Interview: Scary Spotlight 2 with Writer, Cosplayer, and Ghoulfriends Podcast Co-Host Lucy

An outlet grounded in both horror and disability awareness, Bloody Bedroom features monthly interviews with chronically ill, disabled, and/or neurodivergent genre creators from within the community. To kick off the second ever Scary Spotlight, I had the honor of talking about gaming, cosplay, and queer representation with the amazing Lucy.

Dylyn: I am so excited to interview you! Being a fellow queer person in the horror community myself, I'm always so in awe of you and your work and I'm a big fan of your podcast, cosplays, and writing! You are so incredibly prolific. 

I wanted to talk first about your essay in Hear Us Scream: The Voices of Horror, “Horror in the Closet,” which revolves around genre film and queer theory. It was such a beautiful, enlightening, educational, and crucial read and I'm honored to be on the Scream Team with such brilliant people like yourself! I would love to know if you’ve found any new queer genre favorites since the essay was published and if you have any more queer horror recommendations for us. 

Lucy: First of all, that is so sweet. Thank you so much. Honestly, the fact that anyone reads my writing is still baffling to me, so getting compliments like that from an amazing writer like yourself as well, because your essay was also fantastic, that means a lot. I suppose it’s been nearly a year since I wrote that now, “Horror in the Closet.” I had, honestly, about maybe 50 films on my list I wanted to watch for research and, obviously, I didn't get to watch all of them, but it was really a deep dive. I suppose I didn't look at too many newer queer horror films. There's a section in there about Alfred Hitchcock. I mentioned a couple of things like the impact Jennifer's Body had on me and still does to this day. Though as far as new things that have come out since then, there’s the Fear Street trilogy, which I think is really trailblazing, not only for queer horror, but the fact that it's a trilogy on Netflix. They all came out at once. That's really unique for media, not just for horror, but the fact it has this queer story throughout each of the films and the different time periods—we have the nineties right up until the Victorian times—I would definitely recommend Fear Street for anyone to watch. It's absolutely amazing. In terms of horror TV, you can't not talk about Yellowjackets. Yellowjackets is fucking amazing and also has queer representation. If anyone hasn't seen that, please do. I suppose the other thing as well, which I have actually spoken about in a recent editorial I did for Hear Us Scream, but I didn’t talk about it in the book, is the film Freaky. It has a nonbinary character in it that is played by a nonbinary actor, a performer Misha Osherovich, so we're finally getting a little bit of nonbinary representation. Even queer stories just being folded into horror, more and more of it is becoming the norm. The remake of Candyman had a queer story in it, even the new Halloween. You know, it's not having to be this, oh my god. There's gay characters on screen and it has to be the whole plot of it. It's just, oh, there's gay characters on screen and it's just part of the film. You know what I mean? We need both of those. We need to highlight queer stories and queer experiences and there's still a long way for us to go, but it's also nice to see some more representation in mainstream horror films, but not making it a big thing, if that makes sense as well. 

Dylyn: Absolutely. Also, I love Yellowjackets and I want to talk about the Fear Street series for one second. I was just thinking that if that came out when I was a queer kid growing up, it would have been so cool. Just seeing that and having it be so accessible for queer youth to watch queer horror and growing up with it, what an incredible thing. It’s such a great entry into gateway horror, if you consider Fear Street gateway horror. I must say that I do, because I read them as a kid, but I totally need to rewatch them. They’re really special. 

Lucy: Yeah, I think one thing I really like about the Fear Street trilogy as well is that, you know, especially when we see queer women on screen, lesbians, bi women, any women loving women relationships, it can really get sexualized a lot. I feel like with Fear Street, it's not really done that way. Even the sex scenes are not done in a way that feels fetishized, which I think is really important and it’s just a really important love story. The representation of women loving women relationships on screen, including in horror, can fall victim to fetishization, so that was refreshing to see. 

Dylyn: In your essay, you also talked about how queer and queer-coded characters are often vilified or shown as monsters in horror film and it’s so nice to see some queer characters now as the leads. I love queer characters being shown with all their nuance and even if they are bad guys, so to speak, I love that they still have full stories. There's just so many queer stories to tell, good and bad, and these stories are a lot more readily available these days, which is something I'm really grateful for too. 

