From the moment the opening credits of The Devil Queen unfold on the screen in a vibrant collage of color, glitter, and quirky sticker-style graphics, you know you’re in for something unique. Written and directed by Antonio Carlos da Fontoura, the film—now available in a new 4K restoration—stars legendary Brazilian actor Milton Gonçalves as the ruthless queer ruler of Rio de Janeiro’s criminal underworld, a queenpin whose sparkly makeup and flamboyant ensembles cannot hide how cutthroat she is. Loosely inspired by the life of João Francisco dos Santos, a 1930s gangster who was also a drag performer under the name Madame Satã (Madam Satan), The Devil Queen moves the action to the 1970s and paints a vivid, pulpy portrait of people fighting for power on the margins of Brazilian society.
Be Gay, Do Crime
Diaba (Gonçalves) is the queen of the dope trade in Rio, which she rules from her pastel-hued bedroom in the rear of a brothel. When she finds out that one of her favorite boy toys is wanted by the police for selling drugs to schoolchildren, she enlists her trusted lieutenant, Catitu (Nelson Xavier), to frame someone else for the crime. Catitu zeroes in on Bereco (Stepan Nercessian), a wannabe gangster with a sad-sack cabaret singer girlfriend named Isa (Odete Lara), whom he doesn’t hesitate to slap around even though she essentially bankrolls his life.
Needless to say, the frame doesn’t go according to plan, especially when it becomes clear that Catitu has his eyes on Diaba’s throne. What follows is a chaotic tangle of double-crosses and ultra-violence, culminating in an extravagant bloodbath that puts the best of Tarantino to shame.
Queen of the Marginalized
Originally released in 1974, The Devil Queen was and remains a remarkably transgressive film, one that takes the notion of gender binary, shreds it to pieces, and uses it for confetti. Diaba embodies exaggerated forms of both the feminine and the masculine, epitomized by the way she uses a knife to shave her legs in one moment and to mutilate a minion who has wronged her in the next. She summons her mob to wait for her while she’s lounging in bed with one of her boy toys, appearing vulnerable but in reality never anything less than utterly dangerous.
That Diaba is Afro-Brazilian only adds to her status as queen of the outsiders; in a racist and homophobic society, to be both Black and queer is to be automatically tossed aside as an outcast. Diaba surrounds herself with other such misfits, counting on them to be loyal to her, but as the film progresses, her lack of trust in everyone around her just leaves her feeling even more isolated. In the end, it’s only the other queer folks in her circle who stand by her, willing to risk their lives to protect her just as she has done for them. The whole cast is marvelous, but Gonçalves rules them all, oozing charisma and menace; you cannot help but root for Diaba to discover the plots against her before it is too late.
The soundtrack of The Devil Queen is an energetic mix of funk and rock, punctuated by shrill electronic sounds that surface in moments of high tension. The eye-catching color palette and over-the-top costumes help create a highly stylized world in which the explosions of blood that soak the film’s finale feel not only inevitable but totally appropriate. I especially loved the set design in the brothel where Diaba lives; rainbow-colored streamers hang in every doorway, and glamour photos cut out from magazines are pasted on the walls. It’s the exact opposite of where you would expect a crime boss to rule from, which is one of the reasons why it is so delightful.
Conclusion:
A film that may as well have “cult classic” written on it in blood-spattered sequins, The Devil Queen is a hell of a lot of fun.
The new 4k restoration of The Devil Queen opens at Alamo Lower Manhattan in New York on June 12, 2026, and at Alamo Downtown LA in Los Angeles on June 17, 2026, with additional markets nationwide to follow.
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