“The black guy always dies first” yeah yeah we have heard it all before a million times. The funny thing is statistically speaking the black guy usually dies third but whatever. The point is black folks historically have not fared well in the genre of horror. Now that’s not to say we have not made an impact (beyond the impact of Jason Machete against some poor homeboi’s/homegirl’s dome in a crappy Friday The 13th sequel. Sure some black It Girls of the moment have appeared in whatever horror franchise was hot at that moment (Kelly Rowland in Freddy V.S. Jason, Brandy in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and Jada Pinkett Smith in Scream 2) but even here they either appeared in cameos or played second fiddle to the blonde lead. Or died. Or both. One sad note..I wanted to make a list of the 13 blackest horror movies of all time but I could only think of like 6 of merit and there is no WAY I’m giving credibility to that Omarion abortion Somebody Help Me. Anyway here is the list:
#5 - The People Under The Stairs
After the success of his Nightmare On Elm Street franchise (and a few bombs like Shocker) director Wes Craven offered this odd, suspenseful highly entertaining urban horror a few years before the better known Tales from The Hood or Candyman. The movie is almost a metaphor on gentrification where evil Landlords who live in a sprawling mansion in an urban area prey on the locals in more way’s then unfair rent hikes. Ving Rhames makes one of his earliest film appearances in an almost all black cast that also features Kelly Jo Mintor and Brandom Williams. One of the final shots of the movie, when the black youths blow up the evil mansion literally spewing cash all over the run down neighborhood pretty much drives home the metaphor.
#4 - Night of the Living Dead
(1968) Night Of The Living Dead only had one black dude in it. But boy was he THE dude. When dead bodies start to come back to life with a hunger for human flesh EVERYONE freaks the fuck out. The military, the media, the locals…everyone that is except for Ben the lead character. Ben was smart, smooth, calm, honest tough, brave…and black. His wits and honor served him well and he alone survived the zombie attack. A black lead in an all white movie was almost unheard of in 1968 and to have a black lead in a horror flick with the character qualities listed above was completely new to movie audiences. The dark quasi political ending of the film (Ben is shot dead by a posse of red neck zombie hunters even though he was not a zombie really struck a cord and still does to this day.
#3 - Candyman (1992)
Based on a short story (The Forbidden) by Clive Hellraiser Barker, Candyman was a huge it in 1992. It concerns a true urban legend focusing on the notorious Cabrini Green housing projects and a supernatural killer (Candyman) that will appear in a mirror and kill you if you say his name five times. Tense, scary well written and well acted it introduced the worlds only true black horror icon (played by Tony Todd) who could stand near Jason, Michael or Freddy with pride.
#2 - Tales From The Hood (1995)
Spike Lee got into producing urban scary movies with this 1995 anthology. With a drug deal gone bad used as a framing device a creepy funeral director (played by Clarence Williams the third) tells three doomed drug dealers various tales of horror including a racist senator who gets his comeuppance via puppet, dirty cops setting up an innocent activist and a ghetto version of A Clockwork Orange. What is striking about these tales of terror is the realness of the writing and plotting. At one point a doomed drug dealer is locked up with a White Supremacist who points out that it is the black youth who has killed/harmed more black people with drugs and violence than his racist ass ever could hope to. Scary, thoughtful ballsy and entertaining…why there has never been a sequel yet we have 2 Somebody Help Me flicks is beyond me.
#1 - Blackula (1972)
What else was going to be #1? Much more than a blaxploitation version of Dracula, William Marshal gives a truly sexy, scary and tragic performance as the dark prince (heh) Prince Mamuwalde, a ruler of an African nation who in 1780 tried to convince Count Dracula to help him suppress the slave trade. The Count responds by turning him into a vampire and years later (1972) Mamuwalde returns as Blacula. Blacula was one of the top grossing movies of 1972 winning the Saturn Award for best picture. The success of this movie started a wave of Blaxploitation horror movies including Blackenstein and the Blacula sequel Scream Blacula Scream.
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