CINEMATIC HISTORY:
21st CENTURY HORROR
Black creatives have always had a role in horror films, from scream queens and monstrous figures in front of the camera to writers and directors working behind it. But, as Robin R. Means Coleman has argued, there is something different taking place in the 21st century: “the re-emergence of true black horror films”. Jordan Peele’s Get Out examines the horrors of racism in an era that claims to be “post-racial” and is perhaps the quintessential example of this contemporary Black horror movement, and this century has already seen an abundance of Black horror writers, directors and actors similarly contributing to the horror canon. Below you will find a selection of these horror films.
Bones, dir. Ernest Dickerson. 2001.
Directed by Ernest Dickerson, Bones is a 2001 American supernatural horror film that pays homage to earlier blaxploitation films. Snoop Dogg stars as Jimmy Bones, a numbers runner who is brutally murdered by a cop but returns from beyond the grave to seek revenge. Though the film received mixed reviews upon its release, it has since garnered cult status as an overlooked gem in the horror genre. In the 2019 documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, Dickerson also reflected on the film’s initial marketing, stating that New Line Cinema didn’t know how to promote the film as something beyond just a “Black movie”.
Underworld, dir. Len Wiseman. 2003.
Underworld is a 2003 American horror film that centres on two secret groups, vampires and lycans (werewolves), who have been waging war against each other for centuries. Like the 1998 horror film Blade, Underworld uses its supernatural groups to present a narrative of racial purity versus racial mixing, with the conflict depicted as a racial war. Though the film received mixed reviews, it has since seen several sequels and prequels including Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) which depicts attempts by vampires to enslave the lycans.
Land of the Dead, dir. George Romero. 2005
The fourth instalment of George Romero’s six Living Dead zombie series is Land of the Dead, which focuses on a zombie attack on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This sanctuary city is run like a feudal government where the very richest live in a luxury high-rise called “Fiddler's Green” and control all aspects of commerce, while the rest of the population live in squalor. Zombies, however, represent the lowest and most marginalised, and they threaten to destroy this capitalist system of oppression.
The Skeleton Key, dir. Ian Softley. 2005
The Skeleton Key is a 2005 American Southern Gothic horror film that takes place at an isolated plantation home in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) is a New Orleans hospice nurse who accepts a job as a carer at the house. Soon, she becomes entangled in a mystery involving two African American former servants who worked in the house 90 years ago, Mama Cecile (Jeryl Prescott) and Papa Justify (Ronald McCall). The pair were violently lynched after performing a hoodoo ritual with the owners’ children, and who appear to still be haunting the house. The Skeleton Key received mixed reviews, but it was criticised for its depiction of race. Writing in The Washington Post Ann Hornaday summed up the film as a “lynching uncritically described as "a party" and the tired "magical Negro" stereotype being trotted out yet again, depriving black characters of full personhood, relegating them instead to the story's exotically decorative margins.”
Attack the Block, dir. Joe Cornish. 2011.
Released in 2011, Attack the Block is a British science fiction horror comedy that centres on a teenage gang in South London as they defend the council estate where they live from an alien invasion. John Boyega stars as Moses, a teenage gang leader and orphan, and this is his film debut. Boyega, along with many of the film’s young multicultural cast, had no previous film experience and was cast after being selected from drama classes of London council estate schools and going through several rounds of auditions. Joe Cornish, the director, has said he was inspired to make the film to counter the trend of "hoodie horror" films which has demonised youth culture and teenagers. Upon release, Attack the Block received critical praise, and in 2011 the Black Film Critics Circle Awards gave the film a special mention: “Attack The Block is a genre film that defies a number of conventions, not only by having a primarily black cast but portraying each character with a dignity seldom seen on screen and even more rarely in a Science-Fiction film.”
Everybody Dies! dir. Nuotama Bodomo (in Collective: Unconscious). 2016.
Directed by Nuotama Bodomo, this short film satirically recreates a public access television show with a dark twist: the show is hosted by Ripa, the Grim Reaper, who teaches Black children about death, and the fear and trauma that surrounds it. This film is part of the 2016 anthology film Collective: Unconscious, a collaboration between five filmmakers who turned each others’ dreams into short films.
Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele. 2017.
