with gore, glitter & gay resilience
Welcome to the latest Creepy Kiki, PRIDEs weekly dissection of all things that go bump in the (gay) night.Tina Romero just had the best night of her life. Out writer and director Tina Romero debuted her first feature film, Queens of the Dead a zombie apocalypse horror comedy set in queer nightlife at the Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews and a raucous audience. It was the best moment of my entire life, Romero tells PRIDE.The film stars a bevy of queer heavy hitters including Katy OBrian, Jack Haven, Cheyenne Jackson, Margaret Cho, Dominique Jackson, Nina West, and Jaquel Spivey, and sees a group of drag queens, go-go dancers, and queer club kids taking on a horde of the undead with just a crossbow, high heels, and some good old fashioned queer resilience. It was a labor of love for Romero that was seven long years in the making, before taking off at a breakneck pace last year as everything came together in a whirlwind.I've been using a lot of pregnancy metaphors, and this has been a very long gestation period, and then a pretty, like, intense labor, and then, you know, the birth happened, and then the baby is here, jokes Romero.But nothing compared with finally getting to see Queens on the big screen with an audience in attendance for Romero. I was nervous about putting the baby out, like, how are people going to receive the baby? But I feel like people have been like, Here, we'll hold the baby, we'll be nice to her, we'll be gentle with her. We're going to love her. I'm just blown away that people have welcomed this movie with such open arms. It's so exciting, and it's so thrilling, and I feel incredible, she shares.Despite starring some of the most beloved queer actors, and a horde of the ravenous dead, the real star of the proceedings are queer joy and resilience, for several reasons. One of the final drafts came together during the darkest parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was a dark and terrible time, and we felt that we wanted to do something light, you know, like uplifting, something that added an undertone of joy, that felt important from the beginning, she recalls.Secondly, Romero wanted to write something she knew well, and finding queer joy and strength in the face of tragedy was all too familiar. This is exemplified by a moment in the film, when our heroes are facing a seemingly hopeless situation, instead of collapsing and giving up, they led by OBrians character Dre have an impromptu dance party. It resonates because it's what queer folks have done time and time again when faced with overwhelming adversity, we bolster our strength and resolve by embracing queer joy.This scene was inspired in part by Romeros own response to the tragic mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016. It was a shocking act of violence that left the entire LGBTQ+ community reeling and in a state of mourning. For Romero, who was working as a DJ in New York at that time, it was a time of reflection and epiphany. The weekend after the shooting, Romero had a DJ gig, one that she found herself feeling very "weird" about doing; she was unsure what it meant to dance and party in the wake of so much pain. So she found herself wandering the streets of NYC, eventually ending up at her favorite store, the costume shop Abracadabra. Inside, she found a rabbit mask, which she says called to her, and she returned the call. I picked it up, and I was like, Okay, I'm going to wear this tonight. I don't know why. I need some armor. I need something to hide behind, she recalls. In that moment, DJ Trx, her masked alter ego, was born. I played the best set of my life, and I felt this transformation being in this character. I also realized that it was essential that we were doing what we were doing, that in the face of the tragedy, we were out together, and we were not afraid to go out. We were not afraid to be queer and in a club, dancing together with joy. And it really hit me hard. But that's such an important part of existing, resisting being a community, she says. It was this moment, born out of a shared and familiar experience of queerness that Romero weaved into this scene of Dre leading the crew into a moment of queer bliss and connection. There's really no fighting spirit like the fighting spirit of the community represented in this film, says Romero. Shes not wrong. Queens offers audiences the cathartic pleasures of watching LGBTQ+ heroes finding strength and bravery rooted in their queerness and the love and loyalty they have for their chosen family. Its also presented with an authenticity from a creator who is writing from their lived experience. In other words, the call is coming from inside the house.The same is true about setting their debut feature in the world of the voracious undead ghouls. Tina is the daughter of the late master of horror, George A. Romero, whose terrifying and unapologetically political 1968 film Night of the Living Dead forever changed horror movies generally and the zombie genre specifically. That film would spawn six sequels, a remake, and countless homages, including the Return of the Living Dead franchise.Naturally, those films and her father's creations loomed large in Tinas life. I describe myself as an edgy cheese ball... I could dominate a Gilmore Girls competition... but I also come by, very honestly, a lot of dark imagery, says Romero. I sat on a zombie's lap before I met a mall Santa. I would go to the bathroom at night and tiptoe past a horrifying movie poster. Fluffys crate from Creepshow was in our hallway, and I always walked faster when I went by it. There was some weird, dark imagery all around me all the time. So my aesthetic is a mash-up of dark and light.The film references her father's work both overtly with cameos, including special effects makeup artist Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead) and actress Gaylen Ross (Dawn of the Dead), and by dropping