soroosh-khoshavi

[soroosh-khoshavi]

Blog Post #6

This week we talked about different horror movie novels and each of them stood out to me in their own way and I think both were great novels in their own worlds. We talked about “The Keeper” and “The Devil in America”. What I really liked about these two novels was the fact that they both deeply dive into societal issues, specifically intergenerational trauma, fear of the unknown and structural oppression. Throughout the novel, there are themes that illustrate extreme trauma and how it could either break or protect you. In The Devil in America, it was interesting to see that the storytelling was nonlinear. It displayed the importance of blacks in our history and how it is underestimated and erased mainly. The story is a bit difficult to follow but it shows the themes of loss, memory and consequences of actions.  

Every week, we learn some new things about Black horror that surprises me, and I think it’s very interesting to learn new things about it. We could clearly see that in Black horror movies, Hollywood tries to negate Black culture and push it away. Even with Hollywood trying to keep it away, black horror stories/movies still do numbers which is quite impressive. They do a great job integrating supernatural elements with racial violence, trauma and grief.  

In The Keeper, we could clearly see how trauma, fear of society and family’s actions could shape your identity. Although trauma could be terrifying and unhealthy, it could also be protective which allows us to open a new perspective into seeing how trauma feels. The story was mainly about black children the things they had to go through with the lack of security. In The Devil in America, the story shifts mainly towards supernatural horror but with elements explaining how real-world racial violence works. In that novel, devil is white supremacy, and it shows us how it destroys the picture of being colored. The focus of this novel was also on children and how innocent they could be in this world. It really highlights the concentration of black culture in history and how it has been erased. It shows us that when violence is shown towards black people is not accidental but arranged system of oppression. It helps us understand that it’s not a coincidence, but it’s repeated, and the repetition does hurt the black image throughout society and people around it.  

[soroosh-khoshavi]

Blog post #5

In this week's lecture, we talked about a variety of different black horror pieces such as Blackula, Ganja & Hess, and Suicide by Sunlight. These pieces were special each one by itself and although they are old movies, they still have important meanings and contexts behind them.  

Blackula was a unique piece because it brought a new version of Dracula but in Black lens. The protagonist of this piece was shown correctly and wasn’t undermined or misrepresented like other movies and how black culture was misrepresented. It had some negative stereotypes, especially for the time that it was produced and made but it did a good job creating a black horror movie. Ganja & Hess was an exciting movie as well, but it seemed to be more of a unique genre and the use of art in that movie stood out. They dig deep into the African Culture and artifacts. They somehow related the plot to vampirism and the need of Hess to drink blood to survive. This could relate to the struggle of Western integration and African heritage which came to be a new idea that was introduced to the audience.  

What I found interesting about these horror movies was the fact that they’re more than just a movie; when you hear the name Blackula, you’d think that it’s purely a scary movie to entertain the audience and make them sit still. Ganja & Hess also did a great job sending a message to the audience and the people and not to just scaring people while watching a movie. I think that’s the big difference between the black horror movie pieces and regular horror movies. It was mostly about Black identity, racism, and cultural discrimination.  

Each of these movies send us a specific message regarding black culture and that’s why I think they’re very important. Blackula focuses on racism and slavery which introduces us to historical context. It showed how Black people succeeded to navigate through the realm of power and oppression. Movie also did a good job explaining the how Hollywood has been failing to represent black people correctly in the movies. Ganja & Hess allows us to dig deep into the psychological world of loss, desire and identity. The tension between the modern world and cultural heritage is very noticeable in each of these pieces and we should appreciate the fact that we got these masterpieces made.  

[soroosh-khoshavi]

Blog post #4

The Tales from the Hood was one of many other black horror movies that was highlighted in our course and what I liked about it was the fact that it was unique and used retribution in the plot to go against the politicians who were racist in their movement. The Blackening also came out to be unique for me because it was mainly a horror/comedy, and it illustrated some elements of black culture with a new genre. Night of the Living dead was another movie that we talked about, and it was surprising that the main character of the movie was a black man amongst a bunch of whites and that by its own changed the racial dynamics and a representation of black people.  

In the majority of the black horrors that we’ve watched and went over so far, I think we could see a pattern of how the storytelling goes; it’s mainly about retribution but at the same time they use concepts to illustrate the empowerment and the movements and how different cultures should be familiar with it. It also shows the progress of black horror movies which people didn’t really care about back in the day but now it is more common and more respected. A movie like Night of the Living Dead is a prime example of how a black man could change the whole narrative of the movie and shift the plot to the real-world racial tensions.  

In Tales from the Hood, the main message that the movie was trying to send was about the brutality of police and how corrupt they were. Based on this, they turned it into a horror story. In Eve’s Bayou, the theme was mainly about trauma and betrayal and the family holding secrets which could be counted as a classic horror story. The Blackening was another movie that was made not so long ago, and it was a more modern horror movie tbat focused on recent events with a little spice of humor mixed with it. 

Overall, these pieces have not yet disappointed, and each movie itself has special storytelling and meanings behind them. It's amazing to see the revolution of balck horror movies and how each one came out to be better than the previous one and how each one did a great job of sending a message not only within the movie but outside of it, especially in our modern society.  

