Worship Me by Craig Stewart

Formats: Print, digital, audio

Publisher: Hellbound Books

Genre: Blood & Guts (Gorn), Monster, Myth and Folklore, Occult

Audience: Adult/Mature

Diversity: Gay author and gay side character

Takes Place in: US

Content Warnings: Animal Death, Body Shaming, Bullying, Child Endangerment, Death, Forced Captivity,  Gaslighting, Gore, Mental Illness (depression), Physical Abuse, Sexual Assault, Self-Harm, Slut-Shaming, Suicidal Ideation, Violence (Highlight to view)

Blurb:

Something is listening to the prayers of St. Paul’s United Church, but it’s not the god they asked for; it’s something much, much older.  A quiet Sunday service turns into a living hell when this ancient entity descends upon the house of worship and claims the congregation for its own. The terrified churchgoers must now prove their loyalty to their new god by giving it one of their children or in two days time it will return and destroy them all.  As fear rips the congregation apart, it becomes clear that if they’re to survive this untold horror, the faithful must become the faithless and enter into a battle against God itself. But as time runs out, they discover that true monsters come not from heaven or hell…  ...they come from within.

Please note, I received this product for free in return for providing an honest and unbiased review. I received no other compensation. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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Worship Me is a nihilistic exploration of morality and faith presented as a gory horror story about a congregation trapped inside their church by a mysterious creature, called the Behemoth. Demanding their reverence, the beast viciously murders any who disobey and gives the group 48 hours to offer up a child sacrifice. With the safety and sanctity of their church destroyed and their beliefs thrown into question, the members of St. Paul’s United Church begin to reveal their true natures. The book boasts a large cast of characters including Dorothy, the church matron who's desperate to feel needed, Emily, a severe and devout woman who harshly judges others, Susan, a naive and sheltered young woman who wants to save the world, and Chris, a closeted gay teen who desperately wishes his crush would acknowledge their mutual attraction, and the point of view frequently shifts as each character watches their world fall apart. But it's Angela who comes closest to being the story's protagonist.

Angela and her son, Alex, have been the center of church gossip ever since her husband, Rick, vanished mysteriously. Seemingly tired of the pity and Emily's suspicious scorn Angela announces during Sunday service that she's planning on moving away and starting fresh. That's when a filthy Rick stumbles into the church. The congregation, who have been praying for his safe return, declares it a miracle. Angela, however, is less than thrilled. While the community sees the couple's relationship as the perfect romance, high school sweethearts who marry young and went on to have a child, nothing could be further from the truth. Rick is an abusive and violent man who terrorizes his wife, Angela was desperate to escape his cruelty and protect her son, and his time away has made him even worse. While gone, Rick has found a new god, the Behemoth, and has apparently started some sort of Cenobite-type religion that involves torture, murder, self-mutilation, and a very aggressive recruitment strategy. Everything starts to go to hell after that.

At least I assume this is what Scientology is, but with more aliens and domestic espionage.

On the Sunday of Rick's ill-fated return, the pastor, Don, tells his congregation about the myth of Job, a devout and righteous man whose faith is tested by hardship. For those unfamiliar with the parable, God and Satan aka "the Adversary" ("satan" literally translates to "adversary" so it's unclear whether this is big S Satan, aka the devil, or just some random angel who's a jerk) are hanging out in heaven and God is bragging about the super pious and awesome Job. Satan rolls his eyes and points out that Job is only "good" because he knows God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. He's doing it for the rewards, not out of some deep sense of morality. God suggest they test that theory and gives Satan permission to ruin Job's life by killing his servants and children, taking his wealth, and covering the poor man with boils. Job's so-called "friends" also subscribe to the theory that bad things only happen to bad people, and proceed to blame the victim by telling the poor man that all his misfortune is his own fault. At this point Job is pretty miserable and wondering what the hell he did to deserve this and demands to know why an all-powerful deity would make the world so chaotic and horrible. Surprisingly God actually responds with something along the lines of "Where the hell were you when I made earth out of literally nothing!? I made a freaking universe and you people don't even know what electricity is yet. Do you really think your stupid little monkey brain could understand all the complexities that go into running this place? I have all these plans you couldn't even wrap your brain around, like winning a bet with this guy... never mind, the point is: I'm omnipotent, omniscient, and I work in mysterious ways. Deal with it." Stunned, Job stammers out "Well, you didn't really answer my question, like, at all, but you're really scary and I don't want an all-powerful deity angry at me so I think I'm just going to go back to being pious and throw in some groveling apologies so you don't smite me." God says "Yeah, you do that" and restores Job's riches and health, and even gives him some new kids (because apparently children were easily replaced like goldfish back then), just so there are no hard feelings. The parable is meant to explain why good people suffer for seemingly no reason, though a more cynical interpretation would be that powerful beings treat mortals as mere pawns in their games and get unreasonably angry when those mortals want to know why they're acting like jerks. While God is ranting at Job for questioning his betters, the irritable deity starts not-so-humbly bragging about how powerful they are, using the Behemoth as an example. The Behemoth, an enormous, land-dwelling beast, is so powerful that it can only be controlled by God, no mortal could ever hope to defeat it.

“Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 

He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 

His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him."
(Job 40: 15-19)

No, I don't know why God spends so much time telling Job about the Behemoth's giant genitals ("tail" was probably euphemism). Whomever wrote that particular bible story was having a really weird day. Jewish apocrypha describe the Behemoth as a primal creature that represents chaos and will battle with its aquatic and aerial counterparts, the Leviathan and Ziz, on judgement day.

The Behemoth as it is depicted in the Dictionnaire Infernal where he is described as ruling over the domain of gluttony. The fictional creature may be based on a hippo or elephant. Young earth creationists and anyone else who failed grade school science think the Behemoth is a dinosaur (it's not).