Premiering in 2017, Jordan Peele’s Get Out changed the landscape of the horror genre. The film stars British actor Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington, a young Black man who is meeting the wealthy family of his white girlfriend for the first time. What Chris discovers, however, is the meeting of science fiction horror and the commodification of Black bodies as the consciousness of wealthy white elites are transplanted into the young bodies of abducted Black people who are auctioned off to the highest bidder. This is, one character reveals, simply the “latest fad”, but it is one that speaks to not the traditional racism of the KKK, but the horrors of post-racial America, the concept of “colourblindness” and the insidious ignorance and racism of white liberals. The film was a critical and financial success, and among the many accolades it received were four Academy Awards nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya. The film became only the sixth horror film to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, and Peele went on to Best Original Screenplay becoming the first African American winner. In 2021, Get Out was ranked by the Writers Guild of America as the greatest screenplay of the 21st century so far.
The First Purge, dir. Gerard McMurray. 2018.
Directed by Gerard McMurray, The First Purge is the fourth instalment in the dystopian Purge franchise. This film serves as a prequel depicting the origins of the annual Purge–in which all crime including rape and murder is decriminalised in American for twelve hours only–as an experiment that takes place on Staten Island, home to largely poor Black and Latino communities. The newly elected political party New Founding Fathers, announce the experiment and offer monetary compensation to all those who stay on the island and participate. However, it is soon revealed that the New Founding Fathers have rigged the experiment, sending in mercenary groups to kill civilians in order to eradicate them because the marginalised communities on Staten Island don’t want to kill each other. The film received mixed reviews, but critics have praised its social commentary. For example, Trey Magnum, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, describes The First Purge as a spiritual successor to Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and he highlights the way the film presents the horror of white supremacy and real life systemic racism.
Hair Wolf, dir. Mariama Diallo. 2018.
Watch the short film on Vimeo or on YouTube.
Written and directed by Mariama Diallo, the 2018 short film Hair Wolf is a horror comedy that offers a satirical perspective on Black culture and the horrors of cultural appropriation. At the centre of the film is a Black hair salon and its Black staff who are confronted with a new kind of monster: white women attempting to drain the lifeblood from Black culture. The film has won several accolades, including winning Best Narrative Short Film at the 2018 Chicago International Film Festival and the Short Filmmaking Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
Ma, dir. Tate Taylor. 2019.
Starring Octavia Spencer in the title role as Sue Ann "Ma" Ellington, Ma is a 2019 American psychological horror film. Sue Ann is a lonely middle-aged woman, and after she is befriended by a group of teenagers she invites them into her house to party in her basement where she then terrorises them. While the film received mixed reviews, Spencer has been praised for her role. She has also revealed that the film came about through conversations she had with Tate Taylor, her friend and the film’s director, about her frustrations with only being offered the same role and never having the opportunity to star in a lead role.
She Never Died, dir. Audrey Cummings. 2019.
Canadian horror comedy She Never Died is the sister sequel to the earlier 2015 film He Never Died which stars Henry Rollins as an immortal cannibalistic loner. Here, Oluniké Adeliyi takes the mantle of the mysterious cannibalistic immortal, Lacey/Lilith, who discovers an underground human trafficking ring that is producing violent snuff films with the collaboration of local law enforcement. Lacey, who cannot die, purposefully gets herself abducted so that she can fight the ring from within while also satisfying her appetite for human flesh. The film won several genre awards including Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival Best Actress for Adeliyi.
Us, dir. Jordan Peele. 2019.
Jordan Peele’s second directorial outing is the 2019 horror film Us starring Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph. The film, which is also written by Peele, explores the intersections of race, class and American privilege as it centres on a middle class Black family who are attacked by a group of doppelgangers called the Tethered. Nyong'o, Duke, Joseph and other members of the cast all play their Tethered characters as well as their primary characters. The film was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning several awards including Outstanding Screenplay and Outstanding Actress for Nyong'o at the 2020 Black Reel Awards and Best Director at the 2019 Saturn Awards.
Antebellum, dir. Gerard Bush. 2020.
The 2020 horror film Antebellum is a collaboration between Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, who co-wrote and co-directed the film. Janelle Monáe stars as Veronica Henley, a successful 21st century author who finds herself trapped in the horrifying reality of the Antebellum South, and also Eden, a woman who ostensibly appears to be an enslaved woman attempting to escape from a plantation where slaves are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Antebellum received mixed reviews, and while Monáe was praised for her roles as Veronica and Eden, the film was criticised for its exploitation of Black suffering. Writing in Vulture, Angelica Jade Bastién criticises the film for implicitly suggesting that “depictions of suffering are the best means of understanding what it means to be Black in America.”