[soroosh-khoshavi]

Blog Post #3

This week we talked about two movies that were made years apart from each other. The Candyman which was made in 1992 and the other one which was made in 2021. These two movies might have the same names and themes but they’re quite different from each other; one was made by a white director who sees through the lenses of a black individuals and the other was made by a black woman by the name of Nia DaCosta. It’s common to create a movie based on another race and misrepresent them easily because you don’t know what they’ve been through and what it is exactly to live in a society like them.  

The 1992 Candyman version is a horror film but as mentioned, there are quite some racial misrepresentations; the movie mainly displayed black people suffering as a vision but not as a story. On the other hand, the 2021 version of Candyman redo this narrative and illustrates the systematic racism and the trauma that shows the black empowerment instead of making exploits. Althought the first movie is one of the very few movies that show the history of racism and violence towards black people. It’s a classic horror movie that builds on suspense and horror.  

What's not appreciative of that movie is the fact that in the movie they show black man as a threat to white women. The good thing that was covered in the recent Candyman was it gained back its history of classic black horror story and showed more issues and aspects of racism towards blacks. It dedicated a lot more to real experiences that black people go through and the trauma they experience with the brutalities. However, it had some problems which was the fact that it was a remake of a movie, and it tried to correct what was not right in the first movie. The movie was a bit rushed in my opinion but still delivered the message.  

Overall, it was interesting to dive into both movies and analyze the pros and cons with each one. Each movie definitely had its flaws, and we can’t really decide which one is better than the other. However, the second one delivered the message better when it came to racism and traumatic experiences they had to go through. I also think that black horror movies have had a big glow up since the older ones and moved into a better era.  

[soroosh-khoshavi]

Blog post #2

Blog Assignment #2 

Soroosh Khoshavi  

Link for extra credit: 

This week we had the opportunity to dig deeper into another one of Jordan Peele’s movies called Us. I did get the chance to watch Us when it came out and to me, it was a very scary movie at the time that I watched it. It had some jump scares and was quite violent. Compared to Get out, it was definitely a lot scarier and more intense. Jordan Peele in general has done a great job making black horror movies stand out and sell amongst other Hollywood movies and I like the fact that he has done something new with familiarizing the audience a lot more with black horror movies and introducing a new aspect of movie genres. It’s very empowering and interesting to see something new and I really liked that about Us and other black horror pieces.  

Black Horror movies have been leaving a good impression on me, and I think that Jordan Peele has been doing a great job creating these movies and throughout these movies that I watched, I’ve learned some things that surprised me. Jordan Peele doesn’t usually use racist violence in his films but most of the regular Hollywood movies have themes that illustrate these violent actions. The theme in Us specifically showed different privileges and the tethered showed the underclass and how there was inequality between different classes.  

Peele did an amazing job helping us understand something that wasn’t usually a norm in horror movies which is the representation of black people in horror movies and the fact that the villain isn't necessarily racist. In most of the horror movies, a lot of villains are chosen based on their race, especially in the early horror movies where monstrous characters would be illustrated as colored people. The fact that Jordan Peele doesn’t use any of these aspects in his movies shows the encouragement for equality and setting an example for the culture and the people who watch it which is very inspiring for us as viewers. It could be very traumatizing for black audiences to see such violence back in the day and the fact that there are movies that discourage such things is amazing.  

One thing that I didn’t really like about the movie Us was its violent scenes; I think they were overviolent in some scenes. For instance, in the scene where the doppelgangers had an altercation with the Wilson family in their home. That was a chaotic scene and another one that comes to mind is the Tethered using scissors which is the main symbol of the movie.  

[soroosh-khoshavi]

Blog Post #1

Blog assignment #1 

Soroosh Khoshavi 

Before I start talking about the masterpiece of a movie “Get out”, I’d like to contribute to how the course has been going and how I feel about our class. I think so far, it’s been how I expected it to be, and I’ve been enjoying this class a lot more than I thought I would. I thought we would be learning only about history, and it would become a little repetitive and boring. There’s actually been a lot more interesting things involved in our materials that I didn’t expect would be involved. I love the fact that we’re looking at different movies, books, and different perspectives when it comes to African American culture. It’s definitely different from all the other classes I’ve taken so far. I’m really impressed, and I’ve been enjoying it so far.  

The movie Get out was truly a masterpiece made by the man himself Jordan Peele. I only thought of Jordan Peele to be a comedian because of his classic works. He’s known for directing other black horror movies such as “US” and “Candyman.” I think Get out in general wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. It had maybe like one jump scare but in return it had very intense scenes.  

When it comes to Chris, the main character of the movie, he was having a normal life as he took a trip to go see his girlfriend’s family. After he gets there, everything starts to go downhill, and the main plot of the movie starts. In the beginning, he noticed some things being off, especially how Rose’s family is treating him. Even though Chris thought that he would be fine, it turned out to be the total opposite. In those scenes, you could feel the white supremacy and how the family is into kidnaping black people and hypnotizing them and challenging their conscious minds into thinking they’re something they’re not. The scene where he gets hypnotized and goes into the “Sunken place” is probably the best scene from the movie because it showed the superb acting of Daniel Kaluuya. 

The ending of Get out was truly an amazing one too; it was very tense and scary. I never have had any personal event in my life that would remind me of the character in the movie, but I’ve seen and had friends who had the same experiences when they got to meet their friend's or girlfriends' family for the first time. They went through some similar experiences, but it became normal after some time.