If you ask me, the best horror movies are the ones rooted in some sense of reality and provide thought-provoking, analogous (or even boldly straightforward) commentary on the true horrors of the world. As far as I am concerned, few films achieve these sort of nuanced nightmares quite as effectively as Black horror movies.
The subgenre has a long and fascinating history, from Duane Jones’ groundbreaking casting as the hero of Night of the Living Dead, to Jordan Peele’s transition from acclaimed comedian to horror auteur with Get Out, and beyond. The following are some of our picks for the best thrillers created by Black artists, led by a Black actor, or featuring a predominantly Black cast.
Nope (2022)
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun
What it's about: After discovering that a UFO is responsible for their missing horses, two siblings (played by Academy Award winner Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) try to capture evidence of the spacecraft.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: With his third directorial feature, Nope, Jordan Peele crafts one of the most unique and thought-provoking alien invasion movie plots in years and introduces one of the most frightening modern horror movie villains with a being referred to as Jean Jacket.
The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster (2023)
Director: Bomani J. Story
Starring: Laya DeLeon Hayes, Edem Atzu-Swanzy
What it's about: A gifted teenager named Vicaria discovers a way to reanimate the dead, using the body of her recently murdered older brother.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Also available with a Shudder subscription, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, is a captivating modern retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, elevated by powerful themes of the damaging effects of senseless violence.
How to watch The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
- Stream The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on AMC+
- Stream The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on Hulu
- Rent or buy The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on Amazon
- Buy The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster on Blu-ray on Amazon
Bones (2001)
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Starring: Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier
What it's about: Jimmy Bones returns from the dead 22 years after his murder to punish his killer and help his neighborhood.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Bones is a fun ghost story that is highly regarded today as a cult classic, especially for its impressive practical effects.
Def By Temptation (1990)
Director: James Bond III
Starring: James Bond III, Kadeem Hardison, Bill Nunn, Cynthia Bond, Samuel L. Jackson
What it's about: Three men team up to defeat a woman with dangerously alluring abilities.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Def by Temptation is one of the most underrated horror movies produced by Troma, which specializes in fun B-movies.
- Stream Def by Temptation on Amazon Prime
- Stream Def by Temptation on Tubi
- Stream Def by Temptation on Peacock
- Stream Def by Temptation on AMC+
- Buy Def by Temptation on Blu-ray Amazon
Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Director: Ernest Dickerson
Starring: William Sadler, Billy Zane, Jada Pinkett Smith
What it's about: A group of humans get caught up in a long duel between an immortal and an evil harbinger of chaos.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: While the main conflict is between Sadler and Zane’s characters, Jada Pinkett Smith’s Jeryline is the real hero of Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, which is the first feature-length spin-off from the classic horror anthology TV show.
How to watch Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
- Rent or buy Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight on Amazon
- Buy Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight on Blu-ray on Amazon
The Blackening (2023)
Director: Tim Story
Starring: Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Dewayne Perkins
What it's about: A Juneteenth reunion for a group of old friends is interrupted by the realization that there is a killer amongst them.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: This crowdpleaser is not just a hilarious send-up of tropes in Black horror movies but of Black culture in general, with some wonderful performances from the Blackening cast tie it all together.
- Stream The Blackening on Starz
- Rent or buy The Blackening on Amazon
- Buy The Blackening on Blu-ray on Amazon
Get Out (2017)
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams
A young, Black photographer learns that he was right to be anxious to meet his white girlfriend’s family in more horrifying ways than he could have imagined.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Comedy star Jordan Peele proved he also had a real knack for creeping us out while waking us up to modern-day racial tension with his stunning directorial debut, and one of the best Blumhouse horror movies yet, Get Out, which earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Us (2019)
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke
What it's about: A family's Santa Cruz vacation is interrupted by the violent appearance of another family that looks just like them.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: In his arguably scarier follow-up to Get Out, Jordan Peele takes on economic class disparity and the chilling concept of becoming your own worst enemy in Us, which deserved multiple Oscar nominations, including for Nyong’o’s arresting performance in dual roles.
Tales From The Hood (1995)
Director: Rusty Cundieff
Starring: Clarence Williams III, David Alan Grier
What it's about: An eccentric mortician entertains three guests seeking a drug deal with four chilling stories about his most infamous clientele.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the most definitive and poignant examples of Black horror and one of the best anthology horror movies ever made is Tales from the Hood.
How to watch Tales from the Hood
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Director: George A. Romero
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea
What it's about: A group of Pennsylvanians take refuge inside an old farmhouse to protect themselves from shuffling, flesh-eating corpses that have suddenly risen from their graves.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the very first horror movies to subtly comment on racial prejudice was Night of the Living Dead, which made history for introducing the modern zombie into the mainstream and featuring first Black actor to lead a horror movie.
