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Horror Noir

The horror noir anthology features multiple short films by black directors who create stories of black horror. These stories are by writers and directors who have a full and rich understanding of what horror for a black person feels and looks like. I felt especially connected to one of the stories about an artist who had to decide between making a living or being true to his community. The story captured both the complexity of having to survive as an artist but also having to sell to the institution as a black artist, the film does this by bringing sigils to life.

In the start of the film an artist is painting a mural for a non profit organization in his community, he then is confronted by a man who asks him for money and he declines, the man then says something along the lines of  “artists always sell out for money”. Although this is a small conversation in the start of the film it frames what the film will be later. The man’s comment captured the fears of many black artists contemplating whether they are creating work for their community or to make money. Later in the film the main character continues to create sigils from instructions he receives from a generic white voice. He doesn’t seem to question these sigils even when he finds out one is a neo nazi symbol. He does this to use the money for survival as an artist, as creatives, especially black creatives making a living in order to survive can be difficult. The decision between authenticity and creating for money becomes complex as you want to give back to your community creatively, but also need money to continue to do that. Yet, there are boundaries in what intentions you are putting into the work. 

As the main character continues to create these sigils he learns that they are neo-nazi symbols. He doesn’t stop creating them because of their meaning, and continues to create them for the money that they continue to make him. The horror in the film starts when the syphilis start to come alive with some sort of spirit and kill those around the artist. The greed of the money overtakes him like a sort of spirit not letting him stop drawing them. Although he meant no harm the intentions of the sigils were for killing Black people which they did once drawn. 

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Family Horror

The horror genre was in deep need for actual Black horror, Black horror that includes the stories of Black people from our own perspective. In many ways the history of horror movies have failed us in many ways, including assuming the Black voice and aesthetic. In Eve’s bayou the film addresses the horror that comes from inside the home. When we think of horror, oftentimes when we think of horror we think of things that go beyond the realms of our own lives, but horror also exists in the home. In Eve’s Bayou the main Eve discovers a story about her dad and her sister that drives her to seek a voodoo practitioner to get her father killed. 

At ten years old Eve carried the weight of having to hold her dad and sisters secrets with her. Her father cheated with many women throughout her childhood, and during a party one day Eve caught him with a woman. In some cases horror can start from the home, and for Eve it started here. Although she was too young to fully understand what was happening at the time, there was a feeling translated on camera that she knew something was wrong. That her dad shouldn’t be this close to another woman. Although she knew it was wrong she kept her fathers infidelity secret, sitting with the horror of memory of her fathers cheating. Not only did she have to experience the feeling of horror of her father being with other women, but she had to hold in to that feeling and keep it secret in her own home.  

As we grow we learn more secrets about our families that start to be uncovered. The small horror that once haunted us became more complex and scary. In the film Eve’s sister discloses to Eve that their father kissed her in an unacceptable inappropriate way. When she heard of her father inappropriately kissing her older sister, it caused her a lot of pain. This pain came from her wanting to protect her sister while still loving her father. This complex feeling led Eve to look for a voodoo practitioner who she asked to put a curse on her dad causing him to die. Her emotions and feelings and hatred towards her father caused her so much pain and confusion that she wished death on her own father. The film by using her story points out the horror of having to deal with these emotions and secrets of the home.

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Tales From The Hood

In the film Tales From the Hood the film takes hard themes from the life of Black people and creates a fantasy. Yet, the film doesn’t explore fantasy in the ways that we as audience members are used to. Instead of the whimsical, this film explores fantasy through the lens of Black trauma. With stories that involve Black dolls defending their space against racist, we see the alternative ways of fantasy through the Black lens. Although the film explores land that hadn’t been touched before towards the ending of the movie the film ends with a message against gang violence, and they do this by comparing gang violence to racial violence. With this message the film negates the history of gangs and histories of racism. 

 Over the last couple of years the United States has seen how extreme racist leaders and politicians can affect freedom. The country has faced a dark past that has outwardly affected its people, but under Donald Trump we were able to see and learn what voting for racist politicians now can affect us in newer systematic ways. In Tales from the Hood a racist politician is running for candidacy, and decides to run his campaign out of a plantation home. This enraged many Black voters causing them to protest his stay. Yet, from the inside the politician's campaign manager is a Black man, and although he is a black man he goes against many largely held beliefs that the politician shouldn’t be in the house. During Donald Trump's run he used different Black people to express his political ploy, it was clear that he was using Black people not because he cared about the wellbeing of the Black population, he did it so he could say “well this person is on my side.” The film instead of settling with racist politics the writers use a story of abolition through dolls. Dolls around the house carry the spirits of those who were enslaved in the house, and when someone comes into the house who doesn’t belong they attempt to kill them 

Toward the ending of the movie in the last story, the film continues with the theme of making racist experiences into dark fantasy. In this story a gang member goes to jail for shooting and killing another, in jail he is confronted by a neo nazi. The neo nazi makes the argument that killing a Black person as a nazi and the gang member killing a Black person holds the same weight. Although killing of any kind is not acceptable in any form being a neo nazi and a gang member have two different histories and meaning, which then hold different intent in murder.

