Director Jordan Peele’s most recent film, “Nope,” hit theaters in July. It took less than a month for it to reach $100 million at the box office, making it one of the few original films to do so since the pandemic began.
“Nope” is Peele’s third film, and the third to be attributed to a renaissance in Black horror films that started in 2017 with his film “Get Out.” But the genre has roots extending back decades, and it has gone through many evolutions, narrators, directors and filmmakers.
Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott talks with Lana Garland, a writer, director and producer about the Blaxploitation horror films she watched as a kid in the 70s, and how she got back into watching horror with the HBO series “Lovecraft Country.” Garland is also the curator of the Hayti Heritage Film Festival in Durham.
Burney-Scott also talks with activist, organizer and filmmaker Bree Newsome Bass about the Black horror renaissance happening on and off-camera. And Dr. Kinitra Brooks, the Leslie Endowed Chair in literary studies at Michigan State University, talks about what makes her a fan of Black horror and how to recognize films that do the genre justice. Dr. Brooks is also currently a research associate at Harvard Divinity School.
Thanks to adrienne, Kamaya, Brittny and Lindsay for their contributions to this episode.
Four Films to Explore the Black Horror Genre
1: Son of Ingagi (1940)
A couple inherits a house — and a monster along with it. The first science fiction-horror film to feature an all-Black cast.
2: Blacula (1972)
An African prince goes to Dracula for aid in stopping the slave trade — and becomes a vampire instead.
3: Tales from the Hood (1995)
Three teens go to buy drugs from a funeral director — and get sucked into his larger-than-life horror stories. A Spike Lee Joint.
4: Get Out (2017)
A photographer is nervous about meeting his white girlfriend’s family — with good reason. A film that solidified and popularized the Black horror genre.
