On Thursday, February 7, 2019 AMC’s Shudder network presents documentary Horror Noire. Based on the acclaimed book of the same name by Dr. Robin R.  Means  Coleman, and Directed by Xavier Burgin Horror Noire takes  a critical look at a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and embraced both black filmmakers and black audiences. Horror Noire traces a secret history of Black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre. There is even a special screening here in New York atBrooklyn Academy of Music on Monday Feb. 4. A double bill with Rusty Cundieff’s 1995 classic, Tales from the Hood. Tickets for this special event are on sale now at BAM.org. 

The film features in-depth interviews with noted directors, writers, and actors, including Ernest Dickerson (Bones), Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood), Jordan Peele (Us), Tina Mabry (Mississippi Damned), Tony Todd (Candyman), Paula Jai Parker (Tales from the Hood), Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), and Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman. Horror Noire will premiere exclusively on Shudder on Thursday, February 7, after special screening events in New York and Los Angeles.

I was THRILLED to see the familiar names in the writer and director credits of this film. Including Ashley Blackwell, founder and creator of Graveyard Shift Sisters, a website dedicated to black women in horror and activist, teacher and best-selling author Tananarive Due, who serves as one of the executive producers on the film.

“After I saw Oscar winner Jordan Peele’s Get Out, I created a UCLA class around Black Horror called The Sunken Place,”  – Tananarive Due.

Beginning with the silent film era, Horror Noire explores the often overlooked and downplayed history of Black Americans in Hollywood: the emergence of black leading men in genre cinema in the late ‘60s with Night of the Living Dead and into the ‘70s with Blacula and films of the blaxploitation era; Candyman and the growing popularity of urban horror in the 1990s; up to the genre’s recent resurgence with movies like the Oscar-winning, critical and commercial hit Get Out.

Ahead of its Shudder debut on February 7, on Monday, February 4, Horror Noire will have its east coast premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, followed by a panel conversation featuring executive producer Tananarive Due, writer/producer Ashlee Blackwell, filmmaker R. Shanea Williams, and comics writer Greg Anderson Elysee. 

The complete list of Horror Noire interviewees:

Ashlee Blackwell                          Creator, GraveyardShiftSisters.com

Ernest Dickerson                          Director, Bones, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight

Jordan Peele                                Writer/ Director, Get Out, Us

Keith David                                  Actor, The Thing

Kelly Jo Minter                             Actor, The People Under the Stairs

Ken Foree                                     Actor, Dawn of the Dead

Ken Sagoes                                   Actor, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Loretta Devine                             Actor, Urban Legend

Mark H. Harris                              Creator, BlackHorrorMovies.com

Meosha Bean                               Filmmaker

Miguel A. Nuñez                          Actor, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

Monica Suriyage                          Filmmaker

Paula Jai Parker                           Actor, Tales from the Hood

Rachel True                                  Actor, The Craft

Richard Lawson                           Actor, Scream Blacula Scream

Robin R. Means Coleman, PhD   Author/ Educator

Rusty Cundieff                             Co-Writer/ Director, Tales from the Hood

Tananarive Due                           Author/ Educator

Tina Mabry                                   Writer/ Director, Mississippi Damned

Tony Todd                                    Actor, Candyman

William Crain                               Director, Blacula

Horror Noire is directed by Xavier Burgin, executive produced by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Tananarive Due, Fangoria Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr and Kelly Ryan of Stage 3 Productions, and is produced and co-written by Ashlee Blackwell and Danielle Burrows.

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