When theme parks start overflowing with monsters and there’s nothing on TV but scary movies, that means it’s spooky season. Horror is a genre that hasn’t always been the most welcoming for Black characters, but there are some movies that feature prominent Black stories and heroes. Prepare to get scared with our list of the best Black horror movies and series.
Of course, we’re starting with Get Out. It’s the film that revitalized the horror/thriller story. Jordan Peele’s brilliant script used race to explore identity and the exhaustive nature of the white gaze. Before this movie exposed it, how many times had we all heard the Obama line? He won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and created the Jordan Peele genre, some of which will pop up later.
From the moment Jordan Peele hit us with the creepy refrain of “I Got 5 on It” in the trailer for Us, we knew this was going to be something different. What the Nope director does so well is unpredictability. We spent months trying to figure out where this story would take us, and almost none of us were right. Did anyone have the Tethered taking over as the credits roll?
Shoutout to Tony Todd who scarred a generation of children for life with his unforgettable portrayal of the Candyman. He was so frightening that after this movie he became a horror legend. When Tony Todd shows up on-screen, you know bad things are about to happen. Fun fact: I once called my mom and left a sleepover early because the other girls kept saying his name over and over. Black people do not play with the Candyman.
The sheer brilliance of Lovecraft Country sometimes overshadows just how scary this show is. The racist sheriffs and secret societies of rich white people who constantly work to keep Leti and Tic down are even worse than the actual monsters and demons. If you haven’t seen this limited series yet, stop what you’re doing, head to HBO Max and binge all 10 episodes. I will never forgive HBO of depriving us of a Season 2.
Yes, this is the film that all other zombie films are based on, but it’s also groundbreaking for the casting of Duane Jones as the hero. In 1968, Black actors didn’t get to play the hero when the rest of the cast was white. Honestly, they barely get to do that now.
The whole time Darius is hanging out with Teddy Perkins, you know it’s going to end badly, but LaKeith Stanfield and Donald Glover are so captivating, we can’t look away. Only a show as absurdly unique as Atlanta could deliver a full-fledged horror story, concentrated into a half hour of brilliant storytelling. Even after the episode comes to its bloody conclusion, it stays with you for a long time.
“Swarm,” the original Amazon Prime series in which Dominique Fishback stars as Dre, is about a serial killer with a celebrity obsession that proves to be lethal. Dre’s infatuation centers around Ni’jah, a Beyoncé-like figure for whom she will do anything for. Once someone disparages her idol, however, their lives are violently cut short. “Swarm” also features appearances from Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris.
In the 2019 film Ma, Octavia Spencer is a lonely woman decides to make friends with a group of teens. She allows them to party in her basement but with rules. The only caveats are one of the kids had to be sober, they couldn’t swear and they could never go upstairs. They also had to call her “Ma.” Things quickly take a turn for the worst and “Ma” becomes obsessed with the adolescents— resulting in shocking violence.
The 1997 film Eve’s Bayou marked Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut. The movie also featured a stellar cast with the likes of Diahann Carroll, Samuel L. Jackson, Jurnee Smollett and Meagan Good. During a Louisiana summer, Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett) discovers that her family’s wealthy existence isn’t what it seems. Ultimately, she realizes there are supernatural and gothic forces at play.
