Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror

The Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror documentary deals with the portrayal of the African American community in the genre of horror movies, from the beginnings of cinema to modern times. Among the talking heads, there are cult actors and actresses, directors, screenwriters and academics, who in free-form interviews recount their various impressions from watching and making movies. It is undeniable that in the early twentieth century, the filmmakers' approach to black people was downright racist, starting with D.W. Griffith’s infamous movie, The Birth of a Nation. Gradually, however, the industry began to tone-down that treatment of black people to eventually give the black community room for self-assertion, especially with the advent of the blaxploitation genre in the 1970s, the revival of independent movies in the 1990s, and Jordan Peele’s current movie Get Out, which is presented as almost a movie-bible for the black community. However, it did give me the impression that African Americans will never be satisfied with how they are portrayed on the screen, even under the direction of a black filmmaker. In short, there will always be room for improvement. It seems that people can find racism in any movie if they want to - and I reached this conclusion from the assertion here that the 1933 King Kong movie is a strikingly symbolic representation of the fear white people have of any character with dark skin. Yeah, right. [Sitges 2019] (10/10/2019)