The horror genre has evolved significantly in recent years, with intentional inclusion of underrepresented perspectives. It's important to distinguish between films featuring characters of specific backgrounds and those that genuinely honor and center on those backgrounds. This list invites you to explore the rich and varied world of Black horror films, as nuanced as the Black experience itself. In our guide to some of the best, most resonant Black horror movies, we begin in 1960 with Night of the Living Dead.
The movie was groundbreaking for setting the zombie template, but also through its casting of Duane Jones as its hero, an everyman of color. He leads survivors through Night, up until its provocative ending, when director George A. Romero kills him.
Here are some of the quintessential Black horror movies that have made significant contributions to the genre:
1. Blacula (1972)
Blacula enjoys the title of THE Quintessential Black Vampire Movie. It also happens to be the first. The story follows an African prince named Mamuwalde (played by William Marshall) who travels to Transylvania to seek the help of familiar fanger Vlad Dracula in combating the slave trade. But diplomatic relations go south when racist Dracula disrespects Prince Mamuwalde’s court and turns him into a creature of the night.
Because of the polarizing retrospective critique of the Blaxploitation era of cinema, there’s a tendency to reduce this film to cheesy tropes and dated practical FX.
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2. Ganja & Hess (1973)
For fans of 1970s Black vampire movies, this one might not be the first to come to mind. George A. Romero’s other starring movie was 1973’s Ganja & Hess, for which writer/director Bill Gunn uses vampires to press into societal breakdowns. This sumptuously surreal flick stars scream-king Duane Jones (of Night of the Living Dead fame) as an esteemed anthropologist who is turned into a bloodsucking ghoul after he is stabbed with a ceremonial dagger from Africa.
The beautiful widow of the doctor’s late assistant becomes his lover and partner in supernatural crime.
3. Sugar Hill (1974)
In this zombie crime thriller (you read that right!) a young Black woman named Sugar turns to violent magic for revenge when her boyfriend is viciously murdered by mobsters. The captivating Marki Bey kicks enough butt to rival Pam Grier’s screen sirens. Only, she doesn’t need a gun - she’s got the undead on her side.
While the film’s depictions of diasporic spiritual practices are exactly what we can expect of the Nixon years, it’s impossible not to root for the ghouls and their fearless leader(s). This includes the ultra-chilling and unwieldy Baron Samedi, played by actor-scribe Don Pedro Colley.
4. Tales from the Hood (1995)
This Black horror anthology is a historical first, as well as a nightmare-inducing screamfest. The most terrifying twist of all time book-ends these four vignettes that are intentionally based on inventive portrayals of some of the very real horrors that Black folks face in their everyday lives. This ranges from the systemic to the interpersonal and far beyond.
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As one of the first horror movies I ever saw, Tales from the Hood is praiseworthy not just for its haunting imagery or finger-on-the-pulse astuteness.
5. Get Out (2017)
Get Out is the most celebrated film on this list - at least, by mainstream standards. And that’s well-deserved. With his delightfully morbid twist on a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?-esque premise, Jordan Peele blew the lid off the idea that Black horror was just a RedBox niche. The insidiousness of the film’s atmosphere has been brushed off in favor of the comedic elements, but the story still ruffles more than it regales.
Daniel Kaluuya as hero Chris has become a symbol of the dangers of the “post-racial” gaslighting that harms Black folks every day. Critics Consensus: George A. Romero’s zombie classic is gory, grim, and groundbreaking.
The Compelling History of Black Horror Films
6. His House (2020)
His House is a claustrophobic haunted house thriller about a South Sudanese couple (Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu) who flee the carnage of their war-torn home to settle in England. Their new digs come with a list of creepy problems which only continues to grow the more they attempt to assimilate into their new space.
The couple ping-pong between traumatic flashbacks to the violence they just escaped and nefarious forces that seem unique to the house they’ve moved into.
