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Blog Post #6

African American Studies 112A

Professor Due 

03/15/2024

Blog Post #6

Last week, the most striking piece that we watched and discussed in the lecture was the black horror film, Abby. Abby is a black horror film from the 70s that many believed was a knockoff film of The Exorcist. While both films were about becoming possessed, and Abby does have some similar scenes to The Exorcist, they were each their own films, and Abby shined on its own. I really enjoyed Abby because of its combination of both real-life themes, and superficial horror themes. It was also unique in its sexual nature, from the fact that it was a very sexual film overall. In the film, Abby is a marriage counselor who becomes possessed once her father-in-law releases a demon on his expedition in Africa. After being sexual with her husband, she becomes possessed. Abby gets very sexual throughout the film and is confronted by her father-in-law.

In this confrontation we realize that she is not possessed by a Jew themself, which they had initially thought, but by someone pretending to be a Jew, aka a demon. Being a Jewish person myself, I know the negative connotations that we get just for being Jewish, that we are demonic creatures, and in some faiths, they are even taught that we have horns on our heads. As preposterous as this sounds, we still see these false implications in films like Abby. This was shocking to watch on screen, but I expected it to happen in some horror film or another since oftentimes Jews are seen as ‘the monsters’ for irrelevant reasons. Abby did a good job of debunking this thought however by showing that what they thought was real was in fact false- Jews weren’t the demons. 

My favorite aspect of Abby was the implementation of the Church and dancing, which were seen repeatedly in the film. These themes reflect truthfully within the African American culture. Preaching at the church, singing in the choir, and dancing through emotions are all real African American tropes that are woven within their culture and were accurately presented in this black horror film. Abby, much like other black horror films, used the Church as a way to hone in on the spiritual aspect of the film. Through the use of religion and spirituality, it seemed like the Church was their savior or their safe space, and the cure to end Abby’s possession. Abby is a demonstration of a well-made traditional black horror film because of its representation of cultural and classic themes, such as the church and dancing, and because of its scary theme of demonic possession. Its sexual themes were a pleasant addition, as I don’t think any of the other black horror films we have seen this quarter had this many sexual acts and implications as Abby did. Overall, while Abby wasn’t my favorite black horror film that we have seen this quarter, I did appreciate its realistic ties and superficial horror to the black horror film genre. 

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Blog Post #5

African American Studies 112A

Professor Due 

02/29/2024

Blog Post #5

Last week we went over vampire black horror films and the themes within them, such as the works of “Blacula” and “Ganja and Hess”, and this week we looked at “Beloved” and read the story “The Devil in America”. For me it was interesting to watch to vampire films last week that were both black horror films but were so different in their approaches and meanings. “Blacula”, which had a lot of controversy over its homophobia, otherwise focused on black power and addressing black history. The protagonist, Blacula himself, is a black vampire whose character holds a lot of power. Especially for black men in the film industry, we don’t get to see a lot of black characters being the character that drives the film and holds the power that Blacula does- unfortunately, this is still addressing the stereotype that black characters are the ‘villains’ or the ‘bad guys’ since Blacula attacks and sucks the blood out of the people in the film. Nonetheless, we even see Blacula standing up to the police towards the end of the film, just before he commits suicide. I like this act of power that we see in Blacula up until his last moments, reclaiming his power which many black characters do not have the opportunity to, and choosing to end his life on his own terms, once again utilizing his power. 

Both “Blacula” and “Ganja and Hess” represent blaxploitation in their films; meaning that the film industry exploited black actors for their color in order to scapegoat them as villains for their films. In “Ganja and Hess” while it is also about a black male vampire, in this one it is more about a love story between Hess falling for Ganja and how he manipulated the story for his own gains. After Hess became infected with the curse of becoming a vampire, he became addicted to blood, which is a theme in the film and chooses to bite and infect Ganja into becoming a vampire so that Hess could selfishly go through this journey with someone whom he romanticized. I personally dislike this act of character on Hess because although he unwillingly became a vampire, it does not mean that he has to spread that unfortunate reality to others. This can be compared to reality and society- just because you experience hate for being different doesn’t mean that you have to spread that hate to others. I can relate to this message in my own life. I, especially recently, have received a lot of hate and antisemitism just for being Jewish, but instead of using this hate that I have received to go on and spread more hate onto others, even the antisemitic ones, I choose to spread awareness and stay strong instead. I know that acting in hate towards others, innocent or not, will only make me seem worse to the haters, so I keep my strength and advocate for my religion proudly. 

