Friday, July 26, 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.

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead horror movie poster
The third and final tale in this gory H.P. Lovecraft-inspired horror anthology is intriguing in that it revolves around an interracial couple in Sarah (Signy Coleman) and Paul (the fun-to-say Obba Babatunde). They're partners on the Philadelphia police force, and apparently Paul's been slipping Sarah his nightstick, because she...
The Zebra Killer movie poster
From William Girdler, director of Exorcist rip-off Abby, comes an intriguing and -- get this -- original plot: a racist white man (James Pickett) named Mac, pissed off that his father was sentenced to the electric chair, decides to kill everyone involved with the conviction (no word on the...
Brackula: The Musical movie
When I heard the title of this horror/comedy/musical short, I was first intrigued, then apprehensive, then a bit hungry (I had a bagel; problem solved), and finally intrigued again. I was prepared to see a cheesy, YouTube-quality, anti-Barack Obama skit starring a lookalike in a cape and fangs "sucking"...
Color Out of Space
I was never much of an H.P. Lovecraft fan, even before I knew he was a grade-A bigot -- a fact that, when I discovered it, made me proud that the internal racism radar I'd honed growing up in rural Virginia had subconsciously steered me away from his writings. I’ve...
The Vampire's Ghost horror movie
The Vampire's Ghost is a vintage horror movie from Republic Pictures that, like most horror movies from Republic Pictures, has slipped through the cracks of public consciousness, overshadowed by Universal's classic monsters. That doesn't mean they aren't quality films, though. Take The Vampire's Ghost, for instance. Not only is it...
An unspecified amount of time after The Purge: Anarchy, Leo (Frank Grillo) is working as head of a security team guarding independent presidential candidate Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell). Roan has based her campaign around opposing the annual Purge, a cause that Leo can get behind -- or in...
Candyman horror movie poster
Outside of Blacula, perhaps no figure personifies "black horror" more than Candyman. And like Blacula, the iconicity is deserved. This movie is one of the most atmospheric and genuinely frightening films of the '90s -- granted, it's much scarier before Candyman (Tony Todd) reveals himself to be a rather...
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars movie poster
Ignoring the loud flopping sound of the previous year's two Mars films -- Red Planet and (ugh) Mission to Mars -- Ghosts of Mars chooses to boldly go where several have gone before. What distinguishes this one from the other flicks in the Martian Movie Renaissance of 2000-2001, though,...
Masters of Horror: The V Word
Black Horror Movie Hall of Fame member Ernest Dickerson was tabbed by Showtime's Masters of Horror TV show to direct this episode, a solid entry in Season Two. The title is a sly play on Showtime's The L Word, which Dickerson just happens to have directed in the past....
Snakes on a Plane movie poster
A funny thing happened along the way in the translation of the fun, campy concept of Snakes on a Plane into a big-screen reality: the filmmakers forgot to make it fun and campy. What should've been something in the realm of Eight Legged Freaks turned out to be more...