Most of the characters in Worship Me believe the Behemoth is either a fallen angel meant to test their faith or a new deity come to save them. But neither assumption is accurate because none of what happens is about any of the humans in the first place. The beast sees itself as the main character of its own story, and the congregation as mere pawns. The beast only seems god-like because humans are a weak and undeveloped species in comparison. Calling the Behemoth a false god or demon would be a gross oversimplification that implies its existence is tied inextricably to humanity. Historian Lynn Townsend White Jr. argued in his famous 1967 paper The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis "Especially in its Western form, Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen. Man shares, in great measure, God's transcendence of nature." Abrahamic all but declare humanity's superiority. In the very first book of the Torah and the Old Testament (Bereishith/Genesis) God essentially tells Adam that he is the most important living thing in the universe. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26) In the Quran, even divine beings are told to bow down before the first human. "And when We told the angels, 'Prostrate yourselves before Adam!' they all prostrated themselves, save Iblis, who refused and gloried in his arrogance: and thus he became one of those who deny the truth." (Surah 2:34) A relic from another time the creature's morality cannot be defined by human parameters, and has nothing to do with any human religion. The church members, who clearly subscribe to the idea of human exceptionalism, at least in the beginning, simply assume it does.

Unfortunately for the congregations, God never does show up to control the Behemoth. A few people try to stand up to the beast at first, but all are brutally killed for their efforts and the legend of Job offers little comfort to their grieving loved ones. Some of the church members begin to wonder if there is even someone out there listening to their prayers. Even if there is, a hands-off God who lets innocent people suffer and die quickly loses their appeal when the prehistoric monster terrorizing you can promise rewards now. As they become even more frightened and desperate every adult becomes complicit in some form of depraved cruelty, whether they are active participants or merely remain silent and allow it to happen. This begs the question, if you willingly do something unspeakable to save your own skin, is the life you preserved still worth living knowing you will now have to carry the guilt of your crime? Keep in mind such philosophical questions are much easier to answer from the outside, but even the kindest and most moral person can be twisted by pain and fear and grief. While most of the heroic sacrifices made by those the Behemoth killed were merely pointless deaths (they died horribly and all it accomplished was pushing their loved ones to commit monstrous deeds to get them back), the murdered are also the only characters in the book who get to die with a clear conscience. If there is an afterlife, they'll be the only ones joining Job in paradise.

The threat of death and suffering, especially when made against your children, are certainly excellent motivators when it comes to recruiting the unwilling, though I do have to question the decision making abilities of those members of the congregation tempted by the Behemoth's promised "rewards": torture (which Rick seems to be super into) and bringing Evil Dead versions of their murdered loved ones back to life. Why bother to offer a moldy, half-eaten carrot when the stick would suffice? But while no one takes them up on their offer of some old fashioned masochism, a lot of the characters fall for the "I'm going to murder someone you love then give you this evil, busted, half-assed version instead" scam Rick and his beast buddy are running. I don't care how much you miss your kid, nobody wants a monster that makes the reanimates from Pet Sematary seem kind and cuddly by comparison, even if it does vaguely resemble a mutilated version of little Timmy. If my wife got mauled by monsters then Monkey's Paw-ed back to life looking like something out of Resident Evil, I'd be reaching for the flamethrower, not agreeing to join some prehistoric beast's weird torture church. Maybe if the Behemoth agreed to send my undead wife back to the cornfield or wherever I might agree to a little light beast worship, but as it stands his resurrection game needs some serious work.

My wife as a mutilated, living corpse is definitely one of the weirder things I've drawn. I showed this drawing to her and now she's shuffling around the house pretending to be a zombie. 

There is one other, much more significant issue I had with the book.
***Content warning for discussion of rape and sexual assault***
Among his many newfound powers, Ricks now possesses the ability to make people sexually attracted to him, whether they want to be or not. This creepy ability is first demonstrated when a heterosexual man finds himself inexplicably lusting after Rick (right before Rick kills and mutilates him). He uses it again on Angela whilst sexually assaulting her, resulting in her arousal during the assault, and the way it's worded is pretty cringe-y:
"Her body began to revolt against every intellectual, spiritual and personal value she had tried painstakingly to uphold. This man, this creature, this demon, had violated her, beaten her, lied to her, threatened her life and the life of her child, but still her body wanted him. It ached for him, as if it would die without his touch, inside and out... She hated each and every betrayal her body made."

This is a trope I absolutely loathe with a burning passion. Let me be perfectly clear: some people do experience an erection, lubrication, or even orgasm during a sexual assault, and there's nothing unusual or shameful about it. It's a purely physiological response and not an indication of enjoyment or a sign of consent. Unfortunately, the belief that any sign of arousal means the victim "wanted it" is still prevalent (and even used as a defense in court cases) and enforced in fiction like Crown of Swords, The Fountainhead, Goldfinger, Game of Thrones, and numerous Harlequin romances. Fifty Shades of Grey actually inspired at least three different cases of sexual assault because these men couldn't understand that fantasizing about being ravished isn't the same thing as wanting to be assaulted (Pro tip: NO ONE wants to be raped). It's not that people shouldn't write about rape (The Round House by Louise Erdrich and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson both do an excellent job dealing with such a difficult topic) or even erotic fantasies of being overpowered. It's just that with rape culture and world being what it is, authors need to tread very, very carefully when writing about assault. Tor, Apex Magazine, Wired, the Writing Reddit, and Marie Brennan's blog all do a great job discussing how to write about sexual violence in fiction.

