[Review] Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present
Robin R. Means Coleman, PhD
Published by Routledge
5/5 Stars
I believe that most horror fans, at least the ones that reside in countries where the streaming platform Shudder is available, are familiar with the 2019 documentary film Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. What some may not know is that the documentary is based on a non-fiction book written by Robin R. Means Coleman, Ph.D. in 2011 Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present. Seeing as I cannot access Shudder in Brasil, I can’t speak about how the book compares to the documentary, but what I can say is that it’s an incredibly in-depth piece of work that does a wonderful job of presenting the history of Black horror. Coleman addresses a wide range of Black horror films in her book (mainstream Hollywood, art-house, Blaxploitation, direct-to-DVD, Nigerian “Nollywood” Black horror, etc) and does so chronologically, which aids her in showing how past films have contributed and influenced horror.
What stands out the most to me regarding the manner that the book is written is how comprehensive and objective it is. I graduated in Literature and, because of that, have had to read endless academic research and papers such as this one, but the majority of them were pretentious, often using flowery language and overcomplicated metaphors and similes, confusing timelines, and more. It’s no secret that Academia is still incredibly sexist and racist, the majority of academics go through to exclude women, POC, and queer individuals not only by erasing them from the research papers but also by alienating readers that weren’t already experts in the field. Coleman’s book is a much-needed breath of fresh air, it provides a comprehensive survey of black representation in the horror genre through clear and well-structured arguments, which ensures that anyone that wishes to learn more about the subject is able to read/understand it.
As for the content, Horror Noire is highly informative, it presents to the reader many horror movies that have been mostly forgotten or overlooked, and they are accompanied by Coleman’s historical contextualization of U.S events that influenced the portrayals of Blacks in horror movies. That historical context was extra handy for me, a Brazilian, and it ensures that international readers get the full picture of how U.S culture and politics influenced those movies and how, in turn, those movies impacted their society. The exploration of race in American horror movies done by Coleman shows what we already knew: those films (as the ones in all the other genres as well) have always been racist and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. I am ashamed to say that I wasn’t aware of how hurtful and racist many of the stereotypes used by horror were, and it wasn’t until the author collected them and pointed out what was behind those stereotypes/settings. For example, the section that focused on horror movies from the 80s discussed how the setting of the films, especially slashers, had migrated from the city (which was now associated with Black “hoods”) to the suburbs, where everyone was white, both victims and killers. Coleman goes on to note how, during that decade and part of the next one, it was almost impossible to find Black people in horror movies that weren’t set in cities, and how the ones that were set there depicted Black neighborhoods as filled with mindless violence, gangs, squalid poverty, and the likes without ever discussing the reasons why non-white living spaces face those issues.
This book is a must-read for anyone that wants to have a better understanding of the horror genre as a whole and how “fears and anxieties about race and race relations are made manifest [...] on the silver screen” (Goodreads’ plot summary). I recommend this, especially to my fellow white horror lovers, it is our duty to research and learn more about how racism was, and is, represented in our culture and media so that we can be conscious of what we consume and how harmful a lot of movies (and books) are to the Black community. Of course, that knowledge must be paired with action, educate your friends on it, point out racism when and where you see it, listen to people of color when they tell us a piece of media we like is actually very harmful. To sum up, you should absolutely read this book, and watch the movies mentioned if you can, but don’t stop there because the information is worth nothing if it’s not put to good use.
