It’s Halloween! If you plan on staying in the house and are searching for something to help you get in the mood for the evening, we have a few movies and TV shows for you to enjoy that also make you think about the Black condition in America.
Suggested Reading
If you want a side of “deep” to go with that nasty candy corn you keep buying every year, take a look at the stuff on this list — and maybe watch them with a white friend to let them in on some jewels they might never have thought about before…
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
A classic horror film, it offers a glimpse into the fear blackness inspires within white America. The “creature” is big, Black and rises from the depths of a black lagoon. The first time we see it on screen is when a white woman is attacked. It’s clear what’s going on in the minds of the filmmakers.
Friday The 13th Part 3 (1982)
Jason Voorhees is a white dude in a white mask killing mostly white people. However, if there is a Black person in the film, they are going to die. This film teaches us to not be the token black friend. Don’t be that guy.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
This film features Laurence Fishburne…an actor so bougie that his parents couldn’t just spell his name “Lawrence” like normal. He survives a 1980s slasher by knowing when to let white people be white. The killer can’t kill you if you’re not there. ‘Nuff said.
Candyman (1992)
This is the scariest “Leave them damn white girls alone” movie ever made. It terrified me as a Starter jacket and thugged out Bugs Bunny t-shirt-wearing teen. But thinking about it as an adult, I realize the title character played by Tony Todd is not the real villain of the film…whiteness is what’s lurking in the dark. It’s American slavery that forced him to become Candyman to begin with.
Green Room (2015)
Written and directed by the filmmaker who made “Rebel Ridge,” it is the story of a white punk rock group who unwittingly agrees to play for white supremacists in the woods of Oregon. There are no Black people in this film, but this film reminds us that white supremacists are still around, hiding in plain sight.
Us (2019)
A black family goes on a beach vacation. A family just like, but different from, the first family shows up, and all hell breaks loose. You know what “Us” is about…but that’s not all it is about. The film’s silent, angry, jumpsuit-wearing marauders can be read as symbolic of Americans ensnared in the legal system. This is a crucial point, because with “Us,” as with “Get Out,” Peele is using mass entertainment to address the concerns of Black folks everywhere.
Watchmen (2019)
HBO’s “Watchmen” is not horror, but it’s terrifying because it shows something America has forgotten that Black people survived: the Tulsa race massacre. It also does something that has been seldom done. It takes history and Blackwashes it…that is, it writes Black people in where they were not before. Mad respect
Lovecraft Country (2020)
“Lovecraft Country” portrays the horror that can be Black life in America. The show was cancelled too soon (after only one season), but it is still worth watching. The pilot episode features a harrowing excursion into something that killed too many Black people: a Sundown town. These towns may no longer exist, but don’t get caught in an all-white town after dark. It may not end well for you.
Candyman (2021)
Nia DaCosta directed the 2021 sequel to the original film and turned it into a mediation on the legacy of institutional violence visited upon black folks. It doesn’t have as many jump scares as the 1992 film, but it remains terrifying because it reminds us that the police have killed more Black people than Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees combined.
Master (2022)
This stars Regina Hall as Gail Bishop, the first Black headmaster of Ancaster, a fictional elite New England university. Microaggressions and blatant racism are on display in the film, but the scene in which the song “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes is played at a white frat party will shake you so deep you will have to walk away. Being Black at a white fraternity party can be quite dangerous…
Them: The Scare (2023)
This show is a revelation. It tells the story of a serial killer who targets mostly Black women in South Central Los Angeles, something that happened in the 90s that many have forgotten about. Watch it because it’s a trippy, disturbing ride about the danger that Black men who need counseling but don’t get it can pose to Black women… or watch it because Luke James acts his ass off. Like, seriously. That ‘s one actin’ ass falsetto sangin’ lil n***a.
The Wiz (1978)
This has incredible costumes, dope ass songs and a scene that terrified billions of Black children featuring monkeys. Be prepared, though: the rest of the film will put you to sleep because, well, it’s not very good. Anyone who disagrees puts sugar in their grits. But when this movie slaps…it SLAPS.
Dr. Sleep (2019)
This collection edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker is a meditation on whiteness and power in the form of horror adjacent short stories. None of them scared me, but every single one of them made me think…and that is what horror can do when it is at its best.
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