100 Horror Films Hilariously Gone Gay

No one loves Halloween and scary films more than Krys Fox. It shows in almost every photo he takes. His lust for gore and blood combines perfectly with his dedication to visual wit in his homages to fright films. 

Conceived in October 2012 as a test of endurance and a labor of love, 31 Days of Halloween is a photo series Fox started as a love letter to his fans and the very genre of horror itself. Every day for 31 continuous days, Fox recreated favorite scene stills from horror films both classic and new, beloved and jeered. Playing with gender roles in horror films, often the characters are gender swapped to comment on the stereotypes and limitations in the field, and to queer up a mostly straight genre of film. Some are humorous, some sexy, some gory, but all shot in a very intense and stylized manner fitting the particular film and time of initial release. Each day of the month, he then posted these images on social media with a story, blog, or behind the “screams” tale of the shoot itself to accompany the image. Shooting with no budget, no crew, no assistants, the project took on a life of its own, and survived many scheduling changes, late nights, breakdowns, and even a very famous hurricane. But, the series wouldn’t die! Find all four years of Fox’s amazing project on his site.

Krys is a NYC-based photographer, filmmaker, and artist specializing in portraiture with a dark, emotional, surreal filter. With inspiration ranging from surrealism, ’70s underground and exploitation cinema, Victorian and Latin American Art and queer culture, Fox’s eye is unique, intense, unflinching, and tender. His current projects are a series featuring Women in Rock n Roll, and working on coffee table books for his ongoing Styx Series (a Portrait project combining turn of the century death portraiture and Greek Mythology) and his yearly 31 Days of Halloween series. He is also working on writing and directing his first two features, both surreal experimental  horror films.

Originally from Southern California, Fox relocated to New York in 2010. His work has been exhibited throughout California, New York, and the UK.

After a year's break out of the public eye, his future exhibitions coming up include a new NYC show, and exhibits in Mexico City, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Brazil, and New Zealand in 2018 and 2019.

He lives in New York City with his chihuahua Rocky and loves empanadas and scary movies.

Follow his wonderfully dark work on his website, Instagram, and Twitter.

Why Horror/ The Macabre?:
I have always been drawn to the dark side of everything, in love, in sex, in art, so much so, that when people meet me, they’re often surprised how light and smiley I am.

I think finding the balance between the light and the dark in all things is very important and very mind opening. Neither can exist without the other. And photography is, to break it down to the basics, an art form that involves the dance of light and mirrors, and the effect they have on viewing a subject and what they create together in the darkness.

The 31 Days of Halloween Series started in 2012 as a self imposed challenge. I had recently returned from my first UK exhibition, and had an artist’s depression. It happens to me a lot after a big show, an important shoot, travel, I feel the overwhelming “what’s next? now what!?” of it all. 

I’d always wanted to do a series of images based off of scary movies. I’ve always been a huge fan of the horror genre and I’ve obsessively watched every film. 

When I was young, I was such a scaredy cat, that they really freaked me out, but that fear was addictive, the rush of surviving terror. As I grew up and came of age, I couldn’t help but notice the utter lack of queerness in the films I loved so much. I’d end up identifying with the female characters making bad choices with men, or the final virgin girl racing to escape toxic masculinity at its worst. But I’d wished there was LGBT representation. I’d promised myself I’d help make gay horror somehow someday, and I started writing scripts and drawing storyboards for this series. 

I wanted to pay homage to the movies I grew up living by making them gay, changing genders around and hopefully making some art that was sexy, scary, gory, and often using humor and above all love. 

But, boy, it was a daunting project... to organize and create something I love and cherish and am inspired by so much. But I needed a big project to get my mind out of itself,  so I jumped in.

I shot 31 images in roughly 35 days, a marathon of casting, making props, finding locations, shooting, editing and posting one on social media every day of the month of October. About halfway through I thought it’d kill me. People would cancel, movies were scrapped, and new ideas would be pushed to the front, and as the month neared a close and I had a few film tributes left, we got Hurricane Sandy.

I shot the final three (The Shining, Halloween & Bram Stoker's Dracula) the day of the hurricane. Lost power in our place and posted the final three across Brooklyn for everyone else outside NYC. 

I did it all again the next year because there were a bunch of movies I wanted to include that I, A) couldn’t afford to shoot, B) couldn’t figure out HOW to shoot, or, C) couldn’t shoot in the cold, like my favorite film, Jaws.

And then it’s been every year since. Sometimes I shoot 31, sometimes less, but I always add to the collection. I like to shoot recurring models, sort of American Horror Story- style, and give people different parts to play year after year. I am deep in shooting mode for this year, and have included a few images that haven’t been seen (yet!), it’s become my favorite project of my career.

I still have over 90 movies on my “to do” list and new ones come out every year — so we will most likely get 31 Days of Halloween for years to come.