Lucy: Yeah, exactly. Having a queer person be the protagonist or even the antagonist, but not being there to push along the story of the straight protagonist or antagonist is really refreshing. Nine times out of 10 we've been shown on screen, it's as the gay best friend or the feminized dandy or the “Bury Your Gays” trope, and it's never really just a queer person on screen and their experience. It’s usually told from a straight cishet white perspective, so the representation is good to see. 

Dylyn: It really is. Thank you so much for teaching us more about that representation. Queer horror, I hope it rules the world someday. 

Lucy: It will.

Dylyn: Yeah, it definitely will. 

So, I wanted to talk a little bit about your podcast, Ghoulfriends, which you host alongside the amazing Lindsay. I was so honored to talk about Evil Dead and Cabin Fever with you ghouls and was wondering if you could tell us what future episodes may hold, if you can share any details, and what inspired you to create the Ghoulfriends podcast! 

Lucy: Yes, definitely. So, I'll start with the inspiration and then the plans, because we have a very exciting couple of months coming up. Essentially, Ghoulfriends came out of wanting to have a new passion project, because before Ghoulfriends, me and Lindsay were a part of another podcast. Since lockdown happened in the UK, around March 2020, we started getting into the horror community because neither of us—I didn't even have a Twitter account at that point—were really involved. We had a passion for horror, but we didn't know what was there and then we saw how amazing the community is. We found queer people and queer neurodivergent people that were in horror and the project we were part of had fizzled out, but we still really wanted to have a space, especially for femme-presenting people and AFAB women in horror. We felt like we both had a lot to say and we really wanted a podcast where we could have guests on on a regular basis, so that we could highlight them as well. I mean, we are still a tiny, little podcast in little wee Scotland, but we'd started to build a really nice community of people and a community of incredible women in horror. It’s like, we want to speak with you and have it be a combination of talking about horror, but also getting to know people as well. I think that's one thing we really like about Ghoulfriends. It’s not just about the analytical side. I feel like people kind of get to know us a little bit as people and our humor. The whole theme of Ghoulfriends is like a spooky sleepover, so we really wanted it to be themed, because we hadn't really seen anything like that before, where people took two movies within a theme and we put our own queer feminist take on it. Our themes range from a load of different things. We have an episode called, “This Shit is Gay and You Can't Convince Me Otherwise,” which is one of my personal favorites with one of my amazing friends Kristen, who also does a podcast called Don't Fuck with the Original, which people should go check out. It's amazing. We also do stuff like the Gore Galore episode with yourself, Dylyn, which was amazing, and we've also just recorded Found Footage Frights. We kind of cover everything and anything in horror. I should also point out, we do also cover Dragula. We covered Dragula Season Four last year and the Boulet Brothers actually listened to it, which is fucking insane, and we’ll be covering Dragula again when season five comes out. We're also massive fans of drag and how inclusive Dragula is, because Dragula involves any kind of person who does drag: drag kings, drag queens, nonbinary performers, everyone and anyone. It's open to anyone, which is amazing. Anyway, over the next couple of months, we are pretty much fully-booked until August with guests every single week. So, I’m very excited to be getting some amazing women and nonbinary people on the podcast and we've got some really cool themes coming up, like Fuck the Patriarchy and more about being gay in horror. We've also got a lot of female-centered themes over the next couple of months and we're also talking about comforting horror movies and there will be lots of different themes coming up. It’s going to be a really exciting couple of months. I would tell people to tune in if you like horror and feminism and gay things with a little bit of fun and banter in-between, then Ghoulfriends will be for you. We’re also a lengthy podcast with two-plus-hour episodes, so if you need background noise, then we've got you. 

Dylyn: I'm a massive fan of the Ghoulfriends podcast myself. I love all of those things. I think it is so incredible, too, that the Boulet Brothers are fans of yours. I mean, of course they are, how could they not be? That’s so cool! What an incredible experience that is. I can't wait for the new episodes. 

Lucy: When the Boulets talked about us on their podcast, Creatures of the Night—which covers Dragula, so anyone that is a fan of Dragula, if you've not listened to the Boulet Brothers’ podcast, you really should, because it gives you a lot of behind the scenes on each of the episodes and stuff—we didn't even know it. A few people tagged us on Twitter and were like, have you listened? So, yeah, the Boulet Brothers gave us a shout-out. They took the piss out of our Scottish accents, which I loved, and then we saw them in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, and they've been in our DMs a little bit as well. They gave us a shout-out during the show and pointed us out in the audience, which is really cute. 

