“It was important to me from the beginning,” Tina Romero says of her feature directorial debut, Queens of the Dead, “to make it colorful and make it vibrant and speak to the magic of drag.”

On the day of the dead rising, a nightlife community full of performers must survive a zombie attack – as well as corporate greed, selling out, and misinformation. Queens of the Dead is a horror party with meat on the bone, sharing more than just DNA with the works of George A. Romero.

Romero and co-writer, comedian Erin Judge, craft a zombie siege during another night in Brooklyn. A vibrant ensemble, colorful deaths, and practical effects live up to Romero’s ambition for a horror movie with more light than shadow. Judge and Romero spent years developing Queens of the Dead, now finally reaching theaters in time for Halloween. 

Shortly after the film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere, the duo spoke with Daily Dead about their vision for their horror-comedy starring Katy M. O’Brian, Dominique Jackson, Tomas Matos, and Margaret Cho.

What were some of your earliest conversations about Queens of the Dead? Which ideas stayed all the way through?

Tina Romero: We started this seven, eight years ago, so there have been many iterations of this film. We wanted to make something lighthearted from the beginning, and the bulk of our writing happened during COVID. Erin and I were feeling like, shit is grim, and let's give the people something fun. That still remains true in 2025. 

Erin Judge: Tina has her story from the New York City club scene, wanting to address the zombie apocalypse through the lens of the queer community eating each other. As a stand-up. I've also spent 20 years in nightlife, and it’s a very different vibe, but it’s definitely about making it work. I wanted the movie to be punchy. I wanted it to have great one-liners because that’s what drag queens traffic in. I’m originally from Brooklyn, so I wanted it to be true to Brooklyn.

Tina Romero: One other theme that I was interested in from my DJ experience was this idea of multiple types of parties going on on a Saturday night. I came of age as a DJ in the queer club space, and it's such a magical, creative space without any budget. Often you're not making any money, but you're doing it for the creative zest. 

I also played a lot of influencer corporate brand parties. I've been struck over the years by how much budget they get for these parties, but how drained of life they are. You walk in and everyone’s just on their phones, no one is dancing, no one is engaging with the music. It's so creepy. And yet, they have all the resources.

More than that, over the past decade, there’s been this movement of wanting queer talent at these influencer events, whether it's as a performer, a DJ, or somebody on the carpet to take pictures with. I was interested in the corporate poaching of queer talent alongside actual queer nightlife. 

We went in with our characters and the setting of all the different parties that could be happening on a Saturday night. We used to have more parties than original scripts, and it's been distilled down to the two – the queer club and the brand party.

What nuances were you looking to bring to the performers we see in the film? What felt truthful to yourselves but also to the ensemble?

Tina Romero: Well, the whole thing with the show lineup — who goes first, the backstage hustle and bustle, and performers caring about their place in the lineup. Erin brings that perspective from the comedy world and how important it is, when you’re doing a show, where you are in the lineup. There’s all this stress going on before they even know that the dead are rising.

Erin Judge: For comedy and nightlife, you're not going to have a successful event, even if you sell tickets, if nobody’s there. We're both still very much working nightclub artists; we both do this all the time. And so, when we're not walking red carpets at Tribeca, we are at a bar trying to set up a PA system. There’s still that real element of our lives contemporaneously with making this movie.

I knew that the authenticity of the language was only going to be possible if we got a great cast that would improvise, because I wasn't going to try to write slang that 22-year-old queer club kids in New York are using right now. I was more like, let's get the gist of this down, and then hopefully, we'll cast people who can bring that flavor and texture. Everyone contributed authentic language and improvisation. As a writer, I feel grateful. 

Tina, how’d you want to capture the drag performances, their presentation especially, in the right light?

Tina Romero: I knew that I wanted costumes to be the number one thing we focused on because we knew we were going in with a scrappy budget. We put costumes at the top because, in my opinion, that’s such a huge part of drag, of selling fantasy. [Costume designer] David Tabbert and I started talking two years before pre-production. We knew we wanted every character to have their own specific look, something that you recognized instantly that spoke to their personality.

We also knew that we wanted the transformation at the end to have drag and also this feeling of DIY armor. How are you using your drag as literal armor in the fight against zombies?

As far as lighting and camera, we weren’t working with much, so we had to get super creative with a one-camera shoot. Tom Wills, an incredible camera operator, agreed to be on Steadicam most of the time. That allowed us to run and gun, since we have an ensemble cast. Not easy to cover with one camera. 

Were ‘80s movies on your minds at all? Just the smoke and the neon, it feels like a modern film made with old-school filmmaking.

Tina Romero: I’m a kid who grew up in the eighties, so a lot of that imagery is nostalgic to me. I was thinking about Creepshow a lot, too, with the color blocking and the lighting. It’s quite a colorful horror film. There’s just something yummy about that aesthetic. Also, simplification — when you scale things down and there’s not too much going on in the framing, you just have color and smoke. I love it, personally.

Erin Judge: Dawn of the Dead was probably the one we talked about the most because we have the mayor (played by Tom Savini) on TV. It was very much about what’s going on in the community, what’s going on with the authorities, and what’s going on in the media. Now, we have this very different media landscape, and we wanted to bring in everybody on their phone. One’s getting his news from right-wing podcasts. Tina was really interested in bringing in the phones and the information — what is everybody’s idea of what’s happening and what to do — largely influenced by Dawn of the Dead.

What were some unspoken dynamics and themes in this community that you were both interested in exploring? 

Tina Romero: We were definitely interested in exploring the infighting that happens in the community. The queer community is very strong, and there’s a lot of solidarity, but it’s not without drama and not without different factions of queer people not necessarily seeing eye to eye. 

