Saturday, September 23, 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.

Night’s End
It will be interesting to see if, in a decade or so, there will have been established a very specific, very limited subgenre of film known as “COVID cinema.” These are not movies about COVID-19, mind you, but rather movies shot in and around the COVID shutdown of 2020-21...
The Leech Woman
The Leech Woman isn't exactly the creative zenith of Universal horror -- coming six years after the studio's last great monster movie of its golden era, Creature from the Black Lagoon -- but it might be its zenith of racial representation…not that that's exactly high praise. It basically means...
Crazy as Hell movie poster
The dopey title Crazy As Hell doesn't give much indication of the quality of this production (though I suppose a lesser film would've been called Hella Crazy), but it does pretty succintly sum up the basic components of the story: insanity and the Devil. Michael Beach, adding to his...
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...
Trilogy of Terror horror movie DVD
This relatively tame made-for-TV anthology has achieved cult status amongst even the most hardcore horror fans for three simple words: Zuni...fetish...doll. The little African bugger (I say African because although the Zuni are a Native American tribe, the doll was confirmed in the sequel to be African.) has become...
Bitch Ass
To address the bitch-ass elephant in the room: yes, this movie is called Bitch Ass. It’s a title that’s likely to cause some conflicted feelings because it comes off as juvenile and borderline offensive, but on the other hand, it serves its purpose by grabbing your attention and wedging...
Bela Lugosi in Spooks Run Wild horror movie poster
The East Side Kids were a bunch of lovable street toughs (now known as a "gang") who starred in a series of films in the '40s as a spin-off of the similar (though more serious) Dead End Kids pics (They would later also spin off the Bowery Boys.). Former...
Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes horror movie poster
Of the recent glut of “found footage” horror movies...Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes is one of them. It’s far from the best example of this style, but it’s certainly not the worst. What it lacks in scares, it makes up for in sheer competence -- which frankly is more...
Demon House
I've frequently found myself wondering if horror fans are more prone to believing that the phenomena they see in their favorite films are real. I might be in the minority, but I don't really believe in ghosts, demons, aliens, Sasquatches or giant mutant alligators living in the sewer, so...
The Omega Man movie poster

The Omega Man (1971)

I can't prove it, but I think that the NRA uses The Omega Man as a recruiting film. "This is what the future has in stake for you!" I can imagine them proclaiming. Never mind that this "future" takes place in 1976. NRA poster child Charlton Heston stars as...