Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror

We've always loved horror.

It's just that horror, unfortunately,

hasn't always loved us.

Zombie! !

What have we got here?

Terror and voodoo and all the weird black magic

that the white man seldom see.

- I'm gettin' outta here now!

You can be the boss down there.

I'm boss up here.

Yes! That's history.

"The name is Blacula!"

- -

- Is there any more scary imagery than this?

I wanna hear you scream.

- It's cool to see yourself on the screen.

- There's something so powerful about scaring someone.

Oh, my goodness.

Allow me at least a kiss.

- I've been waiting for you, boy.

Phew!

Oh, my God.

Yes, get rid of that, son.

Isn't that beautiful?

It's crazy.

You got me all here in this creepy, confusing ass subarba.

You all so serious, though?

I feel like a sore thumb out here.

Lakeith. Oh, yeah.

Walking down the...

Walking down the sidewalk at night.

- In a suburban neighborhood. - In a suburban neighborhood.

On the cellphone by himself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Shit! - All of that.

- I've been there. - Yeah, yeah.

- It was the perfect black horror story.

Yeah, really.

I've never felt so ill at ease

because, for me, there was so much riding on this film

in that is he going to get this right,

not just in quality,

but for the way that we understand black people.

- If there's too many white people,

I get nervous, you know?

When I found out they were gonna let me

actually direct "Get Out",

I knew something big was going to happen.

I thought there was a chance something very bad could happen,

that I would get run out of town, that, you know,

I thought there's a possibility that people, you know,

don't want to see entertainment about something that...

you know, has been traditionally dealt with

with a certain reverence.

But I also thought, you know,

this is the movie I wanted to see.

To have a black protagonist,

first of all, just in a horror trailer,

had my attention.

"Huh? Wait, he might survive this."

He might not be the magical Negro

or the sacrificial Negro or the first to die

and all those tropes, so it's like,

"This is a story through a black lens by a black artist

and it's horror."

I thought I was in heaven.

Jordan Peele, "Get Out".

This had never happened before

to have an Oscar-nominated black horror movie.

And I think it really shows

how horror films can really talk about things

that are affecting us.

Black history is black horror.

Before we think about horror

as we know it today, we can go back to the films

that perhaps wouldn't be on our radar as horror.

There's a character, Gus.

Gus is a white actor in blackface

who was depicted as being in pursuit of

a young white girl.

Gus is essentially lynched by the Klan.

"The Birth of a Nation" was a horror film,

especially if you were a black person.

Most people, at that point,

were getting to know what African Americans were like

through that film because they lived in communities

where they had no African Americans.

This was the only source of information

and a lot of people got the wrong impression

of who we are, certainly.

It's one of the first films

to be screened in the White House,

in Woodrow Wilson's White House.

Didn't help that Woodrow Wilson said,

"That's exactly the way it is."

Oh, you know, I mean...

You know, he was a contributor to the problem.

- With the endorsement of the president,

it feels like policy.

There were even advertisements and promotions

that said this was essentially based on a true story

and it was as close to fact as one could get.

The Ku Klux Klan

is being heralded as the solution to the black menace.

- This is a movie that really solidifies

that there's this sort of

odd black lust on the part of black men

towards white women.

You see it time and time again then

throughout the horror genre,

from "King Kong"...

...to "Candyman".

- It reigned as the picture of black life

for so many years.

Hollywood could use its messaging

to create fear around black people,

especially fear around black men.

- It sets up black life and culture

as so deficient and so deviant

and I think we see that kind of history

in forming race relationships even today.

Dr. Clinton?

Filmmakers in this period

really want black actors to be what they think blackness is.

- Don't bite on this time, Ms. Yoga.

These are the kinds of films

that are coming out in the '20s and '30s,

leading up to Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams

sort of saying, "Enough."

Oscar Michaeux,

who was one of the first African American directors,

who would, like a lot of people

doing today in the independent world,

he would have his own film crew, he would gather his actors,

he would write a script around the actors.

What Oscar Michaeux's films do

is say, "Don't engage in these behaviors,

don't engage in these acts,"

which ultimately could sort of bring down the race

or sully the reputation of the race.

Oscar Michauex's making arguments

that we are equal and to be respected

and to be valued as human beings.

Spencer Williams' film

from 1940, "The Son of Ingagi", is as interesting case.

Its genesis was a little bit odd

because there was a film called "Ingagi".

"Ingagi" was an earlier

low budget effort by a white director.

Which basically purported

that black Africans were mating with gorilla-like creatures.

"Ingagi" promises

that it is a true story and that this mating

has produced half-ape, half-human babies.

The whole thing is a scam.

- Even whites were like, "But that's not true, you know."

The "Son of Ingagi" is basically considered

the first black-made horror film.

The makeup isn't great,

and they didn't have much of a budget.

- But Spencer got it made. - Got it made, exactly.

- And I look at that to this day as a testament.

- It stars a black woman as a scientist.

She has a scientific lab in her basement

and there is this ape-man that resides there

that she has been taming

and sort of helping this ape-man to thrive.

- If it does what I think it will,

I've done more for humanity than anyone else on Earth.

So, Spencer Williams actually

kind of does the first black women in stem kind of film.

You really get to see the black middle class

on full display.

You're seeing a bunch of black folks

coming back from a wedding.

It doesn't sound revolutionary, but in that era, in 1940,

when did you ever see black people just being themselves?

It was a way to show that not all black people

were the way they had been depicted in films

up to that time.

So we have a doctor and a lawyer,

everyone is well-spoken, and in that way,

it was a slice of black life that, to me,

is one of the most important aspects of that film.

- And if you know anything about television,

Spencer Williams sounds familiar, right?

He starred in the television situation comedy "Amos 'N Andy".

Oh, Andy, I love jokes!

- Then you gonna like this one

because I bought this gun at a joke store.

So, what's sad about that

is that people will always know Williams

as from "Amos 'N Andy",

but what Spencer Williams contributes

to the history of film is absolutely unmatched.

He sets up what we really probably think of is

modern black cinema today.

By this time, Hollywood realized

that horror was big business,

especially during the Great Depression.