Jump to content

Black horror

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black horror (also known as racial horror and horror noir) is a horror subgenre that focuses on African-American characters and narratives. This genre typically has Black creators who often use social and political commentary to explore themes of racism and other lived experiences of Black Americans along with common horror themes and tropes. Early entries in the genre include the Spencer Williams Jr. film Son of Ingagi (1940), and George A. Romero's film Night of the Living Dead (1968), which is considered one of the first Black horror films featuring Black actor Duane Jones as its lead. Blaxploitation horror films of the 1970s, namely Blacula (1972), and the vampire film Ganja & Hess (1973) became prominent examples of the genre in the 1970s. Other examples appeared during the 1990s, notably the 1992 Bernard Rose film Candyman and the 1995 anthology film Tales from the Hood, which was directed by Rusty Cundieff and has been described as the "godfather of Black horror".

The Black horror genre became especially popular after Get Out (a horror film about racism and the 2017 directorial debut of comedian Jordan Peele) became an international box office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Peele went on to direct other Black horror films such as Us (2019), Nope (2022) and produced Candyman (2021), a sequel to the 1992 film of the same name directed by Nia DaCosta, and the HBO Black horror television series Lovecraft Country (2021). Some critics argued that, by 2020, Black horror had entered its Golden Age, while others criticized many of the Black horror projects to follow Get Out, including Lovecraft Country, the Amazon series Them (2021), and the film Antebellum (2020), as unsubtle and exploitative of Black trauma. Black horror novelists include Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia E. Butler, Linda Addison, Jewelle Gomez and Victor LaValle.

Definition

[edit]
Tananarive Due (pictured), a University of California, Los Angeles professor and Black horror historian, has defined the genre of Black horror as "star[ring] black protagonists to tell a black story".

Robin R. Means Coleman, a professor at Texas A&M University and the author of the 2011 book Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present, wrote that Black horror films were "created by blacks, star blacks or focus on black life and culture".[1] Tananarive Due, author and professor at University of California, Los Angeles who, as of 2019, teaches classes on Black horror, stated that Black horror "doesn't necessarily have to be made by Black creators" but that it typically "is made by Black filmmakers and does star black protagonists to tell a Black story" and that "sometimes it is enough just to have a Black character in a film for it to be considered Black horror".[2] She also defined Black characters in Black horror films as "actually hav[ing] agency in the film and maybe even surviv[ing]" while exceeding the stereotypical roles of Black characters in horror films "who were just sidelined or monster bait".[3] Due has compared African-American history to the genre, stating, "Black history is Black horror," while Ryan Poll, for the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, wrote, "For African Americans, horror is not a genre, but a structuring paradigm," adding that horror works "because White people fundamentally imagine the world without horror".[4] Due has stated that a more common theme than race in Black horror is "the will to fight back and survive against overwhelming force".[5][6] Means Coleman and author Mark Harris, owner of the website Black Horror Movies,[7] similarly wrote in their non-fiction book The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar that "the Black presence in horror, as in America, has always been about resilience".[8]

Black horror films often compare the lived experiences of the Black American to horror narratives, depicting them through themes of racism and its effects; police brutality, the Atlantic slave trade, lynching, discrimination and transgenerational trauma.[9][10][11][12] Jenna Benchretrit of CBC wrote that Black horror was "an expansive subgenre that reclaims the Black community's place in a film tradition where they have often been the first to die or are depicted as the monster".[13] Mark Harris compared the horror film trope of killing off Black characters first to marginalization, stating, "It epitomises how black characters in these movies and then other genres tend to be kind of second fiddle, thus expendable and so they get bumped off."[8][14] For Vulture, Robert Daniels defined Black horror films as horror films "directed by and starring Black folks".[15] Stephanie Holland of The Root also described Black horror films as horror films "that feature prominent Black stories and heroes" despite horror not having "always been the most welcoming [genre] for Black characters".[16] Jason Parham of Wired wrote that Black horror filmmakers "let loose arguments about class conflict or policing or the psychological terror of race, and how whiteness eats at the mind".[17]

Tonja Renée Stidhum of The Root wrote that racial and social commentary were "basically the core of the genre, historically".[18] Laura Bradley of The Daily Beast noted that Black horror films often focus on "the fear of moral corruption, particularly by proximity to white people and institutions" and frequently include references to Christianity.[3] For Refinery29, Ineye Komonibo wrote that Black horror films are "often ...imparting a moral lesson or highlighting some political struggle within our society".[19] Black horror is also sometimes referred to as racial horror, horror noir, or horror noire.[20][21][22]


Film and television

[edit]

Precursors

[edit]
The 1940 film Son of Ingagi, written by Spencer Williams Jr. (pictured), has been described as one of the first Black horror films for its all-Black cast and fleshed out Black characters.

Before the first Black horror films were created, American horror films scarcely featured Black actors. Those that did, however, often did so mockingly or depicted them as primitive in the vein of D.W. Griffith's 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. [23][24] Black actors occasionally appeared in lead roles in horror films, such as Joel Fluellen's role of Arobi in the 1957 film Monster from Green Hell or Georgette Harvey's role of Mandy in the 1934 film Chloe, Love Is Calling You, or in voodoo films like Ouanga (1936), which starred Fredi Washington as the mistress of a plantation owner, but even those roles were largely in the service of helping white characters.[1] Black actors Willie Best and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson became well known in the 1930s for their servant roles in monster movies, in which they typically exaggeratedly bulged their eyes in shock before running away, but they often fed into racial stereotypes.[8] According to Due, Black characters in horror films were often relegated to tropes such as the Magical Negro, Sacrificial Negro, or the Spiritual Guide.[25] The 1922 Oscar Micheaux horror race film The Dungeon and the Spencer Williams Jr. films Son of Ingagi (1940), which was the first science fiction horror film to have an all-Black cast, and The Blood of Jesus (1941) are considered some of the earliest Black horror films.[3][12][26] Ashlee Blackwell, a cowriter of the 2019 documentary film Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, stated that Son of Ingagi "fully flesh[ing] out its black characters" was "revolutionary".[27]

1960s to 2000s: Blaxsploitation and 1990s resurgence

[edit]
Duane Jones as he appears in Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The George A. Romero film Night of the Living Dead (1968) is considered one of the first Black horror films and highly influential on the genre of Black horror overall for its casting of Duane Jones, a Black actor, in its lead role of Ben. In contrast to previous depictions of Black people in horror films as ineffectual, he was written to be smart, resourceful and heroic, and was also one of horror's first Black protagonists.[16][28][29] The film also ends with Ben being shot and killed by a group of white vigilantes, who proceed to burn him in a manner comparable to lynching.[24][30] Due framed the scene in the context of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which took place earlier that year.[2] Blacula (1972) was directed by Black director William Crain and starred William Marshall, who altered the script in order to make it more socially conscious, as Prince Mamuwalde, the first Black vampire portrayed on screen. In it, Prince Mamuwalde begs for Count Dracula not to support the Atlantic slave trade before being bitten by him and turned into a vampire, later waking up in 1972 after his coffin is opened by antique dealers.[8] Its box office success led to the creation of more Black horror films.[23] Its 1973 sequel, Scream Blacula Scream, starred Pam Grier as the voodoo high priestess and African spirituality historian Lisa.[31] The Bill Gunn–directed Black horror film Ganja & Hess (1973) also starred Jones and won the Critics' Choice award at the Cannes Film Festival upon its release.[27] Other Blaxploitation horror films of the 1970s included Blackenstein (1973), Abby (1974), Sugar Hill (1974), which was one of the first horror films to feature a Black woman in its lead role, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1974) and J. D.'s Revenge (1976), all of which gained popularity and became early examples of Black horror.[1][6][9][29][32]

Other Black horror films during this time also included the Troma Entertainment films Def by Temptation (1990), directed by James Baldwin III, and Bugged! (1997), directed by Roland K. Armstrong; the Wes Craven films The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The People Under the Stairs (1991) and Vampire in Brooklyn (1995). Additional examples include Demon Knight (1995), which starred Jada Pinkett Smith as the rare Black final girl, and Bones (2001)—both were directed by Ernest Dickerson, who Means Coleman has described as a "stalwart of the genre" of Black horror. Black horror films from this time also had their share of adaptions like the Reginald Hudlin short film The Space Traders, (adapted from the short story of the same name by Derrick Bell); the film Eve's Bayou (1997); Leprechaun in the Hood (2000); and the Jonathan Demme film Beloved (1998), an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel of the same name.[15][16][21] The politically conscious anthology horror film Tales from the Hood (1995), directed by Rusty Cundieff and executive produced by Spike Lee, features four Black horror stories about issues impacting Black Americans: police corruption, domestic violence, white supremacy and gang violence, respectively. Cundieff described it as "deal[ing] with problems in the African-American community and showing how the scariest things that happen to you are the human things that happen to you" while using "the supernatural as a redemptive element".[33] It became a cult classic and Isaura Barbé-Brown of the British Film Institute wrote that it was "important to the history of horror and to Black horror in particular" for being "laced unabashedly with inside jokes specifically aimed at a Black audience".[10][11] It has been described as the "godfather of Black horror" by Camilo Hanninbal Smith of the Houston Chronicle and director Bomani J. Story.[34][35] Following the release of Bones, Black horror largely died down until 2017.[28]

2017 to present: Get Out and surge in Black horror projects

[edit]
Get Out (2017), the directorial debut of Jordan Peele (pictured), is often credited with widely popularizing Black horror

The 2014 Spike Lee Black horror film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus was a reimagining of Ganja & Hess.[36] Black horror was brought to international prominence through the release of Jordan Peele's 2017 directorial debut Get Out, a horror film about racism, race relations and microaggressions.[32][37] It follows Chris Washington, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who leaves Brooklyn to visit the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage, played by Allison Williams, in a white suburb, where it is revealed that they partake in medical experimentation on Black people.[24] The film also opposed the notion of a post-racial America following Barack Obama's election as president of the United States in 2008.[5][8] For The Hollywood Reporter, Richard Newby wrote that Peele "changed the game" with Get Out, which "managed to encompass the horror blacks experience on a scale unlike any we'd seen before". In 2023, Bethonie Butler of The Washington Post wrote that Get Out "upped the ante when it came to discourse about horror and race" and that "few films ... have come close to the social commentary that made Get Out a cultural phenomenon", while Nick Schager of The Daily Beast wrote that it "ushered in a wave of Black horror films and TV series that investigate and exploit modern and historical racial dynamics for monstrous thrills".[38][39] For his writing of the film, Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, making him the first African-American winner of the award, and the film's international $225 million gross led to a surge in other Black horror projects.[16][28] Black horror directors William Crain, Rusty Cundieff and Justin Simien also stated that the success of Get Out offered more opportunities for Black horror filmmakers.[3][5]

Peele continued to explore Black horror in his follow-up films, Us (2019), which explored themes of social class, and Nope (2022), which criticized American spectacle.[8][13][15] After the release of Us, Chris Vognar of the Houston Chronicle opined that one "could argue [Peele] is the best" to bring "a distinctively black flavor to the horror-movie genre", while Due stated that Us was "not as directly about race as Get Out".[6] He also went on to produce other Black horror films and television series of the 2010s and 2020s, including Candyman (2021), a sequel to the 1992 film of the same name directed by Nia DaCosta, who became the first Black female director of a film that debuted at number one in the U.S. box office.[3] It starred Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the titular character and focused on police brutality and gentrification. Peele also produced Lovecraft Country (2020), an HBO series created by Misha Green and based on a 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff. In it, a Black family living in the United States during the Jim Crow-era 1950s must fight monsters inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, who held racist beliefs, and racism.[16][20][40] The 2019 Shudder documentary film Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, which was executive produced by Due, directed by Xavier Burgin, and based on the 2011 book of the same name by Means Coleman, chronicled the history of the genre of Black horror and interviewed Black horror filmmakers and actors.[6][7][29]

The First Purge (2018),[28] the Tales from the Hood sequels Tales from the Hood 2 (2018) and Tales from the Hood 3 (2020),[41] Kindred (2020), Black Box (2020), Antebellum (2020),[23] Bad Hair,[5] Spell (2020),[42] Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020),[31] Two Distant Strangers (2021),[17] Sweetheart (2019), His House (2020), Master (2022), Karen (2021),[18] The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023),[43] and The Blackening (2023),[38][44] were other Black horror films released in the late 2010s and 2020s.[16] Black horror television series of the time included the Amazon series Them (2021), which focused on a Black family in the 1950s moving to a white section of Compton, California and facing racial violence, The Other Black Girl (2023), an adaptation of the 2021 novel of the same title by Zakiya Dalila Harris about a woman who is the only black person working at a publishing company, and Swarm (2023).[9][10][19] The 2019 Tate Taylor film Ma, which featured Octavia Spencer in its lead role as the outcast Sue Ann, has also been described by critics as a Black horror film.[1][2] Doreen St. Félix of The New Yorker wrote that "we should [not] mistake [Ma] for being a contribution to black horror" due to how the film downplays Sue Ann's Blackness.[45] According to critic Robert Daniels, "expectations for conversations about racism and structural inequities" led to "the advent of serious-minded Black horror" following the release of Get Out.[15] In her book Imperiled Whiteness: How Hollywood and Media Make Race in "Postracial" America, Penelope Ingram wrote that the 2010s and the 2020s were a "renaissance of Black horror" spurred by the success of Peele's films, while Means Coleman and writers from CNN and Entertainment Weekly argued that Black horror had entered its Golden Age by 2020.[1][5][23][46]

Criticism of modern Black horror

[edit]

Several Black horror films and television series made after Get Out, including Lovecraft Country, Antebellum and Them, were decried by critics and audiences for violently exploiting Black trauma, particularly in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and lacking subtlety in their depictions of racism.[10] For The Daily Beast, Nick Schager wrote that most Black horror post-Get Out, including Lovecraft Country, Them, Antebellum and Candyman, was "ho-hum at best and reductive at worst, failing to strike a successful balance between gory genre kicks and novel sociopolitical insights".[39] In a review of the 2021 film Karen, Briana Lawrence wrote for The Mary Sue, "There has been a rallying cry to have more Black horror that isn't just racism BAD y'all, but time and time again we keep getting films that tell us what we already know because, 'That's why you liked Get Out so much, right?'"[47]

Cate Young of The American Prospect wrote that Black horror films and television series released after Get Out—particularly Antebellum, Bad Hair and Lovecraft Country—"ultimately fail because they do not do the hard ideological work necessary to give them the cultural and political meaning to which they aspire" and because of their "reckless deployment of spectacle over substance".[48] Charles Pulliam-Moore of Gizmodo Australia wrote in 2021, "In chasing Get Out's success, a number of studios seemingly lost sight of the reality that the movie wasn't good simply because it was a 'Black horror movie' about racist bodysnatchers."[49] For Collider, Tavius Allen suggested that many of the Black horror films and series inspired by Get Out, such as Antebellum and Them, "tend to have an exploitative angle", "frequently entertain a larger white audience", and strip their Black characters of agency "at the mercy of grotesque violence, demeaning language, or reaffirmed stereotypes". Allen argued that most Black horror to come from Get Out missed its point, writing, "It's not the reliving of the trauma that guides Get Out, it's the overcoming."[50] In 2023, Nadira Goffe of Slate opined that "the same bag of tricks ... defined much of Black horror" in the years prior, such as "the dangers of whiteness" and "the protagonist's dawning realization that 'I got what I wanted, but it wasn't what I thought it would be'". She wrote that the trope in Black satirical horror of "Black women's hair as a tortured metaphor for racial assimilation", which showed up in The Other Black Girl, Bad Hair, and the 2023 Black surrealist film They Cloned Tyrone, was "exhausting" for "perpetuating the myth of 'good' and 'bad' hair" and representing misogynoir.[51] Jason Parham of Wired criticized Them and Two Distant Strangers for not being "aware horror is not solely about horror", unlike Get Out and the television series Atlanta.[17]

Literature and art

[edit]

Black horror fiction has often been overlooked or marginalized within literary discourse due to longstanding assumptions about who engages with the genre. Historically, both Black writers and readers have been dismissed as unlikely participants in horror, with cultural and academic institutions frequently positioning horror as a space outside of Black literary expression. Tananarive Due, has shared that within her own literary journey, horror was viewed as incompatible with serious Black writing, reflecting broader patterns of genre policing and cultural expectation[52]. These attitudes have contributed to the misconception in the literary community that Black communities are uninterested in or disconnected from horror, despite an ongoing tradition of Black storytelling.

Rather than being an outlier, Black horror fiction has served as a vehicle to explore the realities of anti-Blackness, both past and present. Scholars have noted that Black horror fiction often draws from real-life experiences of racial violence and social marginalization. Jerry Rafiki Jenkins, Assistant Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia states that "the human monsters of Black American horror fiction are, in some ways, more threatening and disgusting than the nonhuman ones," as they reflect recognizable forms of harm found in everyday life[53]. Similarly, Maisha Wester, Associate Professor of American Studies at Indiana University, has argued that the genre does not require extra embellishment, as it reveals the horror already embedded in reality[54]. Black horror writers frequently use the genre to engage with themes that expose how ideologies of racial hierarchy shape the perception of Black bodies, boundaries, and legitimacy[55]. In doing so, the genre serves as a medium for examining dehumanization as a cultural and historical critique, imagining possibilities for resilience and agency through creative resistance, and the constant assertion of Black humanity.

Development of Black horror literature

[edit]

Historical roots of the Black horror genre can be traced throughout literature and the visual arts. Gabrielle Bellot in an article she wrote for T highlighted the influence of African-American folklore figures in literature such as Br'er Rabbit and the 1899 short story collection The Conjure Woman by Charles W. Chesnutt.[56]. She also references the artworks of Faith Ringgold's 1967 painting The American People Series #20 : Die, Betye Saar's 1969 painting Black Girl's Window, and Kara Walker's work, alongside the fiction of Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia E. Butler, and Jewelle Gomez, as early cultural works that engage with speculative and horror elements to reflect the past trauma and layered identities within Black life and the diaspora.[57]

Novels like these span generations, influencing new writers to share their interest of interrogating how Black identities are constructed, feared, and policed within dominant cultural narratives[58]. With notable works of Black horror literature coming from Gomez's The Gilda Stories (1991), Butler's Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995) ,Toni Morrison's Beloved (novel)(1997), Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), and Fledgling (2005) to more recent titles such as Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) and The Changeling (2017), Tiffany D. Jackson's White Smoke (2021), Zakiya Dalila Harris's The Other Black Girl (2021), and Johnny Compton's The Spite House (2023)[59][60].

Modern recognition and emerging voices

[edit]
Black horror author Linda Addison (pictured) was the first Black author to win the Bram Stoker Award.

These publications reflect the ongoing growth and increasing visibility of Black horror storytelling. In 2001, Linda Addison became the first Black author to win the Bram Stoker Award and later received the Horror Writers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. The success of Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) played a pivotal role in drawing broader public attention to Black horror, helping authors such as Addison, Victor LaValle, and Steven Van Patten—whose works also explore themes of racism through horror—reach wider audiences[61]. The genre's rising popularity in the 21st century has also led to a surge in anthologies and graphic fiction. Peele's Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (2023) brings together a range of writers addressing contemporary racial and social anxieties[62]. In the comics anthology, Shook! A Black Horror Anthology, released in 2024 by Dark Horse Comics and Second Sight Publishing, extends the genre's reach across mediums and contributes to its growing cultural significance[63][64]. Together, these developments affirm horror's enduring relevance as a space for black creators to explore a broader range of narratives and increase contributions from Black authors and artist who seek to look at themes of identity, trauma, cultural history and memory through the lens of horror.

Horror scholar and professor Kinitra Brooks argues in her book, Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror, that Black women, in particular, are at the forefront of transforming horror. Describing it as a genre that "speaks to their experience even as it subverts dominant horror themes steeped in its contemporary hegemonic discourse"[65]. This framing by Brooks is reflected in the lived experiences and creative intentions of modern Black horror writers, many of whom emerge to articulate similar goals of subversion, cultural reclamation, and personal truth through their work.

In numerous interviews, conducted by the Horror Writers Association during Black History Month as part of its Black Heritage in Horror series, it offers not only visibility to Black authors but also vital insight into how they navigate, transform, and reflect on the genres ongoing evolution as a genre previously dominated by white perspectives.

Authors such as Michelle Renee Lane (2022) integrate elements of horror, fantasy, and historical fiction to explore identity politics and the lived experiences of marginalized people. Lane has noted that while the genre has historically included "negative and racist stereotypes" of Black characters, the increasing presence of Black writers is helping to reshape these narratives[66]. She emphasizes that horror written from Black perspectives allows for the expression of specific cultural fears and opens space for deeper dialogue and inclusion within the broader horror community[67].

Lisa Springer, author of speculative horror fiction, describes Black horror as "emerging from its invisibility and perceived unattractiveness to take center stage"[68]. She argues that Black protagonists deserve the same narrative depth and emotional range as any other characters, noting the importance of allowing them to be "complex and messy, to giggle and cry, to go to hell and back and live to talk about it"[69].

Orature and folklore

[edit]

Orature is also a tradition that, like any media, can have genres, one of them being horror. Black/African American folklore is essential and the beginning of black storytelling. Black/African American Folklore provides a framework for understanding the history and worldview of African Americans. Folklore, or "Folktales," is myths, ballads, rap, songs, ballads and other orally transmitted lore.

