Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror

Keith David and Ken Foree sing the Monster Mash during the credits. If that doesn't sell you on watching this doc, not sure what else can. To preface this review, I had taken an introductory course my first semester of college on Cannibals and Zombies, focusing on the (mostly racial) discourse surrounding the origins of the creatures. The zombie half of the class was about the usage of zombies as a metaphor, the zombie's Haitian origins, and how zombies were used in films like White Zombie as a depiction of the fear of the (non-white) unknown. While this documentary is about African Americans in horror in general rather than just zombies, I felt like the same themes apply. Movies are shaped by the world surrounding the time they were made, which Horror Noire shows in the eyes of black horror, especially during and before the era of blaxploitation. In the more recent times that the documentary covers, there's a focus on representation of characters (beyond just "black guy dies first" and "black guy dies to show threat as strong") and representation of modern day issues. I do wish Noire dove deeper into some of the movies. I did add a few movies to my watchlist on a count of this doc, and some of the movies featured actually got added to Shudder around the same time as the premiere of this doc.