“Beloved” was a terrifying movie, to me the most gruesome one we have seen, and because of its triggering images it did not get the acknowledgments that it deserved. Being a black horror film rooted in the theme of slavery, making white people the enemies as they were historically in this sense, makes it seem as if the primary audience should be black people for this film. However, because of its very real and triggering nature, not really allowing the black characters in the film to have their victory moment, it was too triggering for black audiences to want to watch, making the show not as successful as it could have been. I liked the comparison of this film’s techniques to those of Jordan Peele in his films- when Peele makes a black horror film, he is somewhat historical underneath the film, but he gives the power to his black characters intentionally and makes the white characters the ‘bad guys’ or otherwise just bystanders. Personally, I like the way that Peele approaches his films better than Demee approached “Beloved”, however, “Beloved” is nonetheless a very well-made film that gave viewers like myself a very lasting impression.

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Blog Post #4

African American Studies 112A

Professor Due 

02/09/2024

Blog Post #4

This week’s works, the films “Tales from the Hood” “Eve’s Bayou”, and the story “Wet Pain” all exhibit examples of Black Horror, and as a reader/viewer, I have a different opinion about each of these works. “Wet Pain” needed to be broken down for me after reading it, which was what I didn’t like about the story– however, the meaning behind it, being the witness of the deterioration of someone you care about, made me enjoy this story more because of the deeper meaning behind it. My favorite kind of horror film is when you kind of have to work for the meanings, or when they are not so obvious about it. I enjoy these types of stories/films more because once you discover or learn about the meanings it opens your eyes to the connections throughout the entire story that were there all along. In “Wet Pain”, it was that racism is the infection, where Dean, a white man, becomes more and more infected with this racist insanity. This story feels more real than some of the other black horror stories we’ve had, because with this one there wasn’t a lot of fictional horror, it was very much real. That’s what I also enjoyed about this story, is that it took place in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina. This real-life event turned into a fantasy horror story allows the readers to relate on a different and more personal level to the story, which is what I liked most about “Wet Pain”. 

I personally liked “Tales from the Hood” more than “Eve’s Bayou” for a similar reason, which is that “Tales from the Hood” was easier to follow, and at the end, all of the stories, there were 4 stories/parts to the film, lined up and connected together, and everything made sense. Whereas “Eve’s Bayou” left me questioning some aspects of the film because the family held so many secrets within the movie and within themselves as characters. One of the only things we get full closure on in the film is at the very end, the last scene is Cecily and Eve talking one to one by the lake, where Eve had gaslit Cecily earlier for claiming that her sexual assault with their father was fake. At this last scene, Eve confirms with Cecily that her sexual assault was real, and Eve believes her, truly, giving the viewer some sense of closure on this part of the film. 

“Tales from the Hood” showcased a bunch of important themes, most notably was Police Brutality, and Retribution, through each story. In the first story of the film, ‘Rogue Cop Revelation’, is where we see white cops beating up a black man, and Clarence Smith, a new young black cop, stands by as it happens, which encompasses him with guilt later in the story, leading him to insanity. This was very powerful to watch, because this story, like all of the other stories in this film, displayed very real stories that certainly happen in real life. That is what makes this film so scary to watch because these all have really happened in some way or another, the film just adds some fiction into it to make it more dramatic. My favorite story in the film was ‘Boys Do Get Bruised’, because this story of domestic violence not only had a satisfying ending, with the abuser getting killed, but the little boy Tyrone who was being abused by his ‘stepdad’ was the one to kill him just by using his hand. He held power and this man’s life literally in the palm of his hands by the crumpled-up piece of paper with a drawing of his ‘stepdad’, making this a clean murder. This follows with the theme of retribution because it allows characters or real-life people who would otherwise not have any power, like little Tyrone, to suddenly hold all of the power and use it as revenge.

