Over the numerous decades of its existence , the horror genre has some archaic tropes and stereotypes that have become somewhat sacred. The virginal final girl, the dumb as rocks jock, the unapologetic whore, and the immortal slasher/zombie horde/sequel prone entity (whose sole goal in life is to destroy the walking cliches listed above) are some, if not the main, ingredients to a successful offering to the terror and mayhem obsessed masses. Some of these time cherished clichés have been challenged in recent years by a more cynical and discerning audience. Today, a majority of moviegoers demand more than tits, ass, and gore when it comes to most of the modern offerings, and studios (mainly independent) have delivered fairly well in taking the horror genre into new heights concerning the decades old rules of the genre. All the final girls are not virgins (some are not even girls), the jock isn’t always lost in his male privilege (but may still end up dying), and all the killers aren’t brainless plot points slashing their way towards the next five sequels. The tag line for Scream 4 said it best back in 2011 when it comes to the horror genre for millennials and the older die hard horror hounds: “New Decade, New Rules.” That is unless you’re a black character in a horror movie.
It’s 2017 and despite the evolution of most of the dated tropes I listed above, the one that’s still firmly attached to the psyches of most horror fans and the general movie going audience is that the black character “MUST” bite it before, during, or immediately after the opening credits. In other words, “Black people don’t survive horror movies.”
This arcane ideal used to be a running joke among comedians and the horror glitterati about the lack of black people in horror or sci-fi. Seth-Grahame Smith’s “How to Survive a Horror Movie” explicitly lists that two of the “Eight Most Common Horror Movie Stereotypes” are:
The Black Guy Who Buys It 20 Minutes In* The Black Guy’s Girlfriend Who Buys It 24 Minutes In *(We’re not even going to discuss the accompanying photos that went with these two descriptions…)
Granted the other stereotypes in Smith’s book were also mocked (and rightly so), but still… I would be lying if I said I didn’t cringe the first time I read about ‘our only contributions to the horror genre,” or that I didn’t cringe now while typing it. Even if the book was written in jest, Smith only reiterated what most people felt was gospel when it comes to a black person’s place in a horror setting.
It was even referenced in Scream 2 twice, first by Jada Pinkett’s Maureen Evans and later by Duane Martin’s Joel. Ironically, Jada Pinkett was the ultimate final girl -period- in Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight (which premiered two years earlier before Scream 2) and the character of Joel survived the Windsor College Murders albeit because he got out of the way by getting the hell out of town. While I applauded Scream 2 for touching upon the subject of the lack of black characters in horror films, it still felt like, to some degree, that they reestablished that trope while breaking and challenging other tropes simultaneously.
Before and after Scream 2 came on the scene, there were a nice crop of black people surviving slashers, demons, and other things that we as black people allegedly wouldn’t come across given if we had a choice. Back in February, I tried to merge Black History Month with my love of horror, a counter activity to the countless Horror Challenges that came across my newsfeed on Instagram almost every month. I wanted to honor the black characters (that I was aware of) who survived horror movies by posting a collage that comprised of three different graphics. I wanted to:
See if the horror mavens who permeated my news feed with their fave scenes and films over and over again knew that these black survivors not only existed but were great in number, and
Show my fellow black people that we do survive horror scenarios.
I used the #KnowYourBlackHorrorHistory after I named every single character and the actor portraying said character from each film. I always wanted to do a blog post about it, but never got around to it. But after the success of Get Out and finding a whole tribe of black people who are not nonchalant fans and actually study this genre just as much as I do, if not more, I felt it was time for me to stop playing and to get this list out here. It’s 2017, and we are not a stereotype anymore when it comes to horror movies.
Graphic One:
Fran (played by Angela Bassett) – Critters 4
Ronnie Heflin (played by Collins Pennie – Prom Night
Jake Washington (played by Texas Battle) – Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
Karla Wilson (played by Brandy) – I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
Reese Wilson (played by Loretta Devine) – Urban Legend and (12) Urban Legends: Final Cut
Sherman “Preacher” Dudley (played by LL Cool J) – Deep Blue Sea
Cody (played by Cory Hardict) – Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis
Doc (played by Yaphet Kotto) – Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
Grace Taylor (played by Tina Lifford) – Urban Legends: Bloody Mary
Poindexter “Fool” Williams (played by Brandon Adams) – The People Under The Stairs
Max (played by Laurence Fishburne) – A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
See #5 Reese Wilson
Dr. Kaela Evers (played by Angela Bassett) – Supernova
Graphic Two:
Rocky (played by Gloria Lynn Henry) – Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead
Sticks (played by Miguel A. Nunez) Leprechaun 4: In Space
Simone (played by Tanedra Howard) – Saw VI
Cole Burris (played by Eugene Byrd) – Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Gail Stern (played by Salli Richardson-Whitfield) – Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Danny Rich (played by Ice Cube) – Anaconda
Jeryline (played by Jada Pinkett) – Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight
Benny (played by Ken Foree) – Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
Matty (played by Garrett Morris) – Children of the Night
Anne (played by Alex Datcher) – John Carpenter Presents Body Bags
Cheryl (played by Kelly Jo Minter) – Popcorn
Abernathy Ross (played by Rosario Dawson) – Death Proof
Kim Mathis (played by Tracie Thomas) – Death Proof
Childs* (played by Keith David) – John Carpenter’s The Thing
Lily Ford (played by Jessica Lucas) – Cloverfield
* It’s been debated that Childs is actually The Thing since his breath is not visible in the final scene while Kurt Russell’s MacReady’s breath is.
Graphic Three
Yvonne Miller (played by Kelly Jo Minter) – A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Selene (played by Naomi Harris) – 28 Days Later
Peter Washington (played by Ken Foree) – Dawn of the Dead
Joel (played by Duane Martin) – Scream 2
Rodger (played by Alvin Alexis) – Night of the Demons (1988)
Deundre “Double D” Davis (played by Garikayi Mutambirwa) – Jeepers Creepers 2
Chelsea Farmer (played by Lena Caldwell) – Jeepers Creepers 2
Kimball “Big K” Ward (played by Kasan Butcher) – Jeepers Creepers 2
Reggie (played by Shavar Ross) – Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
John (played by Terry Alexander) – Day of the Dead
Ronald Tyler (played by Jeremy Sylvers) – Child’s Play 3
Jake (played by DeJuan Guy) – Candyman
Anne-Marie McCoy (played by Vanessa A. Williams) Candyman
Matthew Ellis (played by Joshua Gibran Mayweather) – Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
Maggie Bess (played by Rah Digga) – Thirteen Ghosts
Ronald “Ronny” Jones (played by LL Cool J) – Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Eddie Baker (played by Taye Diggs) – House on Haunted Hill
Freddie Harris (played by Busta Rhymes) – Halloween: Resurrection
Detective Winn (played by Idris Elba) – Prom Night
Not Pictured:
Chris Washington (played by Daniel Kaluuya) – Get Out
Rod Williams (played by Lil Rel Howery) – Get Out
Kira (played by Emayatzy Corinealdi) – The Invitation
Rochelle (played by Rachel True) – The Craft
Dr. Miranda Grey (played by Halle Berry) – Gothika
John (played by Lucien Laviscount) – The Bye Bye Man
Tom Newcliffe (played by Calvin Lockhart) – The Beast Must Die
So the next time someone foolishly says, “Black folks don’t survive horror movies…” Please link them to this blog post. And always remember, #KnowYourBlackHorrorHistory
Are there any black survivors that I’ve left off? Leave them in the comments below!
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