On Tuesday night, the Boulet Brother’s alternative drag competition series Dragula premiered its Halloween special “Resurrection” in which seven of the show’s alums competed for a spot in the cast for the upcoming 4th season. Aside from its pandemic filming adaptations, the special stood out for opening up larger conversations about anti-Blackness in alternative queer circles, trans sex work violence and the BLM movement.
Known as the antithesis to Rupaul’s Drag Race, Dragula prides itself on welcoming a much more diverse cast of horror drag performers who compete for the title of “The World’s Next Drag Supermonster.”
In order to comply with social distancing, the crew went to each of the competitors’ hometowns instead of having them all travel to Los Angeles. The two hour special featured season One’s Loris and Frankie Doom; season Two’s Dahli, Kendra Onixxx and Victoria Elizabeth Black; and season Three’s Priscilla Chambers and Saint. Each of the contestants had to revive three past look challenges from the show (season One’s witch, season Two’s ghost and season Three’s vampire) and put on a lip syncing performance to Kim Petras’ Halloween track “In The Next Life.”
A large portion of the special focused on interviewing competitors on their lives during the pandemic. Without the possibility of any reality-tv drama to focus on, viewers got a more intimate look into each of the performers and larger political conversations were started.
Dragula, as with many queer alternative circles, has not always been a welcome space for Black performers. While individuals of all genders and multiple types of drag artistry are welcomed, Black competitors not only tend to be sent home early but are constantly attacked by other performers for not fitting the mold of what they believe is a “drag supermonster.” For the first time in Dragula history, the special did not shy away from this conversation.
The two Black performers on the special, Kendra Onixxx and Saint, both talked about their experiences of being marginalized within the alternative drag community. Each of them chose to draw inspiration from their African roots while constructing their witch looks, a subtle form of resistance against the anti-Blackness from other competitors that played a large part in their eliminations.
Priscilla Chambers (a competitor who began transitioning after her time on season 3) used her ghost look to bring attention to the violence trans sex workers faced, holding up a trans flag with the resistance fist on it.
Meanwhile, Dahli talked about his involvement with the BLM protests this summer and more specifically, the anti-Blackness within the alternative queer scene. Dahli said he notcied that a lot of drag horror beauty standards were very centered on white features and because of this, Black performers within this genre faced a lot of discrimination because of the belief that “you can’t be Black and goth.”
“I think the alternative scene has its own war on race that isn’t even talked about,” Dahli said. Hopefully, this resurrection special helps break the taboo and opens up a larger conversation around these issues.
The full special is available to watch through the streaming service Shudder.