Worship Me isn't nearly as bad as the previous examples I listed, Rick is portrayed as a complete monster whom Angela despises and what he does is reprehensible. I don't think anyone reading that passage is going to think Angela wanted him to assault her, or that it was anything but a violation. But it still could have been handled a lot better and I cringed reading it.
***End of content warning***

Problems aside, Worship Me is still a well-written, and entertaining read. You would think a book where the characters spent the majority of their time trapped within a church reflecting on their personal values would get dull very quickly, but fear not. Action scenes are perfectly placed throughout the story to keep the pace going and the tension high. Even with my ADHD, Worship Me managed to hold my attention throughout the book and I only put it down when I absolutely had to (like when my wife said if I didn't come do the dishes right now she was making me sleep in the backyard). But it's the novel's exploration of faith that makes Worship Me really stand out. I was very fortunate to grow up attending a Congregationalist church part of the United Church of Christ (UCC) with a strong emphasis on humanism, tolerance, science, and social justice, where my sexuality and agnosticism were readily accepted, but many people aren't so lucky. Even churches that aren't showing up on a Southern Poverty Law Center watch list can be intolerant towards anyone they see as breaking some obscure Biblical law from Leviticus. When a religion that's supposed to be about love and compassion is twisted by its followers into an ugly culture of hate, judgement, and hypocrisy it drives people away. But worse than that is when people actually find that kind of message appealing. They're attracted to the "us vs. the sinners" rhetoric and instead of loving their neighbors or respecting differences, they turn to condemnation and cruelty in a misguided attempt to please an angry god and reap the rewards they feel are promised them. And this is the heart of what makes Worship Me so terrifying. Not the monster outside who may or may not be an old god come to challenge the newer god of Abraham, but the horrible lengths people are driven to when they believe without question. Worship Me isn't so much anti-religion as it is anti-zealous, unquestioning belief and fear-based worship. There are benefits to religion, it can offer comfort in dark times and encourage charity and compassion and a sense of community. But when the message is never questioned and when its followers lose the ability to judge right or wrong from themselves, that's when people suffer. Churches will always make me leery. Maybe it's because some very vocal religious types find both my sexuality and my lack of faith sinful, and are not shy about harassing anyone like me. It could also be that whole bursting into flame and vomiting black bile every time I step onto holy ground thing that happens, who knows. What I do know is the Worship Me has definitely made me think twice about visiting a house of God again, lest it hold some even darker secrets.

The Between by Tananarive Due

Formats: Print, digital

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Psychological Horror, Thriller

Audience: Adult/Mature

Diversity: Black Characters (African American and Ghanaian) and author, Hispanic/Latino character (Puerto Rican), Character with possible Mental Illness

Takes Place in: Miami, Florida, USA

Content Warnings: Animal Abuse, Animal Death, Child Abuse, Child Death, Death, Drug Use/Abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental Illness, Racism, Rape/Sexual Assault mentioned, Stalking, Slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Verbal/Emotional Abuse (Highlight to view)

Blurb:

When Hilton was just a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African-American judge in Dade County, FL, begins to receive racist hate mail, he becomes obsessed with protecting his family. Soon, however, he begins to have horrible nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are the strange dreams trying to tell him something? His sense of reality begins to slip away as he battles both the psychotic threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep. Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between follows the struggles of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves, but may have already lost. The compelling plot holds readers in suspense until the final, profound moment of resolution.

I admit, I'm a huge Tananarive Due fan. I love her books, I love her academic work, I love reading her tweets, and I especially love how she's always willing to share her wisdom and encourage other writers. When I was watching Black horror films for my Horror Noire timeline and Morbidly Beautiful review Due was kind enough to engage with me on Twitter and offer movie recommendations, insights, and feedback for my articles. Here was this amazing author who I admired so much not only chatting with me about our shared love of horror, but taking the time to help me out! If I ever get the chance to meet her in person, I'd probably faint. Needless to say, trying to pick a book to review by one of the most influential Black horror authors out there was a daunting task. Should I write about one of her best-known novels, My Soul to Keep from the popular African Immortals series? Or should I review my personal favorite, The Good House (which I've been known to throw at random friends and family members, insisting they read it)? After much back and forth, I finally decided I should start at the beginning and shine the spotlight on her very first novel which doesn't get nearly as much recognition as it deserves: The Between. This award-winning psychological thriller stars family man Hilton as he loses his grasp on reality while watching his perfect life fall apart after his wife, Dede, receives a racist death threat at her job. In addition to being a truly creepy piece of speculative fiction, it's also nice to see such a strong, loving, successful black family dealing with issues like code-switching in a mostly white neighborhood, the Black community's views on homosexuality and mental illness, and the differences in culture between Africans and Black Americans.

Before diving into the plot of Due's very first novel, let's have a quick physics lesson because I can't review a sci-fi story without at least a little bit of science. Many of you may already be familiar with the many-worlds theory: an interpretation of quantum physics which essentially states that everything that could have possibly happened, but did not, has occurred in a different, alternate timeline, creating a vast multiverse where universes branch into more universes with each possible outcome. For example, flipping a coin would create two separate universes, one where it lands on heads and another where it lands on tails. Some of these universes would be nearly identical to our own, like the two timelines seen in the movie Sliding Doors, while others would hardly be recognizable, like the alternate history in The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick where the allies lose WWII or the two-dimensional world from Edwin Abbott Abbott's satirical novella, Flatland. However, we are only capable of perceiving the universe that we're currently in. That's the main, overly simplified, gist of it anyway. Here's a great video that further explains this complex concept in an easy to understand way. Now you can impress your friends with your physics knowledge!

And half of the alternate universes in existence are caused by Barry Allen trying to change the timeline.

