horror
-
The Safe Negro Guide to Lovecraft Country: 'Jig-a-Bobo'
Multi-orgasmic sex while molting your white-woman skin? Running from creepy twin pickaninny caricatures? Saved from gunfire by a concrete shoggoth? It must be Episode 8 of HBO’s Lovecraft Country! Last Sunday was a welcome respite from watching The Masque of the Red Death play out in real-time on our nightly news, but you want to…
-
The Safe Negro Guide to Lovecraft Country: 'I Am.'
Welcome back to Lovecraft Country! Wow! Talk about the Afrofuture! Talk about Black feminism! Episode 7, “I Am.” hit all of my academic erogenous zones and I can’t wait to dig into it with you. First, I want to address a critique of Lovecraft Country I haven’t addressed in this space, which came up while…
-
Sinkhole: Issa Rae and Jordan Peele Are Teaming Up on a Sci-Fi Horror Film Tackling the Idea of Female Perfection
Imagine a world riddled with insecurity and a mysterious abyss that seems to go on forever, perhaps starring the creator-star of a hit TV show named Insecure and produced by the man who wrote and directed Get Out (and invented the Sunken Place)? Well, you don’t just have to imagine, because Issa Rae and Jordan…
-
Behind-The-Scenes: Aldis Hodge Hoped He Didn't 'Look Foolish' Filming The Invisible Man, Which Is Impossible
Aldis Hodge is a treat. Though the most recent big film he was in is called The Invisible Man, thankfully, he is not the titular man that is invisible. We can see him clearly because God is real. Soon, you’ll get to see him in your homes while you’re in self-isolation. The synopsis, from Universal…
-
First Look: Mary J. Blige Asked for 'No More Drama' but She's Experiencing a Lot of It in Body Cam
Sometimes, you prepare to watch a movie trailer expecting one thing and something else happens. That’s what I experienced watching the trailer for Body Cam. Before knowing anything about the film, I figured it was yet another police drama, which may or may not tackle the racial complexities of police interactions. After all, one of…
-
The Candyman Can Because Yes, Gentrification Deserves Its Own Horror Flick
Jordan Peele is pretty good at this whole horror thing. In 2017’s Get Out, he schooled us with a satirical take on the perils of benevolent racism, while 2019’s Us was a duplicitous mind fuck in itself. This time around, with Candyman—a spiritual successor to the 1992 original, helmed by the bold and brilliant Nia…
-
Beyond Us: Taking the Advice of Jordan Peele, 11-Year-Old Evan Alex Is Writing His Own Horror Script
It was March 2019 and we were all sitting in our respective local theaters, watching Jordan Peele’s Us. We subsequently became freaked out listening to Red’s (Lupita Nyong’o) cracked voice as she started her eerie backstory with, “Once upon a time, there was a girl and the girl had a shadow.” Well, it looks like…
-
Why'd They Kill Tyrone? Unpacking Blackness in Horror Films
Black folks don’t do horror—right?! Wrong. The correct answer: It’s complicated. Blackness and horror are two concepts that until recently, didn’t really seem to harmoniously coexist. After all, who wants to pay to see their play-cousins either be axed first—to flutter around as the magical negro or sacrifice their life so the white savior may…
-
Watch: Isaiah Mustafa Describes ‘Pure Fear’ in It Chapter Two Clip
When the remake of It dropped in 2017, it spawned an influx of memes that included its horrifying star Pennywise creeping in sewers, yellow raincoats and red balloons. Today, in 2019, a clown means something equally as scary: being made out to be Boo-Boo the Fool. However, Pennywise is back to take his creepy crown…
-
What’s Your Favorite Scary Reboot? Mary J. Blige, Keke Palmer, and Tyga to Star in Queen Latifah-Produced Scream Series on VH1
The year was 1996, and one question looped in our heads over and over before the term “meme” was even realized: What’s your favorite scary movie? From the moment it hit theater screens everywhere, the Wes Craven slasher flick Scream became a pop cultural phenomenon. Now, 23 years later, we have a trailer for the…