racial roles in horror film

[fluffho]

to begin, no im not racist.

put aside the monsters (djinn, thing) , lets just say those are green

now flip to the news. what do you see? "alert. woman at stop sign is help up by a black man. man then steals her van, with her 2 boys inside. the man is 6'2...."

so for what.. 1 week they were lookin around for a black guy, every black man was a target. then what do you find out? that she parked the van on a ramp at the lake, let down the emergency brake and let the car roll down, her children strapped to their seats. not a black guy anywhere

yes, this woman planned it. was she sane? hell no. but why would she say black guy? if she had said it was a white man, would it have had the same effect? obviously she wanted to bring in another person to take the focus off of her. and it worked. now law enforcement were more knowledgeable, since the exact sign she had been talking about happened to be where one of the cruisers was watching, but the REST of the society listened to her

ok so anyway. look at horror killers. freddy, jason, leather face, hannibal etc... from the top of my head the majority of them have been white. the only black one i can think of is candy man, and for some reason i think predator is black but ?

do you think they bring race into factor? freddy could have just as easily been a mexican, asian, black man. jason as well.

candy man im not so familiar with, and im pretty sure his story was based in slave times so ok it fit that he was black

go on GOOGLE and type in 'serial killer' and look at the names. many of them have pictures. what are they? white. there is 1 japanese guy, a 3-4 black guys, 3-4 mexicans.. but otherwise white. the typical serial killer is a white man.

if you were out, who would u be more weary of.. the gangster white boy? or the gangster black boy?

could go on more, but ill wait for more input!

[Rotting Eye]

I think it's just Hollywood not wanting to cast black actors. There aren't even many black actors out there, and I'd say even less of Asians, Mexicans, etc... I mean there's Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Cuba Gooding Jr., and even then, Denzel is the biggest out of all three.

What was the big controversy a couple years ago? Denzel Washington being the first black actor to win a Grammy or whatever the hell it was... For Best Actor. Then followed Halle Berry for Best Actress. And that was only a couple of years ago!

I mean, there's always the token black guy in movies, that's a.. comiedian, not a serious role. Even token Asians are appearing now, say in American Pie, and that stupid SAT movie that's coming up. Making the Grade or some stupid shit like that. The MTV movie.

I'm not racist either, by any means, but this is how America stands. They're not used to seeing people of color as leading roles.

Just my two cents!

[bwind22]

if you were out, who would u be more weary of.. the gangster white boy? or the gangster black boy?


since the 'gangster' white kid is probably just a wannabe, id be less scared of him. on the other hand, if the white dude was some lurking serial killer raving lunatic type, then I might fear him more.

[Rotting Eye]

i

[fluffho]

"if the white dude was some lurking serial killer raving lunatic type, then I might fear him more."

but how would u know? gasey, who raped and killed a buncha boys and buried them under his house, was a party clown. now granted a lot of peopl dont like clowns, but ive been to several parties and had them blow me up some balloons.

why are they called serial killers? because they killed 2 or more people. and they were able to because they blended in. a lot of them are business men. some other guy, a lot less known than gasey, ramirez, and dahmer, who killed prostitutes, was a baker. no one ever suspected him

another question. we are quick to point out that the majority of inmates in jail are black, usually around 68%, but always seems like a lot more than that. but most of these, lets say 10-15 years, are in for assault, robbery, or priors. the ones that are lifers usually have killed 1 person, normally in a fight or perhaps spousal issues (ive known a few guys who have walked in on their wives cheating, and told me that they really wanted to kill her). but when it comes to the guy who killed people because of the way their hair looked, and then gutted them and ate their oragans and freeze dried their testicles... its always a white dude

as for tokens, i wonder why they even bother putting in the random asian,black, or mexican. but then again films are nothing different than tv, 5-6 white people with 1-2 minorities. black guy is always funny and a pimp (species II he wanted to hook up with the alien).

why is there no all black horror film? well ok blacula but forget that. does it take a black director and producer to produce one? i live in san diego and i see ALL kinds of people, yet when you watch a movie its pretty much only white people

[donniedarko3]

its already a proven fact that the majority of serial killers are caucasian and have a voting history of voting republican.
Michael Moore already covered all this in the movie "Bowling for Columbine".