The many-worlds theory is especially popular with science and speculative fiction writers and shows up in everything from novels (Mid-World from Stephen King's Dark Tower series) and comics (the Bizarro World in Superman) to films (Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse) and TV shows (Star Trek's Mirror Universe). The Between differs from most of these examples because, in true Schrödinger's cat fashion, a multiverse may or may not play an important role in the book, and it all starts when Hilton's grandmother dies the first time. Seven-year old Hilton James discovers his Nana's cold, dead body on the kitchen floor and runs to get help, only to return and discover she's alive and well. Her second, and final, death occurs when she drowns trying to save him. Struggling with survivor's guilt, Hilton becomes obsessed with saving everyone and grows up to run a rehab clinic for low-income people suffering from drug addiction. While a noble calling, spending his every waking moment helping the less fortunate at the expense of him family puts a serious strain on Hilton's relationship with his wife, Dede, whose jealousy causes her to suspect the worst. Worse still, Hilton is plagued by morbid nightmares in which a voice asks him "How many times do you think you can die?" Believing "we're always closest to death when we sleep" the nightmares result in somniphobia and severe insomnia. Marriage counseling improves his relationship with his wife, and hypnotherapy helps Hilton sleep, but his nightmares soon resurface with a vengeance after Dede receives a racist, threatening letter shortly after being elected as a judge. Seemingly prophetic dreams full of his Nana's decaying corpse, his children dying, and his own, mutilated body telling him he's running out of time plague Hilton until he starts staying up all night, wandering the house, rather than returning to his cadaver-filled dream land. Unsurprisingly, Hilton's mental health takes a turn for the worse.

Seemingly unsatisfied with simply haunting Hilton's nightmares, portents of death start appearing to him during the day. After waking up with a sense of dread, Hilton insists the family go to church, only to be met with a new preacher ranting about the water of life from Revelations and meeting Jesus when you face eternity. Cheerful! The day gets worse when his young son, Jamil, is traumatized after witnessing some older boys kill a duckling. Then, Hilton accidentally rear-ends a hearse because the universe is not fucking around with the foreboding omens. A few days later, his adolescent daughter, Kaya, has her first period which Hilton's commemorates by taking her to the hospital to meet one of his clients, Antoinette, a teenage girl dying of AIDS. I know I'm not a parent, but I feel like reminding your child of their own impending mortality is probably not the best way to celebrate their menarche. And just to make sure Hilton really gets it, because Death doesn't do subtle, they're stopped by a funeral procession on their way back from seeing Antoinette. Did I mention it's raining? Of course it's raining. I'm surprised a murder of crows didn't fly overhead and blot out the sun while chanting "doooooooom". No wonder Hilton becomes convinced Death is stalking him. The symbolism may seem heavy handed, and in the hands of a less talented writer would've come off as cheesy, but in Due's case it works incredibly well to emphasize the depths of Hilton's paranoia and his loosening grip on reality and set up two equally creepy explanations for what's happening.

What I imagined Death doing throughout the book

It's implied that Hilton is a "traveler", someone with the ability to escape death and bad decisions by traveling through "doorways" from his current reality to one with a more favorable outcome. It's how he brought Nana back to life and survived drowning as a child. He does it again when he rear-ends the hearse to save his family. Of course, not every timeline he jumps into is exactly identical. Hilton begins to notice more and more inconsistencies in his everyday life, from events that repeat themselves to encounters that seemingly never occurred no matter how clearly he remembers them and even visions of deaths that never happened. On top of this, you can only cheat the system for so long before you get caught. Some unknown force, sensing that Hilton isn't supposed to be alive, is making subtle alterations to the timeline to "correct" this. Between his menacing nightmares and threatening letters that continue to arrive at Dede's office, and eventually their home, Hilton's concern for his family's safety warps into full blown paranoia. Even after putting his children under lockdown, buying a rifle, security lighting, and a guard dog, Hilton continues to see danger around every corner, thanks in no small part to his lack of sleep. He goes from his normal calm and sensitive self to a scared, angry man who lashes out at his family and friends.

Hilton may see signs that Death is lurking around every corner, but the rest of his family isn't making the same connection between a dead duckling and their patriarch's distracted driving. Maybe something supernatural is going on and the universe is trying to send the poor man a warning about abusing the natural order of things, but there's also a strong argument to be made that Hilton is merely suffering from Apophenia, assigning meaning to unrelated coincidences. Apophenia is also a major symptom of paranoid schizophrenia, along with a fear that someone or something is out to get you, an inability to tell what is and isn't real, a voice (or voices) in your head, and major changes to mood and sleeping habits, all of which Hilton has started to display. Those prone to schizophrenia can have a psychotic episode triggered by a stressful life event, like, say, having a racist stalker sending threatening letters to your wife.

The Between is set in the 90's, but all my memories of that particular decade seem to be either Pokémon or Harry Potter related and I don't really remember what we were wearing back then. So I just put Hilton and his daughter in 90's sitcom clothes and called it a day.  

As we watch Hilton's mind unravel as he desperately tries to prevent some horrible, unknown disaster he's convinced will happen, there's a strong sense of urgency and dread. However, it's unclear if supernatural forces are at work and Hilton is the only person who can see the truth, or if he really is just paranoid and his visions are a result of his fears made manifest by mental illness. Are his lapses in memory and reoccurring nightmares a result of a mental illness combined with guilt, or some sort of supernatural force?  Is the racist stalker leaving poison pen letters for his wife the only thing threatening Hilton's family, or is Death playing a drawn out game of Final Destination? Will he lose everything due to a curse, or his own actions? With the line between dreams and the real world becoming more and more blurred, it's difficult for the reader to determine how much of what happens is in Hilton's head, and whose version of reality is the truth until the very end. Hilton is not the most reliable of narrators, making it difficult to determine whether or not something supernatural is going on, but like The Turn of the Screw, not knowing if it's the narrator's sanity slippage or the work of spirits is part of the appeal and both possibilities are equally terrifying. Due hit the ground running with her very first novel and her fiction has only gotten better from there. 

