Black Horror Survivors: The Heroes and Heroines Who Beat the Odds!
Celebrating Black Horror Characters that Lived to See the End Credits!
The horror genre is filled with tropes, cliches, and unspoken (yet oddly well known) rules. One of the worst of which is that black horror characters always die first. That’s why I’ve pulled together some examples of black horror survivors that beat the odds and lived to see the credits roll. I’m definitely not trying to disprove the trope and, if anything, these are exceptions that prove the rule. In doing my research, I found that there have been quite a few characters that made it out the other side of horror movies alive. So, I’m not going to even attempt to list all the black horror survivors that I came across. Instead, I’ll be trying to list a few lesser-known and more unique characters I’ve seen in horror flicks over the years, as well as some of the usual suspects (I didn’t want to just pick the same examples that are in all the other articles). Rest assured that this list will represent both black men and women who managed to live through horror films, and I’ve separated them into their respective categories. With the rise of representation in one of my favorite genres, I’m hoping that we’ll see a lot more black characters like these on the big screen. For now though, check out this collection of the few, the proud, the indomitable black horror survivors that refused to go down without a fight!
Black Horror Final Guys
Chris Washington- Get Out
Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) has to be the most recognizable black horror hero of all time, thanks to the incredible critical and box office reception received by Jordan Peele’s Get Out. The film is a not-so-subtle response to the ignorant notion that President Obama meant we were living in a post-racial America. That’s why Peele pitted Chris against the most unsuspecting villains in all of horrordom, a wealthy, NPR-listening, “I would have voted for Obama a third time if I could have” spouting, affluent, liberal family. Don’t go thinking that the Armitage family are a bunch of snowflakes because they’re easily one of the most terrifying horror movie families of all time. The fact that Chris managed to get away is damn impressive.
Childs- The Thing (1982)
Sometimes it’s less about being a “hero” and more about just surviving in horror movies. There’s no shame in that though. After all, characters like Kieth David’s Childs from John Carpenter’s The Thing, have to go against some pretty terrifying creatures. Technically, the ending of The Thing is a little ambiguous, but I think to think both he and the alien stomping MacReady survived, at least until the credits started rolling. After that, there’s no telling how they made it out of Antarctica alive. That’s a problem for an inevitable sequel to figure out. For now, let’s give Childs a round of applause for being one of the first major black horror movie survivors.
Eddie Baker- House on Haunted Hill (1999)
It’s been my experience that usually only white people are dumb enough to mess around with haunted houses in horror movies. That doesn’t stop them from dragging a few black characters along with them though, and they’re usually the first to insist on leaving and the first to die. That’s not the case with Taye Diggs’s Eddie Baker in the House on Haunted Hill remake. He’s drawn into a contest where he stands to win $1 million if he can stay the entire night in a notoriously haunted house. Not only does Eddie earn his paycheck over the course of the film, but gets a nice bonus since he’s one of the few contestants that actually makes it out alive.
Moses- Attack the Block
Before he was taking on the First Order in a galaxy far, far away, John Boyega was fighting off an alien invasion in South London. Science fiction and horror often go hand in hand, but leave it to director Edgar Wright to mix in some comedy for that little extra bit of “oomph” that helped launch Boyega’s career. Not only did Moses actually survive the invasion, he took it upon himself to actually fight back against the evil extraterrestrials for the sake of protecting his block and the ones he loved. He might want you to think he’s a big, tough gangster (he is a gang leader), but Moses is more like a gruff knight in shining armor.
Poindexter “Fool” Williams- The People Under the Stairs
I want to take a moment to give John Carpenter a shout-out for being a director who didn’t just put black actors in filler roles to be used as cannon fodder against villains in his films. Some argue that The People Under the Stairs is one of the quintessential black horror movies of all time, despite Carpenter being as white as Michael Myers’ mask. More importantly, Brandon Adams’ “Fool” was a black teenager, a rarity when it came to movie protagonists even in the early 90s. Fool faced off against a pair of deprived slumlords who took interior design tips for H. H. Holmes and lived to tell the tale, making him a shoo-in for the black horror hall of fame.
Ken Foree: Peter-Dawn of the Dead and Benny- Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
When it comes to black horror heroes, Ken Foree is a bit of a legend. I would argue that his character Peter was one of the first black horror movie survivors in Dawn of the Dead back in 1978 (George A. Romero was a director ahead of his time). Surviving once wasn’t enough for Foree though, and he returned to the big screen to face off against the murderous, cannibal, butcher Leatherface in the 3rd Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Both Peter and Benny were characters determined to keep fighting for survival until the bitter end, no matter how impossible the odds might have seemed. Since then Foree has appeared in several other horror films, but his survival rate plummeted significantly.
LL Cool J: Ronny- Preacher- Deep Blue Sea, Halloween H2O, and Gabe Jensen- Mindhunters
When it comes to black horror survivors, LL Cool J is the undisputed king. First, he squared off against the iconic big-screen slasher Michael Myers and lived to tell the tale. Of course, he wasn’t the only black horror character (or rapper) to take on Mike, and four years later Busta Rhymes showed Myers just how strong his kung-fu was and survived Halloween: Resurrection. In 1999, LL Cool J took on murderous sharks in one of my favorite popcorn flicks, Deep Blue Sea. This time he was following in the footsteps of another rapper (Ice Cube) who defeated another kind of cold-blooded killer animal in Anaconda. Finally, he faced off against a mysterious serial killer hunting FBI profilers in Mindhunters (an underrated film in my book). LL Cool J had such a good run in horror movies, I’m hoping he’ll return to the genre in the future to secure his legacy as one of the best black horror movie heroes of all time.
Special Case: Blade- The Blade Trilogy
Sometimes survival isn’t enough. While most black horror characters are hoping not to be offered up as sacrifices to villains, Blade was proving to the stuff of nightmares for the villains in his films. Marvel’s iconic vampire slayer was not only one of the first black superheroes to get his own solo film, but he had a rated-R film before Logan or Deadpool ever appeared in theaters. Wesley Snipes helped pave the way for the resurgence of comic book movies that came with the new millennium. While Blade might not be what comes to mind when you think of a horror movie survivor, he’s beaten down more than enough monsters to earn a shout-out. Here’s hoping the new Blade is just as much of a badass.