[fluffho]

the question is why

[Dr.Kelvinstein]

Because Michael Myers created the archetype of a white, Midwestern kid as the slasher, and for the other slasher archetype, the inbred southern redneck as created by TCM, a black killer doesn't work for obvious social reasons. Besides, there have been plenty of black killers in blaxpoitation horror movies.

[Rotting Eye]

So are you saying that Hollywood doesn't want to portay blacks as serial killers, out of fear that they would be accused of racism?

[StepfatherFan]

Hey, this is a good thread, fluff. I was thinking about doing one about this, but was afraid that I would get yelled at AGAIN, for yet another controversial subject. LOL I don't need any more heat on my ass at the moment. Anyway, I totaly agree with you on everything you said. There have been more black horror films besides Blackula though. Remember Tales from the hood, People under the stairs and Bones? There are several more, but I cant remember the titles. Oh, Blade. It wasn't an all black movie however, but it had a black leading character. Same goes with Spawn. I kind of feel like African-Americans are starting to be more involved in horror films today, more than ever before. With Hip-Hoppers such as Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg making appearences in horror flicks, it wont be long before we start to see a good deal of black films emerging into the genre. I only wish 2Pac was still alive because I think he would have been awsome in a scary movie.

[mudsliptones]

there are more white actors then black actors in hollywood, although, nowadays there allot of black ones, but back then you know
maybe thats why

[Haunted]

In the early eighties there was a serial killer in Georgia. His target was African American children, and incidentally, the killer was African American. I'd be interested to see if anyone knows his name.

I wonder what the audition statistics are for horror films....

[Vodstok]

A few corrections:

Dahmer worked in a chocolate factory (wasnt a baker) and killed people he picked up in bars (not prostitutes).

Typically, blacks are arrested for "vanilla" crimes. The criminals that are black are usually from inner city environment, had a rough childhood, had no other options, etc etc. The fact is that most inmates come from cities, and the inner city is where most of them are from. you have a higher percentage of minorities in those areas (sorry if that term bothers anyone), and blacks are the most populous one in america.

They arent "Predisposed" to it, I would be willing to bet that the percentages we see are almost purely environmental.

However, white men seem to have more of a predisposition toward this kind of thing. Look at the worst imaginable crimes, and the largest percantage of people committing the worldwide are white american males. We have more serial killers, rapists and pedophiles.

It makes you wonder what the fuck is wrong with us.

At the same time, i have done a lot of research into screenwriting because ultimatley i would like to make movies for a living. Most of the people out there writing screenplays, are white men. People write what they are comfortable with, and most white men are comfortable with white men as main characters, good or bad.

Ever see any mostly black sci-fi movies? Nope. But there arent a whole lot of black guys out there writing sci-fi.

hell, i was amazed when i saw the director of 8 mile. He was "average white dude number 56". But he did a pretty damn good job. Obviously, exceptions exist.

Candyman is the only black "bad guy" i am aware of.

The predator was "black", as it were. The guy in the costume was Kevin peter Hall, who was also Harry from harry and the hendersons. He's just a BIG dude.

On the same note, the guy who played the original alien was a tall scrawny black guy. i guiess the hint here is if you want a classic monster movie, hire a tall black guy to play the monster. :)

I, for one, am quite content with the white guys being the psychos. it fits. Let the black guys be the heroes. I admit i get a little tired of knowing the black guy is toast from the beginning. Even as far back as "Attack of the killer shrews" the black guy was doomed. Look at Terminator 2. Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Ressurection, predator, Night of the living dead, and Ghost Ship. What chance do they have?


Now look at Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Virtuosity, Predator 2. The black guys live. and it didnt hurt the movie. I'm not sure ewhat i'm getting at here, i was interrupted too many times while typing it..... But i felt like pointing that out.