DIVERSITY IN HORROR MATTERS, AND HERE’S WHY

When Jordan Peele said he wanted to exclusively make black stories, some people got angry; but let’s discuss why we actually need more diversity.

Read my full article at Morbidly Beautiful

Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present by Robin R. Means Coleman

To celebrate the release of the Horror Noire on Shudder last month, and the recent premiere of Jordan Peele's sophomore film Us, I decided to read Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman's book on which the documentary is based. I've already reviewed the documentary over at Morbidly Beautiful, so I won't rehash it too much here, but suffice it to say it's a MUST watch for any horror fan. With interviews from Black horror directors, writers, actors, and academics, it's wonderful to see so many Black voices all sharing their experiences and voicing their opinions on famous Black horror films. The only downside is the limitations of the medium, that is, the documentary just doesn't have the time to go into the full history of Black horror or discuss every Black horror movie. Which is why you should definitely read the book! Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present (or at least the aughts, when the book was published) gets to fully explore all the fun details that couldn't be included in the documentary, from the birth of zombie movies to the evolution of Black women in horror from eye candy to demon slayers.

Using Dr. Coleman's book as a basis, I've created a timeline of over thirty Black horror films that I feel best illustrate the evolution of Black representation in American horror films. For a more in-depth study into the topic (and a list of recommended viewing and reading), check out this great Horror Noire Syllabus created by Dr. Coleman, Tananarive Due, and the Graveyard Shift Sisters.

The Undertaker's Daughter (1915) - The Lubin Manufacturing Company used Black actors in their horror comedy short, The Undertaker's Daughter. Prior to this, Black characters were almost exclusively played by White men in Blackface who portrayed them as lazy, foolish, and cowardly for comedic effect. These racist caricatures, commonly known by the dehumanizing slur "coon", were a mainstay in minstrel shows, and appeared in films produced and written by Whites for White audiences.

Birth of a Nation

Birth of a Nation (1915) - In 1915 the White supremacist propaganda film Birth of a Nation was released with president Wilson's endorsement. This time Black men were not merely portrayed as lazy buffoons, but violent, lecherous creatures who preyed on White women, a dangerous stereotype that had already resulted in the murders of thousands of Black men and children. Lynching for "eye rape" would continue well into the 1950s [1]. The image of the predatory Black man popularized by Birth of a Nation would continue to appear as a horror film "monster" for decades to come as White men lived out film fantasies of violently protecting damsels in distress.

Shadowed by the Devil (1916) -  In response to the blatantly offensive depictions of African Americans in Birth of a Nation Black-owned film studios like the Lincoln Motion Picture Company and Frederick Douglass Film Company were founded to tell positive Black stories by and for Black people. Called "race films," these movies featured all Black casts portraying complex, realistic characters. One such race film, the now lost Shadowed by the Devil, is a frightening morality tale that focused on what it means to be a good person. Sadly, most of these studios would go under during the Great Depression.

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918) - The Ebony Film Corporation, a White-owned company, attempted to cash in on Black audiences by producing their own "race films" which included five comedy horror shorts. Unfortunately, Ebony relied on tired, racist tropes for their humor which outraged Black viewers and prompted complaints in the Chicago Defender, a popular Black newspaper.

A Son of Satan (1924) - Oscar Micheaux, founder of the Micheaux Film Corporation, was the first Black feature filmmaker in America. He made over forty films during his thirty-year career. His "fright films" more closely resembled "true" horror movies. Micheaux cleverly booked and advertised A Son of Satan without approval from the Virginia film board (who objected to scenes of Black men "carousing," murder, and the killing the leader of "a hooded organization," a thinly veiled allusion to the Klan), in order to avoid censorship of his movie and maximize profit.

Black Moon (1934) - From 1915 to 1934 the US military forcibly occupied Haiti. White Marines ignorantly viewed the Haitian's religious practices as primitive and evil, and shared outlandish stories about human sacrifice, cannibalism, and raising the dead when they returned home. These fantastical accounts would inspire the "Voodoo" and jungle films of the 1930's where "savage natives" controlled zombies and threatened the virtue of beautiful White women.  In Black Moon, the White Juanita is so corrupted by Black culture that she goes insane and her husband is forced to kill her.

Chloe, Love is Calling You

Chloe, Love is Calling You (1934) - In the Voodoo horror film Chloe, Love is Calling You the titular White-passing Chloe is cast as a tragic heroine because she's biracial. She's often threatened by the Black men who either want to rape or sacrifice her, and is so disgusted by her own alleged Blackness that she frequently flies into hysterics and throws herself into danger. The moment Chloe discovers she's actually White she abandons the Black "mammy" who raised her without a second thought. Even though the film does not shy away from discussing racial violence and lynchings, it still implies Whiteness as superior and condemns any Black people who desire revenge for the treatment they've received.

The Devil's Daughter (1939) - "Jungle Films" portrayed Black Americans as more intelligent, sophisticated and "loyal" to Whites than Voodoo practicing Africans and Caribbeans. The Devil's Daughter, which was targeted towards Black audiences, pit the Jamaican daughter of a Voodooist against her Harlemite half-sister for control of their family plantation. The sister from Harlem is cosmopolitan and bourgeois, but gullible and out-of-touch with her roots, while the Jamaican sister is rough around the edges but more down-to-earth. In the end the two women come to a mutual understanding and respect.