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Blog Post #3

African American Studies 112A

Professor Due 

02/01/2024

Blog Post #3

This week we discussed the films, Candyman (1992), Candyman (2020), and Ouanga, as well as two short stories from the book “Out There Screaming” called “Pressure” and “The Most Strongest Obeah Woman in the World”. What I appreciated about this week’s work is that it wasn’t all technically considered to be black horror, so I was able to compare films the films that are and aren’t and see what interpretative elements as well as themes overlap and are unique. Ouanga is a horror film, but it is not a black horror film, even though it includes aspects of race, racism, and even slavery. This is important to note because black horror is not just about race, as we know, and there are different versions of black horror. The horror in Ouanga was centered around the fear of blackness, especially black voodoo, which we see is a very prominent element in the film. It’s a spiritual piece and contains themes that we rarely ever see even today in Hollywood, such as a black woman standing up to a white man. While this film was still uncomfortable to watch, I really appreciated the parts in the film, similar to this, that are unconventional on screen and in reality because it allows the viewer to transcend into this world. 

The short stories, “Pressure” and “The Most Strongest Obeah Woman in the World”, similar to Ouanga, also contained spiritual or supernatural elements, which were initially confusing to see. In “Pressure”, he’s fighting against racism within his own family. So it is also a cautionary tale, in which we don’t really see the horror aspects until the end of the story when it all comes together. At times, I was able to relate to the protagonist, because it felt like for him, seeing his family felt like a death sentence, and while my family is certainly not as extreme as this one in which there are actual threats or safety concerns, I absolutely feel underlying racism within my family, because they essentially only associate with people of their own kind. I am Middle Eastern and Jewish, and my family doesn’t want to even hear what I have to say about my friends or boyfriend if it doesn’t include them being Middle Eastern and Jewish too– spoiler alert, they aren’t. It makes me feel uncomfortable to even talk about my life with my family because of their deliberate racism, which in turn has made me distance myself from them. 

In both versions of Candyman, he is a black man, which makes this film have an instinctive racial aspect to it. The original is more problematic than the latter because in the original, Candyman is the villain, who is black, and is attacking the victim who is a white woman, and framing her for these murders. He also ‘claims’ her as his, which adds in a very weird and disturbing sexual aspect to Candyman, which not only made it uncomfortable to watch but once again made Hollywood seem obsessed with this trope that a black man is the sexually violent villain against the innocent white woman. In the newer Candyman from 2020 by Jordan Peele, I enjoyed it much more because it was more entertaining for me to watch, and it also felt scarier. It’s almost like a mystery that is being pieced together as we discover who Anthony really is, and that becoming Candyman is his destiny. I also appreciated the more expansive cast in the 2020 Candyman, where it felt like there were even more black actors than white, making this a true black horror film.

[tess-eh]

Blog Post #2

African American Studies 112A

Professor Due 

01/26/2024

Blog Post #2

This week, our course started to wrap up its discussion on Jordan Peele’s film “Get Out”, and transition into his next film, “Us”, as well as two short stories present in his book Out There Screaming- “The Rider” and “Dark Home”. One of the most helpful things I learned this week about black horror, is that it is not always about racism. In fact, race doesn’t even have to be a theme in black horror in order for it to be considered a black horror piece. There are many variations and multidimensional aspects of black horror. “Us” focuses more on themes of isolation and privilege/class, “The Rider” is more traditional in its aspects of racism and black horror, and “Dark Home” is themed around science fiction and a cautionary tale. No one story is less of a ‘black horror’ genre than the other, but they’re all a bit different in their themes. I am so glad that I was taught this week so that moving forward, I won’t be so inclined to search for the racial themes or aspects in black horror, but more so on the bigger picture. 

My favorite part about all three of these pieces is that there is a personal element present within them. Although they are not specific reflections on the author/creator's life, they all incorporate several aspects of the creator’s real-life troubles and experiences, which made all of these stories so much more real to me. They are all fiction, but they all also show a very true life story about the author’s personal lives, within black horror in their own lives, which makes me want to watch or read these stories more and look in more detail about the true reflections and what I might have missed the first time around. When I first watched “Us”, I did not catch any of the underlying meanings that reflected Peele’s real life that we spoke about in class. Actor Winston Duke, who plays the father ‘Gabe’ in “Us”, is a symbol for Peele and his experience within the black community. For one, Duke actually learned Peele’s mannerisms to copy while on set, i.e. the way Peele constantly pushes up his glasses, resembles when Gabe keeps pushing his glasses up in the film. Additionally, the main theme in “Us”, as we mentioned, is the theme of isolation. Well, after his great success in “Get Out”, Peele felt as if he was financially isolated from his black community, because of his great success that, unfortunately, does not happen so often in his community. That makes this film, “Us”, about class and privilege, and the isolation that the family felt for being the only black family in their town in Santa Cruz. I did not initially realize that Peele was feeling isolated from his community after “Get Out”, but it gives the watcher, me, a better background to the film “Us” in knowing what motivated Peele to use this theme of isolation in his work.