[MACHETEBIG1]

UMM IM A CRAZY WHITE KID AND ILL SLAUGHTER YOU THEN MOLEST YO UR SOLES AND LISTEN TO BIGGIE WHILE DOIN IT
AND MY WEAPON OF CHOICE WOULD BE A GLOCK 38
THAS THE SHIT BUT FLUFFHO DOES HAVE A REASONABLE POINT

[Rotting Eye]

k

[fluffho]

hey

SFF this is a good thread. i wasnt worried about gettin yelled at by bringin this topic, but i wasnt surprised that its not getting so many replies.. everyone is too busy deciding on the best horror poster battles and such.

VOD, i know everything about dahmer. the baker who kiled prostitutes was someone else. some guy with a really bad stutter. i cant remember his name, but what happened was he'd pick up prpostitutes, but couldnt get hard. to make it worse, he had a stutter. women made fun of him, he finally went crazy. u get the idea

isnt it weird too almost how destiny falls in? i mean with dahmer, his first potential victim was this jogger that came by some road everymorning. well the day dahmer was going to kill him, the guy was sick and never showed up. and the guy was probably pissed off that day that he was sick! like think about all those people that called in sick to work on 9/11..... aNYWAY

no i dont mind the crazy white guy and the black guy being the hero. although i havent seen to many black guy heroes! well glover kicked ass in whatever predator that was. but i dont nkow horror movies as well as u all do.

and it does make me wonder.. many people whine about all the black peopel in the streets, abuot how we're giving black people in jail all these benefits, tv, housing, food for free. how they cant go out at nigh because of the black people. yet look at the ones eatin eyes and killin babies and stuff. its all white guys! i really really wonder why.

i also wonder why the psychos in horror films are white. i mean, they could just as easily have made hannibal, jason or whoever black. im wondering if theyre afraid to, as in they would get a backlash?

like in 'cabin fever' saw that for free (sneak preview) ugh what a waste. well its all white people, and they go to that random store. the head guy points out 'whats the rifle for'
the owner (old white guy ) says 'oh thats for the niggers'

now this was in a more city place, a mall where we call it sort of 'ghetto', so many mexicans and black peple were there. there was a sort of light boo in the audience when that happened. so blah the movie went on, then in the end black people walk into the store, everyone starts wondering. then the white guy goes 'wassup my nigga' and then everyone laughs

why would they put that? i mean i think it was funny but i wanna kow what the point was. actually theres a LOT about that movie that i didnt understand. someone PLEASE tell me wtf pancakes was all about!

now heres one i might get beat up about. i watcha lot of BET comic view, well whenever i can. they always make jokes about horror movies. the joke always goes something like this
'you know how white peope always get killed in thos movies? they're sitting at home, and outside they hear 'chi chi chichi ah ah aha h' so what do they do??? 'hey.. whats that, let me go out alone, in the dark basement, and check it out!'
but us black people.. what do we do? WE gET the hELL OUT OF THERE"

the only exception to that was in species II, i think. where the aliaen lays her eggs in the train. then the train lady, who si black, says 'whats that' and starts going up to it. now i started yelling 'thats not true. no black woman wold ever do that they'd run the hell out' now if it was a white person, i woulda expected them to go up to it, poke it, lol. i dunno..

and NO im not trying to offend people! but i dunno i guess theres just thing some races do that others do

did anyone see the hip hop witch? i think that was more a comedy though than horror

[coldwhisper]

Whew... That was a long piece to read...:)

[nightbreed]

hmmm...
i think most black actors (like most actors in general) look for more validating roles than those offered in horror films. im mean lets be honest kids, the roles we see in horror films arent really all that, and its a known fact that a good amount of actors avoid the genre.

on top of this our genre hasnt been very kind to minorities. i mean really the whole "token black dude dies in the first 20 minutes" joke is around for a reason, because it was true. I feel that alot of minority actors cuaght onto this and it left a bad taste in their mouth.

i also tend to agree that one of the main reasons we dont see very many african american roles in horror is that the main body of horror writers is composed of caucasians, and any writer will tell you that they can only write what they know. they put a little bit of themselves in every role.

fuck its late and im going to bed.


but ill tell you that one of my alltime favorite actors/roles was morgan freeman as agent summerset in se7en. to me this the pinnacle. a well written role carried out by an amazing actor, i think if black actors can find more intelligent roles in holly wood well start seeing more leads.

