Watch: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman Gets Scared in New Queer Thriller Out Today

From Ryan Murphy's 'American Horror Story,' the films of Jordan Peele, Misha Green's 'Lovecraft Country,' and Jeff Barnaby's 'Blood Quantum,' horror has never felt more inclusive than it has now," wrote the Hollywood Reporter recently in an interview with Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman..

Next into the mix Kurtis David Harder's "Spiral," which comes to Shudder today (September 17). The film stars the out, Canadian actor and model, who made his name as the frustrated, gay producer on "UNReal," and, more recently, as a judge on "Canada's Drag Race." He also recently joined the Ryan Murphy universe having signed to appear in the next season of "American Horror Story."

In "Spiral" Bowyer-Chapman plays Malik, a queer man who moves to a remote town with his partner Aaron (Ari Cohen) and 16-year old daughter in search of a better life. Their neighbors, though, aren't terribly welcoming; and when Malik learns that a lesbian couple was killed a decade before, he suspects he and his partner are being chosen by the townspeople for a deadly ritual.

"We actually filmed this movie two years ago, so the fact that it's coming out right now really is a perfect time," Chapman told THR. "I think it's not only socially relevant in terms of what's going on in the world in terms of the Black Lives Matter movement, and police brutality against Black bodies, but the level of awareness from the Caucasian population of the world at large... The fact that this world is built on a foundation of white supremacy is not something that people would be able to identify or acknowledge six months ago.

"So there's the fact that now we can have a film like this. A film about a person who really does live at the intersections of otherness, who is Black and queer, who is in a relationship with a white partner, who's surrounded by white people in all of his experiences, and being gaslit, facing implicit biases and blatant or subtle acts of racism that occur on a daily basis. And when he tries to bring those forward they're constantly dismissed and minimized. It's incredibly painful, as I'm sure you know as a person of color. I think that this story is being told now, and the world gets to see it now, people are going to get it in a way that they couldn't have six months ago."

He had worked with John Poliquin and Colin Minihan, the film's writers and producers, a few years ago on some music videos when he was modeling and liked the script when it was brought to him; but he had one suggestion: "I said to them the lead character, Malik, shouldn't be white. It doesn't matter if he's Asian, Hispanic, Black, Indian, or whatever but you could look at this story of trauma and intrigue through intersectionality and give it that much more depth and layers. Within a couple of days they called me in to see if I wanted to do it and I said yes."

He also sees films like this one are examples of how marginalized groups are coming to the forefront in a genre that long reduced them to subservient roles. "The fact that we are welcomed into the genre world is a tremendous gift. I think it's an opportunity for us to explore and express the history of trauma as oppressed people. It's painful as oppressed people have to constantly uproot and relive our trauma in order to humanize ourselves to the status quo. As wonderful as this moment in time is, and the fact that it's resonating with people, I'm hoping this will lead to a path where we can tell much more uplifting, yet equally true, experiences of marginalized people."

And he hopes audiences will take away from the film a similar lesson that was seen on a recent, revelatory HBO series from Britain. "I'm hoping that people can take away the same lesson that people seem to have taken from Michaela Coel's latest effort, 'I May Destroy You,' that a single act of trauma can have devastating and lasting effects on a person's life. It affects how they navigate through the world, how they view every situation in every room they walk into, how they interact with other people. I think this film, like 'I May Destroy You,' humanizes emotions, no matter who you are, where you come from, what your race or gender or sexual orientation may be. It shows that we have far more in common than what separates us."

For more on Shudder, visit the streaming service's website.

Watch the trailer below: