{"id":16602,"date":"2019-05-29T01:33:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T01:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16602"},"modified":"2019-05-30T15:57:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T15:57:46","slug":"were-in-a-golden-age-of-black-horror-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/were-in-a-golden-age-of-black-horror-films\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re in a golden age of black horror films"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robin R. Means Coleman<\/a>, Texas A&M University <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the horror genre, black is definitely back.<\/p>\n

The movie \u201cMa<\/a>,\u201d which premieres on May 31, will star Academy Award winner Octavia Butler as Sue Ann, a lonely middle-age woman who clings to a group of teens to the point of obsession.<\/p>\n

\u201cMa\u201d comes on the heels of Jordan Peele\u2019s critically acclaimed \u201cUs<\/a>,\u201d which is also led by an Academy Award winner, Lupita Nyong’o. And let\u2019s not forget that Peele\u2019s previous film, \u201cGet Out<\/a>,\u201d won the Academy Award for best screenplay last year. <\/p>\n

Black actors have always had a role in horror films. But something different is taking place today: the re-emergence of true black horror films. <\/p>\n

Rather than simply including black characters, many of these films are created by blacks, star blacks or focus on black life and culture.<\/p>\n

Objects of violence and ridicule<\/h2>\n

For most of film history, black actors have appeared in horror films in supporting roles. Many were deeply problematic.<\/p>\n

In my 2011 book, \u201cHorror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present<\/a>,\u201d I describe some of these tropes.<\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, many films \u2013 horror or not \u2013 had white actors appearing in blackface<\/a>. The characters could find themselves on the receiving end of especially horrific violence. For example, in 1904\u2019s \u201cA Nigger in the Woodpile<\/a>,\u201d a black couple\u2019s home is firebombed and the pair staggers out, charred.<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, there was a spate of horror films that took place in jungles, where blacks were depicted as primitive<\/a> \u2013 sometimes indistinguishable from apes. A decade later, black characters started appearing in horror films as objects of ridicule. Actors like Willie Best<\/a> and Mantan Moreland<\/a> appeared as comic relief \u2013 characters for audiences to dismissively mock. <\/p>\n

To be sure, there were some instances in which black actors assumed leading roles. The 1934 film \u201cChloe, Love is Calling You<\/a>\u201d starred black actress Georgette Harvey as the vengeful Mandy. In 1957, Joel Fluellen portrayed the smart and reliable Arobi in \u201cMonster from Green Hell<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, often these characters existed to support the survival of their white counterparts.<\/p>\n

From placeholders to full participants<\/h2>\n

For a brief period, in the 1960s and 1970s, horror films began to treat blacks as whole and full subjects. <\/p>\n

Many of these narratives centered on black culture and experiences. More often than not, blacks played the role of hero. For example, the 1972 film \u201cBlacula<\/a>\u201d begins in 1780 and is an indictment of the slave trade and its lingering effects. In the 1974 film \u201cSugar Hill<\/a>,\u201d a black female protagonist named Sugar, with the help of her black zombie army, lays waste to a murderous white crime boss and his cronies.<\/p>\n

Then there was Bill Gunn\u2019s 1973 art-house horror film, \u201cGanja & Hess<\/a>.\u201d A gorgeous and deliberative treatise on race, class, mental illness and addiction, it won the Critics\u2019 Choice prize at the Cannes Film Festival. However, no Hollywood studio was willing to distribute the film. <\/p>\n

The classic of the era is George Romero\u2019s 1968 \u201cNight of the Living Dead<\/a>,\u201d which stars Duane Jones as Ben, a strong, complex black character who leads a group of whites during a zombie apocalypse. Confounding the clich\u00e9d trope of \u201cthe black guy dies first<\/a>,\u201d Ben is the lone survivor of the terrifying battle. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Duane Jones as Ben in \u2018Night of the Living Dead.\u2019<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a turn of realism, he emerges triumphant \u2013 only to be summarily shot down by a militia of white police and civilians. Ben\u2019s death, which comes at the movie\u2019s conclusion, is as unexpected as it is powerful. The scene demands that audiences consider who among us is truly monstrous.<\/p>\n

Sadly, these glimpses of blackness faded as many horror films in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s reverted to well-worn tropes. In some, like \u201cThe Shining<\/a>\u201d and \u201cAnnabelle<\/a>,\u201d black characters operate as the \u201csacrificial Negro\u201d who dies to save a white character\u2019s life. Then there are the dozens of films, like 1987\u2019s \u201cAngel Heart<\/a>\u201d and 1988\u2019s \u201cThe Serpent and the Rainbow<\/a>,\u201d in which black characters appear as wicked Voodoo practitioners.<\/p>\n

Black is back<\/h2>\n

Jordan Peele\u2019s films should be thought of as an homage to \u201cNight of the Living Dead\u201d and \u201cGanja & Hess\u201d \u2013 films that have strong, complex black protagonists. In fact, Peele has noted<\/a> that Ben\u2019s fate in \u201cNight of the Living Dead,\u201d which was released as the U.S. mourned the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., weighed heavily on him when he wrote the ending of \u201cGet Out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Peele\u2019s character \u2013 unlike Ben \u2013 survives.<\/p>\n

While Peele has shown that the genre can be a daring, unflinching examination of politics, class and race, the black horror renaissance has been brewing for some years. <\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, Ernest Dickerson<\/a> \u2013 who directed \u201cThe Purge,\u201d \u201cBones,\u201d \u201cDemon Knight\u201d and episodes of \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d \u2013 and Rusty Cundieff<\/a>, the director of \u201cTales from the Hood\u201d and \u201cTales from the Hood 2,\u201d have been stalwarts of the genre. They\u2019ve paved the way for Peele, as well as newcomers such as Meosha Bean<\/a>, Nikyatu Jusu and Deon Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The horror genre is maturing and becoming more imaginative and inclusive \u2013 in who can play hero and antihero, and who gets to be the monster and savior. The emergence of black horror films is just one chapter in a story that includes women taking on more prominent roles<\/a> in horror films, too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about time. As Jordan Peele noted in an interview in the documentary film \u201cHorror Noire<\/a>,\u201d the fact that there had been \u201csuch a small handful of films led by black people\u201d was, to him, \u201cthe horror itself.\u201d\"The<\/p>\n

Robin R. Means Coleman<\/a>, Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity; Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robin R. Means Coleman, Texas A&M University In the horror genre, black is definitely back. The movie \u201cMa,\u201d which premieres on May 31, will star Academy Award winner Octavia Butler as Sue Ann, a lonely middle-age woman who clings to a group of teens to the point of obsession. \u201cMa\u201d comes on the heels of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[501,335,3771,5244,6387,498,1728],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16603,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16602\/revisions\/16603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}