Dylyn: That's like the experience of a lifetime! I cannot get over how amazing that is and so many amazing things still lie in your future and I can't wait to see it!

So, of course, we talked about your podcast, we talked about your writing, and I wanted to talk a little bit about you being a streamer and a Twitch affiliate. I'm a casual gamer myself. I'm not very good at games, so I was curious to learn a little bit more about games from you and if you have any top three favorite games that you're playing right now, especially queer games that you might recommend, and when we can catch your next stream!

Lucy: Yes, definitely. So, streaming has taken a little bit of a back-burner for me, just because of writing and Ghoulfriends as well, and just life in general, but I have still been guesting on other friends’ Twitch channels. Recently, I did a co-op stream with my friend SirDrewbles and he did a Mothership stream, which was like an alien/horror/sci-fi tabletop game. It was amazing. I love Twitch. I'm eternally grateful to Twitch. I started that in the pandemic as well and I have honestly made some of my closest friends ever through that. I mean, I'm going on a flight to the states in a couple months to go visit some of my Twitch friends, so that just shows you that you aren't bound by your location. Internet friends are real friends and you can really foster amazing relationships that way. Anyway, besides horror, gaming is huge for me. I've been a gamer since I was a little kid. Most of my tattoos are video game-related, and I kind of saw myself through video games probably more than film initially. I grew up playing PlayStation and stuff like that, so in terms of queer games, it has to be Life is Strange for me. I love Life is Strange. It’s so near and dear to my heart. When it came out, I think it was 2014 as well, so it was before I came out for the second time, and it was the first time I'd really seen myself, like my experiences growing up, being 17 years old on-screen. It’s experienced as somebody who's a teen, but I feel like no matter what age you are, if you're a queer person, you'll definitely relate to Life is Strange. Also, if you like supernatural powers and all that kind of stuff, the Life is Strange series has three different protagonists as well and they're all queer. It's very choice-based, so you can make the game how you want it to be, which I really like. My favorite genre of video games is roleplay games where I can make the story and I can make my character. 

Then, another queer video game, which is also horror, is The Last of Us. I love that series as well with every fiber of my being. I’d say the first game probably deals more with family and loss, but the second game really deals a lot with being queer. Another thing I love about The Last of Us is that it's post-apocalyptic; it's a zombie game. It has morally-grey characters in it and it shows that nobody's perfect and that there's no right or wrong way to do things. It also has trans representation in it, which I think is really important because we don't see nearly enough of that in video games. There's a really heartfelt story about one of the trans side characters in the game, but there was a lot of debate when that game came out, usually from cisgender straight people who didn't understand the plot or the story behind it, but I feel like if you're a queer person, you probably will really relate to it and relate to Ellie. 

The last game I would probably say—I'm going to stick with the queer theme—is The Outer Worlds. So, if anyone's a fan of the Fallout games, or if you want a game that's a little bit silly, I would definitely recommend The Outer Worlds. It has asexual representation in it, which is so rare to have. It has a really sweet asexual storyline in it and the character who's ace, Parvati, is voiced by one of my favorite video game people of all time and my biggest crush of all time, Ashly Burch. Ashly Burch also voices Chloe Price in Life is Strange, so you'll see a theme here. If Ashly Burch is in it, I'll play it, but I mean, we're getting more and more queer video games as well. I feel like that's really paving the way and we're also seeing a lot of neurodivergent stories told in video games now, so it's a really exciting time. If you look through the tags on Twitch, you can find your community. There's a really amazing queer community on Twitch, and in terms of when I'll be streaming next, hopefully soon, but maybe not on my channel. I'm kind of in talks about a couple of collab projects. I do still want to stream on my Twitch and last year, I did quite a lot of fundraising for The Trevor Project and Mermaids for Pride. So, I might be doing something for Pride again this year, but I'm really enjoying guesting on other peoples’ channels. I'm hoping, maybe in the next couple of months, to do something a bit more permanent on some other peoples’ channels, like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign or some form of tabletop game where it's not just about me and me playing games, but having a community of people.

Dylyn: I love that so much. That's incredible that you did those fundraisers, for one, but also as someone who is not as informed about everything out right now game-wise, I am so excited to get my hands on all of those. It's so wonderful to see that representation in gaming and in film grow.

