Black Horror Renaissance (2017-Now)

It would be a vast understatement to say the last decade was predictable, in fact it is known for being remarkably unpredictable. In 2017, based on history and the events of the time, I would have predicted black horror movies would be even more mocking and offensive than they’d already come to be. Movies like Meet the Blacks popped up in each genre, drawing in black audiences because it was the only thing offered and often not delivering portrayals that resonated with them. Horror in particular lacked relatable black stories that intended to appeal to black audiences and I would’ve guessed studios wouldn’t be interested in being the first to take the risk to create media for black audiences. Lo and behold it took someone from the community to take on the risk of a serious horror film that appealed to black audiences while risking offending standard audiences.

The Origin of the Black Horror Renaissance

This creator, Jordan Peele, known from the Key & Peele Comedy Central series, is one of the people responsible for what I am referring to as the Black Horror Renaissance in this post. His studio, Monkeypaw Productions, alongside Blumhouse Productions and QC Entertainment created Get Out for approximately $4.5 million dollars. Peele wrote and directed the film and following the success of said film, which will be discussed in detail later in this post, he continued to make horror movies focused on stories from a black perspective. From the music to the story to the comedic undertones this updated version of the black horror genre set a path for success and an unapologetically black formula to tell more layered stories through horror elements and stories.

This and other movies created by black directors and film writers also proved to studios that black people would bring something different to the genre that drew in often untapped audiences. Anyone can take a crack at telling a black story through horror or telling a story that involves blackness, we have countless examples of movies and shows that are about black people but not made by us. I would argue that black voices on the other hand being utilized in conjunction with black stories elevated the horror movies I'd associate with the Black Horror Renaissance. Black voices telling black stories is by and large a more successful endeavor than those same stories being told by non-black voices (The Front Room as just one example of a movie not well reviewed that isn't told by a black voice).

Prior to this era, the Black Horror Renaissance, we existed in varying degrees of the Blaxploitation Era, some eras worse than others. Often the black horror movies that did come out focused mainly on comedic aspects and caricatures of black people that appealed to standard, often white, audiences at the expense of black people. If not comedy films often focused on the dark and torturous history of black people in America and felt like they appealed to an even uglier and darker audience of viewers looking for something a little stronger than the horror genre typically offers. Movies that came out during this era are talked about like guilty pleasures, that is if someone even knows of them and on the other hand are low budget projects with little care given to the script, plots, sets, or special effects.

Additionally these movies rarely popped off with audiences and didn't return on the investments, something Get Out also dramatically changed. The film made approximately $255.4 million at the box office and sparked a plethora of viral memes, posts, and fan art on various platforms in part due to the prevalence of discussions of race during that time period. The “sunken place” which refers to a mental prison created by the white hypnotherapist in Get Out has even become a term used not only to describe the trapped mental state in the film but also a cultural phrase like "catfish" that is used to describe a state of being for black people. As parlance the sunken place has become synonymous with a black person who is more like Tim Scott than Samuel L. Jackson, someone who sacrifices their true selves in the pursuit of whiteness and thus cultural acceptance.

POST DISCLAIMER

Black horror in the context of this post only pertains to movies about American black stories that are written and/or directed by black people to argue that a renaissance exists. Additionally this is specifically in reference to the history and culture of African Americans and the films covered don’t include those about African colonization, culture, or immigration although those are black stories also. I also don’t know if black horror is an official subgenre or just something that annually pops up around black holidays like Juneteenth.

My focus is due to my knowledge areas combined with my personal background and not for lack of appreciation or admiration for African horror or media that is directed by or written by non-black people (People Under the Stairs (1991) , Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Candyman (1992) are some examples of black horror that aren't included due to this parameter). Much of the horror in the covered films pertains to racism in America and the horror inflicted by it upon everyone it touches, black and non-black people alike.

Black Horror Renaissance Thesis & Evidence

Thesis

In this post I argue the thesis: the audience driven success of Get Out (2017) encouraged more money invested in making black horror. This investment resulted in more black voices successfully telling black stories through the genre which helped push the genre forward while validating unspoken pains experienced by many in the community and generating large return on investments.

