The Best Black Horror Movies And How To Watch Them
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If you ask me, the best horror movies are the ones rooted in some sense of reality and provide thought-provoking, analogous (or even boldly straightforward) commentary on the true horrors of the world. As far as I am concerned, few films achieve these sort of nuanced nightmares quite as effectively as Black horror movies.
The subgenre has a long and fascinating history, from Duane Jones’ groundbreaking casting as the hero of Night of the Living Dead, to Jordan Peele’s transition from acclaimed comedian to horror auteur with Get Out, and beyond. The following are some of our picks for the best thrillers created by Black artists, led by a Black actor, or featuring a predominantly Black cast.
Nope (2022)
After discovering that a UFO is responsible for their missing horses, two siblings (played by Academy Award winner Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) try to capture evidence of the spacecraft.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: With his third directorial feature, Nope, Jordan Peele crafts one of the most unique and thought-provoking alien invasion movie plots in years and introduces one of the most frightening modern horror movie villains with a being referred to as Jean Jacket.
Stream Nope on Starz.
Rent or buy Nope on Amazon.
Buy Nope on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster (2023)
A gifted teenager named Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes) discovers a way to reanimate the dead, using the body of her recently murdered older brother (played by Edem Atzu-Swanzy).
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Also available with a Shudder subscription, writer and director Bomani J. Story’s debut, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, is a captivating modern retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, elevated by powerful themes of the damaging effects of senseless violence.
Stream The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on Hulu.
Rent or buy The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on Amazon.
Buy The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Bones (2001)
Snoop Dogg stars in the title role of Jimmy Bones, who returns from the dead 22 years after his murder to punish his killer and help his neighborhood.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Also starring Pam Grier in an acclaimed performance, director Ernest R. Dickerson’s Bones is a fun ghost story that is highly regarded today as a cult classic, especially for its impressive practical effects.
Stream Bones on Starz.
Rent or buy Bones on Amazon.
Buy Bones on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Def By Temptation (1990)
Three men (played by James Bond III, Kadeem Hardison, and Bill Nunn) team-up to defeat a woman (played by Cynthia Bond) with dangerously alluring abilities.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: James Bond III is also the writer and director of Def by Temptation (also starring Samuel L. Jackson), which is one of the most underrated horror movies produced by Troma, which specializes in fun B-movies.
Stream Def by Temptation on Freevee though Amazon.
Stream Def by Temptation on Tubi.
Stream Def by Temptation on Peacock.
Buy Def by Temptation on Blu-ray Amazon.
Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
A group of average humans get caught up in a long duel between an immortal (played by William Sadler) and an evil harbinger of chaos (played by Billy Zane) whom he has sworn to defeat.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: While the main conflict is between Sadler and Billy Zane’s characters, Jada Pinkett Smith’s character, Jeryline, is the real hero of director Ernest Dickerson’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, which is the first feature-length spin-off from the classic horror anthology TV show.
Rent or buy Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight on Amazon.
Buy Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Blackening (2023)
A Juneteenth reunion for a group of old friends is interrupted by the realization that there is a killer amongst them.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Director Tim Story’s crowdpleaser is not just a hilarious send-up of tropes in Black horror movies but of Black culture in general, with some wonderful performances from the Blackening cast tie it all together.
Stream The Blackening on Starz.
Rent or buy The Blackening on Amazon.
Buy The Blackening on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Get Out (2017)
A young, Black photographer (played by Academy Award winner Daniel Kaluuya) learns that he was right to be anxious to meet his white girlfriend’s family in more horrifying ways than he could have imagined.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Comedy star Jordan Peele proved he also had a real knack for creeping us out while waking us up to modern-day racial tension with his stunning directorial debut, and one of the best Blumhouse horror movies yet, Get Out, which earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Stream Get Out on Hulu.
Rent/buy Get Out on Amazon.
Buy Get Out on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Us (2019)
Black Panther cast members Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke play a couple vacationing with their children in Santa Cruz who find their holiday interrupted by the violent appearance of another family that looks just like them.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: In his arguably scarier follow-up to Get Out, Jordan Peele takes on economic class disparity and the chilling concept of becoming your own worst enemy in Us, which deserved multiple Oscar nominations, including for Nyong’o’s arresting performance in dual roles.
Rent or buy Us on Amazon.
Buy Us on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Tales From The Hood (1995)
Eccentric mortician Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III) entertains his three guests, who have arrived at his funeral home seeking a drug deal, with four chilling stories about his most infamous clientele, including one about a Black cop haunted by the guilt of a mistake and a racist politician who receives his comeuppance from an unlikely source.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the most definitive and poignant examples of Black horror and one of the best anthology horror movies ever made is Tales from the Hood, from award-winning director and co-writer Rusty Cundieff.
Rent or buy Tales From The Hood on Amazon.
Buy Tales From The Hood on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
A group of Pennsylvanians take refuge inside an old farmhouse to protect themselves from shuffling, flesh-eating corpses that have suddenly risen from their graves and are spreading in numbers fast.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the very first horror movies to subtly comment on racial prejudice (which writer and director George A. Romero would claim was never quite intentional) was Night of the Living Dead, which made history for introducing the modern zombie into the mainstream and casting Duane Jones as the first-ever Black actor to lead a horror movie.
