Ghosts, Gore, and Gays: TV’s Top 10 Modern Queer Horror Characters
Horror has always been a genre about outsiders — bodies, desires, and identities that don’t fit neatly into a singular box or societal norms. Because of this, queer viewers have long found resonance in its shadows and screams, even when representation was mostly subtextual or stereotypical (for more on this shared history, check out Shudder’s four-part documentary series Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror). But in recent years, something has shifted in horror’s blood-soaked margins. From quiet ghost stories to campy slashers to supernatural dramas, more and more shows are placing queer characters at the center. No longer are they just sidekicks or victims, but fully realized leads with agency, nuance, and emotional depth. They’re not just existing in or surviving the narrative but shaping it.
This list highlights ten of the most compelling LGBTQ+ characters in horror television from the 2010s to now. Some of these figures are tender, some terrifying, some claimed by grim ends, and others absolutely unhinged (you’ll see who I mean). Above all else, though, these characters show how queerness can deepen and expand what horror is capable of, and why it’s been part of the genre’s bloody, beating heart all along.
10. Father Marcus Keane (Ben Daniels) from The Exorcist (2016-2018)
A bisexual exorcist with a tragic backstory and who looks fantastic in clerical attire? Yes, please. Father Marcus is a holy warrior operating outside the church’s approval, haunted by childhood trauma, and driven by fierce conviction. His queerness — confirmed through romantic moments with both Peter Morrow and Mouse — is treated with rare subtlety for the genre. He’s not a trope or a twist; he’s complex, intense, and deeply human.
9. Domenica (Lola Zackow) from Dystopia (2021)
In this Swedish survival horror series about friends turning an abandoned factory into an immersive haunted attraction, things spiral fast. Domenica, somehow, spirals even faster. A statuesque stunner who is impulsive and bold, she descends into her own particular horrorscape with fearless intensity. Her attraction to Tess and their complex, charged dynamic is only a glimpse of what makes her tick. Domenica is impossible to ignore and completely unforgettable, a storm at the center of Dystopia’s terror.
8. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from The Last of Us (2023-)
Ellie is a fierce, notable queer lead whose sexuality feels real and unforced in a brutal, post-apocalyptic world. Her tender, complex relationship with Dina adds much-needed warmth and depth in the face of a worldwide deadly fungal infection, showing that love — and queerness — can endure, even amid devastation. Ellie’s blend of vulnerability and strength makes her a groundbreaking presence in genre TV.
7. Moira Strand (Samira Wiley) from The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-2025)
Set in the nightmarish dystopia of Gilead, where women are brutally oppressed, The Handmaid’s Tale is a chilling vision of systemic horror. Within this world, Moira Strand stands as a beacon of queer female resistance. Her unapologetically rebellious spirit challenges the regime’s cruel attempts to erase her identity, making her a symbol of resilience and hope amid governmental terror. Moira’s bravery and vulnerability combine to create an incredibly compelling queer figure in contemporary horror television.
6. Alucard from Netflix’s Castlevania (2017-2021)
Castlevania is a dark, gorgeously gothic animated series where Dracula’s wrath at the unjust murder of his wife tears the world apart with monsters and chaos. Enter Alucard, Dracula’s dhampir son who is quietly, but undeniably, queer, and also caught between worlds as he wrestles with his father’s brutal legacy. His emotional complexity and subtle queerness add so much heart to a show which doesn’t take it easy on any of its characters.
5. Ruby Baptiste (Wumni Mosaku) from Lovecraft Country (2020)
Lovecraft Country follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he travels across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his father, confronting both the horrors of racist America and supernatural terrors inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos. Ruby Baptiste, a brilliant and unapologetic blues singer seeking financial freedom, is a fierce and complex queer character. Navigating moral ambiguity, personal ambition, and loyalty, Ruby adds emotional depth and strength to a series that blends social critique with chilling horror.
4. Shauna Sadecki (Sophie Nélisse (Teen) and Melanie Lynskey (Adult)) from Yellowjackets (2021-)
Shauna Sadecki is a raw, unforgettable queer character forged in the fires of survival horror and psychological torment. After a brutal plane crash strands a group of teenage girls in the wilderness, Shauna becomes entwined with dark secrets, violent transformations, and fractured relationships that bleed into her adult life. The show masterfully blends coming-of-age trauma with supernatural dread, and Shauna’s journey — messy, emotional, and brutally real — is some of why, despite her wrongdoings, fans gravitate toward her story.
3. Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) from Penny Dreadful (2014-2017)
Penny Dreadful is a gothic horror series that weaves together classic literary monsters — Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, Dracula, Dorian Gray, and more — into a lush, tragic tapestry of desire, guilt, and the supernatural. Ethan Chandler is a brooding American gunslinger with a dark secret: he’s a werewolf marked by fate. His brief but intimate connection with Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) adds a layer of queerness to his character, one already steeped in repression, shame, and inner conflict. Ethan’s queerness may be subtle, but it deepens his role as a tragically haunted character in one of the best horror shows to grace the television screen.
2. Danielle “Dani” Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) from The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Dani Clayton is the wonderful and queer protagonist at the center of the gothic ghost story of The Haunting of Bly Manor. The series follows Dani as she becomes an au pair at a mysterious English estate haunted by grief, trauma, and lingering spirits. Her slow-burn romance with the grounded and loving Jamie places queerness at the story’s emotional core. It’s not just subtext, but the heartbeat of the show’s most powerful turns. Tender, tragic, and brave, Dani’s journey shows how horror can hold both fear and love in the same breath, making her an unforgettable figure in queer horror television.
1. Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt (Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid) from Interview with the Vampire (2022-)
Yes, I’m cheating by putting two characters here, but they come as a set! There’s simply no separating Louis and Lestat, afterall, just ask any character on Interview with the Vampire. This reimagining of Anne Rice’s iconic novel embraces its queerness fully to create a gothic horror romance that makes Louis and Lestat’s toxic, passionate, centuries-spanning love story its blazing heart. From 1910s New Orleans to 1940s Paris to 1970s San Francisco to a modern-day Dubai, the show explores race, desire, immortality, and control through the lens of their doomed, but eternal, love. Louis and Lestat are tragic and seductive, volatile and vulnerable — queer horror characters who aren’t just surviving the genre but redefining it with every blood-soaked, emotionally gutting scene. We cannot wait to see where their love story goes in Season 3.
Queerness has always lived in the shadows of horror, but these characters bring it front and center in messy, bold, and unforgettable ways. Here’s to the monsters, the lovers, the haunted, and the haunters!