Bad Hair, dir. Justin Simien. 2020.
Written and directed by Justin Simien, Bad Hair is a 2020 satirical horror comedy that explores the importance of hair to Black identity. Set in 1989, the film follows a young African American woman, Anna (Elle Lorraine) who aspires to become a television host. Anna is encouraged by her boss to change her natural Afro-textured hair for a weave in order to fit a certain industry look. At first, her new hair does help her to succeed, but she is soon plagued by violent nightmares taking place on a plantation, and Anna believes that her weave is in fact the hair of a dead witch trying to possess her.
Black Box, dir. Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. 2020.
Directed and co-written by Ghanaian American filmmaker Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr., Black Box is an American science-fiction horror film that featured in the anthology film series Welcome to Blumhouse. The first four films in this series, including Black Box, explore “family and love as redemptive or destructive forces”, and we see this play out in Osei-Kuffour’s film which focuses on single father Nolan Wright (Mamoudou Athie). Nolan’s wife died in a car accident that Nolan survived, and although he has no physical scars he does have amnesia. Dr. Brooks invites Nolan to take part in an experimental procedure that might help regain his memories through her "black box" treatment, but this treatment causes Nolan to start seeing monsters, leading him to question his identity and also Dr Brooks’ motives.
His House, dir. Remi Weekes. 2020.
Written and directed by Remi Weekes, His House is a 2020 British horror film that chronicles the life of a refugee couple from Sudan as they struggle to adapt to life in Britain. The film explores the tensions of assimilation versus wanting to preserve cultural traditions, as well as the real-life horrors of the refugee experience from leaving war-torn South Sudan to the perilous English Channel crossing and also everyday racism in Britain. In 2021, the film won a BAFTA award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for Weekes, who also won Best Director at the British Independent Film Awards, and Wunmi Mosaku won Best Performance by an Actress at the British Independent Film Awards for her role as Rial.
In 2021, as part of the UK's Being Human festival, we collaborated with local Sheffield artists to create a project that responded to the horrors depicted in His House. Part of the project was to offer an alternative and celebratory perspective on immigration and multicultural society, and we produced a short film Hegira to encapsulate both the difficulties but also the celebratory aspects of finding a new place to call home. Watch our short film Hegira here.
Two Distant Strangers, dir. Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe. 2020.
Written by American comedian, actor and writer Travon Free and co-directed by Free and British filmmaker Martin Desmond Roe, Two Distant Strangers is an American short film that uses the time loop concept to explore the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. The film follows Carter James (Joey Badass), a graphic designer in New York City, as he finds himself trapped in a time loop where he is repeatedly confronted by a NYPD officer, Merk (Andrew Howard). The encounter always ends up with his death, and then he wakes up in bed in the morning and repeats the day again, encountering Merk and then being killed by him. In 2021, the film won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Vampires vs. the Bronx, dir. Oz Rodriguez. 2020.
Released in 2020, Vampires vs. the Bronx is an American horror comedy that follows a group of teenagers who attempt to protect their neighbourhood from a group of vampires. These vampires operate under the real estate group Murnau Properties, and represent the monster of gentrification enacted by companies that buy up properties, and in doing so force local poor and often marginalised communities out of the area, or further into poverty.
Black as Night, dir. Maritte Lee Go. 2021.
Black as Night is another film that turns to vampires in order to explore the impact of vampiric capitalism on communities of colour. This film is the sixth instalment of the anthology film series Welcome to Blumhouse and part of four films in the series that examine “institutional horrors and personal phobias”. Set in New Orleans years after the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Black as Night explores these themes through Shawna (Asjha Cooper), a Black teenage girl who finds herself fighting the vampires preying on New Orleans' disenfranchised. The film received mixed reviews, and writing for Variety, Denis Harvey described the film as a good enough teen supernatural melodrama that worked “less well as straight-up horror, let alone as a commentary on race-centric historical and political issues that never feel more than pasted-on here.”
Candyman, dir. Nia DaCosta. 2021.