Stream Night of the Living Dead on Freevee on Amazon.
Stream Night of the Living Dead on Max.
Buy Night Of The Living Dead on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Ganja And Hess (1973)
After he is stabbed by an ancient artifact while on a research trip in Africa, an anthropologist (played by Duane Jones) returns to the United States with a fervent craving for blood, and seduces his former partner’s wife (played by Marlene Clark) into being the same deadly creature he has become.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Furthering his status as an iconic horror movie actor, Duane Jones starred in Ganja & Hess – an erotic and surreal vampire story unlike any other from writer Bill Gunn, who also co-directed the landmark thriller with Emmy nominee Lawrence Jordan.
Stream Ganja and Hess on Tubi.
Rent/buy Ganja And Hess on Amazon.
Buy Ganja And Hess on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Candyman (1992)
Virginia Madsen stars as a grad student whose ambitious research on urban legends leads her to unwittingly summon a vengeful spirit (played by Tony Todd) feared by tenants of an impoverished Chicago housing project.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Todd became a horror legend when he was cast as the title character of Candyman – director Bernard Rose’s suspenseful adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden” that, like Nia DaCosta’s 2021 sequel, boldly sheds light on topics like systemic racism and gentrification.
Rent or buy Candyman on Amazon.
Buy Candyman on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Blacula (1972)
Almost two centuries after he was transformed into a creature of the night by Count Dracula himself, an African prince is accidentally transported to Los Angeles where he pursues a woman he hopes to make into his vampire bride.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Years before Tony Todd starred in Candyman, one of the first and only villainous Black horror movie characters was the title role of Blacula, who is played brilliantly by William Marshall in director William Crain’s Blaxploitation-era take on the lore pioneered by Bram Stoker.
Stream Blacula on Tubi.
Stream Blacula on Pluto TV.
Rent or buy Blacula on Amazon.
Buy Blacula on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Blade (1998)
A half-mortal, half-vampire hybrid (played by Wesley Snipes) uses his unique gifts to hunt down pure, evil bloodsuckers.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the first great Marvel movies before the MCU was established is the gory, action-packed thriller, Blade, from director Stephen Norrington.
Rent/buy Blade on Amazon.
Buy Blade on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
A young Jurnee Smollett stars as a girl who conspires to punish her physician father (played by Samuel L. Jackson) for the hurt he has put her family through with help from mystical forces in 1962 Louisiana.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Candyman star Kasi Lemmons made her debut as a writer and director with Eve’s Bayou – a chilling tale of love, betrayal, and voodoo that proved to be a critical and commercial hit.
Stream Eve’s Bayou on Amazon Prime.
Stream Eve’s Bayou on Tubi.
Buy Eve’s Bayou on Blu-ray on Amazon.
His House (2020)
A couple of married, South Sudanese refugees (played by Some Disiru and Wunmi Mosaku) were already having a difficult enough time adjusting to life in a London suburb when they find themselves tormented by a malevolent spirit.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Mosaku and Disiru give beautiful performances in writer and director Remi Weekes’ feature-length debut (and one of the best horror movies on Netflix), His House – an indelibly frightening, shocking Netflix original hybrid of haunted house movies with graphic commentary on cultural integration, among other pressing themes.
Sweetheart (2019)
Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) is already living a nightmare after she becomes stranded on a deserted island after a devastating shipwreck when she comes to find out that she may not be alone.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of actor Kiersey Clemons’ best movies is Sweetheart – an underrated, Blumhouse-produced creature feature/survival thriller.
Rent or buy Sweetheart on Amazon.
Buy Sweetheart on DVD on Amazon.
The People Under The Stairs (1991)
A teenage boy (played by The Sandlot cast member Brandon Quintin Adams) becomes roped into a plot to rob his family’s landlords (played by Twin Peaks cast members Everett McGill and Wendy Cobie), only to learn that their home is a genuine death trap hiding many horrifying secrets.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Writer and director Wes Craven brings us one of the most grounded and frighteningly plausible films of his career in The People Under the Stairs, which combines a narrative structure inspired by fairy tale lore with real-life themes of poverty and urban decay.
Stream The People Under the Stairs on Tubi.
Rent or buy The People Under The Stairs digitally on Amazon.
Buy The People Under The Stairs on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Attack The Block (2011)
A teen street gang team up with an adult nurse (played by Doctor Who’s Jodie Whitaker) to defend their neighborhood from an invasion of vicious, man-eating extraterrestrials in South London.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Before the Star Wars movies made John Boyega a household name, he gave a stunning breakthrough performance as the lead of Attack the Block – one of the best horror-comedies with an overt sci-fi twist but heightened by its clever commentary on the classist roots of gang violence.
Stream Attack the Block on Max.
Rent/buy Attack The Block on Amazon.
Buy Attack The Block on Blu-ray on Amazon.
I cannot wait to see what upcoming horror movies from Black artists we can add to our collection next.
