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As major new franchises, like The Purge and A Quiet Place, have sprouted, art house horror has also gained immense prominence, allowing new visions to come through. The horror genre has delivered more imaginative and unique horror stories than ever before and has especially been a great place for Black creators to break out.
Amongst all the new visionaries breaking out in the horror genre, Jordan Peele has proven himself to be a modern master of horror with just two films. However, there are a lot of great Black directors working within historic franchises and creating unique originals that are very much worth visiting.
The First Purge: Directed by Gerard McMurray
The Purge series has drifted more into political commentary with each entry, but Gerard McMurray offered a different perspective on the purge with the 2018 prequel film The First Purge.
McMurray widened the franchise lore by taking fans back to the first purge to witness the chaos and corruption from the perspective of a targeted Black community. He confidently helmed the franchise after original creator James DeMonaco’s three-film run and created an action-packed and intriguing entry.
Sweetheart: Directed by JD Dillard
Along with creating a unique superhero flick for Blumhouse with Sleight, JD Dillard also gave Blumhouse a modern creature feature that’s a hidden gem among their selection.
Sweetheart sees a young woman (Kiersey Clemons) trapped on an island as a terrifying force from the deep hunts her down when night falls. Dillard directs some strong horror sequences led by a great performance from Clemons and Sweetheart has one of the coolest creature designs of any modern creature feature.
His House: Directed by Remi Weekes
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One of Netflix’s best films of 2020 was Remi Weekes’ His House for its scares and unique refugee story. The film follows a South Sudan refugee couple struggling to transition to their new UK home that carries an evil presence that repeatedly haunts them.
Weekes creates this incredibly eerie atmosphere full of supernatural threats that connect to the film’s main couple and there are some realistic horrors of the refugee experience that are chill-inducing.
Atlantics: Directed by Mati Diop
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Mati Diop’s 2019 feature directorial debut Atlantics offers a thematic, thought-provoking horror story full of genre-bending ties to reality. Diop excellently blends romance and supernatural horror within Atlantics’ story of a young Senegal woman dealing with the entity of a former love.
While bringing out excellent themes of grief, love, and loss, Atlantics delivers some strong supernatural horrors that fans of the genre will love. Diop made history with Atlantics, becoming the first Black woman to direct a film featured at Cannes Film Festival.
Black Box: Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour
Originally debuting in the first wave of films for the Prime Video and Blumhouse collaboration film series Welcome to the Blumhouse, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour’s Black Box just plain doesn’t get the love it deserves.
Black Box delivers a mind-bending story of an amnesiac confronting a terrifying force within his mind full of unexpected horrors and one hell of a twist. Osei-Kuffour shows a lot of visionary potential in his ambitious direction that also leads a great central performance from Mamoudou Athie.
Eve’s Bayou: Directed by Kasi Lemmons
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Although some don’t exactly see Kasi Lemmons’ 1997 directorial debut, Eve’s Bayou, as horror, it presents spiritual horror elements within its story of disillusionment.
Eve’s Bayou showcases some strong Southern Gothic spiritual horrors as a young girl named Eve (Jurnee Smollett) tries to comprehend a spiritual gift she has while also discovering undesired truths about her family. Even before elevated horror was ever recognized, Lemmons’ debut defined what it would mean today.
Bones: Directed by Ernest Dickerson
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Ernest Dickerson’s Bones should be seen by every fan of the horror genre as it embodies everything fans love about the genre.
Bones features a great story that carries some strong themes and depictions of drugs and corruption decimating the Black community as well as some amazing practical effects that pay homage to various sub-genres of horror. It’s a true cult classic that shows some great direction from Dickerson and can’t miss performances from Snoop Dogg and Pam Grier.
Candyman (2021): Directed by Nia DaCosta
While Bernard Rose’s 1992 cult classic Candyman first introduced one of the horror genre’s most iconic black characters, Nia DaCosta reinvented the character with last year’s Candyman to create a modern horror story.
Through some incredibly strong visual storytelling and a gut-wrenching build-up of horror, DaCosta’s Candyman establishes new lore and meaning behind the titular horror figure with some modernizations that greatly touch on police brutality and deeply connect to Black pain in America.
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror: Directed by Xavier Burgin
There’s no better way to understand the impact and history of Black artists and actors in the horror genre than through Xavier Burgin’s widely acclaimed 2019 documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.
As Burgin delves into the exploitation and eventual embracement of Black characters and creators through film and the horror genre, he unearths an untold history of Black impact in the horror genre and features interviews with legends of the genre, including Keith David, Tony Todd, Rachel True, Jordan Peele, and more.
Nope: Directed by Jordan Peele
There’s no doubt that both of Jordan Peele’s films, Get Out and Us, deserve a mention, but with his latest film, Nope, not too far away, it feels like the perfect time to talk it up.
Major plot details have been mostly kept under wraps, but a recent trailer that debuted during the Super Bowl gave us a glimpse at the alien invasion story that Peele’s been carefully crafting. Nope is easily one of the biggest films of the year and many are excited to see the likes of Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun in this wild new world from Peele.