Son of Ingagi

Son of Ingagi (1940) - The original Ingagi was a racist exploitation film billed as an African documentary that implied that Congolese women bred with gorillas to produce monstrous hybrid offspring. African American actor Spencer Williams Jr. wanted to create a film with better representation for Black audiences so he wrote and starred in Son of Ingagi, the first science fiction horror film to feature an all-Black cast [2]. Unlike its "prequel," the gorilla in Williams' film was just a monster, not a metaphor, and the movie's Black stars were cast in more distinguished roles. Williams plays a detective, while actress Laura Bowman portrays Dr. Helen Jackson, a brilliant and wealthy researcher.

The Blood of Jesus (1941) -  In addition to writing and producing several race films, Spencer Williams Jr. also directed the religious morality horror movie The Blood of Jesus. In it, the pious Martha is tempted by a demon who shows her the excitement of Northern city life. She ultimately rejects the flashy clothing and jive in favor of her more modest and virtuous Southern lifestyle, thus saving her soul from damnation. The moral superiority of Southern Blacks compared to their "sinful" Northern cousins was a frequent theme in religious horror movies.

King of the Zombies

King of the Zombies (1941) - As the popularity of horror films was waning, most likely due to the very real horrors of WWII, so too were opportunities for Black actors in film. Many found themselves choosing between playing a comedic coon archetype in roles reminiscent of Minstrel Shows or going without work. Mantan Moreland was one of many Black actors who made a successful career out of playing such characters in horror comedies like King of the Zombies, and he was frequently cast in central roles, receiving top billing next to his White costars. But his fame came at the cost of furthering harmful Black stereotypes.

Monster from Green Hell (1957) - Xenophobia and Cold War fears shaped the horror films of the 1950s, which were filled with extraterrestrial invaders and science experiments gone wrong, but very few Black characters. Even though roles were scarce, Black actors like Joel Fluellen still advocated for better representation in film and TV. In Monster from Green Hell, Fluellen's character, Arobi, is an intelligent and well-spoken African man whom the White scientists respect and consult for advice. While the film is still deeply problematic Fluellen proved that Black actors could play important roles in horror movies without relying on tired, racist tropes.

The Leech Woman (1960) - As hard as it was for Black actors to find work, it was even harder for Black actresses. It was especially rare for Black women to land a central role in a White film. In The Leech Woman, Estelle Henry plays Malla, a 152-year-old former slave whose people hold the secret to eternal youth and long life. Malla's character was still saddled with stereotypes, being African made her "exotic" and knowledgeable about magic, but she was also progressive in her own right. A smart, tough, fierce feminist, Malla protested the ageism shown to older women and convinced a sleazy White doctor to pay for her trip back to her homeland.

Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead (1968) - The same year the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, George Romero released his revolutionary zombie film, Night of the Living Dead. The low-budget flick starred African-American actor Duane Jones as its protagonist Ben, the very first Black lead in a horror film not targeted solely to Black audiences. Ben was no frightened Stepin Fetchit or voodoo priest, but a charismatic and confident survivor whose quick thinking and coolness under pressure keep him alive until the end of the film. Equally remarkable, the zombies Ben fights aren't the result of Voodoo or African magic, but were instead reanimated by space radiation. When Ben finally does meet his demise, it's at the hands of a White (living) mob, an all too familiar image for Black audiences, especially during the 1960s. The film was a box office success, largely due to its popularity with Black moviegoers.[3] This would lead to a series of sequels, which also featured Black characters in important roles.

Blacula

Blacula (1972) - During the 70's a sub-genre of the exploitation film emerged called Blaxploitation. These movies, often created by White writers and directors for Black audiences, drew inspiration from Black power ideologies and frequently centered around overcoming White oppressors.  Unfortunately, the genre was also deeply homophobic, exploitative of women, and condemned by many Black organizations for its use of criminal stereotypes. Blacula was the first, and most famous blaxploitation horror film, about an erudite African prince who is transformed into a vampire and ironically begins to prey on Black communities. The film's success lead its production company, AIP, to continue creating Black horror films.

Ganja and Hess (1973) - The art house film Ganja and Hess starred Duane Jones –of Night of the Living Dead fame -- as Dr. Hess Green, a wealthy archaeologist. Dr. Green's sophistication and elegance made him the polar opposite of the hypermasculine, violent men in Blaxploitation films who earned their money through illegal means. Despite winning the critic's choice prize at the Cannes film festival, Ganja and Hess' producers were unhappy with the movie and suppressed it. They had wanted something similar to Blacula, and weren't sure what to do with a vampire story about addiction that lacked the Blaxploitation tropes with which audiences were familiar.

Scream, Blacula, Scream

Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973) -  While White "final girls" were portrayed as virginal and pure, Black heroines were hypersexualized for a straight, male audience. So it was unusual when Pam Grier, who was frequently cast as a seductive sex idol in other Blaxploitation films like Foxy Brown and Coffy, got to play a conservatively dressed heroine named Lisa in Scream, Blacula, Scream. Lisa is elected leader of her Voodoo group, and uses her skills to try and free Blacula from the curse placed on him by the White Dracula. She is also a protector who saves her boyfriend from the angry vampire.

Abby (1974) - Abby is a low-budget Exorcist knock-off that was, as the New York Times put it, "more silly than shocking" and never quite reached the levels of cult classic that Blacula did. The titular Abby, a pious minister's wife, becomes possessed by a being claiming to be the Yoruba Orisha, Eshu. Unlike Pazuzu from The Exorcist, Eshu seems more interested in sex and swearing than destruction, which leads to some very silly scenes. Even though the being possessing is supposedly Yoruba in origin, African religious beliefs are never condemned or portrayed as evil, and the film makers clearly put effort into their research. Eventually, the heroes use a combination of Christian and Yoruba beliefs to free Abby.

