Halloween Movies: 'There's Someone Inside Your House,' And Other Horror Films To Stream This Weekend
Thanks to a boom in horror movies featuring Black leads in recent years; it would be easy to believe that seeing Black people in horror movies is a new phenomenon. From the updated Candyman, with Yahya-Abdul Mateen II, to the new Netflix flick There's Someone Inside Your House, it seems as if studios and audiences have just discovered that Black people love horror. But that's not the case at all.
"I like horror because it allows [filmmakers] to mess with the audience's mind, play games, and get super twisted," says Sydney Park, who in There's Someone Inside Your House plays Makani, a young woman doomed to fight a crazy killer when she goes to visit her grandmother in small-town Nebraska. "It's great having Black characters that don't die first, and in breaking down those barriers and stereotypes, people will see we're not checking a box, we're not filling a quota, we are people, and our stories matter."
Candyman (1992)
In a defining role for Tony Todd, this ‘90s classic follows what happens when a grad student, Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), goes on a quest to debunk an urban legend in Chicago about a spirit that appears in a mirror anytime someone says “Candyman” five times.
Equal parts slasher flick, supernatural horror, and a social commentary tale, Candyman had ‘90s kids shook—especially when some kid inevitably suggested saying “Candyman!” at sleepovers. Of course, the film was updated in 2021 by Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta, with Yahya-Abdul Mateen II in the lead. Still, nothing beats the original, even if the first version’s attempt at commentary on race and class don’t hold up as well today.
Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele’s directorial debut instantly catapulted him into Hollywood’s big leagues and for a good reason: this perfectly told thriller about a Black man (Chris Washington, played by Daniel Kaluuya) who goes to meet his white girlfriend’s parents for the first time got four Oscar nominations, winning Best Screenplay.
It’s paced expertly, makes subtle commentary, blends just enough comedy into the scares, and becomes an edge-of-your-seat nerve-wracking experience with a heroic ending. If there’s any such thing as a new-school horror masterpiece, this is it.
Blacula (1972)
This 18th-century movie is about an African prince (William Marshall) who’s turned into a vampire when he visits Transylvania. Blacula follows the anti-hero after he wakes up in a sealed coffin several lifetimes after his cursed event. A little cheesy now, sure, but that’s kind of the point: Blacula, directed by a Black director (Wiliam Craine), is one of the very first Blaxploitation films, responsible for a whole wave of films by Black filmmakers to come after.
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House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Taye Diggs leads a group of people who are offered $1 million if they go to a party in a former insane asylum (why, though?!) and make it through the night. Spoiler: the building is, you guessed it, haunted with all kinds of spooky spirits, and not everybody makes it out in one piece.
Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Jada Pinkett-Smith slays, literally, in this horror-comedy hybrid that was an offshoot of the Tales from the Crypt franchise on HBO. A powerful demon in human form named The Collector starts snatching bodies in it, and Pinkett-Smith, playing a convict on work release, basically becomes the chosen one tasked with taking this freak down.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Way ahead of its time for horror movies and, frankly, cinema as a whole, this black-and-white zombie flick is the first horror movie ever to cast a Black man in the lead. As Ben, Duane Jones is fantastic as he takes charge after a group of people in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse find themselves under attack by a gang of ghouls who’ve come back from the dead.
On HBO Max, Paramount +, Amazon Prime, Starz, and Hulu.
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