Directed by Nia DaCosta, and with a screenplay co-written by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld and DaCosta, Candyman is a 2021 sequel to the earlier 1992 Candyman horror film. Tony Todd reprises his role as the vengeful spirit Daniel Robitaille / Candyman, while Michael Hargrove plays another version of Candyman, a hook-handed man named Sherman Fields who was killed by police in 1977 after being falsely accused of planting razor blades in candy. Through the urban legend, this film examines the cycle of horror and racist violence enacted upon innocent Black men that continues to feed the Candyman hive. Reviewing the film for The A.V. Club, Anya Stanley writes that “Where Bernard Rose spoke on White anxieties and the image of the scary Black man in 1992, DaCosta expands the conversation, relocating the horror from one man to the many structures that foment brutality upon the Black populace.” The film was critically and financially successful, and DaCosta became the first Black female director to have a film reach number one at the box office. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II also won Best Actor in a Horror Movie at the 2022 Critics' Choice Super Awards and Best Lead Performance at the 2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his role as Anthony McCoy.
Horror Noire, dir. Zandashé Brown, Robin Givens, Rob Greenlea, Kimani Ray Smith. 2021.
Horror Noire is a 2021 American anthology horror film featuring six stories: “Daddy”, “Bride Before You” “Brand of Evil”, “The Lake”, "Sundown” and “Fugue State”. This film is a follow up to Shudder’s 2019 documentary, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, and its stories explore a variety of themes and horror tropes from doubles to monster spiders, fatherhood to the danger of cults, and the final story “Sundown” even features a clan of racist white vampires.
White Devil, dir. Mariama Diallo and Benjamin Dickinson. 2021.
White Devil is a short horror comedy that explores a Black woman’s disturbing quarantine experience.
Bitch Ass, dir. Bill Posley. 2022.
Directed by comedian and filmmaker Bill Posley, Bitch Ass is a 2022 American crime slasher film. The film stars horror icon Tony Todd as Titus Darq who introduces the main story through a frame narrative, presenting it as a lost film that depicts the first masked Black serial killer, and therefore an important piece of Black horror history. The masked killer, who goes by the name of ‘Bitch Ass’, is played by Tunde Laleye.
The Blackening, dir. Tim Story. 2022.
Directed by Tim Story, and written by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, The Blackening is a 2022 American horror comedy. The film is based on a 2018 short film of the same name by the comedy troupe 3Peat, and follows a group of Black friends as they meet at a cabin in the woods to celebrate Juneteenth, but are targeted by a masked killer and murdered one by one. At the centre of the narrative is a racist board game called “The Blackening” which features a racist Little Black Sambo caricature. The film satirises horror film tropes and ethnic stereotypes, and Rafael Motamayor described the film in a review for Indie Wire as “the first great horror parody of the post-Get Out era”.
Master, dir. Mariama Diallo. 2022.
Written and directed by Mariama Diallo, Master is a 2022 psychological horror film that follows three women as they attempt to find their place at Ancaster, an elite Northeastern university. This includes Gail Bishop (Regina Hall), the newly appointed and first Black master of Ancaster. When a Black student is attacked, the women must investigate whether these attacks are hauntings or racist assaults, and their inquiries lead them to uncover the school’s history of covert and violent racism.
Nanny, dir. Nikyatu Jusu. 2022.
Nanny is a 2022 psychological horror film written and directed by Nikyatu Jusu. This is Jusu’s feature film directorial debut, and her film follows undocumented Senegalese immigrant in New York City, Aisha (Anna Diop) who is hired as a nanny by a wealthy white family. Through Aisha’s story, the film explores the intersection of capitalistic exploitation with the immigrant experience in America. In 2022 the film won the Grand Jury Prize in the US Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival, making Jusu only the second Black woman filmmaker to win the top prize.
Nope, dir. Jordan Peele. 2022.
Daniel Kaluuya returns to star in Jordan Peele’s third directorial outing, Nope, alongside Keke Palmer and. Steven Yeun. This is a neo-western science fiction horror that follows brother and sister OJ (Kaluuya) and Emerald (Palmer) who have taken over their father’s horse-wrangling business in Agua Dulce, California. after his death, and are confronted with an unidentified flying object which they later give the name Jean Jacket. The film examines spectacle and exploitation as well as the erasure of Black contributions to film history. Upon its release Nope received positive reviews and was named as one of the top ten films of 2022 by the American Film Institute.
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, dir. Bomani J. Story. 2023.
Written and directed by Bomani J. Story, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is a 2023 American science fiction horror that adapts Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The film stars Laya DeLeon Hayes as Vicaria, a gifted teenager who attempts to resurrect her brother after he is violently murdered, but what she brings back is a vengeful monster. Reviewing the film for ScreenRant, Nadir Samara writes that “Story's script is a thing of pure beauty in terms of depicting Black life. Even in 2023, it's rare to see an all-Black cast. The film is also not about Black people in the projects or an excuse to abuse them onscreen. The film simply centers Black characters without ever hitting the audience over the head with ham-fisted ideas on race. We need more Black movies like this.”