So, I wanted to talk a little bit about your life as a cosplayer. I always love seeing your cosplays on social media. They're amazing. I love all of them, but I especially love your demon cosplay and your Spider-Man cosplay. I thought the picture of you holding your cat in the Spider-Man cosplay was like The Picture™. Period. That is the best picture on Earth. So, I was curious what other cosplays you have planned for the future and what your favorite cosplay that you've done has been.

Lucy: Aw, thank you. Also, your last cosplay was amazing, the water one. You also do amazing cosplays, Dylyn. The cosplays I tend to do are called closet cosplays. So, I like to use a lot of stuff that's already in my wardrobe that's more accessible, because cosplay can be really expensive, especially really high-quality cosplays. I think people sometimes have the perception of, oh, I can't afford to get somebody to make me something on Etsy or I don't have the facilities to make something or have the latest sewing kits and all the know-how knowledge about cosplay, but you don't need to have that. A lot of the time, you can make cosplays out of your wardrobe, so I try to do that as much as I can. I really do love my Spider-Man one though, but I think a couple of upcoming ones are…I really want to do some Star Trek cosplays. I think I'm going to be doing a Joker one soon, because I'll be changing my hair. One thing about my cosplay is that I don't wear wigs, because I fucking hate wigs, like I just can't deal with them. So, I'm a lazy cosplayer. I do cosplays with red hair, people who have red hair, but I'm going to be changing my hair soon, so I think I'm going to do an androgynous gender-bent Joker, some Star Trek. I'd really like to cosplay Ripley, because I have Pebbles, who's my ginger cat, and I feel like she would also really suit Jenkins. I want to do some more cosplays like that, some more horror ones, but I think my next ones would be Star Trek or Joker in the next coming weeks. 

Dylyn: Thank you for telling me about your cosplays! I love Star Trek. I love Joker. I can't wait to see your new cosplays and thank you for complimenting mine! I'm new to it, so hopefully, I can learn something from the greats, which obviously include yourself! Also, I really loved learning about closet cosplays and about playing with gender when doing cosplay. That’s such a wonderful, accessible thing! 

Lucy: Yeah, I think, especially with TikTok as well, we're seeing a lot of people do gender-bent cosplays, because it's like, well, who cares? You know, it doesn't matter if a character is female, male, or non-binary, you can make your own spin on it. I feel like a lot of people think cosplays need to be a hundred percent accurate and they absolutely don't. It's about self-expression. If you like the look of something that's inspired by it, go for it. Like my Vi cosplay from Arcane, that's actually probably my favorite cosplay I've done. I didn’t have the whole set up, because it was going to take me ages to get the leather jacket and I didn’t have the capacity to make the massive mechanical fists, the armor things that she wears, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try and cosplay it though. It also doesn’t mean I didn't have a great time doing it. Then, I did my own twist on it. I did Vi, but in a suit, and she doesn't wear a suit in the TV show, but it was like, well, this is how I think she would look. So, you can do anything with it. There's no rules. 

Dylyn: That's wonderful. That really is such an inclusive way to cosplay, being able to cosplay whomever you’d like no matter what your gender is! Thank you for telling us about that! 

I wanted to veer a little bit to some of the questions that I ask all of my interviewees. So, personally dealing with things like social anxiety, chronic illness, my own neurodivergence, and just being drained from emotionally masking all of the time, I find myself working on a lot of my projects in my bedroom. I was curious, as a fellow neurodivergent person, if that's part of your creative process as well?

Lucy: A thousand percent. I’ve found that when I was a kid, or even right now being in my twenties, I’ve always found my bedroom to be a safe sanctuary. It doesn't matter if you’re living with your parents or living in your own place, wherever it is, I've always felt like your bedroom is your safe space. Also, like you say, when you’re masking to the world, it feels like your bedroom is the place where you can take all that down and nobody's judging you and you can just be your full creative self. So, I still feel like that and still do a lot of my creative processes in my bedroom. I've got these galaxy lights that I'll put on and then I'll read, or I'll do a bit of writing or whatever. I love having that kind of space in my bedroom. 

Dylyn: That's wonderful! I love that you called it a sanctuary. That’s really wonderful for your bedroom to be a place where you can be yourself and have your creative mind run free. Since you spend a lot of time in your bedroom working on projects and stuff, I was curious if you have a dream scary-movies-in-bed set up, a favorite comfort horror film, and a go-to scary movie snack? 