Movie Evidence

• Contrast between black horror pre and post 2017

  • Pertaining to subject matter, quality, involvement of black artists, etc.

• Box office success of black horror as a studio incentive

  • Continued investment and expansion

• Failed attempts of non-black voices in modern black Horror

• Higher achievements as quantity and quality increase

  • Sinners (2025) has broken box office records and received high praise

Movie Reviews

Get Out (2017)

As discussed earlier in this post prior to the 2017 release of Get Out black horror typically referred to Blaxploitation films, stories that played heavily into stereotypes, or stories told through the eyes of non-black creators with flaws that deterred black audiences. Not only was the idea of a horror comedy with serious undertones that appealed to a black audience wasn't common on a large scale. Big blockbusters solely focused on black stories wasn’t a proven concept at the box office, even Black Panther hadn’t come out yet to prove that a movie like that would appeal to a wider audience than just black viewers.

Furthermore a serious tone was not associated with black projects prior to this mid-2010’s era of films but rather a stylized Tyler Perry image of struggle, presenting blackness as undesirable and rife with issues from within and outside of the community, movies like Get Out in contrast display a reverence for blackness. This reverence helps disguise racism amongst the white liberal, particularly upper class families with generational wealth. Rather than hatred they embody a jealousy that excuses heinous beliefs and is used to back even more awful behavior, like trapping a human’s consciousness inside their mind so that their body can be controlled like a puppet for the highest bidder.

In Get Out Daniel Kaluuya portrays Chris Washington, a black man who goes with his girlfriend, Allison Williams as Rose Armitage, to her family’s home to meet them. She and her family are white and wealthy but her father makes a point of telling Chris they voted for Obama both times. Even before he makes it to the house things are just off, tense and bizarre but in ways that make you feel like you’re going insane. This psychological terror builds up as Chris continues his stay and is only heightened when the family has a party and the guests are other wealthy families. One couple in particular stands out, a young man from the start of the film who is shown to be thrown into a trunk, LaKeith Stanfield as Logan King who is actually Andre Hayworth with King’s consciousness inside of him.

Basically, the wealthy party guests all bid on the newest captive aka Allison’s partner that has come home for the meet-the-family visit. Chris discovers this a bit too late however, even staying after a camera flash causes Andre to surface and take over, warning Chris to “get out,” of there before the same fate befalls him. Part of the process to steal the bodies of black people, which they choose based on attributes like physical capability and in Chris’ case artistic ability, includes hypnotization from the family matriarch. From the film a colloquial term, “the sunken place,” which is what the hypnotist calls the place she traps the black person’s consciousness.

Falling silently down into a dark abyss, almost floating downward, screaming in silence into the void unable to move their physical body. This horror imagery evoked a knowing within the community of a way to describe what to call someone trapped inside a vicious cycle of the mind. A place where you can be sent by white supremacy.

The First Purge (2018)

From the opening scene this horror film has hallmarks of a black horror told by black voices, providing backstory to even the term for the annual massacre being a stolen phrase. A common story in American history is the theft of phrases, ideas, and other cultural elements from the black and other minority communities. Going into the film it’s mostly presupposed that the viewer is aware of the other Purge film and the concept of an annual period of lawlessness in America. While the concept is slightly touched upon even in the first film, that the victims of the Purge are more likely to be black and brown poor people and the Purgers are more likely to be affluent whites and even more predictable—affluent white’s that know that is happening and do nothing.

In this Purge however the main characters are residents in the projects on Staten Island, New York rather than an affluent suburb. To give some insight into the lives of these characters and ground zero for the Purge experiment the intro is clips of interviews with the scientists who will be conducting the research. A base of operations includes cameras all over the area and contacts that double as recording devices are given to experiment participants who plan to participate. During his intake interview, Skeletor, is revealed as the creator of the term “purge” which is what he calls the his plans for the experiment in his monologue answer to the doctors’ questions. He means he needs to purge his anger towards the world by committing acts of violence during the experiment, essentially ensuring that at least one participant will act how they hope people will act. Also showing the extent to which the NFFA, who are financially backing the experiment and connected with the NRA, view the area’s residents and thus experiment participants as test subjects rather than humans.

