Re-building Sodom and Gomorrah: the monstrosity of queer desire in the horror film.

In Skin Shows , her study of gothic horror, Judith Halberstam argues that '[m]onsters are meaning machines'. Narratives about monsters create meaning by defining the border between normal and monstrous desire. This essay offers a close reading of horror films from three very different periods of the genre's history-- Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Haunting , and Scream --to demonstrate how these films represent queer desire as monstrous, disruptive and violent. Reading these cinematic representations alongside Christian discourses of sodomy demonstrates that the study of religion and the study of popular culture can inform each other, that theological meaning can be found in the artifacts of popular culture and that these artefacts can only be fully understood by attending to their theological meanings. The essay concludes with suggestions regarding how such artifacts can be engaged to support queer political projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]