Film Historian Reviews Black People In Horror Movies

There may be some in the horror community who are still not familiar with Tananarive Due, a multi-hyphenate educator/writer/historian/filmmaker/scholar whose profile has been rightfully ascending in the genre scene for a few years now. After being a reporter for the Miami Herald, Due became a published fictional author in 1995 and has been books and short stories ever since. She also teaches a course at UCLA titled The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival, and Black Horror Aesthetic which has been incredibly popular (and even led to a few surprise appearances by filmmaker Jordan Peele in the class). For those interested in partaking in this class, The Sunken Place is available as a webinar.

Her highest profile works are probably a documentary and anthology film both named HORROR NOIRE. The 2019 documentary, whose full title is HORROR NOIRE: A HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR, is an extensive but not exhausting look at the ways the Black experience has been portrayed (often by white filmmakers) in the genre, while highlighting artists who were able to speak some manner of truths through the the many layers of white constructions. It is available to stream on Shudder.

The 2021 anthology features six stories by Black directors and screenwriters (with primarily Black casts, including some genre stalwarts) and feels like the narrative leap from the non-fictional discussions that emerged in the documentary. HORROR NOIRE (2021) is also available to stream on Shudder.

For a preview of her works, heavily condensed to present merely a taste of her much larger encompassing treatise, Due sat down with Buzzfeed to give a 12-minute overview of the history of Black people in horror films. It’s informative and entertaining, and will leave viewers with a whole list of movies to check out afterwards.

Please subscribe to Due’s YouTube channel and follow the distinguished artist and educator on Twitter.