It’s made clear that this new party, the NFFA, arose in response to people’s dissatisfaction with Democrats and Republicans and stands for the New Founding Fathers who believe the American Dream is dead. They are supported by the NRA that is also supplying them weaponry and they believe that the best way to deal with the high crime and civil unrest is the period of legal crime. In order to back their agenda and thus entire administration they need a successful experiment that shows a period of legal crime leads to a reduction in crime and unrest. Despite being protested by some of the city’s residents and civil leaders the experiment is quite popular amongst residents due to the incentives the NFFA offers. Participants in the experimental program are offered $5,000 to stay on the island at home and additional compensation each way they participate in the program by committing crimes like murder.

They must get a tracking device implanted and participate in interviews to provide data for the project that aims to prove that the Purge is a worthwhile program to install around the nation. The civil leaders, one of which is Nya Chambers portrayed by Lex Scott Davis, decide to hole up in a local church. Meanwhile the gang led by Dmitri Cimber portrayed by Y’lan Noel has a mixed reaction to the Purge, unable to stand with moral clarity due to the drug trade they prop up in the neighborhood. Things go awry rather quickly however when the residents of Staten Island don’t break into a murderous rage but rather a glow in the dark block party with a free, open air drug trade. Most are choosing to party or stay holed up at home rather than participate, which the NFFA is quick to change.

The NFFA sends in groups of mercenaries as agitators to attack and kill residents of Staten Island. One of them openly admits that the Purge is a front for population control through the sanctioned murder of poor black and brown residents. It is reminiscent of medical experiments being conducted on minority communities often without their knowledge and thus without their consent. Often making generational wealth from the advancements built upon these experiments. In addition to the conflict between the government and this community there is conflict within the community between Nya who represents leftist ideals of advocacy and community building in opposition to Dmitri who has made wealth he believes he is reinvesting in the community. Dmitri wants to stay outside of politics unless it aligns with his goals whereas Nya sees through the NFFA before the experiment, her church being a target of a mercenary attack carried out by tiki torch carrying white nationalists.

In the end Nya, a few neighbors, her brother, and Dmitri are some of the only people in their public project buildings left standing. The mercenaries travel floor by floor through the buildings killing anyone they come across, engaging in fire fights in the hallways as they go. Dmitri is built different as hell and kills every single one of them one by one with various tactics. The battle between them and the mercenaries ends up in Nya and her brother’s apartment. We learn the mercs were sent in to kill people in their area during the experiment as a form of “population control” which we now know is a bullshit excuse to keep impoverished people impoverished. They claim that the crime rates, inequities, and global issues would be resolved with fewer people. We simultaneously have declining birth rates and were being told less than 15 years ago that the reason for wealth inequity was overpopulation, in particular amongst lower household income levels (false). Nya and Dmitri end the night together with her brother and neighbors also surviving, saved from the mercs by Skeletor who was waiting to kill them himself. He attacks the squad and this allows Dmitri to set up the final defeat.

This Purge movie in particular always stands out to me amongst the rest. It answers the questions I’d wanted to know the answers to the most like how something like the Purge could come to be in a society. As the last few years have taught many of us it is silly to look back at the past and assume that you wouldn’t find yourself in a similar position due to your insight and ability to view the hindsight. It seems obvious now how an experiment could take a country by a storm despite being obviously flawed but at the time of the movie’s release it felt slightly outlandish. Now the most outlandish thing is that we’d have recording contact lenses that live stream video readily available by this time, so much so that the lenses are disposable. I really like that the residents initially just party because that feels realistic and makes the entire movie more engaging because of that realism. It’s also no secret that the NFFA has morphed into MAGA as the franchise has gone on, formerly resembling something like the Tea Party or whoever supports wealthy southern society debutant balls.