Orature is pivotal in understanding the African American past. People like Molefi K. Asante,[70] a professor of Africology and African American studies, express how to ignore the role oral traditions is to ignore oral traditions of African Americans is to fall short in seeing an important part of black culture. The authenticity and exploitation of folklore is also a reality that must be taken into account. There is a rich collection of African American folklore that can be found in various sources, but it is essential to verify the authenticity of the content. Some publications claiming to represent traditional African American folklore may contain racist and deceptive propaganda many of which is created by white writers

Exploitation and commodification

[edit]

Like any other expressions of African American art folklore is not immune to being exploited for capital and cultural gains

Some examples Include:

Instance Description Effects
Walt Disney's "Song of the South" A 1964 Disney film based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. Capitalized on African American folklore, allegedly displacing black families and swindling land.
Joel Chandler Harris's "Uncle Remus A collection and narrator of southern black folklore and oral stories featuring songs and animal stories. He is used as a storytelling device similar to that of a traditional African Griot. Gained fortune and fame through the collection and publication of African American folklore
White Minstrels An early form of American theater where white actors dressed up in blackface and portrayed racist stereotypes of black Americans as a form of entertainment. Exploiting African American folklore to enhance their performance

Folklore in cinema

[edit]

Folklore is a powerful tool in communicating social, political, and economic dilemmas that the black community has and is still facing today. In movies and in general folklore, it connects to a web of different meanings that offer insight and prophecies of rebellion, triumph, moralizing, and even satire. The inclusion of these stories in horror movies provides a social commentary on the negative impacts of colonialism and the enslavement of black people. "Ganja & Hess" is a 1973 experimental horror film written and directed by Bill Gunn, starring Duane Jones (of Night of the Living Dead) and Marlene Clark. In the movie Hess (Duane Jones) is stabbed by his assistant George with a ceremonial African dagger, survives, but now has an insatiable thirst for blood. While it incorporates elements of vampirism, the film delves deeper into themes of addiction, spirituality, and Black identity. Ganja & Hess to some was a commentary on the fracture between black Americans and their African heritage.

"To Sleep With Anger" is a black horror movie directed by Charles Burnett and labeled by critics as a genre-defying film that managed to blend family drama, biblical allegory, folklore, and surrealism. To Sleep With Anger is about a black family in South Central Los Angeles whose peaceful dwelling is disrupted by the arrival of an old friend, "Harry," who comes from the rural south. The movie touches on several themes such as Rural vs. Urban black identity, Corruption of Youth, moral duality, etc. The folklore aspects of this lie in the main antagonist Harry, who not only represents a Trickster, which are typically amoral characters who utilize their wits and scheming abilities to achieve their goals, but also is based on the folk character the "Hairy man" a combination of the devil and fears of their children being swayed down the wrong path

Notable Black horror media

[edit]

Films

[edit]