[Vodstok]

Who doesnt love morgan freeman? The man is awesome.


I like Denzel, too. He brings a little something to every role. I liked Fallen a lot (although i think it was the first power repackaged. But That one had a hispanic lead :))

[Haunted]

And Latinos are the largest minority in the US at this point.;) The statistics have only just changed within the last five years.

You guys brought up Fallen, which I think, is a great example of a horror film that features not only a minority as the lead, but also a fuckin' great actor despite it. Denzel carried a big name to that film. The same is true with Seven.

I can't remember which of you said it, but I totally agree: A lot of big ta-do stars aren't going audition for a horror film. They DON'T carry the weight. The Haunting being the obvious exception, and they were all white.

However, we now have Halle Berry in Gothika (if you even want to register that piece of shit film).

This subject is interesting to me because I'm part Cherokee. (And don't even get me started on Native Americans in film...period).

[StepfatherFan]

Originally posted by nightbreed
but ill tell you that one of my alltime favorite actors/roles was morgan freeman as agent summerset in se7en. to me this the pinnacle. a well written role carried out by an amazing actor, i think if black actors can find more intelligent roles in holly wood well start seeing more leads.

Oh man, I TOTALY agree. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors too. He definatly deserves more attention than he gets. Maybe its just me, but I feel that every black actor must stand in the shadow of Denzel, and that bothers me. Sure, he's a good actor, but I don't think he is spectacular. I think Morgan Freeman is better. He's REAL. Denzel has this unemotional, stone-cold face which fails to convey a reasonable amount of emotion. I don't feel that he should have won the Oscar for Training Day because it was not even his best work. Malcolm X was by far the best performance of his career and he should have won Best Actor for that. He really shined in that one, but I haven't seen him dish one out like that since. Another black actor, whom I feel could be great if given better roles is Forrest Whittaker. And hey, "the eye" works to his advantage, not his disadvantage. Once again, as with Morgan Freeman, he looks real; and that helps boost believability. Denzel looks like a black Ken doll. I really have no use for cookie-cutter people. I like individuality, and Morgan Freeman and Forrest Whittaker are prime examples of that.

[Delfino]

I wrote a treatment for a film not so long ago which revolved around a black serial killer, i can't remember much of the details, all I can remember was the setting, Birmingham in the UK.

An the character wasn't like a typical psycho like Miggs from The Silence Of The Lambs, he is more refined like Hannibal Lector (MD).

I think one of my friends is writing the screen play for it now actually, I'll try to get a scene or two to post on the forum.

[fluffho]

morgan rocks!! he even made brucey almighty worth watching! but lets not go into THAT monstrosity

i think you have a point (insert name here, im too lazy to scan down to the name) about actors picking their roles. the big names, morgan and denzel arent going to waste their time with the majority of horror films. se7en was awesome though, and i never got to see fallen. i do wonder though about all these 'aspiring' actors/actresses. theya re poppin out everywhere, but are always white! is it because the white ones are willing to do ANYTHING. is it the minorities that mayve want to have a bit more pride in what they choose

see, when my mom is home, all she watches is lifetime. actually, its on right now. these are some of the most horrible movies i've ever seen, and i have seen PLENTY! not only HORRIBLE story lines, but PATHETIC acting!! but ive noticed it al white people. i mean what is it, they just want a job and are willing to do anything?

and honestly, halle berry aint all shes cracked up to be. look at the films shes starred in, xmen.. x2? monstersball is the one that made her big, i mean she did a great job, but hey it was about a black chick and racism so of course they were going to need her. now she thinks shes bad ass and demands $25mil a film (jump from about 12) because she won an oscar... so ur telling me she was payed $25 for x2? $25 for gothika? are u kidding me? im sorry but i really dont like her. i wish the woulda cast someone else as Storm though. to me, storm is african. and halle is more black than african. some of u may not understand that but i do!!