Antebellum (2020)

The trailer for Antebellum 2020 had me stoked, immediately anticipating a smash hit from Jordan Peele to follow Get Out. My guess walking away from the trailer was that it was about time travel and an unfortunate soul was traveling back to slave times outside of their control. I imagined that as the horror, that some supernatural force would reach into the future and pluck you from relative safety (depending on where you live in the US and your background) right into a world of nightmares. Subjugation and knowing what we know now while suffering at the hands of chattel slavery felt like an insurmountable amount of terror that I couldn’t say I wanted to witness. I felt like maybe Jordan Peele’s intended audience was white viewers, to display the harsh and traumatic impacts of slavery from the POV and in the parlance of a woman from the 21st century. Like other movies that feel like that to me (12 Years a Slave and Them to name 2).

In reality the scenario is a lot spookier, an entire confederate reenactment site operates as a playground for wealthy white supremacists. The “slaves” are abducted black people, particularly educated and well regarded black people like an even deeper twist of an already fatal stab wound—to make the power games operate even on that level. The dynamic between Veronica Henley played by Janelle Monáe and Elizabeth played by Jena Malone portrays the relationship between black and white women and is particularly interesting. A lot of the other aspects and dynamics often feel like torture-porn meant to appeal to the very white supremacists that the movie portrays as villains.

There’s a level of sympathy given to the portrayal of the confederates that is uncomfortable to view. In addition much of the narrative revolves around revenge and how hard we from the present would or wouldn’t fight to free ourselves from the subjugation of slavery. During the course of the film it is revealed that Veronica was chosen by Elizabeth’s father, who is also a Senator, to be a slave in the park which draws back to the core issues between black and white women. Much of these issues center around a warped sense of jealousy and inability to reconcile the heinous things white men say to them about black people with that white man’s desire for black women. Even that initial desire however is based in power with the goal of exerting authority and control through fear.

Candyman (2021)

The 2021 Candyman is a remake of the 1992 original which has an entirely different vibe in my opinion. In the original Candyman, portrayed by Tony Todd in both versions, feels more antagonist and vengeful but the story is told from the POV of Helen Lyle portrayed by Virginia Madsen. She originally wants to use the public housing project, Cabrini-Green in Chicago, for her college thesis following a string of murders in the area but becomes a target of Candyman when she performs the ritual. When her and her friend visit Cabrini-Green they meet a neighbor of the murder victim, Anne-Marie McCoy and her son Anthony, portrayed by Vanessa Estelle Williams and Lanesha Martin respectively. The 2 characters play a pivotal role in the tale after Candyman uses Anthony to force Helen to help him make the residents of Cabrini-Green fearful. He attempts to sacrifice Anthony and Helen in a fire but she’s able to vanquish him and save Anthony despite dying in the fire herself. That movie ends with Helen being in the place of Candyman to haunt her ex-fiancé, Trevor, and a mural depicts Helen with Candyman.

The remake that came out in 2021 follows Anthony, portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as an artist in Chicago living with his girlfriend, Bri or Brianna Cartwright portrayed by Teyonah Parris, also involved with the art world. Bri’s brother and his boyfriend come over to have dinner with the couple and tell them the story about Helen Lyle, prompting Anthony to seek inspiration in Cabrini-Green. While taking photos in the eerily desolate area he’s stung by a bee on his hand and makes his way to a laundromat owned by William Burke, portrayed by Colman Domingo. William goes by Billy and informs Anthony about the Candyman legend which Anthony then develops into an art show he calls, “Say My Name,” about the legend that includes looking in a mirror and saying Candyman 5 times like the legend states. People Anthony knows that come to his art show end up summoning Candyman and being murdered in the studio, with some very interesting and haunting cinematography.

Billy ends up telling Anthony more about the legend as Anthony spirals down along with his bee-sting, now seemingly infected and spreading down his arm from his hand. Billy adds to the legend of the original films and fleshes out details and questions that probably weren’t as important in the 1990’s to now be: in the 1890s a portrait artist, Daniel Robitaille, gets into a relationship with a white client’s daughter and is thus tortured and burned alive. The torture included bee stings and the loss of his hand and due to his innocence other innocent black men have joined what he calls the hive since Candyman was created. Anthony goes on to discover that he is the baby from the original movies, which is obvious if you know the baby’s name and this character’s name but is a nice dun-dun-dun gasp moment if you aren’t fully sure or don’t know the connection.