Lucy: I love that. That's absolutely brilliant. My favorite scary movie set up…well, you need a blanket fort to start off with. A blanket fort’s a must. Then, I would say some nice LED lights or twinkly lights, something to put a mood into the room. You need pets. You need your fur babies, cats, dogs, rats, whatever it is, they need snuggled up with you as well. Then, in terms of my favorite snack, that's a really good one. Oh, cookie dough. I love cookie dough. Then, my favorite comfort horror movie, that's so hard, because there are so many. I would actually maybe say Aliens or maybe something like Frankenweenie. I'm thinking of the ones that I've got tattooed on me. I like stuff that's familiar and that I know really well, so Aliens and the Alien franchise is my favorite combination of horror and sci-fi. Then, maybe a Tim Burton classic, like Frankenweenie or even like Sleepy Hollow, something that I grew up watching. Actually, I don't know if you’d classify it as horror, but one of my favorite films of all time is James and the Giant Peach. That's like my biggest comfort film of all time. I always watched that. The spider-lady in it, that would be an amazing cosplay.

Dylyn: What taste you always have! Also, I had cookie dough ice cream last night, so props to cookie dough! It’s so cool to think about James and the Giant Peach being a genre film and I can totally see, first of all, how it is. It's incredibly scary, especially with those storm clouds. 

Lucy: That's true. 

Dylyn: Also, the spider-lady, I would like to be her and I could only imagine how cool of a cosplay that would be. 

Lucy: You should do that. 

Dylyn: I would like to just become her at some point. That’s my life goal. I will also be rewatching all of your comfort horror films, because they are all absolutely amazing. So, do you have one scene in a horror film, like a scary movie bedroom scene that you especially like? 

Lucy: Yes. So, I was going to choose one, then I decided on another. So, I hope it's okay that I technically have two, but I was going to choose Jennifer's Body and the kiss scene in the bedroom, because that was part of my queer awakening. I still love that scene to death, but I think people kind of expect that of me, because I'm the resident Jennifer's Body stan on Twitter. I talk about it every chance I can. However, the other one that I really, really love to death is practically all the bedroom scenes in Ginger Snaps. I love Ginger Snaps, especially that first one even though it's not the nicest bedroom. I really like the relationship between the two sisters in Ginger Snaps. I think it’s such an iconic film and such an iconic aesthetic behind it as well. So, I'll choose both of those. 

Dylyn: Those are both amazing. Jennifer's Body, yes. I know that you absolutely love that film. That was part of my queer awakening too and I loved reading about that in your essay in Hear Us Scream: The Voices of Horror. Ginger Snaps will also have a revisit from me, because the relationship between the sisters was absolutely fascinating and really wonderful to see. 

The last thing I wanted to ask you was if you have any projects coming up that you could share a few details with us about?! 

Lucy: Yes. So, I have some more writing in the pipeline. I can't say much yet, but keep an eye out for the end of this year. There might be something coming out. Also, I'm working on my own fiction novel. That’s not to say that it’s going to be out this year, that is if it ever gets published, but I'm working on a sapphic fiction novel called Thistles of Time. It's a Scottish queer love story and I'm really excited about that. This is my first time delving into fiction, because I tend to write a lot of nonfiction. I'm going to be doing some more editorials for Hear Us Scream, for the website. I want to do some more editorials about being nonbinary and about gender diversity in horror as well. Then, it’ll just be a really busy summer with Ghoulfriends, in all honesty, and if Dragula Season Five comes out this year, that will be a big thing for us too.

Dylyn: Gosh, so many amazing things! I'm so excited for your new projects and I can't wait for your fiction debut. That sounds absolutely amazing. Thank you again for taking the time to talk to me today and telling us all about yourself and your wonderful projects. I will be catching all of the new episodes of Ghoulfriends and all the other amazing things you have coming out! 

Lucy: Well, thank you so much for having me and we will definitely be having you back on Ghoulfriends at some point. We should do that soon. 

Dylyn: Thank you. Anytime! I also wanted to say that I loved your recent episode with the resident Hear Us Scream book reviewer, Nina! 

Lucy: Yeah, Nina is honestly so hilarious. I am desperate to get her back on again, because I don't think I've laughed so much. 

Dylyn: She's incredible. So are you and thank you again for everything. 

Lucy: Well, thank you.

To keep up with Lucy, make sure to listen to Ghoulfriends Podcast and follow them on Twitter and Instagram!