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7. Candyman (2021)
The remake/sequel to the 1992 Bernard Rose film makes several strides where its predecessor falters. Both films are based on a Clive Barker short story that is a strictly class-based commentary featuring white characters. This most recent installment comes full circle with a team that has brought to the fore all the social nuances that the 1992 version attempted, but missed.
8. Nanny (2022)
Anna Diop stars as a dedicated young woman named Aisha who has emigrated to New York from Senegal in search of a better life for her son, whom she left behind with a relative. Once a teacher, the brilliant Aisha can only find steady work as domestic help for a wealthy white couple with a daughter around the same age as her son.
Before long, Aisha finds that the child of her employers is the center of her life and she finds her identity slipping away as spirits take over her reality and charge her to do disturbing things.
9. Master (2022)
This academic horror-thriller adeptly interweaves humor (the-laugh-to-keep-from-crying kind), the quotidian terror of anti-Blackness, and fear of the supernatural variety. Regina Hall leads an ensemble of three Black women who are struggling to enjoy their hard-fought place at a predominantly white institute as old as the nation itself.
One of the school’s few Black students is plagued with visions that take a tragic turn. Hall’s heroine Gail assumes responsibility as the young woman’s house master - or faculty residential advisor - but only finds herself feeling just as helpless.
10. The Blackening (2022)
This laugh-out-loud horror meta-satire is based on a skit by the comedy troupe 3Peat. The sketch-comedy-to-feature-film-pipeline is one rarely traveled, but this one sets the bar. A group of Black Millennials find themselves terrorized by a racist, sadistic game in their cabin rental.
This makes the best horror movies list because the story comes out swinging, laying bare every horror movie trope about Black people and inventing some new ones.
This isn’t a fully exhaustive list, nor is it even ranked by personal preference. It’s simply an invitation to explore the rich world of Black horror films, which is just as varied and nuanced as the Black experience is.
Other Notable Horror Movies
Here are some other horror movies that deserve recognition:
- Bones (2001): Synopsis: Jimmy Bones (Snoop "Doggy" Dogg) is a legendary protector and patron of his thriving neighborhood.
- Hood of Horror (2006): Synopsis: A creepy mortician, Mr. Simms, uses his tales of horror to scare three teens who enter his place of business.
- Blade (1998): Synopsis: A half-mortal, half-immortal is out to avenge his mother's death and rid the world of vampires.
- Ma (2019): Synopsis: A lonely middle-aged woman befriends some teenagers and decides to let them party in the basement of her home.
- Black Devil Doll (2007): Synopsis: Although notorious New Orleans gangster J.D. Dawg is dead, his soul lives on in a Black Devil Doll.
- Blade II (2002): Synopsis: Exploding from the pages of Marvel Comics comes the thrilling follow-up to the blockbuster "Blade." Half Man ...
- Gospel of Evil (2022): Synopsis: Joel (James Bond III), a quiet divinity student from North Carolina, starts to question his faith.
- Vampire in Brooklyn (1995): Synopsis: When nightclub owner Langston (Larry D. Fishburne) is found dead, it is discovered that he was a vampire.
Additional Horror Films to Explore
Here are some more horror films, offering a diverse range of themes and scares:
- Escape Room (2019): Six strangers find themselves in a maze of deadly mystery rooms and must use their wits to survive.
- Speak No Evil (2022): After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of one of the victims: a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics.
- The Exorcism of God (2021): An old man, fated to collect souls for eternity, seeks atonement after trading his daughter's soul.
- Friend Request (2016): When a college student unfriends a mysterious girl online, she finds herself fighting a demonic presence that wants to make her lonely by killing her closest friends.
- Leprechaun Returns (2018): The Leprechaun returns once again, when a group of girls unwillingly awaken him after they tear down a cabin so that they can build a new sorority house.
Table of Horror Movie Ratings
Here's a table summarizing some of the horror movies mentioned, along with their ratings:
| Title | Year | Runtime | Rating | Metascore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulse | 2006 | 1h 30m | PG-13 | 29 |
| Gaia | 2021 | 1h 36m | R | 64 |