When he confronts his mom she admits that they let Helen go down for all the murders that Candyman committed and all agreed to never say his name again. One really famous clip from the film happens when he’s in his mother’s apartment and she claps and makes a shush motion with her hand to her mouth, shaking her head. She is stopping him from even uttering Candyman’s name in honor of that vow of silence and this is reminiscent of fading traditions in the black community to be silent even in the face of crime to protect the community in some way. The protection usually comes at a high cost, often higher than just letting justice be served initially. Meg the Stallion not wanting to call the authorities when she was shot in order to protect a black man is a stark example of this and while it isn’t unique to the black community it is a theme in the Candyman remake.

The film culminates in Anthony becoming another member of Candyman’s hive, cutting his hand off and replacing it with a hook before being shot by the police. In between these 2 events however William abducts Bri and in a church where he’s holding a transforming Anthony he explains his plan. His goal is to resurrect the hive and focus their vengeful energy on people gentrifying Cabrini-Green. He’s revealed to be the grown man version of a little boy whose sister was killed by Candyman when he was a kid living in the area. He plans to call the police on Anthony, the deaths and strange behavior making the police even less likely than they already had been to give a black man the benefit of the doubt.

Bri kills William with a pen, because she is a badass, but Anthony is shot dead by police who’ve arrived on scene, blaming Anthony for the actions William has taken. In a truly horrifying fashion police proceed to try to make Bri agree to lie about what happened so that the shooting to death of Anthony is justified. She uses the car’s rearview mirror to summon Candyman and Anthony appears as Candyman, similarly to how Helen did in the first movie. He kills the police officers and slowly goes around to where Bri is. He’s surrounded by buzzing bees that add to the building tension. Anthony turns into Robitaille, which is Todd with CGI to make him look like he hasn’t aged. Candyman tells Bri to tell everyone what she witness and to be his witness, cutting to black after this.

It felt like even four years ago it was not okay yet to show vengeance against racism every time. In particular with modern scenarios in a block buster setting like Candyman following the protests during summer 2020. Despite the setting of the film being 2019 it feels poignant to come out following the events of that summer that began with the murder of George Floyd. The off screen vengeance against the police at the close of the film is somewhat satisfying in balancing the scales of justice in the story but not quite enough. It felt like a rushed way to connect the events of the film, which are definitely conflicting, to modern issues and try to smooth over some of the questionable aspects of Candyman.

For example: why is Candyman attacking black people if white racists killed him? Has the hive solely been used to harm black people prior to Helen and her revenge on Trevor? It feels like the original legend is flawed when trying to represent racial inequities but simultaneously is very aware of these because other aspects of the story are based around them. These are things I can never square about the circle of Candyman and the legend at the heart of it. I do appreciate the inclusion of the modern tensions and events however that shifted the vengeance from black residents of Cabrini-Green and the gentrification aided by over-policing in the area.

Master (2022)

In Master however the vengeance is silent, delivered through achievement tinged with simmering rage. It is about the racism that people experience in education which is of the micro aggression variety. Meaning it is hard to prove and is subvert rather than overt. It is the dog whistle that people of color can hear in language’s undertone or a circumstance you’re faced with. It’s so insidious that you often question it yourself when it happens to you, not willing to accept the painful realities of a situation similar to Gail’s character. Liv benefits off of the black pain, simmering in it and relishing it, tap dancing figuratively and literally. She’s exposed as having identity issues and the true nature of her identity is still a mystery at the end of the film, stuck between her version of the truth and her mother’s.

