Special Feature: Michael McDowell: The Gay Man Responsible for 80s Classics

In the 80s, horror fiction was inescapable, and Michel McDowell as one of its faces. He is responsible for tons of books, a handful of screenplays, and quite arguably one of the best horror novels of the 80s. But he was also a gay man from Alabama. However, during his professional career he often spent time between Massachusetts and California. One foot in the literary world, and one foot in the film world. These days he is most known for novels such as The Elementals, or the Blackwater series of southern gothics. Maybe you know him from his screenplays like Beetlejuice, or even Thinner; he worked on the screenplay for all of those. Even if you know of the man, you may not realize how extensive his back catalog is, and how we are still republishing a lot of his work to this day.

My personal favorite work of his is The Elementals, which, in my opinion, is the perfect Southern Gothic novel. It focuses on two families, The Savages and the McCrays. Both of these families own old Victorian homes built on a remote section of the Gulf Coast. There is also a third house in the area that is abandoned and being slowly consumed by the sand. The curse placed on that house begins to affect both The Savages and the McCrays once the young India McCray finds a mirror inside. This novel is definitely southern and of its time in the 80s, and the racism of the South is seen and felt through these families. The family drama is also engaging and enthralling. Once the paranormal elements come into play, the novel takes a sinister turn, and is quite chilling. What starts off as a cozy read becomes something enthralling and worth reading. His other books are great too, I recommend starting with The Elementals though.

Aside from his horror work, he also worked on a series of gay mystery novels in the 80s as well. He co-wrote those with Dennis Schuetz under the name Nathan Aldyne. These novels follow a gay bartender named Daniel Valentine, who teams up with his friend Claire Lovelace, and they find themselves involved in murder mysteries set among the Boston gay community. The novels also worked on the handkerchief code, which is a series of handkerchiefs and colors and how they signify the person's preferred sexual activities. The novels aren’t fully romantic or erotic, but they’re fun mysteries which highlight the gay community during this era and are also worth a mention.

He wrote lots of other works under pen names as well, from horror, to comedy, to action, you name it, he’s had his hands in it.

You might know McDowell for his movie work, such as with Beetlejuice, where he came up with the story and co-wrote the screenplay. I’m not sure what his contributions were, if it was originally more horror, but knowing that McDowell also worked on comedies, like the Clue novelization, I’m not too surprised he worked on something like Beetlejuice. From what I’ve heard, this original draft of the script was more horror focused, and more horror inspired. It seems like it was toned down (for the better) for the final release.

Unfortunately, in the 90s he developed a cocaine addiction that began affecting his professional life and he kind of dropped off the radar, focusing on his college teaching career. He also ended up dying of AIDS, while his final novel was completed by Tabitha King (Stephen King’s wife). He’s someone who is all too often overlooked when it comes to queer horror, and while most of his horror novels might not be “queer,” they were still written by a fantastic author who happened to be a gay man. I hope you take the time to check his work out, as it's truly fantastic.

By Richard Gerlach

Bluesky: rudy53088.bsky.social

Host of Staring Into the Abyss