Wait, does 1972’s campy Blacula feature the first-ever gay couple in a horror movie?
Recently, Matthew Lillard joked 'Scream's' Billy & Stu were "the first husbands of horror," but these two have them beat by about 24 years!
Mark
For years, gays and Scream fans (two groups that completely overlap on a Venn Diagram) have posited that the classic horror film’s Ghostface duo Billy & Stu were a killer romantic couple
Well, that theory was given a serious credibility boost during a cast reunion panel at last week’s Silver Scream convention when stars Skeet Ulrich & Matthew Lillard acknowledged the subtext of their characters’ relationship, with Lillard even going so far as to call them “the first husbands of horror.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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“There’s a lot of hatred in the world right now,” the actor continued, “and I love standing up and saying we are the first gay couple ever in a horror movie. And there’s nothing they can f*cking say about it!”
And while we absolutely love the sentiment, there is one thing we can say about it: We take issue with the word “first”…
@fandomspotlite Scream cast members discuss the first husbands of horror fan theory. #silverscreamcon #scream #matthewlillard #skeetulrich #rosemcgowan @Silver Scream Con @Matthew Lillard ♬ original sound – Fandom Spotlite
Yes, a whole 24 years before boyfriends Billy & Stu ever donned the Ghostface mask, movie-goers were treated to the actual first husbands of horror: Bobby McCoy and Billy Schaffer in 1972’s Blacula.
The Blaxploitaiton film’s reputation precedes it. Directed by William Crain, the low-budget affair would go on to become one of the highest grossing films of the year spawning not just a sequel, but an entire wave of Black-themed horror films, and it was the even direct inspiration of Marvel’s vampire anti-hero Blade.
But Blacula doesn’t get enough credit for its trailblazing queer representation, giving audiences what many consider to be the first gay-coded couple in a horror movie.
In the movie’s extended prologue, we learn about African prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall) who, in 1780, makes the treacherous journey to Transylvania where he hopes to ask Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) for support against the growing slave trade.
However, Dracula bites and turns the prince into a vampire like himself, dubbing him Blacula, and cursing him to be imprisoned in a coffin, kept in a crypt hidden beneath his castle.
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Nearly two centuries later, American interior design duo Bobby McCoy (Ted Harris) and Billy Schaffer (Rick Metzler) show up at the long-dormant estate, eager to buy its many antiques, which they’re certain will have a high-resale value since “the legend of Dracula” is the “creme-de-la-creme of camp!”
Now, if that bon mot didn’t give it away, it’s immediately clear these two are very queer-coded, from their flowery language to their flashy outfits to their finely coifed hair. What’s a bit less obvious is if these pair are an actual couple, as opposed to merely being business partners, but the way they refer to one another as “honey” and “my love” sure feels affectionate to us!
Unfortunately, the guys’ favorite statement piece is the very coffin Blacula was entombed in, which they ship back to their home in Los Angeles with all the rest of their antiques. As they unbox their wares one night, Billy accidentally injures himself, and the smell of his blood awakens the vampire from his deep slumber.
So, yeah, the “first husbands of horror” are also Blacula’s first bites—not to mention the people responsible for bringing the monster stateside to begin with. Later on, Bobby and Billy are even referred to f*ggots later on by the film’s ostensible hero Dr. Gordon (Thalmus Rasulala) and the law enforcement officers investigating their deaths.
Um… yay for representation, we guess?
But, hey, it was the early ’70s, so we weren’t necessarily expecting nuanced or politically correct depictions of queerness (besides, the Blaxpoitation genre is kind of famous for reveling in almost every stereotype imaginable anyway).
What does stand out is that, before they become part of Blacula’s vampire brood, Bobby and Billy are a mixed raced gay couple, shown to be successful, loving business and romantic partners with queen-y behavior that doesn’t even seem all that over-the-top in retrospect.
Perhaps even more remarkable is that fact that, during Bobby’s funeral scene, a few of his longtime friends show up and mention their plans to go and comfort his mother, which tells us he wasn’t ostracized for being gay, and in fact had a support system around him that cared for him, regardless of his sexuality.
These are small things, sure, but the fact that we can glean any semblance of positive depictions of homosexuality in a schlocky horror movie from over 50 years ago feels like a victory to us.
It’d still be over two decades until gay horror fans got Billy & Stu in Scream, but you really had to read between the lines to pick up on their love affair. Meanwhile, Bobby McCoy and Billy Schaffer’s romance was screamingly obvious, which is while they’ll always be our “the first husbands of horror.”
Blacula is currently streaming for free with ads on YouTube, and is available for digital rental or purchase via Amazon Prime Video and AppleTv+.
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