Queens Of The Dead (2025) – Dance Or Die

Released: 11th September
Seen: 11th September

In 1968, the world of cinema changed forever with the release of a little underground horror film with the simple but provocative title of Night Of The Living Dead. To say it changed the world of cinema forever might be an understatement. It revolutionised the Horror genre, presenting a form of violence that hadn’t been put on the screen before. It contains one of the greatest examples of a black main character in horror, was at the start of the independent film boom of the 70s and, of course, essentially created the modern Zombie that everyone has referenced since then.

This one film turned George Romero into a major part of the horror world, and his follow-up films Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead would cement his place as a legend. For the rest of his life, George was considered the father of the zombie film, and it would go on to effectively typecast him as the Zombie guy. Since George’s passing in 2017 people have been wondering who was going to turn out to be the new standard bearer for the Zombie genre… we should’ve just checked his family tree because his daughter Tina has been right there the whole goddamn time and, if her work on Queens of the Dead is any indication, she gets what makes this genre something special.

Queens of the Dead takes place in a warehouse that’s converted into a club where Dre (Katy O’Brian) is trying to put together the last few touches on a big drag show that should be opening that night. Of course, plans change when slowly but surely it becomes obvious that the world outside has fallen to a zombie outbreak and a merry little band of survivors, which include Bartender Jimmy (Cheyenne Jackson), Drag Queen Ginsey (Nina West), Icon Yasmine (Dominique Jackson), Nurses assistant and Ginsey’s former Drag Daughter Sam (Jaquel Spivey), Go-Go dancer Nico (Tomas Matos) and Dre’s straight brother Barry (Quincy Dunn-Baker), all have to try and survive the night together. Along the way, they will have to fight hordes of the undead, deal with a few other survivors from the outside and most importantly, just try to get along together.

Tina has clearly spent a lot of time paying attention to what made the works of her father so powerful because she has been taking notes and has applied them wonderfully in this film. Queens of the Dead feels like a film George absolutely would’ve made had he wanted to make a film commenting on how queer people are treated in modern society. Tina’s take is certainly a lot more comical than the works of her father, which makes sense in this case since one of her characters is a 6-foot-something drag queen who spends half the film dressed like Nurse Ratched on mushrooms, but Queens of the Dead fits well alongside the iconic canon that she had to know her work would be compared with. You can almost tell that Tina knew that people were going to make the comparison (it’s kind of inevitable, every Zombie movie in general is going to be compared to Night, Dawn and Day, but ESPECIALLY any Zombie movie by someone with the last name Romero) and she rose to the challenge.

Queens of the Dead smartly plays with the tone, starting as an almost light comedy before turning things darker and more intense. It takes a little time to let you get to know and love these characters before they’re thrown into absolute hell, and the comedy is slowly pulled out of the film and replaced with despair, then forcibly replaced with defiant joy in the face of despair. It’s a tightrope act trying to keep the tone working and feeling believable; you don’t want people just doing hokey bits all the time, but it helps that these characters feel like real elements of the LGBTQIA+ community. It makes sense for the drag queen characters to just casually read people without thinking, the more flamboyant gay characters are going to be a little more over the top and performative for comedic effect, mix that with a straight guy who is trying his best to understand everything and you have a perfect combination for some genuinely great comedic moments that feel quite natural in this situation.

While it might not be intentional, it is a little hard to deny that a large part of the zombie horde feels like a metaphor for the AIDS crisis and how those who survived tried to deal with it. Once you see that, it’s hard not to notice things like the straight guy being more than willing to just drop anyone who even looks infected, the community trying their best to keep those who are infected but not yet dead to keep going, and in one truly beautiful scene, trying to keep queer joy going by dancing while everyone around them is dying. It gives Queens of the Dead a special power that really elevates it beyond just a silly, campy zombie movie and actually gives it some genuine gravitas that allows it to pack one hell of a punch in the latter half when everything is going to shit.

It must also be said that the thing that makes all this work so well is that the cast is top-notch, an almost entirely queer cast just delivering some truly captivating performances that elevate the material. Anyone who saw Pose expected a lot from the iconic Dominique Jackson, and she truly delivers exactly what you would want her to deliver in the few scenes she has. Tomas Matos is probably the funniest member of the cast who can make a joke work just by flicking their hair in just the right way. It’s a performance that could almost feel like a caricature, but Tomas brings a real heart to it. Then you’ve got Jaquel Spivey, who might just be the actual heart and soul of the film, showing a queer character with anxiety trying to keep it together while in a situation that’s almost designed to make anxiety worse. All of them are corralled by powerhouse Katy O’Brian, who really does hold the crew and the film itself together, taking charge with such effortless ease that you would easily follow them through anything, including a horde of zombies wanting to eat your flesh.

Of course, the scene stealer of the film is easily Nina West, and not just because it’s hard to avoid staring at a giant drag queen taking up half the frame. Nina manages to perfectly blend comedic moments with motherly love that allows her to be the caregiver for everyone on screen, essentially. Watching as she just slowly endears herself to everyone and kicks ass while in heels and a corset is incredible, building to a potent moment that had this reviewer bawling because of how good Nina was. It’s the kind of performance that really should let Hollywood know that casting Drag Queens in big movies can actually work; they’re talented performers who deserve the chance to shine, and one in particular does a lot of shining here.

Now, it must be noted that if you’re a fan of Zombie movies purely for the gore element, then this might be somewhat of a letdown. Obviously, there’s a decent amount of blood to be found here; it’s a zombie movie, so you have to have some, but you’re not really gonna see anything on the level of, say, the “Choke on ‘em” scene in Day of the Dead. This is more about the characters and the setting than the actual gore element, and if that lowers the appeal for you, I can understand it, but it also hopefully opens this up to a wider audience who might not like their films as gory as some Zombie movies can be. 

Queens of the Dead is a fun ride through a queer zombie apocalypse; it’s funny and emotional and has more than a few great shock moments. It’s a film clearly made with a ton of love both for the genre and for the community presented within it, and it’s the kind of film that’s easy to recommend to just about everyone. It’s also just undeniable proof that we have our heir apparent to George Romero, and if she wants to take over as the queen of Zombie films, Tina Romero has a long and incredible career ahead of her as a filmmaker.