For Pride Month 2026, B-Sides & Badlands isย raising money for The Trevor Project. Our celebration of queerness features interviews with filmmakers and artists, reviews of queer horror and albums, and queer essays.ย Donate here.
Isaiah Rice, the writer and actor of the short film Axel’s Night (review), doesn’t want to be called a “horror filmmaker.” He prefers “artist.” “I grew up dancing as a kid. Even through that, I always loved horror. It’s my favorite genre,” he says. “But I grew up dancing and was a dance major in college. I bring that up to say, watching the short, you see me pole dancing and performing. That actually does come from who I am as an artist”
“Through acting, I love performing, and I just saw that correlation between dance and acting in that you can still make people feel through a performance,” he adds, “whether you’re performing on stage or whether you’re performing in a film. You’re just bringing up feelings and emotions for people.”
Part of the reason behind doing Axel’s Night came from a direct response to seeing nothing but white queer men being portrayed in media. “I see that there is this rise of queer gay stories that are coming out in TV shows, when you think of things like ‘Heated Rivalry,’ and HBO has ‘Half Men.’ All these very provocative queer gay shows are coming out, but even then, the focus is always on white men. What does it mean to be Black and gay in a horror project when the focus isn’t necessarily your sexuality? Are you being over sexualized?”
And that’s how Axel’s Night took root.
Over a recent Zoom call, Rice discussed stylistic influences, love of ’90s slashers, the ending of Sleepaway Camp, and what’s to come of his idea for an indie slasher short.
What vampire films influenced Axel’s Night most?
I’m going to say ‘Queen of the Damned.’ Aaliyah and everything. What I love about that film is it’s one of those few movies where you’re kind of able to see a Black character not be a monolith. While she was the lead villain, the backdrop was predominantly white. It was based around rock music and metal, which, historically, you can say a lot of that came from Black music and Black culture. I remember seeing that as a kid and just feeling like, ‘Wow, this just feels so different, and there’s a Black person in it.’ When I did ‘Axel’s Night,’ I wanted to do the music component of it. I wanted to kind of really show these two Black queer characters existing in a space that has never been for us.
I also think about ‘Jennifer’s Body.’ The whole concept of this rock band is seducing you through their music. Outside of that, I wanted it to have this kind of ’90s grungy rock type feel, but to normalize that onto Black queer men, which is something I feel like we still haven’t seen today.
What was the first queer horror film you ever saw?
I haven’t seen too many characters in mainstream horror films where there is a Black gay or queer character. What kind of gave me the idea that Black people can not only exist, but we can survive, as well, was when I saw Brandy in ‘I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.’ I remember watching that as a kid, and I kind of saw myself a little bit in that; we can exist in these horror films and survive. We then get into the stigma of the token Black character in a horror film who hat dies first. I started seeing Black people in these horror films that had a predominantly white cast. It was still under that stereotype.
Some corners of the queer community have been really vocal about being against queer people being the villain in horror films now. What do you think?
That’s a complex question. I think queer villains can exist. It’s just about who they are as a villain? Why are they doing this? What’s the story? As an actor who was also involved in some filmmaking, what I’ve come to understand is that a villain can still be captivating. Right. Sometimes, a villain can showcase just what it means to be human. What separates a villain from your average normal human being is that when a villain feels something, they’re actually going to act on it. And not only are they going to act on it, they feel validated in what they’re doing.
What are your thoughts about the ending of Sleepaway Camp?
I think that’s what was maybe present when they did that scene at the time in the ’80s, like, ‘Oh, let’s end it this way, because it’s going to be weird and scary.’ But if they were to do something like that today, it would really be about making sure we handle this with tenderness. There are people connected to this identity. We want to make sure we’re not making a mockery of it. But if we’re going to do it, let’s have a reason behind doing it. Maybe dig deeper into the story.
What horror movies bring you comfort?
I love horror movies from the 1990s because that’s just what I grew up on, specifically slashers. I love ‘Scream,’ ‘Halloween, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ ‘Urban Legend,’ ‘Candyman,’ ‘The Faculty.’ There were so many slashers in the ’90s that were mimicking that same feeling and imagery of ‘Scream,’ which just reinvented how we thought about horror. Oh, there’s another one called that came out, I think in 2000,’ called ‘Valentine.’
Is your slasher short, He’s Watching You, something you might revisit at some point?
I feel like it would still be so cool to have something like that come to life. It’s kind of like to see two Black queer men in a project when you normally see stuff like that associated with white characters. The idea is always going to be in my pocket. As I grow as an actor and connect with different people and network, it very well could be a situation where I have this idea and can find someone to make it with.
Leave a Reply