They Cloned Tyrone, dir. Juel Taylor. 2023.
Paying homage to the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. They Cloned Tyrone is a 2023 American science fiction mystery thriller that stars John Boyega, Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx. The film is directed by Juel Taylor in his directorial debut and follows an unlikely trio (Boyega, Parris and Foxx) who team up to uncover a racist shadow government program of cloning, mind control and generational breeding that is attempting to create “peace” through by whitewashing Black people into white people. In an essay discussing a new wave of Black satirical films in The New York Times, Maya Phillips praised They Cloned Tyrone and wrote that it succeeds where other films fail because it is “not just about the way characters speak or the exaggerated depictions of their lives; it’s also about their internal conflicts, whether they choose to submit to a racist narrative”.
We Have a Ghost, dir. Christopher Landon. 2023.
We Have a Ghost is a 2023 horror comedy that follows a Black family as they move into a large, cheap and abandoned house in Chicago and discover that their new home is haunted. While Kevin (Jahi Winston), the Presley’s teenage son, befriends the ghost and attempt to solve the mystery of who he is (or was) and who killed him, his father Frank (Anthony Mackie) sees the ghost as a potential way to make money, and soon turns him into a viral social media sensation.
The Deliverance, dir. Lee Daniels. 2024.
Watch the trailer here and find out more about the true story that inspired the film here.
Directed by Lee Daniels and co-written by David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum, The Deliverance is a 2024 American horror film inspired by the alleged true story of the 2011 Ammons haunting case. The film focuses on struggling single-mother Ebony Jackson (Andra Day) as she moves her family into a new house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, they start to experience strange and demonic events, and eventually turn to Black Pentecostal pastor Reverend Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) who helps the family to exorcise the demon through a deliverance prayer. While the film received mixed reviews, it does offer a rare Black lens on the possession-horror subgenre
The Front Room, dir. Max Eggers and Sam Eggers. 2024.
The 2024 American psychological horror film The Front Room adapts Susan Hill’s 2016 short story of the same name. American singer and actor Brandy stars as Belinda, a heavily pregnant woman who agrees to allow her white husband’s estranged and elderly stepmother, Solange (Kathryn Hunter), to move into their home in exchange for a promise that they will inherit her vast wealth. Soon after Solange arrives, Belinda is subjected to religious and racial microaggressions, and their home is transformed into a sinister space filled with terror and paranoia.
The Piano Lesson, dir. Malcolm Washington. 2024.
Directed by Malcolm Washington, who co-wrote the script with Virgil Williams, the 2024 supernatural Southern Gothic drama The Piano Lesson adapts August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. The narrative follows the Charles family and their connection with an heirloom, the family piano. As they argue about what to do with the piano, and whether to keep it or get rid of it, they reflect on its connection to their enslaved ancestors and the ways that their family continue to haunt them through the piano that carries the scars and songs of their ancestors. Upon its release the film received several nominations and awards, and won the Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Supporting Performance for Danielle Deadwyler and Outstanding Ensemble, as well as the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Breakthrough Creative for director Malcolm Washington and Outstanding Youth Performance in a Motion Picture for Skylar Aleece Smith.
Sinners, dir. Ryan Coogler. 2025.
The 2025 American horror film Sinners is written and directed by Ryan Coogler, and stars his frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan in the dual role of identical twins and World War 1 veterans, Smoke and Stack. The narrative takes place in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta as Smoke and Stack return home from Chicago and set up a juke joint for the local Black community using money and alcohol stolen from Chicago gangs. The star of the musical performers is their cousin, Sammie, who plays a soulful blues song despite a warning from his pastor father that blues music is supernatural, and the dance floor is filled with ghosts of the past and the future. Soon, the juke joint is attacked by vampires wanting to turn everyone into immortal monsters, and the head vampire warns that daylight will bring another kind of monster: the KKK. Upon its release Sinners was met with immediate universal acclaim, and to date the film has grossed over $186 million worldwide, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of 2025 so far.
Him, dir. Justin Tipping. 2025.
Him is an upcoming 2025 sports horror film directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions. The film stars Tyriq Withers as a young American football player who is invited to train at the isolated compound of a former sports star, and explores fame, power and idolatry as it examines what people are willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of excellence.
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