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Documentary Review: Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, directed by Xavier Burgen, written and produced by Ashlee Blackwell and Danielle Burrows

Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, directed by Xavier Burgen, written and produced by Ashlee Blackwell and Danielle Burrows, based on the book Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films From the 1890s to the Present  by Robin R. Means Coleman

Stage 3 Productions, 2019

Not Rated

Run time: 83 minutes

ISBN-13/ASIN: Not Available

Available: Streaming on Amazon, Shudder

 

“We’ve always loved horror. It’s just that horror, unfortunately, hasn’t always loved us.”

With this opening quote by Tananarive Due, award winning author and UCLA educator (Black Horror, Afrofuturism), viewers begin an essential documentary on Black horror. The film investigates a century of horror films that marginalized, exploited, and eventually accepted and embraced them. Horror Noire is based on University of Michigan professor Robin Means Coleman’s book of the same title. Through new and archival interviews from scholars and creators, we take a horror movie journey through early classics, Blaxplotiation, the Reagan Era, the 90s, and the 2000s. Interviewees include Ashlee Blackwell, who runs the Graveyard Shift Sisters website, Tony Todd, William Crain, Rusty Cundieff, Rachel True, Tina Mabry, Ken Foree, and Jordan Peele.

The documentary starts with a discussion of Black representation in Birth of a Nation and moves into early classics and depiction of Black characters, as slaves, servants, or hapless victims in the 1940s. When the 50s came, horror films basically erased the Black presence, with the exception of Son of Ingara, in Atomic Age science-centered scripts. Change was coming when Night of the Living Dead was released. Blaxploitation provided more screen time for Black actors, but the films remained problematic. The Reagan Era presented the change from “urban to suburban” white flight settings, relegating Black characters to gangsters and villains. In the 90s and 2000s, more Black filmmakers and actors appeared more in the horror genre, with a shift from the focal point of fear to heroes on the big screen.

I recommend this for anyone interested in the sociopolitical history of the horror genre. The use of footage from various civil rights and conflicts that reached the national level interspersed throughout the film helped explain the reception and shift in attitudes about Black horror, and Black horror movies. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on February 28, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich

Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0316478472

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

Teeth in the Mist tells the stories of three young women, each from a different time period, navigating the terrors of Mill House, a large house located on Devil’s Peak in an isolated part of Wales. Hermione Smith, writing in 1583, is the young wife of John Smith, the original owner of Mill House, who made a Faustian deal with the Devil.  Roan Eddington, living in 1851, is the recently orphaned ward of Dr. Maudley, the eccentric owner of Mill House at that time. Zoey Root, in the present day, is a runaway who inherited occult powers from her father, who went insane after a visit to Mill House, and has gone there looking for answers.

Kurtagich can really write. The gloomy atmosphere and the evil of Mill House and the mountain are described so effectively that the book is an immersive, visual experience. It has a clever design as well: at times, words are placed deliberately on the page in specific locations with different type and sizes to make a particular impact; there are pages that appear to be pieces of old documents and letters; the story is told not just through traditional narrative, but through diary entries, Facebook posts, transcribed recordings and camera footage, flashbacks, and multiple points of view. It’s a lot to balance. While Hermione’s story is not as strong (she’s just not that dynamic a character), Roan’s is dramatic, suspenseful, and terrifying, and Zoey’s has slowly building suspense that ratchets up as it progresses until an abrupt ending. Unfortunately, the ending is abrupt enough that I was left wondering how and why things wrapped up (or were left loose) the way they were. In sum, Teeth in the Mist is a gripping, compelling, violent, creatively designed, and atmospheric Gothic novel, but with a disappointing ending. I picked up this book with only the knowledge that it was on the preliminary ballot for this year’s Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel. Although it didn’t make the final ballot, it definitely deserved the additional recognition. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but for the right kids, it will be a guilty pleasure. Recommended.

Contains: Witchcraft, the occult, body horror, violence, gore, incest, cannibalism, murder, torture, sexual situations

 

Posted on February 27, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Institute by Stephen King (Dueling Review)

 Editor’s note: We previously published a review of The Institute written by Murray Samuelson. This review, by David Simms, takes a second look. 

 

The Institute by Stephen King.

Scribner, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1982110567

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Reviewing a Stephen King book is always a mixed bag. Love it and people think it’s favoritism, hate it and they believe you are being contrarian. Some of King’s books deserve a tepid review, but even when it’s just an okay book by him, it’s usually better than most other writers. There’s a reason why he’s had over 20 books on the bestseller lists. King knows how to draw people: he understands them, inside and outside their heads, and the minutiae that make up our everyday lives. The Institute is one of his good novels of recent times. While it’s no Salem’s Lot or The Stand, it immerses the reader in the characters’ lives in a story that is successful in everything it attempts.

The plot is relatively simple: Luke Ellis, a talented young boy, is abducted in the middle of the night. His parents murdered, he is shoved into a black SUV and driven to the titular institute where children with telepathy and telekinesis are studied. This may sound similar to Firestarter, but it isn’t: If readers must compare this to another King title, it’s closer to IT than anything else. Luke awakens in the Institute, where he meets a group of other kids who fill him in on what happens in the “front half.” Keep your head down, follow directions, and earn tokens for everything from television to candy to other treats. Mrs. Sigsby is the evil woman who runs the institute with an iron fist. She is quick to dole out punishment to the kids, a true caricature of evil, the only weakness of the novel. The supporting cast of the story is much grayer in nature as the staff within run the gamut from caring to apathetic to downright sadistic. The purpose of the place is nebulous which lends a deft touch to the story. What’s in the “back half?” Is it death or something better? Worse? Once children leave the front half, there is zero communication with them. Only the youngest, Avery, has the skills to sense anything about the others at a high level, and might signal a solution to their captivity. Even Luke, brilliant for his age, is still just a kid at heart. For all of his skills and ability to read people, he’s still a child, stuck in an adult’s psychopathic playground. King is a master at painting kids, and this might be his best effort yet. IT is a masterpiece, but the Losers’ Club was closer to teenagers than true children.

In a side story, a mysterious ex-cop leaves Florida and heads north, only to make a strange decision to divert into a small South Carolina town where he accepts a job as a “knocker.” His assimilation into that community is fascinating, and it is curious to see how the pieces come together.

The final product is both thrilling and touching, frightening and timely.

A welcome addition to the King canon.

Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on February 22, 2020 by , Reply
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