some of his famous lines of dialog.See on InstagramThere was one more homage to her father that was less obvious, and that was the more Looney Tunes-inspired moments in the film. My dad was a big walking Looney Tune. He was like a giant cartoon. Our favorite thing to watch was the Looney Tunes Halloween series; we just loved it. We love slapstick. And so there's moments like when Pops (Cho) bats a zombie against the wall and it splats when the zombie falls backward the Looney Tunes homage element that I think is certainly for my dad.However, the film also makes it clear that it doesn't take place in a George A. Romero film. This is underscored by Romero making the zombie her own with a far more glamorous interpretation of the famed ghoul. In a Tina Romero film, the zombie is shimmery silver, and they certainly know how to serve a look. For inspiration, Romero looked to the work of artist Marilyn Minter, whose sensual art is often a marriage of glam and gore. I knew from the beginning that I did not want to do hyper realistic zombies, like in ripped up denim and flannels, like, it just is a little boring for me, says Romero. We have a movie about an outbreak on Saturday night in Bushwick. They're going to be fresh. They're going to be still in their Saturday night fashion. I felt liberated to say, like, let's make these zombies look however we want. And for me personally, I wanted them to look fab.That being said, Romero also channeled her father from time to time on the set. Every time I started to get too stressed out, I would channel him, and I would think about him, and I would try to feel him, and he would always be laughing, and he would, in my heart, he would always be like Tina, look at how fun this is. Look at how silly this is. You're in the middle of a street in Patterson, New Jersey at 4 a.m. with a fog machine and 60 people dressed as zombies, and we've got Nina West on a scooter, she laughs.Some of Romeros stress came from her success in bringing in an all-star cast. Despite it being an absolute dream, Romero admits she had some jitters when filming began. What I was most nervous about was: How am I going to feel when I get to the set and I'm on the set with these 10 icons staring at me? Is my mind going to go blank? Am I going to have no idea what to tell them to do? she recalls. She was also concerned that the low-budget indie production wouldn't meet their A-lister expectations when it came to amenities on set. I was also nervous because we didn't have the bells and whistles. We didn't have trailers. We didn't have anywhere for them to go to be fancy and have a break. We didn't have a smoothie truck. We had bad crafty. I was just nervous for their well-being, she laughs. Thankfully, when they arrived, she was blown away not just by their professionalism but by their enthusiasm for the project. It was very family style, and as a result, I think there's just such camaraderie that can come from that, especially when you have good people. I keep saying: A lot of queens, but no divas, she shares.And the antics on set between the cast were exactly what youd hope they would be. With so many talented queer creatives, the cast all played around between takes. Cheyenne and Jaquel both have voices of an angel... between takes, they were harmonizing together and singing various beautiful, slow songs, recalls Romero. Nina West and Cheyenne would sing into the giant fan, Tomas would be dancing there was a lot of singing and dancing in between takes. Even with the cast, the legacy, and Romeros perseverance, this wouldn't have come to the screens as we see it now, without a little movie magic and serendipity. Eagle-eyed viewers will catch a special thank you in the credits for fellow queer filmmaker Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams. Romeros eyes lit up when I asked her if there was a story behind the credit, and it was with good reason. The two became fast friends when they were set up on a hangout by a mutual friend during the AMC Creepshow series premiere. They connected on many levels, including some dad shit and the two stayed in contact. In the lead-up to Queens, Williams invited Romero to shadow her on the set of Lisa Frankenstein. I've been on set a lot in my life, but this was the first time I went to set knowing that Queens was coming any minute now, going into that experience with the mindset of, like, I'm about to direct my first feature. So let me take in every second of this shoot from that perspective was essential, she reveals.But thats not all: Williams was also a major factor in making Romeros dream of casting West in the film a reality. I had pictures of people who I imagined in these roles... and Nina West was in my lookbook from the very beginning. Zelda happened to meet Nina West in L.A. and she wrote to me right away and said I want to put you in touch. And so I wrote Nina a letter, and Zelda made sure she got it.To top it all off, Williams surprised the cast and crew with the gift of a coffee truck during one of their all-night shoots. She's such a dear friend of mine, and she's been such a great champion and cheerleader, Romero effuses. This scrappy and heartfelt anecdote speaks to the spirit of the film's production. That it is also being met with love from an audience is a boon for the first-time filmmaker, although it won't be her last. Romero is already plotting her next foray, and it seems she has caught the horror bug. I have a lot of things I want to do, she says. The thing that is tickling my fancy the most is, I really want to do a shark movie. Chompers are my favorite genre in so many ways. I just love watching people get destroyed by animals. Cocaine Bear was my favorite film of that year... How can I give the Queens of the Dead treatment to a shark chomper?Whatever Romero decides to take a bite out of or rather chomp out of we cant wait to see it. Queens of the Dead is headed to next to the Chattanooga Film Festival on June 22.
