When it comes to horror movies, Black folks have always had a complicated relationship with the genre. While we love a good scare every now and then, there are just certain films that hit too close to home, unleashing the kind of terror we’re not about to play around with.
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Some of these movies tap into real-world fears like racism, haints, demons possession, curses, and the occult. Others are just so downright disturbing that we’ll watch them one time, tell all our friends how badly they’ve got to see it–and internally vow to never watch it a second time. But regardless of your particular flavor of spooky, there’s no denying that they aren’t entertaining.
Yet and still, for some Black households, these nightmarish films can take things a bit too far to where we have to grab our nearest Bible, holy water, and sleep with one eye open and a nightlight on. So it’s in that vein–and in honor of Halloween season–that we thought it’d be fun to take a look at a handful of horror films that we collectively all don’t mess around with. From “The Shining” to “Candyman,” keep reading to get into all the terrifying goodness.
“The Conjuring”
When it comes to a demon or demonic possession, any Black person who grew up in the church and truly took it to heart and learned about that already knows this is one entity not to make light of.” The Conjuring” makes a strong case for leaving demons alone so yeah, no. Be gone, devils! We ain’t going for none of that.
“Omen”
(Author’s note: This movie is the exact reason why no child in our family can be named Damien.) It’s a big no-no and just another reason why we as Black folks will continue giving little white kids a double glance.
“Rosemary’s Baby”
There’s a reason why our elders used to always say “don’t be going over everybody’s house.” You really never really know what kind of stuff people are into and the effect it can have on you–“Rosemary’s Baby” is a good example of that.
“Candyman”
Well you probably could’ve guessed that this film would make the cut. As a community, even at our big ages now, we still won’t dare say “Candyman’s” name five times in a mirror. That’s just asking for trouble no matter which way you look at it!
“The Strangers”
The hair-raising thing about “The Strangers” that makes us want to chuck the movie into the nearest large body of water is the fact that something like this could very well happen in real life. When art stops imitating life and simply becomes a mirror for real-life horrors, that’s when we gotta tap out!
“Hellraiser”
The phrase “S&M,” will never hit the same because of this truly hellish movie. Thank God Rihanna made a song called “S&M” so it can somewhat distract us from the creepy images this movie left imprinted in our brains!
“Sinister”
Forget Carfax, people need to start looking up the history of homes before they buy them and move in. And this movie makes a strong case for doing just that! We surely are going to have a serious meeting with our realtors from here on out.
“Annabelle”
So much for passing down that doll collection some of our mothers and grandmothers had for years. Thanks to “Annabelle,” Molly, Joanne, Sasha, Suzy and all her cousins are about to get thrown down the garbage disposal! We’re not taking any chances.
“Hereditary”
You already know, when it comes to demons and what not, Black folks don’t like to mess around with that. And seeing as how this movie deals with a whole bloodline of them, the answer to whether or not we’re gonna rock with this movie is: IMMEDIATELY NO.
“Midsommar”
If “Midsommar” taught us anything, it’s to never respond to the group text with your white friends about an international trip. Had Josh just stayed stateside, he might’ve never suffered the fate he did! Mute the texts next time, man!
“It”
Though there have been multiple it-erations(ha!) of this film franchise, no matter who’s playing the titular character, this creepy clown stalking and harming people will forever have us as a community keeping real clowns at arms length.
“The Shining”
Jack Nicholson may be one of the GOATs when it comes to acting thanks to his performance in “The Shining,” but we’d be lying if we said we wouldn’t look at him with a major side-eye and hella creeped out feeling if we saw him in real life!
“The Deliverance”
While we were collectively gagged to hear some of the lines that Glenn Close uttered in this film, the religious aspect of this film had us all ready to grab our nearest bottle of “bless oil” and pray over our TV screens!
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