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Blog Assignment #6

Eve’s Bayou has some sense of race, but not in a negative way. There is no true racism in the film, however the stereotype of black fathers not being there for the children can be shown slightly in the film. The entire cast of the film is black. It could be said that the film even elevated African Americans to as certain degree. There were hardly any African American doctors who were in the upper class in Louisiana during the Jim Crow period. Racism was prominent during that period in time, and to have one of the family be a rich black family could be seen as unusual. Additionally, Eve’s Bayou also has a theme of fear of death; however, it is not directly for Eve’s own life but rather her father Louise’s life. Eve is a child with a very distinct family. Her aunt is basically a witch who casts a voodoo on people. Her mother was cheated on several times by her father. And her father was a one of the very few rich black doctors in Louisiana at that time. Even though her father cared for his kids, Eve learns towards the end of the film that he molested her sister, and that he was not such a good man after all. This led to Eve’s aunt casting a curse on Eve’s father foreseeing the foreseeable outcome of his death. Even did not really want her father to die, because she still cared for him and loved him even after all the bad things he had done to her sister and to her mother. Eve goes through a whirlwind trying to find a way for the curse to not go through and not kill her father. Louise is shot and killed at the end of the film, making Eve’s wish for her father not to be killed not come true. The film had a lot of interesting plot points, and I really enjoyed watching it. The cast was fantastic and had some of the best actors in the business like Samuel L Jackson who played Eve’s father. It was hard to watch Eve watch her father be shot and killed in the end of the film. It just felt like Samuel L Jackson was just bound to be killed at some point in the film.

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Blog Assignment #5

In the film Abby, there is a common theme and rise of Blaxploitation. The 1970s was a time where Blaxploitation was starting to become more and more popular. It usually portrayed the black characters as criminals, or unfair stereotypes as the bad guy always in the films. Abby is about a grown black woman who is possessed by an African demon. This is a horror film, so there it I obvious that it has scary figures like demons. The African curse is still falling into the trap of religion, and Christianity. Most of the cast is African American, as they attempt to make the film for black viewers, even though there is still an obvious sense of racism in the film. The Yeruba religion in Africa, shows Abby being possessed by the trickery of the Eshu demon. They go to Nigeria, and Dr. Williams starts digging and finds a box carved with Eshu written on it. As he opens the box a large wind blows up and pushes the doctor against the walls in the cave. I find this film to be pretty odd, the production just seems weird to me and almost too fake, even though it was created over 40 years ago. The whole aspect of the spirit and the demon possessing them is strange. One scene that stood out to me that was very weird and unique was the scene where Abby was in the shower. It seemed like she was enjoying herself with the demon, and that she does not need a man to pleasure her any longer. It showed her moan and cry out of joy while the demon possessed her in the shower. The demon is portrayed as if it is a sexual god. Even though Abby is supposed to be such an innocent and good girl, who lives by and goes to the church, everything is changed when she is possessed. But the demon is not always made for sexual pleasure like it was in the shower. It is also evil in a way, as it should be because it is a horror film. One example of this is when Abby was making the chicken for the church she suddenly stops and stabs herself in her own arm. And then another interesting scene was when she was in the church coughing and is taken outside. The she goes crazy and attacks the guy trying to help her. This film was the strangest movie I think we watched in this course, but it was interesting to watch something different.  

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Blog Assignment #4

In The Night of the Living Dead and The Girl with All the Gifts, Zombies are both used as basically monsters trying to scare away to main characters in the film. The Zombie is showing in the Night of the Living Dead, as all the racist white policemen try to attack the zombie of the black man. In both films the Gules and the Hungeries feed off of humans and try to consume them. They are both black horror films with zombies as the main protagonists. In The Night of the Living Dead there are several gruesome scenes that caught my attention, and was pretty horrific to watch. I liked it more than The Girl with All the Gifts because I felt like it was more comedic in a way even though it was still a horror film, it had some funny parts. It also had some disturbing scenes like when the police officers are brought to the grave, and they start peeing all over his grave. I also thought there was a theme of racism obviously throughout the film. Black is used and portrayed in The Night of the Living Dead as Ben the black character in the film is trying to fight off the zombies which could be seen as slavery that black people went through. Even though Ben is trying to help he eventually dies, which can be another example of blackness in the film. Black people are often discriminated against through police brutality are often killed for no reason just like Ben was in the movie. It was a common occurrence that the black character in the film is always killed first, and even until recently it seems to be a reality that the black character would always be the first one to die in the film. I eventually liked when the zombie started attacking all the policemen that killed him, because they really did deserve that. It was typical of white police officers to target black men and arrest them and beat them for just the color of their skin. I feel like it was a feel-good story in the end, because the black character kind of wins in the end. Even though he is killed, he comes back as a zombie and avenges himself which can show that black people can also be the good guys in the film. It was a strange film, but I liked it at the same time.