In the end every situation can simultaneously be racism impacting the characters or hauntings from black women of the past. As a whole it seems like all the necessary horror-movie pieces are present but they are not executed flawlessly with one another to create something above medium cooked. I constantly felt like I’d missed a key detail or scene that would make everything make sense. So much is happening that not every idea is flushed out and distilled in a way that is easily consumable to a horror audience. I feel like lots of great ideas are started in the plot but few are carried to fruition and I left wanting to know more about what I hadn’t been shown and confused by what I had seen.

Although this is a black story, one that is relatively relatable if you’ve tried to enter predominantly white collegiate spaces as a minority, it isn’t a stand out amongst the other titles in this project. At times I felt like the plot just tip-toed into things, and if that was intended as a way to mimic the death-by-a-thousand-cuts style racism that is an interesting mechanism that doesn’t quite land. If it isn’t intended then it is a shortcoming of the horror story itself, that it never quite connects the dots and feels unfinished. At the end I found myself more confused than feeling any fear, tension, sadness, or any other feelings I associate with the end of a good horror movie.

Nope (2022)

A sticky aspect of American culture centers around exploitation, which is the root of many things we cherish and associate heavily with our identity. Much of that exploitation is culturally extracted but the gain and motive is monetary, simply a means to an end. This harsh approach causes many perpetrators to rationalize dehumanizing who or what they exploit, it is sterile in nature. Not only this but how obsessed with exploitation everyone becomes, that there exists an audience for exploitative things is truly the root issue. Inspired by the COVID-19 lockdowns news cycle that many people described as a 24-hour feed of gloom Peele has said he set out to include that in Nope.

In California a family has horses they train for productions in Hollywood, but the brother and sister who inherit the business after their father is killed by falling metal from the sky are struggling. They are fired when their horse reacts poorly on set to a metallic surface and the pair played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, go to Steven Yuen to sell their horses to him. Yuen plays Jupe who is a child actor involved in a chimpanzee attack on set that now has an amusement park. They don’t go looking for this but they learn of the existence of a UFO near their ranch responsible for weird electrical activity that bothers their horses. The UFO isn’t exactly a UFO however and actually falls more in line with the character’s fields of work more than coincidence would suggest.

The preceding Nope review is one of the reviews in this post that intentionally has less spoilers in it due to being newer in addition to it enhancing the viewing experience to know less about it when you watch. This one is best watched not knowing much except that a UFO is above a ranch and the reluctant inheritors of that ranch are forced to deal with it. They realize upon dealing with it that they it might be even more beneficial than they’d originally thought to learn more about the UFO and to attempt to capture evidence of what they are experiencing on camera for proof. Unlike Get Out or Us this movie is less sharply zoned into black people but rather the phenomenon of exploitation that also heavily impacts black people. Nope feels like a Peele film that points the finger at everyone more than other films of his, and it makes the broader takeaway about society at large rather than communicating solely. I like this transition to a broader audience and a move away from black pain as a focus and rather a wholeness approach to black horror.

The Blackening (2023)

The Blackening 2023 is the FUBU of horror comedy movies. Characters portray archetypes familiar in the community that act out scenes with layered humor. Nothing is toned down about the film to appeal to an audience and that is the very thing that works so well. This movie is a proof of concept that sticking true to yourself and what you know pays off and is worthwhile for studios to invest in. I laughed nonstop throughout the movie and recommend it constantly whenever someone is interested in horror-esque things but would probably like action or comedy. Spoiler here: I love that basically everyone lives in this movie and it is one of the reasons I re-watch it. Not only does it make it more watchable and enjoyable but it also opens the door for sequels of comparable value because all characters could possibly return.

The main thread of the comedic plot picks up around a board game that the group is forced to play. They stumble upon the game board with the Sambo character head in the center and must answer trivia about being black and black culture. Wrong answers can result in them being killed, the college friend group trapped at a vacation house in the forest where they’ve gathered for a Juneteenth celebration. The group consists of Allison portrayed by Grace Byers, King portrayed by Melvin Gregg, Shanika portrayed by X Mayo, Dewayne portrayed by Dewayne Perkins, Lisa portrayed by Antoinette Robertson portrayed by Lisa, Nnamdi portrayed by Sinqua Walls, and Clifton portrayed by Jermaine Fowler. In a scene prior to the larger group arriving we see Shawn portrayed by Jay Pharoah and Morgan portrayed by Yvonne Orji getting to the house first and being attacked by the masked killer.

