The horror genre is soaked with bloody revenge, diabolical characters, and haunting stories that are often so scary we can only handle witnessing them on screen with a bowl of popcorn in hand. It has delivered more imaginative and unique horror stories. Black voices and faces are underrepresented in the horror genre, both onscreen and in the director’s chair. Fortunately, the recent success of Xavier Burgin’s documentary, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019)
has helped shine a spotlight on some of the high points of the genre.
Black people have contributed some absolute gems in horror whether working behind or in front of the camera. With Nope coming out July 22, an American science fiction horror film written, directed, and co-produced by Jordan Peele under his Monkeypaw Productions banner, we thought we look at more amazing Black horror films directed by Black directors both past and present.
Blacula (1972)
William Crain’s feature directorial debut was the iconic blaxploitation film Blacula starring William Marshall. Marshall played an African prince named Mamuwalde who is turned into a vampire against his will by Count Dracula and locked in a coffin for nearly 200 years. When he emerges, it is the 1970s and he has been transported to Los Angeles. The film was a box-office success and won the award for best horror film at the Saturn Awards. It also spawned a sequel, Scream Blacula Scream (1973), and inspired a wave of Black horror films in the 1970s.
Bones (2001)
American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television, and music videos, Ernest Dickerson’s Bones should be seen by every fan of the horror genre as it embodies everything fans love about the genre. Bones features a great story that carries some strong themes and depictions of drugs and corruption decimating in the Black community as well as some amazing practical effects that pay homage to various sub-genres of horror. It’s a true cult classic that shows some great direction from Dickerson and can’t miss performances from Snoop Dogg and Pam Grier. If you want to see Snoop stroll through a smoke-filled alley while holding the still-talking head of one of his victims, then this is the film for you.
Candyman (2021)
With the 1992 original Candyman as a jumping-off point, Nia DaCosta reclaims the narrative of the Black experience, as it relates to the gentrification of the projects. The true essence of Candyman is about the vilification of a Black man and the gentrification of a Black community, so it only made sense that the remake was placed in the hands of a Black woman. Nia DaCosta directed the slick remake and continued the themes of police brutality and racial injustice, which are still relevant today. It earned applause for the way it tackled the hard-hitting social topics while still giving us the gore and terror of the original Candyman from 1992.
Get Out (2017)
It’s safe to say Jordan Peele’s 2017 feature film debut Get Out is an important mile marker for modern horror. With a $4.5 million budget, Jordan Peele busted down the doors of Hollywood and heightened the entire horror community’s expectations for jaw-dropping, skin-crawling cinema. Peele’s directorial debut Get Out grossed $255 million worldwide. His screenplay pressed on social issues involving racism in a highly impactful, entertaining manner, which led him straight to the Oscars podium to give his acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay.
His House (2020)
One of Netflix’s best films of 2020 was Remi Weekes’His House for its scares and unique refugee story. The film follows a South Sudan refugee couple struggling to transition to their new UK home that carries an evil presence that repeatedly haunts them. Wunmi Mosaku plays Rial, a resilient, hard-working woman trying to do right by her husband Bol (Sope Dirisu) and daughter Nyagak (Malaika Abigaba). Once they cross the English Channel in a motorboat, the family receives probational asylum and are assigned to live derelict home on the outskirts of London. Try as they might, strange disturbances begin haunting their every moment, representing cyclical trauma from past generations. Weekes creates this incredibly eerie atmosphere full of supernatural threats that connect to the film’s main couple and there are some realistic horrors of the refugee experience that are chill-inducing.
Black Box (2020)
In Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour’s Black Box, an installment of Blumhouse’s 2020 Welcome to the Blumhouse film series, Mamoudou Athie plays Nolan Wright, a man stricken with severe amnesia. Following a deadly car crash, which took his wife, he attempts to pick up the pieces of his photography career and provide care for his daughter Ava (Amanda Christine). When approached by a medical professional, Dr. Lilian Brooks (Phylicia Rashad), to do an experimental treatment, Norman expresses concerns about its boundary-pushing approach in regards to the subconscious. Once he signs on, Dr. Lilian attaches a neuron cap to his head, which allows the device to extract and transmit vital memories into a black box. Then, the contraption transforms hidden memories into virtual reality images. Black Box is a captivating dissection of the complexities in medical research, as well as what happens afterlife and the possibility of our subconscious living on.
Kuso (2017)
American record producer Flying Lotus (real name Steven Ellison) goes for broke with his 2017 feature film, Kuso. The boldest and most absurd entry on this list is a series of connected short horror films that follows mutated survivors of an apocalyptic earthquake in Los Angeles. After a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles, survivors experience physical mutations, including fusions with other bodies or gross-out puss-filled sores. The world has been thrown into a catastrophic wasteland, and Ellison creates such a vision that’s not too far removed from our own, at least in terms of the digital effects on human psychology and our understanding of relationships. The film has been described by critics as the grossest film ever and has even experienced some audience walkouts during screenings.
Us (2019)
Us is the latest in the Peele cinematic universe, follows Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), her husband, and two children as they return to her childhood beachfront home. Fears are heightened when four attackers — their tethers — appear with the intent of them fighting for survival. While this film strays away from the heavy themes of racism that Peele is known for, it does speak to a louder social context: that the evil we fear is inside of us . Peele directs Us with a masterful collection of horror-movie tricks — jump scares that actually pay off, a cat-and-mouse game in an isolated place filled with bright lights and deep pools of impenetrable shadow. But his greatest asset is the performances, which turn an already creepy premise into something endlessly inhuman and unnerving.
Sweetheart (2019)
Sweetheart is a 2019 American survival horror film directed by J. D. Dillard, and the film sees a young woman (Kiersey Clemons) trapped on an island as a terrifying force from the deep hunts her down when night falls. She soon encounters a deadly humanoid sea monster, and her will to survive meets an ultimate test. When she reunites with boyfriend Lucas (Emory Cohen) and friend Mia (Hanna Mangan Lawrence), they brush off her claims of an underwater creature, which seals their fate. Dillard directs some strong horror sequences led by a great performance from Clemons and Sweetheart has one of the coolest creature designs of any modern creature feature.
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Boitumelo Masihleho is a South African digital content creator. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Rhodes University in Journalism and Media Studies and Politics and International Studies. She’s an experienced multimedia journalist who is committed to writing balanced, informative and interesting stories on a number of topics. Boitumelo has her own YouTube channel where she shares her love for affordable beauty and lifestyle content.
