Thursday, March 28, 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.

Bloody Murder 2 horror movie poster
A decent yet otherwise undistinguishable low-budget Friday the 13th rip-off, Bloody Murder 2 does earn some distinction for a conversation between a stock black character named Elvis (Raymond Novarro Smith) and white gal Sophie (Amanda Magarian) regarding the conventions of horror movie deaths: Elvis: "Everybody knows black guys get it...
Let’s Scare Julie
Watching Let’s Scare Julie made me think about black folks’ frequent complaint about Black History Month being relegated to the short, crappy month that is February. Along those same lines, while it’s nice to watch a horror movie with a black final girl, why does it have to be...
Grace Jones in Vamp movie poster
A fun horror-comedy that could only come from the '80s, Vamp features Grace Jones, scary enough as a human, as the evil vampire seductress Katrina. Fraternity pledges AJ and Keith (Robert Rusler and Chris Makepeace...Makepeace?) head to the city seeking strippers for their frat's big bash, only to stumble upon...
Lon Chaney Jr. in The Mummy's Curse horror movie poster
This mummy film takes place not in Africa, but in Louisiana. Why? Gumbo perhaps? Napoleon Simpson plays (eesh) Goobie, who speaks in the exaggerated, stereotypical "massa" and "sho' 'nuff" style -- though not for comedic effect, which may be more offensive, depending on your point of view. He's not...
Cursed Part 3 horror movie poster
It's not often that you see a black woman directing a horror movie, and if Cursed Part 3 is any indication, you might never see it again. The director in this case is none other than actress Rae Dawn Chong, and while what I've seen of this movie is...
Mantan Moreland in Lucky Ghost movie poster
An all-black horror comedy starring Mantan Moreland and sometimes partner (and straight man) F.E. Miller, Lucky Ghost is amusing low-brow fare that exploits the more base, stereotypical elements of old-time black life (chicken thievin', gamblin', runnin' from ghosteses) for laughs -- sort of like the BET of its day....
Bones and All
No, Bones and All isn’t a sequel to Bones in which Snoop Dogg teams with laundry detergent to “clean up” the streets© (all rights reserved), nor is it some sort of intricate, erection-centric orgy positioning. Rather, Bones and All is a romance about…cannibals. That’s right; those sexy vampires have...
I Eat Your Skin horror movie poster
Cheesy white playboy author Tom Harris (William Joyce) comes to a Caribbean island to research the existence of voodoo, zombies, and virgins. He chases away a tall, lanky, Darby Jones-like black zombie who has the gall to ogle a white woman (Heather "Love" Hewitt) swimming in a river. Luckily,...
Good Madam
In the US, Black domestic servitude still conjures antiquated images of Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen birthin' babies and whatnot, a concept that is, as they say, gone with the wind. In countries like Brazil and South Africa, however, domestic servitude goes hand in hand with Blackness, an ever-present...
Saloum
While American horror movies from Black creatives have gained a reputation in recent years (thanks in no small part to Jordan Peele) for incorporating racial and social commentary, the same can be said for black horror from around the globe. After all, black folks the world over have plenty...