Monday, June 5, 2023

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.

Death's Door The Trap Door horror movie
According to IMDb, African-American writer-director Kennedy Goldsby has five feature films to his credit, but in reality, he has four. You see, 2011's The Trap Door and 2015's Death's Door are in fact the same movie. Having suffered through both, I know. This isn't some kind of Exorcist: The...
Office Outbreak horror movie poster
Let's be real; who hasn't sat at their desk at work and let their mind wonder into fantasies of taking out a co-worker? And by "taking out" I don't mean in a fraternizing, "I'd like to see what's under that sensible pants suit" sort of way. I mean like...
Abby horror movie poster
The title Abby might sound like a '70s sitcom (I can hear the theme song now: "Abby, she's crabby...kind of stabby."), but it's in fact a Blaxploitation horror movie that plays out unabashedly in the vein of The Exorcist. In fact, it came dangerously close to being called Blackorcist,...
Killjoy 2 horror movie poster
Killjoy was not what people in the industry would refer to as, um, "good," but Angel Vargas's performance as the killer clown was one of the few bright spots. Imagine my dismay, then, when the sequel came out featuring Trent Haaga as KJ. Watching it, I was further miffed...
Hack horror movie
I think that Hack! is supposed to be a horror spoof, and the fact that I say "I think" should give an indication of how successful a spoof it is. It knowingly throws in a bunch of horror cliches -- including a disparate group of college students (the jock,...
Fear Itself horror TV show
Fear Itself was a poor man's Masters of Horror, with all of the talent but little of the bite of that Showtime program. And yet, it was still refreshing to see a weekly dose of horror on network television, so I was bummed when NBC pulled it after only...
The Scarlet Clue Charlie Chan movie poster
Like Meeting at Midnight, this is a Charlie Chan mystery that's marginally horrific, with its masked killer plot line (not to mention the Caucasian Asian speaking pidgin English and his bug-eyed, scaredy-cat black manservant). Somehow, I find Mantan's being scared of a tangible killer here more acceptable than his...
Tales from the Quadead Zone horror movie
Ah, Chester Novell Turner. Not since John Wayne Gacy have three words instilled such terror in the heart of Man. Contrary to popular belief, the person who brought you Black Devil Doll From Hell was not immediately thrown into a padded cell with no ventilation. Instead, he remained free...
Don’t Look Back
Somewhere within the flaming garbage heap that was 2020, there have been reasons to celebrate: your birthday, for one, and if you’re reading this, the fact that you’re still alive -- and functionally literate. Congratulations! But for the purposes of this site, the ever-growing diversity within the horror genre...
Lord Shango movie poster
A couple of years after co-starring in the landmark black horror film Ganja & Hess, scream queen Marlene Clark headlined Lord Shango, and while Ganja & Hess has emerged from the shadows in recent years to gain some mainstream notoriety (and an ill-fated Spike Lee remake), Lord Shango remains...