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Today @VanityFair pays tribute to Black Horror.
Fear can feed hate, prejudice & injustice.
These storytellers use fear to fight those things.
@TananariveDue—The Reformatory
@GerardBush—Antebellum
@NiaDaCosta—Candyman
@VictorLaValle—Destroyer https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/07/black-storytellers-are-using-horror-to-battle-hate
Fear can feed hate, prejudice & injustice.
These storytellers use fear to fight those things.
@TananariveDue—The Reformatory @GerardBush—Antebellum @NiaDaCosta—Candyman @VictorLaValle—Destroyer https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/07/black-storytellers-are-using-horror-to-battle-hate
Remember @JordanPeele speaking to UCLA students about Get Out? That was @TananariveDue's class.
"He demonstrated not only that he could reach a wide audience with a story of Black horror, but that it’s okay to talk about that third rail of racism as the monster,” she says.
"He demonstrated not only that he could reach a wide audience with a story of Black horror, but that it’s okay to talk about that third rail of racism as the monster,” she says.
“Candyman’s about lynching—period," director @NiaDaCosta says of the upcoming film based on the 1992 cult classic.
"It was really important to very carefully balance the humanity and real life with the horror and the genre.” https://twitter.com/niadacosta/status/1273293842113089536
"It was really important to very carefully balance the humanity and real life with the horror and the genre.” https://twitter.com/niadacosta/status/1273293842113089536
@AntebellumFilm stars @JanelleMonae as a woman reliving the terror of plantation slave life.“We’ve lulled ourselves into believing that this haunted house that we live in called America—that there are no ghosts here & no residue of our original sin,” say directors @BushRenz
HBO’s new #LovecraftCountry, from showrunner @MishaGreen, about surviving many kinds of monsters in Jim Crow America.
The title refers to H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), the horror scribe who's beloved for his otherworldly imaginings and scorned for his pernicious racism.
The title refers to H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), the horror scribe who's beloved for his otherworldly imaginings and scorned for his pernicious racism.
Some Black creators choose to refashion Lovecraft's work as a tool for anti-racism.
@VictorLaValle retold a Lovecraft story from the POV of a Black musician surviving everyday bigotry as well as ancient cults in The Ballad of Black Tom — now being adapted to series by AMC.
@VictorLaValle retold a Lovecraft story from the POV of a Black musician surviving everyday bigotry as well as ancient cults in The Ballad of Black Tom — now being adapted to series by AMC.
LaValle says he delighted in Lovecraft as a kid, then recoiled from him as an adult.
“It was like, say, your uncle or your aunt or your grandparent who you love dearly, but then you start to realize they actually say and hold a lot of really messed up prejudices.”
“It was like, say, your uncle or your aunt or your grandparent who you love dearly, but then you start to realize they actually say and hold a lot of really messed up prejudices.”
LaValle's graphic novel #Destroyer fuses #BlackLivesMatter 
with Frankenstein —
A grief-stricken scientist resurrects her young son after he is murdered by police.
His death mirrors Tamir Rice's. His name comes from Akai Gurley. The body damage is from Michael Brown's shooting.
with Frankenstein — A grief-stricken scientist resurrects her young son after he is murdered by police.
His death mirrors Tamir Rice's. His name comes from Akai Gurley. The body damage is from Michael Brown's shooting.
“Thoughtful horror can get past all those defenses, and while it’s entertaining, it can get some really profound ideas lodged under the breastbone, inside the ribcage, right up next to the heart." — @victorlavalle
Not all new Black horror focuses on prejudice or violence.
In LaValle's The Changeling, a father follows a mystical trail through NYC to find his lost child.
“It was really more to say to all the good Black dads, ‘I see you'... It was the equivalent of the Black nod," he said.
In LaValle's The Changeling, a father follows a mystical trail through NYC to find his lost child.
“It was really more to say to all the good Black dads, ‘I see you'... It was the equivalent of the Black nod," he said.
“People are beginning to understand the relationship between horror & processing universal emotions,” says @TanariveDue.
Her mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, adored the genre. "I believe it was therapeutic to her, and helped her slough off some fear & anger”
Her mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, adored the genre. "I believe it was therapeutic to her, and helped her slough off some fear & anger”
The Reformatory is @TananariveDue's next novel.
It's inspired by a great uncle who died in 1937 at age 15 at Florida's notorious Dozier School For Boys.
More than 80 children didn’t survive to say what they experienced there. https://www.tampabay.com/investigations/2019/08/18/they-went-to-the-dozier-school-for-boys-damaged-they-came-out-destroyed/
It's inspired by a great uncle who died in 1937 at age 15 at Florida's notorious Dozier School For Boys.
More than 80 children didn’t survive to say what they experienced there. https://www.tampabay.com/investigations/2019/08/18/they-went-to-the-dozier-school-for-boys-damaged-they-came-out-destroyed/
“They died under unusual and often hidden circumstances,” says Due.
She found herself transfixed by “the horror of the idea that this so-called juvenile facility for children would have enough kids dying that they need their own cemetery.” https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/another-search-bodies-set-dozier-school-boys
She found herself transfixed by “the horror of the idea that this so-called juvenile facility for children would have enough kids dying that they need their own cemetery.” https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/another-search-bodies-set-dozier-school-boys
Beyond news reports, @TananariveDue feels horror has something more to explore here.
“The ghosts can represent the greater violence—the past violence. And of course, like all ghosts, they want their stories told.”
More on the Black Horror Renaissance: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/07/black-storytellers-are-using-horror-to-battle-hate
“The ghosts can represent the greater violence—the past violence. And of course, like all ghosts, they want their stories told.”
More on the Black Horror Renaissance: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/07/black-storytellers-are-using-horror-to-battle-hate
