Get Out director Jordan Peele is one of the many interviewees in a new documentary covering the history of black creators and characters in horror films. Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror will discuss the way that black people have been represented in genre films and black filmmakers use of horror to dissect social issues.
The documentary is based on a book of the same name and features interviews with directors and cast members from classics like Tales from the Hood and Dawn of the Dead. The doc was executive produced by Noire author Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Fangoria editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr., and UCLA educator Tananarive Due.
“After I saw Oscar winner Jordan Peele’s Get Out, I created a UCLA class around Black Horror called 'The Sunken Place,'” Due said in a statement. “The text I recommended was Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to the Present. So I was so thrilled to help bring this story to life on the screen. Horror Noire is about the history of black horror films, but it’s also a testament to the power of representation and how horror is such a visceral way to fight racial trauma: our real pain and fear, but from a safer distance — while we get stronger.”
Coleman explained the way that horror has always been used to teach lessons about our larger culture.
“The horror genre is daring, unflinching pedagogy,” Coleman said. “It is like a syllabus of our social, political, and racial world. The horror film is fascinating if for no other reason than that it prides itself on snuggling up next to the taboo, while confounding our sense of good and evil, the monstrous and divine, and the sacred and profane. It is one of the most intrepid of entertainment forms in its scrutiny of our humanity and our foibles. It is my sincere hope that Horror Noire will spark fierce debate and trigger even more exacting, nuanced explorations into the power of horror.”
The film will begin streaming on Shudder on Feb. 7 after special screenings in New York and Los Angeles.
Peele has been on an incredible streak over the past three years. In addition to Get Out, Peele has been working on a Twilight Zone reboot and another horror film called Us. The latter will open the film portion of this year's South by Southwest on March 8. Consequently, Universal has also announced that Us' wide release has been pushed back to March 22.
