The Retreat (2021): The Lesbian Horror Movie That Actually Gets It Right
Hey queens, if you’re a lesbian who loves horror (or just loves watching women kick ass while being hopelessly in love), you need to drop everything and watch The Retreat (2021) right now. Seriously. This little Canadian indie slasher hit me straight in the chest and refused to leave. It’s rare to get a horror movie that centers an actual lesbian couple – not queer-baiting, not tragic backstory, not “one of them might be bi for the male gaze” – but a real, lived-in, messy, sexy, committed lesbian relationship. And then it throws them into a fight for their lives against homophobic psychos. I’m obsessed.
Let me just say it loud: Renee and Valerie are one of the hottest and most believable lesbian couples I’ve seen on screen in years. Tommie-Amber Pirie and Sarah Allen have chemistry that leaps off the screen – the kind where you can feel they’ve been together forever. There’s this quiet domestic intimacy in the first act that made me tear up a little. The way Valerie touches Renee’s back when she’s stressed, the inside jokes, the comfortable silences… it’s all so lesbian. You don’t get that in mainstream movies. Hollywood usually gives us either tragic gays who die or hot girls kissing for male approval. The Retreat said “nah” and gave us two women who are genuinely, deeply in love and horny for each other. Thank you, Pat Mills.
The plot is simple but brutal: Renee and Valerie, a lesbian couple going through a rough patch, book a cute gay-friendly cabin retreat in the woods to reconnect. Sounds romantic, right? Wrong. They quickly realize they’re being watched through hidden cameras and hunted by a group of far-right extremists who live-stream murdering queer people for their sick followers. Yes, it’s as horrifying as it sounds. The killers literally wear GoPro cameras and call their victims slurs while chasing them. It’s disturbingly realistic in 2025 – we all know these kinds of monsters exist online and sometimes offline too.
What makes this movie special for us lesbians is how unapologetically queer it is. There’s no “will they/won’t they.” They’re together. They have sex (and it’s hot – actual lesbian sex, not Hollywood’s weird soft-focus nonsense). They argue about real couple stuff – moving in together, future plans, past hurts. When the horror kicks in, their love becomes their strength. There’s a moment where Valerie is injured and Renee carries her that had me sobbing and cheering at the same time. It’s the lesbian final girl energy we deserve.
Tommie-Amber Pirie as Renee is phenomenal. She’s feminine but absolutely feral when she needs to be – think rip-your-throat-out-with-her-teeth energy. Sarah Allen’s Valerie is softer, more anxious, but watching her go from scared girlfriend to “I will burn this forest down to protect my woman” is chef’s kiss. Their dynamic feels so authentic that I forgot they were acting. I’ve seen people complain that the movie is “too woke” – baby, if showing a happy lesbian couple fighting to survive is “woke,” then I’m proudly awake at 3 a.m. rewatching this.
The kills are nasty in the best way. Axe to the head, bear trap, throat-slitting – it’s gory without being torture porn. The tension is relentless once it starts. There’s a scene in a tiny bathroom where one of the girls is hiding while a killer is literally on the other side of the door… I held my breath for what felt like ten minutes. And the homophobic slurs the killers throw? They hurt. But watching our girls fight back? Cathartic as hell.
Is the movie perfect? No. The killers are a bit cartoonishly evil (though let’s be real, some people online are worse), and the ending might divide people. Some lesbians I know wanted more revenge, others loved the ambiguity. Personally? I loved it. It felt true to life – sometimes survival is messy and you don’t get perfect closure.
But honestly? The flaws don’t matter when the lesbian representation is this good. We’re so starved for stories where we’re the main characters, where our love is central and not a subplot, where we get to be both vulnerable and badass. The Retreat delivers that in 82 bloody minutes.
If you’re a lesbian horror fan, this is mandatory viewing. If you’re dating a girl and want to cuddle (and then scream and then cuddle again), put this on. If you just want to see two hot women covered in blood making out – yeah, it’s got that too.
Stream The Retreat wherever you can find it (it’s on Shudder, Amazon, etc.). You won’t regret it. And when you watch it, come back and tell me your favorite Renee/Valerie moment. I’m ready to cry about these fictional lesbians for the rest of my life.
Stay gay, stay scary, and protect your girlfriend at all costs.
— A very gay horror addict who now wants a cabin retreat with her wife (but with better security)
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