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.
The Black Teens of the Bannon Bantom Basketball Team (Deaundre [Garikayi Mutambirwa], Chelsea [Lena Caldwell], and Kimball [Kasan Butcher])
Character Arcs:
The cheerleaders and basketball players of Bannon Bantom High were on their way home before being attacked by the Creeper during the last day of his 23 day feast. The Creeper targeted five of the teens to harvest/feast and Deaundre was one of them. Also on the bus were cheerleader Chelsea and fellow basketball player Kimball. While the Creeper snatched and fought with the students and local farmer whose son the Creeper snacked on days earlier, the titular monster didn’t get his grand prize in Deaundre, nor did he snatch Chelsea and Kimball.
Fun Trivia
Simply put, these black teens managed to elude becoming the dinner (and replacement parts) for the relentless Creeper, making this otherwise lackluster movie an enjoyable feast. More than one black person surviving a horror movie?!!
Final Thoughts
Despite the lack of character growth and plot development with all the characters, not just the black ones, the only saving grace of Jeepers Creepers 2 is to see the black teens make it to the end. They could’ve been easy lunchables for The Creeper, but the black teen cast (sans a coach) wasn’t having that noise.
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