Antebellum is a 2020 American black horror thriller film written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz in their feature directorial debuts. The film stars Janelle MonĂ¡e, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, and Gabourey Sidibe, and follows a 21st century African-American woman who wakes to find herself mysteriously in a Southern slave plantation from which she must escape.
Theatrical release poster
Black horror is a horror subgenre that focuses on African-American characters and narratives. It is largely a film genre. Black horror typically, but not always, has Black creators. It often has social and political commentary and compares racism and other lived experiences of Black Americans to common horror themes and tropes. Early entries in the genre include the 1940 Spencer Williams Jr. film Son of Ingagi and the 1968 George Romero horror film Night of the Living Dead, which is considered one of the first Black horror films for having the Black actor Duane Jones in its lead role. Blaxploitation horror films of the 1970s, namely Blacula (1972), and the vampire film Ganja & Hess (1973) became prominent examples of Black horror films in the 1970s. Other Black horror films appeared during the 1990s, notably the 1992 Bernard Rose film Candyman and the 1995 anthology film Tales from the Hood, which was directed by Rusty Cundieff and has been described as the "godfather of Black horror".
Tananarive Due (pictured), a University of California, Los Angeles professor and Black horror historian, has defined the genre of Black horror as "star[ring] black protagonists to tell a black story"
The 1940 film Son of Ingagi, written by Spencer Williams Jr. (pictured), has been described as one of the first Black horror films for its all-Black cast and fleshed out Black characters.
Duane Jones as he appears in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Get Out (2017), the directorial debut of Jordan Peele (pictured), is often credited with widely popularizing Black horror