This February, Midnight Social Distortion will be celebrating Black History Month by honoring Black horror characters, in particular Black horror survivors, throughout the twenty-eight day period. Each day will feature one black male and one black female survivor in horror and sci-fi to bring light to the positive, albeit still problematic, black champions of representation in horror. Some disclaimers first: obvious spoilers ahead, and not all horror survivors will be featured this go round, but will appear in later posts down the line.
Yvonne Miller (Kelly Jo Minter)
Character Arc:
Gifted swimmer and devoted candy striper, Yvonne Miller was a loyal best friend to Dream Master Alice. She was also a practical type of girl who didn’t believe in dream boogeymen, and clashed with Alice and Mark despite the bodies of their friends dropping like disposed candy wrappers around them. With that said, seeing is believing. When Freddy came a knockin in her dreams, Yvonne finally got with the program and helped save the day, managing to be Alice’s only surviving friend of Freddy’s latest rampage. Better late than deader, right?
Fun Trivia
Yvonne is the only black female to survive Freddy’s glove.
In an earlier draft of the script, and in the novelization of that same script, Yvonne was actually a college student who knew Alice, Dan, Mark, and Greta. She still survived the events in the story, but wasn’t a graduating student of Springwood High. She was also still a swimmer and candy striper at the hospital.
In the A Nightmare on Elm Street Innovation Comics run, Yvonne appears again when Alice and Jacob return to Springwood to stop another killing spree by Freddy. This time she’s a police detective and she still comes out unscathed. Yvonne, 2; Freddy, 0.
Kelly Jo Minter has been in four horror movies (The Lost Boys, ANOES 5, Popcorn, and The People Under the Stairs) and survived all of them. Don’t come for Kelly…
Final Thoughts
Yvonne was the first black woman I saw survive a horror movie, so the character (and Kelly Jo Minter) holds a soft spot in my horrific heart. She may have been the black best friend, but she was still vital to the story and managed to survive an Elm Street venture. As well as several rewrites and questionable comic book canon.
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