Television

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e Means Coleman, Robin R. (May 29, 2019). "We're in a golden age of black horror films". The Conversation. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Bushman, Monica (May 31, 2019). "Why It's Still Radical To Make A Horror Film Like 'Ma' With A Black Female Villain". LAist. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e Bradley, Laura (October 31, 2021). "The Black Horror Movie Canon Is So Much More Than 'Get Out'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  4. ^ Poll, Ryan (2018). "Can One 'Get Out?' The Aesthetics of Afro-Pessimism". The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association. 51 (2): 69–70. ISSN 0742-5562. JSTOR 45151156. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e Agard, Chancellor (August 26, 2020). "From 'Candyman' to 'Antebellum,' this fall is cementing the Black horror revolution". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d Vognar, Chris (March 20, 2019). "Black horror films may be on verge of a resurgence with 'Us'". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Crucchiola, Jordan (February 11, 2019). "Horror Noire and the Legacy of Get Out Two Years Later". Vulture. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Cutler, Jacqueline (February 3, 2023). "From 'Blacula' to 'Get Out,' the evolution of Black horror films". New York Daily News. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c Bellot, Gabrielle (November 10, 2021). "How Black Horror Became America's Most Powerful Cinematic Genre". T. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d Giorgis, Hannah (April 17, 2021). "Who Wants to Watch Black Pain?". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Barbé-Brown, Isaura (October 31, 2020). "Tales from the Hood, the cult horror comedy 25 years on". BFI. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  12. ^ a b Coleman, Ryan (June 24, 2020). "'What's Actually Happening': Looking for History in Jordan Peele's 'Get Out'". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Benchetrit, Jenna (July 23, 2022). "How Nope director Jordan Peele changed the face of the horror genre". CBC. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  14. ^ Fearon-Melville, Sabrina (August 24, 2023). "The Blackening: Film challenges horror movie tropes". BBC News. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  15. ^ a b c d Daniels, Robert (July 28, 2022). "Black Horror Films Found Off the Beaten Path". Vulture. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Holland, Stephanie (October 21, 2023). "Celebrate Halloween With the Scariest Black Movies And TV Series". The Root. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  17. ^ a b c Parham, Jason (April 30, 2021). "Black Pain Will Never Stop Trending". Wired. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  18. ^ a b Stidhum, Tonja Renée (June 25, 2021). "Not a Kopykat Karen? Director Coke Daniels Insists He Did Not Rip Off Jordan Peele's Get Out". The Root. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Komonibo, Ineye (June 20, 2023). "The Blackening's Antoinette Robertson On The Necessary Unseriousness Of Black Culture". Refinery29. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  20. ^ a b Phillips, Maya (October 19, 2020). "The Unintended Racial Horror of 'Lovecraft Country'". The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  21. ^ a b McMillian, Laurise (October 27, 2023). "Your Halloween Watchlist Needs These Black Horror Movies & Shows". Refinery29. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  22. ^ "Contemporary Black Horror". Black Camera. 11 (2): 5–6. 2020. doi:10.2979/blackcamera.11.2.0005. ISSN 1536-3155. JSTOR 10.2979/blackcamera.11.2.0005.
  23. ^ a b c d Blake, John (October 4, 2020). "Black writers and filmmakers are bringing new scares to the horror genre". CNN. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  24. ^ a b c Gordon, Doug (October 28, 2017). "How 'Night Of The Living Dead' And 'Get Out' Changed The Course Of Black Horror Films". Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  25. ^ Tensley, Brandon (October 18, 2020). "How horror can guide Black audiences through racial trauma". CNN. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  26. ^ Findlay, Kaia; Burney-Scott, Omisade (October 7, 2022). "Why We Can't Look Away From Black Horror". WUNC. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  27. ^ a b Collis, Clark (February 1, 2019). "From 'Blacula' to 'Get Out': The top 5 most important black horror films". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  28. ^ a b c d Jones, Okla (October 16, 2022). "A History Of Black Horror's Evolution In The Modern Age". Essence. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  29. ^ a b c Ocampo, Joshua and Polk, Milan (June 22, 2021). "15 Black Horror Films to Watch Now". Men's Health. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  30. ^ Benson-Allott, Caetlin (July 18, 2017). "The Defining Feature of George Romero's Movies Wasn't Their Zombies. It Was Their Brains". Slate. Retrieved February 25, 2024. In 1968's Night of the Living Dead, he did this by casting a black man, Duane Jones, as his hero, then allowing that hero to be executed by a posse of vigilantes who mistake him for a monster—in a sequence that strongly evokes U.S. lynching photos.
  31. ^ a b Rocque, Starr (July 22, 2022). "Black Horror 101". Mic. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  32. ^ a b Jean-Philippe, McKenzie and Ewart, Asia (September 27, 2021). "22 of the Scariest Horror Movies in Black Cinema". Oprah Daily. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  33. ^ Kohn, Eric (July 13, 2018). "'Tales From the Hood' Director Rusty Cundieff: Why It Took 20 Years to Make a Sequel to His Black Horror Anthology". IndieWire. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  34. ^ Hanninbal Smith, Camilo (October 15, 2020). "Here's why the 1995 film 'Tales from the Hood' still matters". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  35. ^ "Anatomy of a Title: 'The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster' (Exclusive)". A.frame. June 8, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  36. ^ Andrews-Dyer, Helena (October 23, 2020). "'Bad Hair' and 9 other scary movies where Black characters actually survive until the end". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  37. ^ Berlatsky, Noah (July 22, 2022). "The metaphor at the center of Jordan Peele's very ominous 'Nope'". NBC News. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  38. ^ a b Butler, Bethonie (June 18, 2023). "'The Blackening' sends up horror tropes in unapologetically Black fashion". Washington Post. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  39. ^ a b Schager, Nick (September 12, 2022). "'The Blackening' Tries Like Hell to Parody Horror-Movie Racism". The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  40. ^ Briger, Sam (March 30, 2021). "'Lovecraft Country' Creator Aims To Reclaim The Horror Genre For People Of Color". NPR. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  41. ^ Perry, Jamyra (October 16, 2020). "'Tales from the Hood 3' star says being Black is scary enough". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  42. ^ Whittaker, Richard (October 30, 2020). "Movie Review: Spell". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  43. ^ Maki, Vanessa (June 7, 2023). "'The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster' Review : This Isn't Your Typical Frankenstein's Monster". The Mary Sue. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  44. ^ Donato, Matt (June 14, 2023). "The Blackening Roasts Racist Horror Tropes and Slays the Crowd". Paste. Retrieved February 26, 2024. Tim Story's The Blackening is ground-standing Black horror that'd make trendsetters from Rusty Cundieff to Jordan Peele proud.
  45. ^ St. Félix, Doreen (May 31, 2019). "'Ma,' 'The Help,' and the Vexing Collaborations of Octavia Spencer and Tate Taylor". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  46. ^ Ingram, Penelope (2023). "Black Horror". Imperiled Whiteness: How Hollywood and Media Make Race in "Postracial" America. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 260–289. doi:10.2307/jj.4256584.13. ISBN 978-1-4968-4549-8.
  47. ^ Lawrence, Briana (June 22, 2021). "Nobody Asked for a Dry Ass Karen Horror Movie Yet Here We Are". The Mary Sue. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  48. ^ Young, Cate (November 20, 2020). "Why So Many Black Horror Films Are Horrors Themselves". The American Prospect. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  49. ^ Pulliam-Moore, Charles (May 2, 2021). "'Racism+' Is How You Get Shows Like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier". Gizmodo Australia. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  50. ^ Allen, Tavius (October 13, 2021). "How 'Get Out' Inadvertently Started a Wave of Black Trauma Films". Collider. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  51. ^ Goffe, Nadira (September 13, 2023). "It's Time to Retire the Black Woman Hair Trope in Film and TV". Slate. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  52. ^ Due, Tananarive; Glave, Dianne (2004). ""My Characters Are Teaching Me to Be Strong": An Interview with Tananarive Due". African American Review. 38 (4): 695–705. doi:10.2307/4134426. ISSN 1062-4783.
  53. ^ Jenkins, Jerry Rafiki (2024). Anti-Blackness and Human Monstrosity in Black American Horror Fiction. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-1536-4.
  54. ^ Barba Guerrero, Paula; Wester, Maisha (May 15, 2022). "African American Gothic and Horror Fiction: An Interview with Maisha Wester". REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos. 3 (2): 159–174. doi:10.37536/reden.2022.3.1832. ISSN 2695-4168.
  55. ^ Barba Guerrero, Paula; Wester, Maisha (May 15, 2022). "African American Gothic and Horror Fiction: An Interview with Maisha Wester". REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos. 3 (2): 159–174. doi:10.37536/reden.2022.3.1832. ISSN 2695-4168.
  56. ^ Bellot, Gabrielle; Cox, Renee; McKinney, Danielle (November 10, 2021). "How Black Horror Became America's Most Powerful Cinematic Genre". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  57. ^ Bellot, Gabrielle; Cox, Renee; McKinney, Danielle (November 10, 2021). "How Black Horror Became America's Most Powerful Cinematic Genre". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  58. ^ "Re-centering the Black experience in the horror genre, from 'Beloved' to 'Get Out'". www.documentjournal.com. Retrieved May 12, 2025.
  59. ^ Giorgis, Hannah (October 30, 2023). "Six Books That Will Scare You—And Make You Think". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  60. ^ Woods, Paula L. (October 26, 2023). "6 books to get you started with Black horror, classic and new". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  61. ^ Blake, John (October 4, 2020). "Black writers and filmmakers are bringing new scares to the horror genre". CNN. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  62. ^ Williams, Allison; Placzek, Jessica; Williams, Veralyn; Luse, Brittany (October 3, 2023). "Jordan Peele presents a 'new' Black horror" (Podcast episode). It's Been a Minute. NPR.
  63. ^ Anderson, Lea (February 3, 2023). "Shook! A Black Horror Anthology Creators On Basement Origins and '70s Influences". Fangoria. Archived from the original on June 15, 2024. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
  64. ^ Reid, Calvin (February 13, 2024). "Panel Mania: 'Shook! A Black Horror Anthology,' Edited by Second Sight Publishing". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  65. ^ Brooks, Kinitra D. (December 7, 2017). Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror. Rutgers University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1trkkq5. ISBN 978-0-8135-8464-5.
  66. ^ McCoy, Webmaster Angel Leigh (February 6, 2022). "Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Michelle Renee Lane". Horror Writers Association. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  67. ^ McCoy, Webmaster Angel Leigh (February 6, 2022). "Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Michelle Renee Lane". Horror Writers Association. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  68. ^ "From Punchline to Protagonist: Black Horror and the Monsters Who Hunt". CrimeReads. September 5, 2023. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  69. ^ "From Punchline to Protagonist: Black Horror and the Monsters Who Hunt". CrimeReads. September 5, 2023. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  70. ^ "Molefi Kete Asante". College of Liberal Arts. February 17, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2025.