Five Great Lesser-Known Black Horror Films

Five Great Lesser-Known Black Horror Films

When you think of Black horror films…beyond Tales From The Hood and Candyman, you probably draw a big-time blank. Well, not to worry. We’ve got you covered with a few highly-yet-undeservedly looked-over horror flicks with Black actors holding the reigns.

If you’re looking for a fright on this Hallow’s Eve and want to see a few melanated faces on your screen at the same time…we’ve got you covered. Here are five slept-on Horror films with African American characters in lead roles. The films we’ve picked here run the gamut in release dates — from genre-defining classics from 50 years ago, to 90’s flicks, to recent films you can pull up on Netflix right now.

Hit the flip for your spooky watchlist. And trust us, the Black character DOES NOT die first in any of these selections! Let us know if these are flicks you’ve seen/enjoyed in the comment section…

Getty/YouTube

The People Under The Stairs (1991)

Let’s kick things off with one of this writer’s personal faves from childhood. The People Under The Stairs follows Brandon Quintin Adams (the child star of just about every 90’s movie/tv special you can think of) as Fool, a young boy from a struggling low-income neighborhood who gets trapped inside the house of an insane incestuous couple during a botched robbery attempt. The gag is, the villain in this flick is gentrification just as much as it is the maniacal Mom and Dad keeping random neighborhood kids imprisoned in their cellar. Gotta love the 90’s and how they always loved to tuck a message into their entertainment…

Def by Temptation (1990)

A VERY skipped over flick, this one follows Samuel L. Jackson, Kadeem Hardison, Bill Nunn and James Bond III as they get seduced by and later attempt to thwart a demonic succubus who preys on horny Black men on the NYC dating scene. Actress Cynthia Bond plays the cunning temptress who lures men who can’t keep it in their pants into one-nighters and literally eats them alive. It’s definitely more on the B-movie side of things, but highly entertaining with the occasional genuine scare mixed in with some well-placed (and some seemingly unintentional) laughs. This entire film is available on Youtube, if you want a little-remembered cult classic to check out while you raid the kids’ candy this evening.

The Transfiguration (2016)

This one is horror in the way Let the Right One In/Let Me In is horror, just to give you a better idea. The film follows Eric Ruffin as Milo, a troubled teen from an NYC housing project with a strong attachment to vampire movies and stories — most likely as an escape from his bullied, low-income day-to-day existence. When he meets and befriends equally ostracized new resident Chloe, the lines between his vampire fantasy and his harsh reality become blurred.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Now, this one is by no means a little-known film. In fact, it’s widely regarded as the Godfather of the zombie movie genre. However, many don’t realize that this movie broke ground in yet another way…having a Black man serve as the film’s protagonist and hero. Actor Duane Jones made his film debut in this zombie thriller, that also serves as a thinly veiled commentary on the sociopolitical climate of the 1960’s — particularly about the Black experience during that time, which becomes abundantly clear at the film’s end.