morgan and denzel however rock. however i must say i like morgan a lot more. i think part of denzels fame is his looks. i mean i personally dont find him very attractive but a LOT do.

haunted, i see where ur coming from. i am filipina, do oi see any of those on tv? hehe. i mean who do i have, Lucy Lui. shes like chinese. i mean i have a great grandma that is chinese but who cares. all lucy ever did was that horrible Ecks vs 7 movie, and charlies angels! cant we do better? and the main reason why people like her so much, is just cuz shes exotic. but honestly, can she act?

look at jennifer lopez... her fame began at selena. and why did she get the part? because she LOOKED like her. did i tihnk she did a good job? sure. but hey it was a good story, ...... as good as a biography can get anyway. i mean she dies in the end. but look at the rest of her movies, the snake one, cell, GIGLI!!

you know what she said one day about gweneth paltrow? "can you rememeber any of the films she's been in? i can't. i'm an actress. i know acting because it is what i do"

sometimes i want to be famous just so that i could be the first asian. only im gonna work my ass off, rather then just have people kissing my ass and telling me how great i am. majority of these actors, white as well but i ESPECIALLY notice it with minority actors, need lesssons. its as if 'oh your a minority. we need u. ur great just because ur a minority' the only thing im worried about though is people flocking to me and calling me their goddess cuz honestly i dot get along with asians. i could get into that more LOL but uhh i gotta go now!!!

[Vodstok]

Actually, Chow Yun Fat has done pretty well over here, as has Michelle Yeow. Say what you may about their typical films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ws awesome and they both did an excellent job.

[fluffho]

well yes they have had their share of movies, but well compared to what?

they've been in crouching tiger.. michelle was in rush hour 2, chow was in that stupid movie with whats his face

croushing tiger being the only decent one, .. the others were LAME

[Sam The Egg]

Dude, Sydney Poitier was the first black actor to win best actor, Denzel was the second.

Worst thing that ever happened to black actors: Rappers.

[fluffho]

lol sam

which brings me back to the point i made earlier.. ass kissing!!
just cuz their already famous they know how to do everything

and no one wants to tell them the truth, so they end up lookin like idiots on film....

acting lessons are cheap man

[Madman]

Originally posted by Sam The Egg


Worst thing that ever happened to black actors: Rappers.
couldnt agree more.

[Rotting Eye]

Are there any famous Eskimos? Or Indians? Or even Asians, but they always play the part of an Asian (like the karate man).

There's no arguing that most roles are predominately played by white actors.

[nightbreed]

Originally posted by StepfatherFan
Oh man, I TOTALY agree. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors too. He definatly deserves more attention than he gets. Maybe its just me, but I feel that every black actor must stand in the shadow of Denzel, and that bothers me. Sure, he's a good actor, but I don't think he is spectacular. I think Morgan Freeman is better. He's REAL. Denzel has this unemotional, stone-cold face which fails to convey a reasonable amount of emotion. I don't feel that he should have won the Oscar for Training Day because it was not even his best work. Malcolm X was by far the best performance of his career and he should have won Best Actor for that. He really shined in that one, but I haven't seen him dish one out like that since. Another black actor, whom I feel could be great if given better roles is Forrest Whittaker. And hey, "the eye" works to his advantage, not his disadvantage. Once again, as with Morgan Freeman, he looks real; and that helps boost believability. Denzel looks like a black Ken doll. I really have no use for cookie-cutter people. I like individuality, and Morgan Freeman and Forrest Whittaker are prime examples of that.

i also love forest whittaker. he has a subtlety about him that is undeniable.

[fluffho]

movies are always 5 white people with 1 black person and 1 mexi or asian person

why dont they switch it around

like that stupid real world show. its always a buncha white people and the outcast black dude

i say we put 6 black people in that house and 1 white person. that would make for a great season