As a first-generation American in my family, I can relate to a lot of the isolation felt by the Wilson family. Oftentimes, like in all of middle school, I was the only non-white person in my entire school. I remember being asked several times where I was born and being so confused as to why they didn’t believe me when I would reply “Right here in Los Angeles!” with an innocent smile on my face. This was in 6th grade, and by 8th grade, I had realized my place as the only person of color in my school and felt isolated from my friends. No, they were not racist, but they were quick to point out the only difference between me and them, which I had not been aware of before this experience. I was used to being the only person of color in my community, and as the Wilson family, the “Dark Home” story, and “The Rider” showcase, it is not particularly pleasant being the odd one out.

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Blog Post #1 Af-Amer 112A

African American Studies 112A

Professor Due 

01/18/2024

Blog Post #1

In all of the works, Get Out, The Comet, and Wake had a powerful and unfortunately accurate representation of blacks in regards to their black history, which as we learned in class can be considered as ‘black horror’. At the roots of black horror is racism, and these films and stories showcase that message. In Wake, we see messages of black magic/black voodoo when Ruth kills her father and his corpse's soil to create a husband. I have always associated voodoo with African Americans, specifically in the South in cities like New Orleans. Voodoo is part of the black culture in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the fact that we see a black woman using voodoo/black magic enhances her character’s black history. 

The Comet shows a more depressing side of black horror, a truly scary side that is painful to revisit, but is necessary as we still see discrimination in our country every day. In The Comet, there is a black man, Jim, and a white woman, Julia, who for a moment believes that they are the last people alive after surviving a Comet strike in NYC. In this moment, Julia sets her racial prejudices aside and treats Jim as if he is a man. She even thinks to herself that it is odd he is acting like a man when he doesn’t look like one because of his skin, in terms of acting like a civil gentleman. To me, this was the most powerful line in the short story by DuBois, because it shows how horrified white people are of black people for no reason at all. In fact, if Jim wasn’t the last man alive, to Julia’s knowledge, she would not have even talked to him in reality and made this realization. It is tragic, which black horror as a genre shows, that people have a preconceived notion to discriminate and stereotype black people. At the end of the story when all seems to be back to ‘normal’, Julia’s father first asks if Jim raped Julia. He of course didn’t, and Julia ends up defending this agreeing that Jim did not rape her, but it is so disturbing that the first thought when he sees her daughter after a Comet strike is to assume that a black man, who protected her, had raped her, after giving off zero signals that he might have aside from him being a black person. 

In Get Out, right from the beginning, we see that there are some underlying roots of racism within the family of Rose, who is Chris’s girlfriend. We also see a theme that is not so common outside of The Comet and Get Out, where the white woman is dating, or communicating, with a black man. Black men have this horribly misunderstood stereotype that they are more dangerous or sexually assault more women, so they should be handled with more caution. This film beats that stereotype and actually shows how white people are the enemy in this race fight. Rose’s father defends himself when Chris points out that all of their workers are black, which has already set the tone of the film. I really liked in this film how Chris handles himself because although he has the right to overreact, he doesn’t give them that option or that pleasure. I was on the edge of my seat watching this film, which is also an accomplishment for Jordan Peele, to keep the audience not only engaged, but thrilled at the images on the screen. His goal was to relate to everybody in the audience, and while I am not African American, I am a woman of color, and in that sense I felt like through our country’s history, and my knowledge of that, I could also relate to the film in a different way than the black audiences would. 

Before this class, I knew nothing of black horror, and I did not know that black horror was directly related to black history. I also hated horror films, and after the second week of this course, I am starting to get more comfortable with horror films and fascinated by the history of black horror in these specific films. This course is different, in a good way, from what I was expecting– I did not expect this many films to watch, but I love watching movies in my free time so this has been very enjoyable homework thus far and I look forward to the future films we are assigned to watch.