The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a harrowing horror classic that has no doubt been dissected (no pun intended) a million times since its release, but there's one aspect that doesn't seem to get discussed very much: A FREAKIN’ BLACK GUY SAVES THE DAY. For a black person to be...
In the year 2022, unemployment and crime are down to historic lows, thanks to an annual ritual known as the Purge. During the 12-hour event, which commences at sundown and ends at sunrise, all crime (with a few noted exceptions, such as assassinating high-ranking government officials) is legal, and...
Selling Vampires vs. the Bronx as “Attack the Block meets The Lost Boys” might be accurate, but it does a disservice to the film by setting an impossibly high standard that it can’t hope to reach. Judged on its own merits, however, Vampires vs. the Bronx is a rollicking,...
That Def By Temptation may be the best film in the Troma oeuvre (which studio president Lloyd Kaufman claims in the DVD intro) is perhaps a dubious distinction, but hey, everyone's got a cross to bear. Unlike most Troma works -- including one of the scant all-black selections from...
One of the most energetic, entertaining and Hollywood-friendly films of the '70s/'80s Italian horror Renaissance, Demons is also one of the few to feature major black roles, in this case a pimp (Bobby Rhodes) and a hooker (the redundantly named Geretta Geretta). How refreshing! It's good to know that...
Despite the campy title and movie poster, Frankenfish is actually a pretty straightforward horror film -- as straightforward as a movie about giant killer fish can be. It's refreshing to see a horror film with a largely black cast that doesn't revolve around the ghetto and in fact doesn't...
One of the more high-minded zombie films you'll find, I Walked with a Zombie is as much (melo)drama as it is horror. There's not a hint of the humor that was to propel the spoof Zombies on Broadway two years later, nor the explicit brain-munching that was to propel,...
One of the more overlooked of the upper-tier Blaxploitation films -- horror or otherwise -- J.D.'s Revenge avoids the corniness inherent in taking a well-worn story and slapping the word "black" on it (Blacula, Blackenstein, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde) by delivering a somber supernatural mystery propelled by haunting tension...
The prototypical "wilds of Africa" horror film (although Skull Island isn't supposed to be in Africa), King Kong features wild, black natives (led by chief Noble Johnson) jumping around and going "ooga booga," kidnapping white women, worshiping Kong and proceeding to get stepped on by the monster from aforementioned...
Land of the Dead is the fourth film in George Romero's "Dead" series and the fourth to feature a strong black lead or co-lead. This time, however, bro'man is batting for the other team. That's right, he's a so-called "stencher" -- making the slur (the "S" word?) all the more...