Sugar Hill

Sugar Hill (1974) - Diana "Sugar" Hill is the perfect example of the regressive treatment Black women often received in Blaxploitation films. After the murder of her boyfriend at the hands of a "Whitey" crime boss, Sugar is desperate for revenge, but unable to seek it without help. She makes a deal with Baron Samedi, the Vodou loa (god) of death and sex, offering herself in exchange for the murders of those responsible for "killing her man." Sporting tight, revealing outfits, Sugar seduces and tempts her victims before Samedi's zombies kill them off, wielding her sexuality like a weapon. She also spends most of the film flirting with her ex-boyfriend implying Sugar cannot be without a man.

The Shining (1980) - By the eighties, blaxploitation had fallen out of favor, and when Black actors did appear in film, they were surrounded by Whites and White culture, and paired up with White actors in "buddy films". Horror films were no exception, and Black characters were reduced to sacrifices so their White friends could survive. An example of this is Dick Halloran, played by Scatman Crothers, in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining who is pointlessly killed while attempting to aid the film's White family. Even worse, Dick is also a "Magical Negro" a wise Black man with magical powers who exists only to help the White characters with their problems. Magical negroes arose from a misguided attempt by White writers and filmmakers to counter traditional racist tropes. Unfortunately, all this did is create new stereotypes.

The Thing

The Thing (1982) - In John Carpenter's The Thing, Keith David's character, Childs, shares many similarities to Ben from Night of the Living Dead. Instead of being a "scared negro" or self-sacrificing Black, both characters are distrustful, resourceful hot-heads who question the authority of the White men they're trapped with and live to the end of the film. But while Ben has only just met his fellow zombie survivors and has no reason to trust them, Childs has presumably worked alongside and lived with his colleagues for months, yet is still cold to them. The hostility amongst the group could be explained by both racial and class tension. By the end of the film, Childs and Kurt Russell's character, MacReady, are presumably the only two survivors and now on equal footing.

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) - Although The Serpent and the Rainbow does have a more accurate representation of Vodou than most movies (at least the ones not targeted to Black audiences), its portrayal of Haitians is hardly a step up from the jungle films of the 30s. Despite taking place in Haiti and centering around a Black religion, the protagonist is a White man named Dennis who plans to take "zombie powder" back to the States for a pharmaceutical company. Dennis is perfectly willing to appropriate a cultural practice for profit, which he has no intention of sharing with the Haitians who aid him, yet he's still cast as a hero. Throughout the film "evil" Haitians use Vodou to harass and threaten Dennis in an attempt to make him return home without the drug. 

People Under the Stairs

The People Under the Stairs (1991) - In the eighties, urban areas were portrayed as violent, drug stricken, impoverished, and largely inhabited by Black Americans, which led to White flight to wealthy suburbs and a new form of segregation. In Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs, a Black child from the ghetto becomes trapped in a suburban mansion belonging to a pair of serial killer slum lords. The incestuous couple, known only as Mom and Dad, are able to conceal their crimes and depravity because they are wealthy and White. Even when police are called to investigate the couple's home, they perform only a precursory search and leave without suspicion, never noticing the basement full of dead bodies and kidnapped, tortured children.

Candyman (1992) - Clive Barker's Candyman film was another movie that exploited fears of the inner city, combined with the threat of a supernatural killer like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. The Candyman, played by Tony Todd, was the vengeful spirit of a Black artist from the late 1800s who was tortured and lynched after falling in love with a White woman. Strangely, he chooses to prey on a poor, Black community rather than seek revenge on wealthy Whites like the ones who killed him. Unlike other Black monsters, Candyman was suave, sophisticated, and even sympathetic, but he still played on fears of the Black Boogeyman by lusting after the White female protagonist. Equally problematic, the White woman gets to be the film's hero, saving the poor, Black characters who literally turn to her as a saint and savior.

Tales from the Hood

Tales from the Hood (1995) - While the name of the anthology brings to mind the campy and often humorous TV series Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Hood is actually a sobering, social commentary in the same vein as other morality horror films about retribution. In a subversion of the Voodoo films from the thirties, zombies and Vodou are used as protection against the real monsters, racist politicians, corrupt cops, violent gangs, and abusers. While the movie does contain plenty of strange creatures and cheesy special effects, it's the real-world imagery that's truly frightening; a Black man getting violently beaten and murdered by cops while Billy Holiday's Strange Fruit plays hauntingly in the background, flashes of grainy photos showing lynchings, or a child cowering as his mother is beaten bloody by her boyfriend.

Beloved (1998) - Based on the Pulitzer prize book of the same name and boasting an all-star Black cast including Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, the Southern Gothic film Beloved was praised by critics and audiences alike, a rare feat for a horror film. Instead of relying on zombies or supernatural killers for cheap thrills, the movie's terror came from its uncompromising depiction of slavery and the painful legacy it leaves. Previously, Voodoo films had simply glossed over the cruelty that had brought Blacks to America and the Caribbean, preferring to further a colonial fantasy of Whites "civilizing" Africans.

Bones (2001) - Rap music has long been influenced by, and paid tribute to, horror from Will Smith's family friendly Nightmare on My Street in 1988 to the successful horrocore hip hop band Geto Boys in the 90's. Rappers, like Ice-T and Coolio, even began acting in horror films.[4] So it should come as no surprise that the music genre would eventually inspire horror. One of the few hip-hop horror movies to have a theatrical release was Snoop Dogg's Bones, directed by Ernest Dickerson of Juice fame. The movie was an homage to Blaxploitation films, and boasted Pam Grier as the love interest of Snoop's "gentleman pimp" character, Jimmy Bones.

