racial roles in horror film

[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).