Review: Andrew Doherty: Gay Witch Sex Cult

Gay Witch Sex Cult is folk horror made cunty. Andrew Doherty takes on the pitch-perfect characterisation of a narcissistic real estate agent who is waiting for his husband Jeremy to arrive at their unborn baby’s gender reveal party. While we wait, he tells the story of his time on an island off the coast of Britain and the gay witch sex cult that once lived there.

Doherty is camp, bitchy and self-obsessed, relating his journey with an obliviousness that ramps up the very real horror that lurks beneath. He has a strange obsession with the trees he saw there that’s funny until it’s not, and a time-jumping narrative that becomes more and more disorientating until the show is mired in uncanniness, confusion and dread.

Despite this, Doherty remains a comedic tour de force throughout, his non-sequiturs and bewildered charm juxtaposing with the events of the story in a way that’s really quite chilling. The gross misogynist he plays might take a few minutes to get used to, but by the end he’s more than easy to root for. And with a twist worthy of The Wicker Man, Gay Witch Sex Cult is the queer folk horror comedy you didn’t know you needed.