There’s the generational tension when Margaret Cho’s character, Pops, comes in and her stance on who’s allowed on the rescue boat. There’s tension between Pops and Dre (Katy M. O’Brian), because they’re lesbians of different backgrounds and different financial places.

And then, of course, the drugs and the opioid epidemic — something we’ve been touched by in our own lives and that the community deals with. We didn’t want to imply that it’s because of the drugs, but that the drugs are part of a bigger problem among humans. The dark shit going on among us, that’s just one part of it, and the phone is another part. There’s all this spiritual unrest, which is really what it’s about. When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. It’s not, oh, they’re taking drugs.

Erin, what about you? What did you want to question with Queens of the Dead?

Erin Judge: Corporate pride. Drag performers and the different performers from queer culture that corporations want for their own reasons. It’s not like corporations exist without gay people in them — that’s a direct line.

There’s contrasting people who are just there for the party with people who are fighting for their dignity every time they go to the doctor’s office. There’s a hierarchy of privilege in the queer community. It has a lot to do with class, race, and with gender identity, and all of those things come into the movie at least a little bit.

As you’ve both discussed, a big question in the movie is: what is selling out? It’s tough, because you want to see creative people get paid doing what they like to do, especially if it funds their pure efforts. Is there a right answer? 

Erin Judge: Yeah, that’s the struggle that Dre is having too. Honestly, so is Sam (Jaquel Spivey). Sam is like, “I have a day job that pays my bills, and I like that comfort.” Dre is trying to make it work while her wife, who’s like, “Can you please get a job?”

The metaphor that always comes up for me here is the difference between practical effects and CGI. There’s been this switch where one became cheaper than the other. In some ways, practical effects can be more expensive with all these resets, but it’s the spirit of authenticity and the DIY horror that people value so much.

A lot of DIY in this movie.

Erin Judge: When I was telling horror fanatics that I was making this movie, they were like, “I just want slow zombies and practical effects.” Well, you’re in luck. 

Tina Romero: In the same way, there’s magic that money can’t buy when it comes to a party where somebody is wheeling a cart of stuff and changing the light bulbs manually versus a massive-budget event. But is there a balance? I don’t know. I don’t know what the right answer is. I would agree, Jack, that I want people to get paid — take that money, get paid, do it — and yet there’s something super cringey when you see certain pride floats decked out with Old Navy Pride. There’s just something kind of gross about it. So, it’s both. Maybe I don’t know what the answer is.

I appreciate the honesty. This is the second movie this year I’ve seen [Lisa Frankenstein director] with Zelda Williams in the special thanks – the other being Heart Eyes. How’d she help out?

Tina Romero: Zelda has been the most incredible cheerleader along the way for this project. I shadowed her on Lisa Frankenstein a couple of summers ago, which was an invaluable experience gearing up to shoot my first feature. It wasn’t my first time on set, but I approached that shoot specifically with the mindset of, I’m about to shoot my first feature.

She also sent a coffee truck one night at 3:00 AM to our shoot when we didn’t have the budget to do nice things like that for the crew. She knew that, so on one of our hardest nights, she sent a coffee truck to Paterson, New Jersey. It meant the world to the crew to have a little caffeine treat in the middle of the night. She’s been such a mentor, a friend, a supporter, a cheerleader, and it was essential to give her a special thanks.

What about Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise?

Tina Romero: [Laughs] Oh my God, Tom Cruise. It cracks me up to see his name in there. It almost feels like a joke, but the truth is, Katy O'Brian was shooting Mission: Impossible while we were shooting this movie. We were down to the wire on whether or not we were going to be able to have her. Tom said, “I want to support Katy doing this movie.” My producers worked with their team, and they figured out a way to make the schedules work. She flew back and forth three times between the UK and Paterson, New Jersey, so she could do both projects at once. It’s because Tom gave us his blessing to have her.

She’s great. I spoke with her recently, and she talked a bit about the kind of roles she does and doesn’t want to play. This role definitely plays as the former.

Tina Romero: I think it was fun for her to do a comedy and be in the queer community. She knows how to nail the action, but look, she says so much in a glance. 

Erin Judge: For a character who is exasperated through most of the movie, it’s the most gorgeous exasperation you’re ever going to see. You can watch Katy O'Brian be exasperated until the cows come home.

[Laughs] Where do you both want to go next? What stories do you want to tell after Queens of the Dead?

Tina Romero: We just had a dinner date talking all about this, and we were like, “Are we going to be able to write something without thinking about doability?” We let ourselves write this without restraint, and then figured out how we were going to do it after. We want to do that again.

Erin and I have some ideas in the bank. We have a women’s college concept, and we have a shark movie concept. Erin and I get each other as people and as creatives, and I think we’re good at genre bending. We take from our worlds and our influences, and we know how to mash it up in a fun and compelling way. I’m thrilled to continue writing with Erin Judge.

Erin Judge: I want to keep doing ensembles that bring together these unlikely characters and give roles to people whose gender identity or who they are doesn’t always show up toward the top of the call sheet. I love the idea of continuing to bring queer stories and queer slices of our universe together in ways that are accessible.

I don’t think people will watch Queens of the Dead and be like, Well, I’ve never been to a gay nightclub, so I have no idea what’s happening in this movie. It’s pretty accessible for people to get into, and we can continue to do that with things that may get pushed to the side when it comes to queer culture but can easily be understood by a mainstream audience.

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RELEASING IN THEATERS OCTOBER 24

  • Jack Giroux
    About the Author - Jack Giroux

    A film journalist with over a decade of experience writing for Slash Film, The Credits, and High Times Magazine.

  • Jack Giroux
    About the Author : Jack Giroux

    A film journalist with over a decade of experience writing for Slash Film, The Credits, and High Times Magazine.