Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
The history of race in American horror is similar to the history of race in all of America: long, complicated, and frequently shameful.
For years black voices were marginalized, black audiences ignored, and black performers either disregarded entirely or shunted to the side in disposable, stereotypical roles. The persistent cliche in horror for decades has been that it always the one black character who gets killed off first, or who ends up sacrificing themselves to save the white protagonist.
Horror Noire seeks to not only speak to this inequality, but to demonstrate how black artists have been a consistent, persistent part of American horror cinema for as long as movies have been made. Inspired by the book of the same title by Robin R. Means Coleman and directed by Xavier Burgin, Horror Noire follows the story of African-American horror cinema from independent auteur Spencer Williams to the landmark performances by Duane Jones in Night of the Living Dead and Ganja & Hess, through to the slasher boom and into present day where the likes of Jordan Peele are re-shaping horror in their own image.
Peele shows up to lend his own perspective on the genre, as do luminaries like Keith David (The Thing), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Tony Todd (Candyman), Rachel True (The Craft), Ernest R. Dickerson (director of Demon Knight), Rusty Cundieff (director of Tales from the Hood), and many more.
We’ve never done a documentary for our Trick’r’Treat series before, but this film seemed too important, too insightful, to go unrecognized. So get ready to add a bunch of movies to your watchlist, as we take a tour of Horror Noire.
Next Week’s Pick:
There are many movies we could have chosen to do in this series. But there’s only one movie in which Nic Cage battles biker-demons who are wearing knife-dildos.
I mean…we assume.
Mandy is now streaming on Shudder.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
Our Guests
Chris Chipman:
“We’re allowed to buy a ticket and yell at the screen but we’re never going to get that representation.” This quote from Jordan Peele in the latter moments of Horror Noire really resonated with me. I expected to be informed and entertained by this documentary: the folks involved and the films discussed guaranteed that. What I didn’t expect was how moving the whole experience was going to be.
Great documentaries succeed on whether they make you feel alienated or accepted by the subject matter. Not being black myself and only really coming at horror from my societal and racial perspective, there was a real chance that this movie may not have connected with me. I am pleased to report this is not the case with Horror Noire.
Horror Noire is a great documentary about film and its impact and influence on society. It is also a very important time capsule showing how film was used a method of propaganda to implant damaging stereotypes about the black community that are still ingrained today. The documentary then goes on to show how progressive black filmmakers looking for a voice utilized the exploitation and blacksploitation genres, which were the main culprits in spreading these damaging stereotypes, to fight for inclusion for black filmmakers and actors. Films like Blacula that should have just been silly stereotype-ridden propaganda films instead were mold-breaking films that operated under the radar and helped black artists be seen.
The film is an absolute treat and is equally as entertaining as it is informative and important. Check it out ASAP.
Verdict: TREAT (@TheChippa)
The subgenre of “documentaries about horror movies” is something of a mixed bag. For every Document of the Dead or Never Sleep Again, there are many more in the style of the (frankly overrated) Terror in the Aisles — a glorified greatest hits reel of horror sequences and effects shots lacking any historical perspective or analysis. Thankfully, Horror Noire is one of those few horror docs that digs deep the social, cultural, and industrial relevance of its subjects. The talking head segments are a who’s who of African American critics, scholars, performers, and filmmakers who they discuss black representation in horror from the silent era to the present day. It’s smart, informative, and surprisingly fun despite the often weighty subject matter. And bless whoever decided to let Keith David and Ken Foree hang out together, because from beginning to end their interactions are delightful. If you are at all interested in film history and/or the horror genre, this documentary is essential viewing.
(Editor’s Note: Trey wrote a full review of this film over at Cinepunx earlier this year.)
Verdict: TREAT (@T_Lawson)
Austin Wilden:
As a kid the idea of watching something scary on purpose was absolutely alien. I avoided horror for the most part until relatively recently because of that. Most of my knowledge about horror came from how it would be referenced in the pieces of pop culture I did enjoy, which would usually have a comedic bent. Things like the annual The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy would be the lens horror references would be filtered through that I could find enjoyment in. One thing I caught repeated references to in shows like this would be Blacula, a name so on-the-nose in its absurdity that wherever it came from must have been comedic itself. The things making that reference would reinforce that idea, whether it was Homer Simpson watching a blaxploitation horror marathon and describing it as “funkay” or the recurring version of Dracula on Billy and Mandy, a black jive-talking senior citizen in a retirement home for Universal Monsters. Being a white kid with a disinterest in horror meant I never dug deeper about where these references came from.
