12 Lesbian Horror Movies That *Spoiler Alert* Have Happy Endings
Lesbians have suffered enough. Here are the sapphic horror movies where everyone’s favorite queer girls actually get a happy ending.
Love queer horror but tired of seeing sapphics suffer? We don’t blame you. And good news: not every sapphic horror story ends in tragedy. In fact, many see our favorite queer final girls not only surviving the movie but getting the girl in the end.
While we certainly love a grim ending from time to time, sometimes you just want the chills and thrills of a horror film without the bummer of watching your favorite sapphic characters die or end up in a miserable place.
So, to help with that mission, we’ve compiled a list of lesbian and sapphic horror films that will leave you with a smile on your face when the credits roll, and where to watch them.
Spoiler alert, obviously…
Attachment
Anyone who’s fallen for someone quickly will relate to the lesbian love story at the core of this film. Here, Danish actress Maja (Josephine Park) meets and instantly falls hard for a British Jewish woman named Leah (Ellie Kendrick). Shortly after they take up together, Leah begins having troubling seizures that require her to return home to her highly overprotective mother, Chana (Sofie Gråbøl). Once there, Maja begins to suspect there is something far darker and more sinister happening to the woman she loves.
Where to watch: Shudder
The Serpent’s Skin
Sapphic love is both salvation and a weapon in the latest film from trans filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay. In this sweet and sensual folk horror film, a young trans woman, Anna (Alexandra McVicker), is new in town when she finds herself inextricably drawn to a sapphic witch named Gen (Avalon Fast). Together, they must face down the terrifying supernatural threat lurking around them, and discover just how powerful their connection can be.
Where to watch: Shudder
Cuckoo
Hunter Schafer stars in this sci-fi folk horror film about Gretchen, a 17-year-old who, following the death of her mother, joins her father, stepmother and half-sister on a trip to a remote resort in the German Alps. Once there, she strikes up a romance with a fellow guest, a woman named Ed, but their love story is interrupted by a strange and violent woman who is connected to something dark and nightmarish — and somehow tied to the resort.
Where to watch: Hulu
Fear Street Trilogy
OK, so this is technically three movies, and only the first and third are explicitly sapphic, but they all fit together to form one longer, multi-century story. And, frankly, they’re all great in their own way, so we’re greedily including them all.
The first film kicks things off with Deena (Kiana Madeira), hellbent on saving the life of her ex-girlfriend, Sam (Olivia Scott Welch), after a series of brutal murders reveals a centuries-old curse on their town. Each chapter goes further back in time to uncover how it all began before returning to Deena and Sam’s possibly doomed love story.
Where to watch: Netflix
The Carmilla Movie
This film is actually based on the beloved web series, so you may even want to start with a special spooky-season treat of a rewatch — or first watch — of Carmilla. Or you can cut straight to the film, which picks up five years after the events of the series. Here, Laura (Elise Bauman) and Carmilla (Natasha Negovanlis) have settled into domestic bliss, but all that domesticity is interrupted when Carmilla finds herself reverting to her vampire ways. They have no choice but to uproot their cozy life and embark on a supernatural quest to save the world — and their love.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
For an option that is light on scares, heavy on sexual tension and still plenty bloody, there is really no substitute for Jane Schoenbrun’s latest, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. This film follows Kris (Hannah Einbinder), a young queer filmmaker who has been tapped to reboot a problematic horror franchise that was deeply and intimately important to them. In that effort, they contact Billy (Gillian Anderson), the reclusive star of the first film. Together, they embark on an exploration of “flesh and fluid” as desire and danger intermingle. Also there’s dippin’ sauce.
Where to watch: Mubi
Bloody Axe Wound
This meta take on the slasher genre introduces Abbie (Sari Arambulo), a lesbian teen who has spent her whole life planning to take over the family business from her father. It just so happens that the family business is being a supernatural masked slasher killer. When it’s finally time for Abbie to take over, she runs into one major problem: She’s fallen in love with one of her would-be victims, Sam (Molly Brown), and the feeling is mutual. It’s a bloody, darkly funny slasher with a surprisingly sweet sapphic romance at its center.
Where to watch: Shudder
The Retreat
Two lesbians head off to a remote cabin for a romantic retreat and discover they’re not alone. Classic horror setup, right? Here, we meet lesbian couple Valerie (Sarah Allen) and Renee (Tommie-Amber Pirie), whose getaway takes a terrifying turn when a group of violent men descends on their cabin. This movie comes with a healthy dose of righteous revenge.
Where to watch: Prime Video & Shudder
Queens of the Dead
Tina Romero helms this horror zom-com, which stars a literal bevy of your favorite queer actors, including Katy O’Brian, Jack Haven, Margaret Cho and Nina West. Set in a queer Brooklyn nightclub, the film follows a group of queer folks who have to fend off the dead when they rise from their graves to ruin the weekend — and the world. Listen, a zombie apocalypse is no reason to cancel drag night, and queer joy can be a deadly weapon.
Where to watch: Shudder
Penny Lane Is Dead
This ozploitation throwback comes from Australian queer filmmaker Mia Kate Russell and follows one very terrible and violent night when Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding), her secret girlfriend Toni (Tahlee Fereday) and their longtime bestie Amy (Alexandra Jensen) have their night of celebration interrupted by Penny’s troubled cousin Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn), who crashes the party with her murderous friends. Content warning for some sexual violence, which is met with straight-up violence when this home invasion film turns into a quest for bloody revenge.
Where to watch: Shudder
The Perfection
The Perfection is by far the twistiest and darkest film on this list. It introduces us to Charlotte (Allison Williams), a former cello prodigy who reconnects with her old mentor and his new star student, Lizzie (Logan Browning). Sparks immediately fly between Charlotte and Lizzie, and their rivalry becomes passionate. But when they go away together, things take a shockingly gruesome turn, and secrets begin surfacing for both women. This is a dark one, folks, and perhaps the loosest interpretation of a “happy ending” on this list, but it’s definitely one that is impossible to forget.
Where to watch: Netflix
It’s a Wonderful Knife
If you’ve ever wondered, “What if It’s a Wonderful Life were a slasher, starring a sapphic teen trying to save Christmas from a masked killer?” Well, we have the answer. It would look a lot like It’s a Wonderful Knife, which introduces Winnie (Jane Widdop), who saved her town from a killer on Christmas Eve. But when she wishes she were never born and her wish unexpectedly comes true, she’s thrust into an alternate reality where the killer is still on the loose and no one remembers her. So she’ll need to team up with Bernie (Jess McLeod) to save the town again — and maybe find herself a little holiday romance along the way.
Where to watch: Shudder