Alien vs Predator

Alien vs Predator (2004) - Black women were beginning to appear more frequently in horror films, and not just as the Seventies sex pots or victims, but as surviving women who fought monsters. In Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, another Ernest Dickerson movie, Jada Pinkett defied audience expectations by not only surviving but becoming the movie's heroine despite pressure from the studio to cast a white actress as the "final girl." In the first crossover film of the Alien and Predator franchises Lex, played by Sanaa Lathan, is not only a "final girl," surviving attacks from both alien species, but a bad-ass action heroine. Lex becomes the first human in the Predator films to earn the honor of being marked as a warrior by a Predator after she helps him to kill three Xenomorphs, something not even Schwarzenegger could accomplish.

Bloodz vs Wolvez (2006) - The aughts would see the release of dozens of low-budget, direct-to-DVD hip hop horror movies. The films were aimed at younger audiences and often used postmodern spelling like Vampz or Cryptz.  In one such movie, Bloodz v. Wolvez a vampire king named Asiman is attempting to broker a peace between two rival gangs, the working class werewolves (Wolvez) and the wealthy vampires (Bloodz). The sophisticated vampires look down on the Wolvez while also envying their ability to walk in the daylight, while the werewolves view the Bloodz with contempt for assimilating with humanity and acting superior. But even with the all the wealth and power Asiman has acquired since escaping slavery centuries ago, he is still seen as "lesser" by Whites, as is highlighted when a White patron of the vampire king's club asks him to caddy for him in a golf game.

Attack the Block

Attack the Block (2011) - At first glance it appears that John Boyega's character in Attack the Block, Moses, will be a threatening "Black boogeyman" type character after he robs a White woman, or perhaps a Blaxploitation-style glamorized criminal. Instead, Moses is a complex, flawed character who cares deeply about his "block," is protective of his friends, and struggles with his anger and impulsiveness. A Black girl rightfully calls Moses out for robbing an unarmed woman, but also confronts his victim about her privilege and calling the police on Black teenagers. The two end up cooperating to defeat an alien attack that threatens their impoverished neighborhood.

The Girl with all the Gifts (2016) - The film takes place in a near-future dystopia where humans have been driven underground by a pathogenic fungus that turns people into zombies called "Hungries." A group of hybrid children, who crave living flesh like the Hungries but retain their human intelligence and emotions, are being used to create a cure. While Melanie, an especially intelligent and gifted hybrid child is initially happy to cooperate with the soldiers and scientists who hold her captive, she refuses to let herself be killed to develop a cure. While the older generation sees the hybrid children as monsters to be cured or controlled, Melanie realizes that she and the others are merely a new species, who have just as much right to live and thrive as humans. Like with Night of the Living Dead, the role of Melanie in The Girl with all the Gifts was not specifically written for a Black actor, it just so happened that Sennia Nanua had the best audition, but by casting a Black lead the film gained added social commentary.

Get Out

Get Out (2017) - Jordan Peele became the first Black person to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his groundbreaking Black horror film, Get Out. Rich with imagery, the movie centers around racism in America and Black fears, making subtle references to past and present atrocities such as slave auctions, medical experimentation on Black people, and police brutality. It also turns the "Black buck" trope on its head. The protagonist, Chris, is never portrayed as sexually aggressive. Instead, it's the sociopathic White woman who preys upon Black men by seducing them and hunts Chris down with a shotgun. This inversion of horror movie cliches is further underlined by the dead deer (aka Bucks) displayed around the White family's luxuriant home. The film also introduced audiences to "The Sunken Place," a literal pit of despair that leaves its victims trapped, silenced, and powerless, the perfect metaphor for the feeling of helplessness Black people experience living in a world where they're constantly oppressed and surrounded by racism[5].

The First Purge (2018) - The Purge franchise is about a near-future totalitarian America where once a year all crime, including murder, is legal for a 12-hour period. The First Purge, the prequel to the series, focuses on the initial experiment which eventually leads to a Nationwide Purge. With echoes of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, the detached, white scientists purposely target low income minorities for their unethical study. When the White men running the political party funding the purge sees that the Staten Island residents aren't killing each other like they'd hoped, they send in masked mercenaries dressed as Klansmen and Nazis to slaughter the poor to make their experiment seem successful. They even enter a Black church to slaughter everyone seeking shelter inside.

Us

Us (2019) - Jordan Peele's sophomore film was another critical and commercial success for the director, proving once again that Black stories can be just as loved and popular as White ones. Peele not only produced another unique horror film, but demonstrated that Black horror isn't limited to racial commentary. Black history and Black horror are inextricably linked, and many popular Black horror films like Get Out, Beloved, Tales from the Hood, etc. draw on the very real horrors of White supremacy to elicit terror from their audiences. In many ways, Black horror is a form of catharsis, vividly depicting Black pain but also showing its heroes fighting back and even defeating more tangible monsters. But limiting Black stories to tales of American racism and oppression can also be problematic. Us is still very much a Black narrative, steeped in Black culture, but without Whiteness defining the characters or story.

All the films on this list are available to own, rent and/or watch online with the exception of The Undertaker's Daughter, Shadowed by the Devil, and A Son of Satan which are, sadly, lost films. Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled can be viewed on YouTube, but is badly degraded.

References
1. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-lynching-america/
2. https://www.allmovie.com/movie/son-of-ingagi-v45617/review
3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1225699?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
4. http://www.blackhorrormovies.com/rappers/
5. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/get-out-what-black-america-knows-about-the-sunken_us_58c199f8e4b0c3276fb7824a