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.
Selena – (Naomi Harris)
Character Arc:
Headstrong, but deadly AF, Selena was not with the bullshit, and survival was her top priority. To maintain that goal, she was willing to take down anyone in a heartbeat if need be. That was until she met Jim. Sticking with Jim, and later Frank and Hannah, Selena let her guard down for a bit to see hope among her new friends. But when their lives were in jeopardy from an even more dangerous element than the Infected, Selena became the heroine of 28 Days Later, saving the day and becoming one of the latest bad ass black female horror survivors.
Fun Trivia:
A sequel comic book series, also titled 28 Days Later, continued Selena’s story post the original movie, during the events of the second movie (28 Weeks Later), and afterwards. Let’s just say that Selena retains the crown she earned at the end of 28 Days Later throughout the comic’s run.
Final Thoughts
There’s is a lot that could be said about Selena that would fill tons of blog posts, but the one thing one must remember is that she’s a champion of showing the world that black women are just as resourceful, and capable of surviving on their own. In fact, one could argue that Selena prepared the world for Michonne from The Walking Dead and Roberta Walker from Z-Nation.
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