How to watch Night of the Living Dead
- Stream Night of the Living Dead on Freevee on Amazon
- Stream Night of the Living Dead on Max
- Buy Night Of The Living Dead on Blu-ray on Amazon
Ganja And Hess (1973)
Director: Bill Gunn, Lawrence Jordan
Starring: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark
What it's about: Stabbed by an ancient, African artifact, an American anthropologist returns with a craving for blood and seduces his former partner’s wife into being the same deadly creature he has become.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Furthering his status as an iconic horror movie actor, Duane Jones starred in Ganja & Hess – an erotic and surreal vampire story unlike any other.
- Stream Ganja and Hess on Tubi
- Rent/buy Ganja And Hess on Amazon
- Buy Ganja And Hess on Blu-ray on Amazon
Candyman (1992)
Director: Bernard Rose
Starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd
What it's about: A grad student researching urban legends unwittingly summons a vengeful spirit feared by tenants of an impoverished Chicago housing project.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Tony Todd became a horror legend when he was cast as the title character of Candyman – a suspenseful adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden” that, like Nia DaCosta’s 2021 requel, boldly sheds light on topics like systemic racism and gentrification.
Blacula (1972)
Director: William Crain
Starring: William Marshall, Denise Nicholas
What it's about: Almost two centuries after he was transformed into a creature of the night by Count Dracula himself, an African prince is accidentally transported to Los Angeles where he pursues a woman he hopes to make into his vampire bride.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the first and only villainous Black horror movie characters was the title role of Blacula – a Blaxploitation-era take on the lore pioneered by Bram Stoker.
Blade (1998)
Director: Stephen Norrington
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff
What it's about: A half-mortal, half-vampire hybrid uses his unique gifts to hunt down pure, evil bloodsuckers.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of the first great Marvel movies before the MCU is the gory, action-packed thriller, Blade.
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Starring: Jurnee Smollett, Samuel L. Jackson
A young girl conspires to use mystical forces to punish her physician father for the hurt he has put her family through in 1962 Louisiana.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Candyman star Kasi Lemmons made her debut as a writer and director with Eve’s Bayou – a low-key horror classic that serves as a chilling tale of love, betrayal, and voodoo.
- Stream Eve's Bayou on Amazon Prime
- Stream Eve’s Bayou on Pluto TV
- Buy Eve’s Bayou on Blu-ray on Amazon
His House (2020)
Director: Remi Weekes
Starring: Some Disiru, Wunmi Mosaku
What it's about: Married, South Sudanese refugees, already having a difficult enough time adjusting to life in a London suburb, find themselves tormented by a malevolent spirit.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Mosaku and Disiru give beautiful performances in one of the best horror movies on Netflix, His House – an indelibly frightening, shocking hybrid of haunted house movies with graphic commentary on cultural integration, among other pressing themes.
Sweetheart (2019)
Director: J.D. Dillard
Starring: Kiersey Clemons
What it's about: After a devastating shipwreck leaves her stranded on a deserted island, a woman discovers she may not be alone.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: One of actor Kiersey Clemons’ best movies is Sweetheart – an underrated, Blumhouse-produced creature feature/survival thriller.
The People Under The Stairs (1991)
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Quintin Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Cobie
What it's about: A teenage boy becomes roped into a plot to rob his family’s landlords, only to learn that their home is a genuine death trap hiding many horrifying secrets.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Wes Craven brings us one of the most grounded and frighteningly plausible films of his career in The People Under the Stairs, which combines a narrative structure inspired by fairy tale lore with real-life themes of poverty and urban decay.
How to watch The People Under the Stairs
- Rent or buy The People Under The Stairs digitally on Amazon
- Buy The People Under The Stairs on Blu-ray on Amazon
Attack The Block (2011)
Director: Joe Cornish
Starring: John Boyega, Jodie Whitaker
What it's about: A teen street gang team up with an adult nurse to defend their neighborhood from an invasion of vicious, man-eating extraterrestrials in South London.
Why it is one of the best Black horror movies: Before the Star Wars movies made John Boyega a household name, he gave a stunning breakthrough lead performance in Attack the Block – a great horror-comedies with a sci-fi twist, heightened by its clever commentary on the classist roots of gang violence.
- Stream Attack the Block on Max
- Rent or buy Attack The Block on Amazon
- Buy Attack The Block on Blu-ray on Amazon
I cannot wait to see what upcoming horror movies from Black artists we can add to our collection next.
