Friday, March 29, 2024

Movie Reviews

Reviews of primarily American movies featuring actors and actresses of Black / African-American descent in the horror-movie, slasher, gore, supernatural and related spooky film genres.

Devils Express Gang Wars horror movie poster
Although I was just a child in the '70s, my memories of the time are still quite vivid: shirtlessness ran rampant, afros knew no race and everyone -- EVERYONE -- practiced kung-fu. Exhibit A: Devil's Express, a lovably terrible martial arts/horror hybrid that was the would-be star vehicle for...
Devil Times Five horror movie poster
With black horror movie characters typically being either helpless victims or nameless extras, it's good to see that they can be evil every now and then. Tierre Turner of Cornbread, Earl and Me fame is featured here as Brian, one of a quintet of kids who escape from a...
Devon's Ghost The Legend of Bloody Boy
An otherwise inept horror film, Devon's Ghost is noteworthy as one of the rare non-"urban" slashers to star a black woman as the "final girl". The gal in question is Karan Ashley, who also co-wrote, produced and edited the film, which goes a long way to explaining how she...
Diamonds of Kilimandjaro movie poster
Really more of an adventure (although admittedly not very adventurous) tale than horror, Diamonds of Kilimandjaro is piss-poor in any genre. It's a Tarzan rip-off from Spanish sleaze-meister Jesus Franco, meaning it's an excuse for non-stop nudity, bad dubbing and little else. Katja Bienert is the ever-topless "white goddess"...
Doll Graveyard horror movie
The latest addition to the black killer doll army is, um, this guy: Although he'd receive his own film, Ooga Booga, in 2013, in Doll Graveyard, he doesn’t seem to have a name or any real back story other than he belonged to a girl in 1911 and was buried with her when...
Master P's Don't Be Scared horror movie
Master P is a business man. I realize that. He's never been accused of artistic integrity. But Don't Be Scared (phonetically, Don't Be Scurred) may be an all-time low. I hope that he saw it as strictly a money-making venture to capitalize on the whole slasher craze, because if...
Doom movie poster
After the mediocre Red Planet and the outright abomination that was Mission to Mars, you'd think that filmmakers would shy away from setting movies on Mars for, like, ever. But Doom dares to transport us once again to the planet where good scripts go to die. The story here...
Do You Wanna Know a Secret movie poster
The answer to the titular question is most certainly "no," but while Do You Wanna Know a Secret is an utterly pitiful and derivative slasher whose main draw is Joey Lawrence going through some sort of Jean-Claude Van Damme phase, it actually has some interesting racial overtones. The story finds...
Dracula 3000 movie poster
Coolio. Tiny Lister. Casper Van Dien. Erika Eleniak. I haven't seen this many B-grade actors since Circus of the Stars. And the sad thing is, this movie is beneath even them. In one of the biggest casting stretches since Tara Reid played an anthropologist in Alone in the Dark,...
Dr. Black Mr. Hyde blaxploitation horror movie poster
To the uninitiated, titles like Blacula and Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde signify ultra-cheap, ultra-cheesy Blaxploitation fare that could never be taken seriously, but the uninitiated can go take a flying leap. Truth is, both films are evocative, low-key, straightforward horror films with complex characters, taut direction from William Crain,...