Tag: Caribbean

The relatively obscure Mexican-Cuban production Yambaó seems to be lumped into the horror genre because of its elements of voodoo/Santeria and spirit possession, but frankly, it deals with those subjects in such a matter-of-fact manner (perhaps reflecting the level of cultural belief that these types of events are real...

The phenomenon of black people dying in horror movies didn't really come into its own until the 1980s, when the slasher film hit its stride and trickle-down Reaganomics, yuppie elitism and Izod shirts rendered persons of color utterly disposable. Witness Piranha II, a film that has heretofore derived its...

I was disappointed to learn that "the Hammer Collection" didn't star MC Hammer. In fact, there few, if any, significant black characters -- just a bunch of pasty British people -- in any of the legendary UK studio's films, but I thought that a zombie/voodoo pic might be the...

Not exactly a shining achievement for black roles -- or any roles, for that matter -- Red Water is a by-the-books, made-for-TV killer shark movie. C-grade horror mainstay Coolio is main bad guy Ice, a stereotypical thug who works for stereotypical Caribbean drug kingpin Rick (Tumisho Masha) and is...

Ritual feels about as much like a Tales from the Crypt film as Def By Temptation felt like a Troma film -- that is, not at all. With barely a hint of the humor or the gore (aside from a grisly opening scene) that marked the excellent Demon Knight...

As much as I love Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow, it's one of those films that revolves around an issue in a black community (in this case, voodoo and political turmoil in Haiti), but examines it through the eyes of a white protagonist. This is a sub-genre I...

I generally think of shrunken heads as being more South American than Haitian, but if Hollywood says the contrary, it must be right! After all, it's taught me that Jamaican Rastafarians practice voodoo (and get their asses kicked by Steven Seagal) and that Wilmer Valderrama invented the dozens. I...

Really more of an erotic drama than a horror movie, Spirit Lost is like an episode of Black Shoe Diaries with a supernatural twist. Although it's a BET production, it wasn't made to air on the network (the nekkid boobies are a hint), so we're not subjected to cheesy cameos...

Voo-did it again. Like fellow Amicus studio production Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, this British anthology features a tale of voodoo revenge -- although by the time Vault of Horror came out eight years later, the roles of black folk in horror movies had evolved beyond this dated formula....

White Zombie is often acknowledged as the first zombie movie. Like Plague of the Zombies some three decades later, there are no major black roles (surprising, given the plot takes place in Haiti, although not so surprising given the title). Most of the black people appear in the opening...