Overview

From King Kong to Candyman, the boundary-pushing genre of horror film has always been a site for provocative explorations of race in American popular culture. This book offers a comprehensive chronological survey of Black horror from the 1890s to present day. In this second edition, Robin R. Means Coleman expands upon the history of notable characterizations of Blackness in horror cinema, with new chapters spanning the 1960s, 2000s, and 2010s to the present, and examines key levels of Black participation on screen and behind the camera. The book addresses a full range of Black horror films, including mainstream Hollywood fare, art-house films, Blaxploitation films, and US hip-hop culture-inspired Nollywood films. This edition also explores the resurgence of the Black horror genre in the last decade, examining the success of Jordan Peele's films Get Out and Us, smaller independent films such as The House Invictus, and Nia DaCosta's sequel to Candyman. Means Coleman argues that horror offers a unique representational space for Black people to challenge negative or racist portrayals, and to portray greater diversity within the concept of Blackness itself. This book is essential listening for anyone seeking to understand how fears and anxieties about race and race relations are made manifest, and often challenged, on the silver screen.

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Robin R. Means Coleman is vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion, chief diversity officer, and Ida B. Wells and Ferdinand Barnett Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. Her books include African Americans and the Black Situation Comedy: Situating Racial Humor, and the edited collection Say It Loud! African Americans, Media and Identity, along with the coedited volume Fight the Power! The Spike Lee Reader and the coauthored Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life. Her documentary Horror Noire won the 2020 Rondo Hatton Award for Best Documentary and the 2019 FearNyc Trailblazer Award. Julienne Irons loves all things true crime but has a knack for creating fun voices, which makes her a great choice for children's books and adult novels. It's always fun for her to figure out where characters fit into the stories she gets to tell. She loves getting lost on adventures in inspiring riveting literary fiction, especially when the protagonist is either a woman or the story seeks to bring a voice to the voiceless. She's worked with the amazing Viola Davis on How to Get Away with Murder, Rob Lowe on Lone Star 911, and Nathan Fillion on The Rookie, and a number of other TV shows. With training from Tisch School of the Arts and various prestigious acting studios, she can bring any story to life with love and passion and truly enjoys the work she's so honored to create.

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