9 Must-Watch Underground Drag Films for Pride Month

Drag queens have long shaped film culture, not only through mainstream favorites such as To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, The Birdcage, and Kinky Boots, but also through a rich body of low-budget, fiercely queer cinema that has often received less attention. These films are marked by DIY energy, camp excess, playful improvisation, and an unapologetically subversive spirit. In honor of RuPaul’s Stop! That! Train!, which features drag performers including Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Latrice Royale, Marty Lauter, and Symone, the spotlight turns to a selection of drag-led and drag-inspired movies that embody the genre’s boldest qualities.

Among the most celebrated is Die, Mommie, Die! (2003), directed by Mark Rucker and written by drag legend Charles Busch. The film serves as a loving parody of midcentury Hollywood melodramas, echoing titles like Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Mildred Pierce while transforming the affectations of classic screen icons into weapons of comic power. Busch’s work helped define a drag cinema style that is at once affectionate, critical, and freshly theatrical.

An earlier example, What Really Happened to Baby Jane (1963), was created by members of the Gay Girls Riding Club as a homemade response to Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Made without studio resources, sound, or star power, the film highlights the absurdity and camp appeal of the original while reflecting a lively community of queer artists in the Los Angeles bar scene. The group also produced other parodies, building a local culture of drag-centered filmmaking.

Girls Will Be Girls (2003), directed by Richard Day, examines fame, performance, and persona through sharp comedy and strong chemistry among its drag leads, including Evie Harris, Varla Jean Merman, and Coco Peru. The film satirizes Hollywood ambition while also revealing the emotional bonds and shared history within drag communities.

In Hurricane Bianca (2016), Bianca Del Rio plays a fired teacher who returns to school in drag for revenge. Developed from a crowdfunding campaign, the film mixes revenge fantasy with the queen’s signature biting humor and includes appearances by drag and comedy figures such as Alan Cumming, Rachel Dratch, Willam, Shangela, Alyssa Edwards, Joslyn Fox, and RuPaul.

Other titles push drag into surreal territory. Malice in Wonderland: The Dolls Movie (2010) blends Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Mommie Dearest into a wildly distorted fantasy led by The Dolls of Albuquerque. Starrbooty (2007) revives RuPaul’s action persona in a cheap but spirited blaxploitation sendup. Slay (2024) places drag performers in a vampire showdown at a biker bar, combining horror, comedy, and life on the road. Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) turns nightlife anxiety into a pink-and-purple slasher mystery centered on aging, community, and suspicion. Lypsinka: Toxic Femininity (2024), directed by Chloë Sevigny, offers a VHS-styled portrait of John Epperson’s famed alter ego Lypsinka, exploring diva worship and camp precision across decades.

Together, these films show drag cinema as inventive, unruly, and deeply expressive, expanding the possibilities of queer storytelling far beyond the mainstream.