Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror

Great commentary and interviews by respected actors, filmmakers, writers and intellectuals on the history of Blacks in cinema and the horror genre. Fun to watch too.

An interesting, insightful & informative documentary about the African-American experience & representation in American horror films, in addition to the evolution of the genre itself over the years, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror presents an extensively researched, expertly dissected & effortlessly entertaining account of the contribution that black artists have made to the world of horror & Hollywood cinema as a whole.

Directed by Xavier Burgin, the documentary includes interviews from several black artists & scholars and begins by first acknowledging the watershed event that Jordan Peele's Get Out was only a few years back, for it broke down all barriers & smashed doors wide open for new n fresh voices to enter the industry, before harkening back to the early days when Hollywood often painted a disturbing picture of the whole race to advance the nation's propaganda.

The film chronicles their awful depiction in The Birth of a Nation, their relegation to background roles in the decades ahead, the implied racism in films they were not even a part of, a revival of sorts through the blaxploitation genre, caricature roles in subsequent years, increased acceptance in the 21st century, and the influential roles that horror films such as Night of the Living Dead, Blacula, Candyman, Tales from the Hood & more played in righting the wrongs one step at a time.

Overall, Horror Noire is captivating & illuminating in equal measure and offers an essential overview of the demographic whose contribution to mainstream horror remains vastly unacknowledged. While there is an air of change in the Hollywood industry of lately, it is only made possible by the countless black voices that kept going despite endless setbacks over the years until the breakthrough at last happened. And with new talents & fresh voices entering the American horror scene, the future at least for now sure looks promising. A must for horror aficionados.

Playing YouTube channel Double Toasted review of Soul Plane in background, they mentioned about the video being sponsored by Shudder,and gave a free 30 day code. Being in lockdown and having wanted to sign up to the service for ages, this looked like the perfect time to sign up. Being a title I saw get praised by RedLetterMedia, I decided my first Shudder viewing would go back to the history of Horror.

View on the film:

Going right back to the horrors of The Birth of a Nation (1915) in his feature film debut, director Xavier Burgin lays out a fascinating canvas on the progression of black Horror cinema history, from Spencer Williams kicking against the system to get the first "Black Horror" made in Son of Ingagi (1940) and the ground breaking work of George Romero, to the wave of Blaxploitation and black Horror cinema of the 2012.

Criss-crossing the clips with interviews of the cast/crew from some of the films and academics, Burgin combines production tales with fascinating academic interpretations of highlighted films. From the Tuskegee syphilis experiment being referenced in Blxploitation films and Bill Gunn using the Horror genre for the deeply personal Ganja & Hess (1973), to Candyman (1992) and the magnificent The Girl with All the Gifts (2016-also reviewed), in bringing to light the history of black Horror.

I enjoyed the overview of black people in horror films, and being introduced to a couple of films that I missed when they were released. From scary black voodoo practitioners through "black guy who dies first" to (of course) Night of the Living Dead and on up to Get Out, a group of academics, directors, and actors talk about what the changes meant and how they reacted to it.

Why I don't rate it higher is that while the academics and screenwriters and directors had interesting things to say, the actors did not and said basically, only "man, I loved this." Not insightful. I suppose being able to have name actors in the cast means more people might watch the film, but if we're watching a film analysis documentary, maybe we care less about actors and more about the people who have insights they can better articulate.

Good info, half-wrong cast.

This is a well produced documentary telling the story of African American actors in horror movies over the last 100 years. Great guests/pairings. Left out a few movies like 28 Days/Weeks Later, among a few others(especially the 80's). Great conversations and enlightening, especially for the horror fan.