Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Tag: slaves

Yambao (AKA Cry of the Bewitched AKA Young and Evil)
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 Innocents (Los Inocentes)
As an American, I'm fairly comfortable relating the portrayal of black characters in horror movies to the racial dynamics in the US as a whole, but it's always interesting to see how black characters in foreign films come across. The Argentine movie The Innocents (not to be confused with...
The Devil Lives Here
It's a well-known running gag that black characters in American horror movies tend to be human fodder, but at least they exist, unlike films from other countries, where they're largely invisible because of a dearth of A) horror movies and/or B) black people. Even in countries with a decent...
The Ghost of Saint Aubin movie
Its title a bit of a misnomer, The Ghost of Saint Aubin doesn’t feature traditional, literal ghosts (depends on how you interpret it) so much as a supernatural storyline that channels the spirits of slavery, social injustice and economic iniquity in a smart, if somewhat jumbled, tale of love,...
The Inheritance horror movie
Watching The Inheritance, it’s hard not to think of it as an Afro-centric spin on the classic British thriller The Wicker Man, with their similarly constructed story lines about people lured to a remote locale by hosts who have dark, ulterior motives. Luckily, writer-director Robert O’Hara resisted the urge...
The Final Project horror movie poster
Oh look, it’s another found footage horror movie! Along with glossy Hollywood remakes, jittery found footage films have been the whipping boys of horror fans for years -- justifiably so, given the dearth of originality in the countless Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity retreads over the past decade....
The Skeleton Key horror movie poster Kate Hudson voodoo hoodoo
The Skeleton Key is one of those movies that uses a white lead character to explore an aspect of black culture while most of the black characters remain peripheral -- sort of like a supernatural A Time to Kill, or Breakin' with hate crimes. Thus, I was a bit...
Tales from the Hood horror movie poster
Of all the all-black horror movies to receive a theatrical release since the Blaxploitation era (let's say, four), Tales from the Hood is probably the best. Smarter than Bones, with a grander scale than Def by Temptation, and well, it's not Vampire in Brooklyn, TFTH follows the standard Tales from the Crypt...
The Vault horror movie
The Vault may be the worst of the Full Moon/Big City Pictures urban horror films -- which is quite an accomplishment -- not so much because the script, acting, or direction is so much below the others, but because the bad guy -- unlike in Killjoy, Ragdoll or even The...
Black Demons horror movie poster
Black Demons is a typical cheesy Italian zombie movie, although this one was filmed after that sub-genre had peaked. Made in 1991, the low budget and corny Euro-trash style make it feel 10 years older. There’s even use of the word "Negro" without a hint of shame or irony. The plot concerns...