Blacks in horror movies
As the new ‘Candyman’ hooks us, a scary look back.
Starting with Jordan Peele’s successful “Get Out” (2017), it seems Hollywood finally recognizes that Black characters can be more than victims in the horror genre.
As said in the 2019 documentary “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror”: “We’ve always loved horror. Unfortunately, horror hasn’t always loved us.”
Now, as Black directors, producers and screenwriters have more opportunities to flex, Black actors can portray fully developed leading characters who are no longer the first to go, a trend that was mocked in “Scream 2” (1997).
The new horror film “Candyman” hit theaters last week after several delays due to the pandemic, and nearly 30 years after the original, we’re still hooked. The smart, stylistic flick features Jordan Peele (“Get Out,” “Us”) as a producer and is a direct sequel to the 1992 original starring Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen.
Directed with a numbing amount of flair and imagination by Nia DaCosta, the new “Candyman” takes us back to Chicago, where the locals in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood still buzz about the urban folklore surrounding a killer named Candyman with a huge hook for a hand and a ribcage full of bees. Summon him by saying his name five times in a mirror. (We don’t dare to try that in real life.)
Emmy-winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is Anthony McCoy, a visual artist on Chicago’s hip art scene who finds himself inspired by, and then unnaturally obsessed with, Candyman. His Candyman-fueled art instantly boosts his popularity, especially after a couple is murdered in the gallery the night his new work “Say His Name” premieres.
Here, we look at some key moments featuring Black characters in horror films — the good, the bad and the gross.
‘Spiral’ (2021)
The grisly games from the book of “Saw” begin again with “Spiral,” this time within the ranks of a big city police department as officers have an unpretty price to pay at the hands of a mysterious killer drawing from the past. Detective Ezekiel Banks (Chris Rock) and his police veteran father Marcus Banks (Samuel L. Jackson) are at the center of the bloody mystery.
‘Spell’ (2020)
Omari Hardwick stars as a successful big city businessman traveling home to rural Appalachia with his family for a funeral when the plane crash lands. He awakens in a country farmhouse trapped and tormented by Loretta Devine
as a hoodoo practitioner.
‘Bad Hair’ (2020)
Classically campy in quite possibly the best and worst ways, “Bad Hair” is not just bad, it’s evil as a killer hair weave runs amok in this 1980s satirical horror flick set against the backdrop of the music industry.
‘Antebellum’ (2020)
There’s little that’s worse than the horrors of slavery, which serves as the backdrop for this twisty story that casts Janelle Monae in two time periods — she’s a successful modern-day writer, and a woman trapped in the woes of slavery. Watch out for the final act “shocker.”
‘Us’ (2019)
Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke head up a young family vacationing in California, where Nyong’o’s character suffered a traumatic childhood experience, when they’re confronted by a family that looks identical to them. No spoilers, but much terror ensues.
‘Ma’ (2019)
Octavia Spencer is creepy as “Ma,” a woman who takes an odd interest in a group of teenagers that turns terrifying after she begins exacting a particular revenge.
‘Little Monsters’ (2019)
Released on Hulu on the heels of “Us,” Lupita Nyong’o lightens the tone despite playing a school teacher who tries to save her students from a zombie attack during a field trip. Josh Gad and Alexander England are on hand to shore up the film’s horror-comedy credentials. Horror-comedy combos is a tricky mix; this one mostly pulls it off.
‘Get Out’ (2017)
A visit by Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) to meet his white girlfriend’s parents proves more than sinister. Golden Globe officials allowed the movie to be submitted as a comedy, but many others begged to differ. The movie was nominated for a best picture Oscar, and Kaluuya was nominated for best actor. Peele was the first African American to win the Oscar for best original screenplay.
‘A Haunted House’ (2013)
Arriving during the hype of the “Paranormal Activity” horror film series comes this parody bringing the expected hit-or-miss silliness from Marlon Wayans. He and Essence Atkins play a couple whose dream home is full of nightmares. A sequel, “A Haunted House 2,” followed in 2014.
‘Somebody Help Me’ (2007)
Essentially a vanity project for R&B singers Omarion and Marques Houston and their manager Chris Stokes, “Somebody Help Me” is full of wrong notes as a young group heads to a cabin in the
woods. “Somebody Help Me 2” somehow followed in 2010.
‘Bones’ (2001)
The wave of horror-meetship-hop flicks included this one starring Snoop Dogg’s Jimmy Bones, a do-right man in the 1970s looking to make his neighborhood better before he’s murdered. He’s resurrected decades later to get revenge. At one point, Jimmy utters the words “I got a natural high — a supernatural high.”
‘Scream 2’ (1997)
The murders pile up in Woodsboro surrounding Sidney Prescott, including Black couple Maureen and Phil, who at the top of the film while attending the premiere of a movie called “Stab,” talk about the way Black characters die first, then die first themselves.
‘Tales From the Hood’ (1995)
This anthology, set in a mortuary, features more than just creepy tales from the hood. This socially conscious movie deftly mixes scares with stories about police brutality against African Americans and a racist politician. “Tales From the Hood 2” was released in 2018.
‘Vampire in Brooklyn’ (1995)
Portraying “the world’s last vampire,” Eddie Murphy is Maximillian in this supposed horror-comedy that leaves the scares and the laughs somewhere in the coffin.
‘Candyman’ (1992)
As if Chicago’s old Cabrini-Green projects didn’t have enough problems, there’s
Candyman, the hooked killer who appears in the mirror. Whatever you do, don’t say his name five times. Two sequels followed: “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh” (1995) and “Candyman: Day of the Dead” (1999). The new “Candyman” opened last week.
‘J.D.’s Revenge’ (1976)
J.D. Walker, a gangster killed in the 1940s, finds a home in the body of law student Isaac (Glynn Turman), who takes on J.D.’s presence and exacts revenge from the grave. Watching Turman eat up his gangster role is totally worth it.
‘Sugar Hill’ (1974)
The height of the horror blaxploitation movement also brought on the zombies and voodoo conjured up by female photographer Sugar Hill, who had something in mind for those who murdered her lover.
‘Abby’ (1974)
It’s not just any demon that takes over Abby — it’s an African sex demon that causes Abby to wild out in this obvious “The Exorcist”-derived flick. It’s nothing less than a hoot.
‘Ganja and Hess’ (1973)
A favorite among those who’ve seen it and influential enough to be the inspiration for Spike Lee’s 2014 film “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus,” “Ganja and Hess” follows an anthropologist studying an ancient African civilization who suddenly craves blood after being stabbed with a ceremonial dagger. Star Duane Jones directly followed “Night of the Living Dead” with this film.
‘Blacula’ (1972)
“Dracula’s soul brother,” as the trailer poorly promoted, said all we needed to know about this horror blaxploitation classic about an African prince transformed into a vampire. This Dark Prince of Shadows spawned a sequel, 1973’s “Scream Blacula Scream.”
‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968)
The granddaddy of zombie movies from the godfather of zombie movies (George A. Romero), “Night of the Living Dead” featured something unseen at the time: a strong Black male lead protagonist, Duane Jones as Ben, fighting off zombies in rural Pennsylvania. A 1990 remake starred “Candyman” actor Tony Todd as Ben.