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The tale v. The institution

Avery Collins-Byrd

In the 1992 Candyman, the viewers are introduced to the main character Helen, who is a university grad in Chicago. As we meet her she is taking on a project about a folklore born from the stories told amongst those in the Cabrini Green project housing. Throughout the movie she is written as a white savior character. The writers of the film try to achieve a presence in her character that is aware of larger racial systems, yet she comes off as an entitled graduate student. The film rather than adding to a conversation against racist housing zoning, it extracts from the communities it speaks of. 

  In the film Helen and her friend Bernedette go to visit Cabrini Greens to test a theory about the tale of Candyman. In the tale of Candyman when you say his name five times the spirit of Candyman will appear in the place where he is called from. Helen finds out that the Cabrini Green projects mirror her own apartment, which has an empty space behind the mirror. When she arrives at Cabrini Greens she finds an empty home, where she is able to test her theory. While Bernedette waits for Helen to come back from, she comments on the state of the housing projects, referring to their unclean state. Instead of having their white main character say racist or classist comments they continuously give those lines to Bernadette who serves as the Black support character. 

Additionally when Helen visits the housing projects she encounters residents that ask her the very fair question of why she is invading their space. She often replies to them by stating that she is from the University and is doing a research project. What she and the writers of the movie fail to understand is that by her being a university student doing only a research project, she adds to the extraction of knowledge from lower income neighborhoods. Additionally to her extracting knowledge she brings harm to Cabrini Green by exposing the people who have lived there cautiously. Not only does she look for material for her research program, but she calls upon Candyman who starts to kill people in the housing project through her.

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The modern (Black) Family

Avery Collins-Byrd

In Jordan Peele's second film Us we are introduced to a Black family on a summer vacation set in Santa Barbara. When seeing the image of a Black family, one that looks like they are a true family, I immediately became interested in the film. Oftentimes when actors are casted into a Black family, the representation of that family doesn't feel convincing. It is the true representation of a Black family that makes the emotional story of the family on screen feel true for Black viewers. From the unspoken competition with the white family to the sacrifice of the “tethered” family, we become connected through emotion to both families.  

In Us I felt myself easily melting into the family, as if they were my own. I particularly felt the embarrassment of the dads actions as if he were my own dad. When the dad bought a boat his children and wife were almost immediately embarrassed during its reveal because of how old the boat's condition was. As they reacted I felt myself react. Although, I felt this embarrassment as a viewer I also was able to see why the dad decided to purchase the boat. When looking at his wealthier white neighbors property, by purchasing the boat it seemed that the dad was trying to keep up with them. Which depicts a subtle racism that can be felt by many Black viewers.  

Peele’s first film Get Out directly addresses issues of race, specifically systems of oppression against the Black physical and mental body, Us speaks about the larger issue of those who’ve sacrificed for us. Throughout the film the strong love that both the mom and the “tethered” mom have for their family is felt, as well as what they would do to protect the family that they’ve created. It was revealed towards the end of the film that the tethered mom and her family came from below to start a revolution, so that they could gain what has been stolen from them. Throughout the film the tethered family attempts to execute their revolution by killing the family who they are tethered to. By getting to know the first family we become invested in their survival throughout the film. In some ways I feel like the family we are introduced to at the start if the film becomes our own, so we deposit our own feelings of protection into theirs. Yet, as we learn of the sacrifice that the tethered family went through in order for the one above ground to live a nice life, our emotions become complete and shift.

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Why the white savior should die out- Get Out

Avery Collins-Byrd

 When watching Get Out for the first time as a Black femme person as all Black viewers did I had an unsettling feeling that the white girlfriend Rose while presented as “good” was actually ill intended. Although, the feeling was not as strong of a feeling as one I would have if a White man was to take a Black woman to an isolated house, the feeling was still present. We often become quickly skeptical when white patriarchy is used in films on race, because it is such an obvious declaration of racism. Yet, we skip over the silent killing of the white woman who is usually framed as a “savior.” 

   The fear of a Black person not having control of their own body, while in the presence of mostly white people is a fear that haunts me traced through history. Throughout history there have been clear events of Black men being killed through isolation for even being thought of as looking at a white woman. Emmett Till comes to mind as a 14 year old black child who was abducted from his home, isolated, and killed for offending a white woman. In this moment in history Emett’s body was taken not as his own, but a lesson to other Black children and adults that they have no power or self to even hint at interaction with a white person. The thought of the Black person having any autonomy over their body, and any power that could threaten whiteness was a held fear throughout history. This belief that Black autonomy could endanger the white life has led to many killings of Black people. I am also reminded of the many rapes of Black women throughout history, a power play white men have used to claim their freedom of will and power. Showing that the white man has the power to do with his body what he wants, but the Black body can not do the same. 

  Again as the film starts with an interracial relationship and it is shared that the main character, a black man, is going to his white girlfriends house a fear rises for me. This fear is rooted in power stripped from the Black body.  As the movie progresses this fear is legitimized as Rose, the white girlfriend’s family, is exposed for running a murder ring of Black bodies. Although it is the men in Rose’s family who commits most of the physical violence  to these many Black bodies, it is her role to find and take all the Black folks to the isolated house through relationships. Rose’s role reinforces the dark history of Black man's body being stripped of its power.