Netflix’s latest film Little Evil has some surprising LGBT representation
Netflix’s latest film Little Evil includes some subtle trans representation.
The horror-comedy film, which stars Parks & Recreation alum Adam Scott, made its debut on the streaming giant’s platform this month.
The film is a parody of horror classics ‘The Omen’ and ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’, featuring stepdad Gary struggling to connect to his stepson – who also happens to be the Antichrist.
It has not been particularly well-received, with a 41% rating on film website Rotten Tomatoes and a string of broadly-negative reviews.
But aside from being a pretty mediocre film, Little Evil manages some pretty surprising levels of trans representation.
Early on, the film introduces the main character’s best friend Al, played by female comic Bridget Everett.
A few lines of dialogue subtly confirm that Al identifies as male, consoling with Gary over his own experiences as a stepdad.
Apart from this subtle nod, Al’s gender is not used as a punchline or addressed again across the entire remainder in the film – as Al is simply treated as ‘one of the guys’.
The character later introduces his wife Wendy.
The understated inclusion of a transgender character as just a regular person has gone down well with fans.
One wrote: “This doesn’t make or break the movie, but in retrospect I really liked the addition of the Al character in a meta sense.
“The character’s lines were good and delivered reasonably well, but just including a [trans] character without addressing it at all was pretty cool.”
Netflix recently revived Sense8.
Sense8 is believed to be the first big-budget show on television to feature a transgender character played by a transgender actress (Jamie Clayton) and written by a transgender writer.
The acclaimed Netflex series, created by transgender sisters Lana and Lilly Wachowski, follows eight pansexual individuals around the globe with an apparent psychic connection.
Fans were left devastated when Netflix confirmed that the show had been cancelled after two seasons earlier this year, despite winning praise for its brilliant inclusion of LGBT characters and themes.
After protests from the show’s fans, Netflix reversed the decision and renewed the show for one further two-hour special – but Lana Wachoswki is already hoping for a third season.
