“The goal was to take a queer slant to the classic slasher formula, but without any stereotypes,” says filmmaker Roger Conners. [Photo courtesy of Roger Conners]

Roger Conners is a lifelong horror-head who traces his fandom to the ‘90s. A self-proclaimed “delicate child,” Conners found scary cinema empowering, insofar as it helped him develop a thicker skin, he says.

Yet, Conners also observed how poorly older horror films depicted the queer community he belonged to. Most gay, lesbian or gender-fluid characters were either comedic caricatures or shunted to the background. 

Slasher films were particularly egregious, even if the horror subgenre relied on broad characterizations (like the jock or promiscuous girl) to provide victims for the psychopathic murderer. While the landscape for LGBTQ+ horror cinema has evolved, Conners is raising the bloody stakes with his new feature, “Meat.”

Featuring a diverse cast of queer-identifying individuals, the Cleveland-set slasher centers on a masked killer who targets those responsible for a young gay man’s death. Although billed as a traditional “revenge slasher,” “Meat” separates itself as an unblinking portrayal of queer culture, says the writer and director.

“I gave myself freedom to write an unabashedly queer script rooted in my favorite genre,” says Conners, a Westlake native. “The goal was to take a queer slant to the classic slasher formula, but without any stereotypes. That’s what “Meat” is. It came so naturally, because it’s based on folks I knew in Cleveland.”

Filming took place around Conners’ current home of Gordon Square, as well as Ohio City, Lakewood and Hocking Hills. 

While “Meat’s”two-hour run-time is somewhat unusual for the genre, it afforded Conners the space to develop his characters’ nuances. Slasher films have always attracted a queer fanbase, particularly those who identify with the Final Girl. A common slasher trope, the Final Girl is sole survivor of a killer’s murder spree, and typically a female-identifying character.

 “Gays gravitate toward the Final Girl, because she’s this unsuspecting female protagonist you don’t expect to rise up in the face of evil,” says Conners, who also has a role in “Meat.” “They represent a beacon of strength for people. Final Girls were the people I turned to.”