Update: due to unforeseen circumstances, the remaining eight entries missed the BHM deadline and will spill into the next day or two. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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.
Gail Stern (Salli Richardson-Whitfield)
Character Arc
If the crew of the Borneo expedition team were the Scoobies from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gail would be their Resident Cordelia Chase. All about her business and liking fly while doing so, Gail had a phone plastered to her ear for the first part of the movie, and was almost taken out by a alligator of all things in the process. Once the shit hit the fan, however, Gail reassessed their situation and was hellbent on leaving the jungle as soon as possible. Fountain of youth be damned. Helping create a raft for escape, Gail and crew’s only obstacle was that bitch ass Jack Byron, who let his timely death due to his greed, freeing Gail, Cole, Sam, and Bill (plus the monkey) to leave the jungle for good.
Fun Trivia
Like the original, it was the minorities who saved the day and actually made it to the final credits as well.
Final Thoughts
Again, when I saw this trailer I thought Cole and Gail were surely anaconda bait. The way Gail was so intent on keeping business flowing while looking flawless sort of made her seem incapable of lasting in the jungle. She sure as hell proved me wrong. Highly cheesy and corny at times, the best things about this movie is that two black/people of color made it and actually had a hand in killing the monster and saving the day. This time they got to live for their efforts.