Horror movies and Stephen King have already done been crushed on, but as we head closer towards Halloween and wrapping this month up, I wanted to touch on a faction of horror that struck a chord with me for personal and obvious reasons and that’s Black folks in the genre. Whether they die first, make it to the end, or are there as a token of sorts – all of that and then some were discussed with Harvey Laguerre (Men Are The P.R.I.Z.E., and Love is Black) and Diandre Robinson (Mass-Debaters) on this week’s episode. So before we get into all of that, let’s talk about the first time I saw a girl like me in a horror movie; 1996’s ‘The Craft.’
Mind you, ‘The Craft’ came out when I was nine, and I was not partaking in scary things until after…probably ‘The Exorcist’ scared the bejeezus out of me and every other scary movie felt like child’s play (no pun intended) after. So ‘The Craft’ was one of the many perfect companions to settle down with as I strapped in for the long haul that was my adolescence, and there she was – Rochelle. A Black girl in a horror movie felt weird seeing as I hadn’t seen any in well, any others up until that point. Brandy wouldn’t appear in ‘I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” for two more years.
I’d like to say horror didn’t grab my attention as a kid because I felt underrepresented and that the genre as a whole up until the ‘90s felt like the whitest kids you know, but I just didn’t like to be spooked. However, I’m sure that was the case for at least a handful of people back in the day that felt like, yeah – these are awesome movies, but why aren’t people that look like me in them? Well, Keith David was in a couple before that, and I’m sure some others who didn’t fare as well as he did in ‘The Thing.’ Nonetheless, Rochelle was like a beacon of light for me, and it wasn’t about her being the representation I needed in a genre of film. However, the representation in other aspects tickled my heart.
“You act white”
The above is a line I had hurled at me more often than not growing up because of the way I talked and dressed, and because of the things I was into. Also, being mixed in the ‘90s and living with a white mother who had zero access to the internet’s resolutions on hair care, I struggled every single day until my mid-20s with my hair. I didn’t let mine flow free like Rochelle did in ‘The Craft,’ nor did I the big screen version of Marcia Brady shitting on my natural curls daily. What I had was just a bag of insecurities that my hair was not like all the other girls. Rochelle’s struggle with her bully over her race and hair, I felt that. Only the bully in my situation was myself.
Rochelle was also friends with a bunch of white girls, which was my existence in middle school. Not to mention I dressed like the most basic Hot Topic customer and listened to pop punk and emo throughout my teenage years. So yeah, I could see a lot of myself in this character and it’s one of the reasons I think I even kept ‘The Craft’ going that one day years ago when I’m sure it aired on some random channel over a weekend when I was home doing nothing but redecorating my room.
She was the token tossed into this cast, much like I felt in many situations following my initial viewing of this movie. That’s not something I brought up when I sat down with Harvey and Dre, but we did get into some pretty interesting things regarding Black folks in horror that is coming soon…
Crushgasm 