Clifton came along after Shanika ran into him at the gas station nearby and no one really remembers him, the nerdy guy that doesn’t know how to play spades from college. Back in the basement once the group begins playing the game they are tripped up on a question about black actors on the show Friends. They learn in terror that they have to sacrifice someone based on who they deem “the blackest” amongst them. Prior to this moment there is an undertone of establishing blackness taking place amongst the group, temperature checks in part due to just coming back together again. After this moment no one wants to be the blackest and comes up with hilarious excuses why they are either not that person or why someone else is blacker than them. Clifton takes that opportunity to admit he voted for Trump in both elections (this was pre-2024, it’s sad he’s run in 3 now) which makes the group auto-select him as the tribute despite them recognizing it makes him not the blackest by default.

I won’t go into much more detail due to the recency of this movie and despite it being enjoyable even if you know the twists and turns it’s worth watching and experiencing if you’re able to. I especially recommend it for black audiences because of the little details and layers to comedy that aren’t apologetic in the slightest. It’s overtly black, vainglorious sometimes and humble at others, but it is able to stay away from Tyler Perry style caricatures. Even the group having met in college and seemingly all doing good in their own right sets them apart from the typical Perry production focus and perspective. Rather than being humans separated from their struggle they are one with it, seemingly unworthy of character consideration outside of their backstory archetype. In contrast movies like The Blackening and Sinners praise blackness and uplift it as a treasure rather than a burden.

Sinners (2025)

Sinners 2025 is a beautiful and compelling step back into the past that is carefully crafted to articulate a message around sin and what it means to do just that. The film follows multiple characters from multiple intersecting backgrounds that all meet in the same time and place on the Mississippi Delta in the early 20th century many years before the economic crash and subsequent depression that the 1920’s through 1930’s are known for. Backgrounds portrayed through the fictional characters include Chinese store owners serving both white and black patrons in the segregated south, Natives who still care for and protect the land despite the abuse inflicted upon them, white supremacists who are members of the KKK and actively seek to kill black people they feel break the “social code” or don’t accept oppression, and even people that move in between the boundaries of society like people who are white passing or considered to be harmless, drunk elderly.

Due to all of the audience driven attention to the movie a lot of discourse has happened around the creators, plot, success, and celebration of blackness. Constantly more is added to the conversation with additional cast and creator interviews and that add context and even more heart. An online creator on TikTok pointed out what Sinners brings to media beautifully by making a contrast: Jordan Peele’s horror movies provide stories that makes you horrified about white supremacy while Ryan Coogler’s horror film, Sinners, like his other project Black Panther, showcases blackness, what that can mean and a celebration of it. Even the promotion for the movie is often unapologetically black, no code switching or toning down but embracing and cherishing.

The practice of sharecropping came about, essentially slavery under the guise of paid wages except the wages are a pittance or scheming is used to provide inadequate compensation like that used in the movie by the sharecroppers who come to the Juke Joint. Little truly changed for the wealthy white southerner or former enslaved peoples other than titles, openness and civil standing. This is beautifully and painfully exemplified throughout Sinners and is a thread through the film, the sinister plotting of evil forces hiding behind sly smiles and sharp language.

Conclusion

Nothing will ever be perfect but the road forward for black horror seems like it could be brighter and more expansive than ever. Rather than rooted in the pains it has morphed into a root in the resilience of black people in the face of those pains. With Sinners success it feels like the door could be wide open for horror stories that speak to wide arrays of audiences with a clarity and truth that has been refined and honed. The care to portrayals of people having risen so exponentially in the last ten-ish years is not just something from the horror genre, but something cropping up in all media.

That attention to detail and care of subject matter has only improved the genre but also attracted a high level of talent and ability to it that makes the future even more exciting. As a history nerd I personally love the direction and that an audience looking for authenticity and passion for the art of storytelling exists.