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Blog Assignment #3

Eve's Bayou was a unique horror film, that wasn’t really like any of the other ones we watched in class so far. It takes place in Louisiana where Eve, Cisely, and their parents take on many challenges throughout the film. The movie has a lot of voodoo themes that grab the attention of me, because I’ve never seen a film that had voodoo in it. For example, Eve’s aunt is basically a witch and has psychic powers as well. Eve’s father was cheating on the wife and the family, but still stayed with them which is uncomfortable for both the children and the mom. He was a doctor, so he had to be there to support them financially. I thought Samuel L Jackson was a great actor to play Eve’s dad. He didn’t even care that he cheated on his wife, and acts like he was not even guilty about it. Cisely seems to always defend her father, even for what he did which is unusual to me. Until the end of the film where Cisely tells Eve that their father would molest her. I still got kind of sad when Louis was killed at the end of the film. It was hard to watch Eve watch her father be shot and killed in the end of the film. The film had a lot to do with magic, but magic is not the only theme in the film because it felt like Samuel L Jackson was just bound to be killed. I don’t think Eve directly caused the death of her father. Race also played a role in the movie along with class. Samuel L Jackson plays a rich black doctor. The thought of dark skin black man being a rich doctor during Jim Crow in Louisiana was hard to imagine. He must have been one of the few black men who were doctors in Louisiana at that time. I liked the plot of the film as well, the father was getting what was bound to happen to him; whether or not Eve and the witch aunt had any role in it. He cheated on his wife with so many women and eventually was shot by one of the husbands. I really liked this film, even though it was not really a horror film to me. I was not really scared in the film, I liked the magical aspect of the film however, and thought it had a great plot twist as well.

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Blog Assignment #2

I was extremely interested in what we learned in class this week. I had already seen Get Out before this course began, so I had already known a lot about it, and how large of a role race played in the movie. However, I had never seen Us and found it to be another very fascinating film created by Jordan Peele. Uswas both similar and different from Get Out, and I personally found it to be a better horror film than Get Out. The movie had multiple scenes that got me to the edge of my seat and was truly a great movie that grabbed my attention. One scene specifically that stood out to me was when Gabe went out of the house, to see who was trying to get in the house. He asked for a baseball bat and threatened to use it on the other family outside. They were not threatened by him at all, and eventually got into the house. Even though it was a horror film, Jordan Peele still added some much needed comedic scenes throughout the film, like I found this film to be. The whole movie is a lot about class, and not so much about race like Get Out was. An African American family going on a simple vacation turns upside down and basically goes into hell. They thought they were a normal middle class family taking a normal American vacation, but it was not that simple. The Wilson family is literally and figuratively trapped in their race, class, and bodies in this film. I think that Lupita Nyong'o was a perfect actress to play both red and Adelaide Wilson in the film. Her performance as a normal mother, and family person as Adelaide was great, but her amazing performance as Red and the leader of the tethered group was just so cool to watch. She had so many scenes in which I could not keep my eye off the screen. Another scene that I really loved was when the family was meeting the tethered. The whole family looking at basically a mirror image of themselves in a different form was to freaky and cool to watch. The whole closet scene with boy was cool to watch as well, because we see himself in a different form and it was both scary and meaningful to observe the interactions between him and the tethered. The whole film was created beautifully and was truly one of my favorite horror films I had eve

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Blog Assignment #1

Get Out, created by Jordan Peele, is an outstanding film, which portrays many different themes relating to race and the perception of African Americans in contrast to White Americans. There are several different scenes throughout the film that point and show off the obvious racist notion towards African Americans. The movie starts off with a scene in which a white police officer is shown with passive racism towards Chris. It is obvious that the officer has suspicions about Chris because he is a black man driving with a white female. He makes subtle comments and acts as if Chris has committed a crime just because he is a black man with a white woman, who was involved in an accident. This act of racism is scene every day in the world. It is widely known how racist police officers tend to be towards African Americans, and it must be recognized. One other scene that caught my eye is when Rose and her father are talking to Chris about President Obama. Her father makes an effort to point out that he would vote for Obama again, if he could. He is obviously trying to make Chris feel welcomed and prove to him that he is not racist by stating that he likes Obama and that he would vote for him again. This is basically foreshadowing and giving away that the family is racist and insane. The fact the he must prove and show off as if he’s an advocate and supporter of African Americans is already a red flag for Chris to get out. Another major scene in the movie that we discussed in class was the sunken place scene. Chris ends up frozen and stuck because of Rose’s mother’s hypnosis. He is brought into a state where he can’t move or speak. Even though it seems as if he is screaming, he still has no voice and is not free. This scene portrays as a metaphor, when African Americans were slaves to white people in America. They had no voice, could not move, and could not be free; exactly how it was shown in the film. Chris was the African American character, who was controlled by the white character in the film, similar to how it was in History. Still today African Americans can see themselves being stuck in the Sunken Place, as they struggle to have power and a voice, in a country that is led by white racists.