When the collected black actors, filmmakers and critics of Horror Noire got to discussing the time period of blaxploitation filmmaking, showing clips of the more stereotypical films of that reflected the idea those parodies got across that a resigned anticipation came into my head for Blacula. That quickly turned into excitement as soon as they started discussing and showing clips of it. Seeing Blacula’s director, William Crain, discuss the movie gave me an appreciation for it and a desire to see it I never expected.
That energy stuck with me throughout every detail of Horror Noire’s look at the ups and downs of black representation in horror cinema. These creative people who clearly love what they do talking about how the movies they’ve seen or made have impacted their lives is a passion I found invigorating for every minute of the documentary. To look beyond assumptions and jokes towards some horror movies I want to track down and watch as soon as possible.
Verdict: TREAT (@WC_Wit)
The Team
I’m not sure exactly what to say about this documentary that isn’t simply “it’s really good”. It is a good look at the history of horror from a black perspective, reminding folks how important black people and black culture have been to horror.
Instead I want to highlight the thing about the film I most enjoyed: the interactions between Keith David and Ken Foree. These two genre veterans hanging out and chatting is a thing of beauty. I could watch these two legends rapping for hours on end. This is a great watch and the segments with David and Foree are next level entertaining.
Verdict: TREAT (@thepaintedman)
I think the best thing that can be said about Horror Noire is that it’s inspired me to watch a whole bunch of movies I might never have watched, or have been meaning to watch but never gotten around to. I’ve already sat down with Ganja & Hess and have plans to check out Blacula and Tales from the Hood before the month is out. With energy and humor, director Xavier Burgin explores the highs and lows of the black experience with the horror genre, and how that experience is inextricable from the black experience with America itself. This kind of fare could be informative but dry, yet it is not. Much of that credit must go to the incredible cast of talking heads who show up to illustrate these points. As others have pointed out, Foree and David are the obvious highlights, a double-act that I could watch for literal hours. By the time they started singing “Monster Mash”, I just about died from sheer joy. But everyone is great, celebrating both the high and lowbrow means by which African-Americans have expressed their voices in a genre (and country) that has been so hostile to them for so long.
Great stuff, and we can only hope that through the success of guys like Peele, even more voices will be heard. Maybe someday this team can revisit the subject and examine just how much has changed. Or not.
Verdict: TREAT (@TheTrueBrendanF)
I was super hyped for Horror Noire, and yet it did no disappoint me in the slightest. In viewing the film, I fully expected to be educated, edified, inspired, and maybe scolded a little, by a who’s who of amazing black filmmakers, actors, and historians. What I did not expect was to be brought to tears listening as they expressed their struggles, personal experiences, yearning for validation and representation, mutual love and appreciation for each other’s work, and joy for victories like Get Out.
Like any great film documentary, I left with a shortlist of movies added to, or elevated on, my watchlist. Also, someone please greenlight a buddy franchise with Ken Foree and Keith David. Make it happen!
Horror Noire isn’t just a solid documentary or social critique. Nor is it a glorified DVD bonus feature or “dumped to streaming” like so many middling Netflix movies. It’s a fascinating and eminently watchable work of great passion and insight, one of the best and most most vital films of the year, and one of my favorite film documentaries, period.
Verdict: TREAT (@Austin Vashaw)
The Unanimous Verdict:
Trick: 0
Treat: 6
Further reading:
Horror-Noire Writer and Producer Ashlee Blackwell is a friend of Cinapse and has even contributed some articles for us. We encourage you to check out her incredible writings on Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and Poltergeist, in addition to her own incredible site focusing on black women in horror, Graveyard Shift Sisters!
https://cinapse.co/the-empowered-female-in-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-4-the-dream-master-5f41eb973dd1https://cinapse.co/the-empowered-female-in-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-4-the-dream-master-5f41eb973dd1
Next week’s pick (Mandy):
https://cinapse.co/the-empowered-female-in-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-4-the-dream-master-5f41eb973dd1