Black Horror Survivors: The Heroes and Heroines Who Beat the Odds!

Black Horror Final Girls

Jeryline- Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight 

Demons tend to have a habit of possessing women in movies since I guess they’re supposed to be easy targets or something. That’s definitely not the case with Jada Pinkett Smith’s Jeryline in the HBO original Demon Knight. In fact, when a demon comes knocking at the half-way home she’s living in, she quickly makes it clear that he came to the wrong house. Despite the demon tricking the other residents of the home into early graves, Jeryline remains steadfast and immune to his charms. By the end of the film, she not only survives her battle with one of the worst movie demons of all time, but is entrusted with the fate of all humankind as the protector of a sacred artifact. I think we’re all in safe hands thanks to Jeryline.    

Zoey Davis- Escape Room

Taylor Russell is one of the newest black horror survivors to appear on the big screen, appearing in the surprisingly fun Escape Room. In it, she plays Zoey, a college girl invited to try out a revolutionary new kind of escape room. What makes it so revolutionary? Well, if you don’t escape, you die. With the stakes raised, it quickly becomes clear that the evil masterminds behind these death traps greatly underestimated her intelligence. No matter how difficult the puzzles might seem, Zoey quickly puts together the clues and makes it from room to room before time runs out. Zoey earned my respect because if I was in her shoes, I probably would have started crying out of frustration. 

Selena- 28 Days Later… 

Surviving the zombie apocalypse is no easy task, but Naomi Harris’s Selena takes it all in stride. I’ve mentioned one or two other black horror characters that made it through zombie films on here, but they were facing the old shuffling kind of reanimated corpses, not the new and improved hyper-aggressive rage beasts from 28 Days Later. As England is slowly picked clean by the outbreak, Selena keeps her head above water with the help of a few other survivors. She’s as tough as they come and not afraid to get her hands dirty, making her one of the first people I’d pick to join my zombie apocalypse dream team.

Alexa Woods- Aliens vs Predator

I mentioned a few black horror heroes that managed to survive encounters with aliens, but none of them have anything on Sanaa Lathan’s Alexa Woods from AVP. She took one not one, but two of the most terrifying alien species in movie history. She’s such a badass that even a Predator wanted her on his team for the final battle against the dreaded xenomorphs, a fight which even the intergalactic big game hunter couldn’t make it through alive. Not only was Alexa one of the few movie characters to survive an encounter with them both, but she’s the only black woman to meet a Predator and live to talk about it (Danny Glover fought one in Predator 2). 

Maggie Bess- Thir13en Ghosts

Thir13en Ghosts is easily one of my favorite haunted house movies of all time, which made Rah Digga’s Maggie Bess a must-have for this list of black horror survivors. When her employer inherited a mansion from his estranged Uncle, he brought along his trusted nanny to help keep his kids from breaking everything in sight. It’s a good thing because it turns out that the house is inhabited by 13 of the scariest ghosts I’ve seen on the big screen, and he’s going to need a little help keeping his kids safe. Maggie steps up hugely and not only makes it out alive but drags the kids along with her. Give that nanny a raise!  

Karla Wilson- I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

When it comes to black horror characters, one character I kept running across was Brandy Norwood’s Karla Wilson from the masked killer flick, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Karla finds herself getting sucked into some serious white girl drama as her new BFF is pursued by a hook wielding, poncho clad psycho. Her character quickly falls into the killer’s crosshairs as he guts his way through the guest at an isolated island resort. However, Karla refuses to go down without a fight and, even more impressive, she decides to stand up to the killer. The girl’s got guts, which makes her one of the more impressive black horror survivors I’ve come across.

Lupita Nyong’o: Adelaide Wilson- Us and Miss Caroline- Little Monsters

Lupita Nyong’o is a rising star when it comes to black horror heroines. In 2019, she was the protagonist in Jordan Peele’s second feature film, Us, and took on her evil doppelganger in a fight to the death. As impressive as that was, it pales compared to her second feature film that year, Little Monsters. In it, she plays a ukulele strumming kindergarten teacher tasked with protecting her students from a horde of zombies. Anyone who has dealt with more than one 5-year-old at a time knows that just keeping them in one spot is difficult, so herding them through a zombie apocalypse is damn impressive. I hope Nyong’o sticks with the horror genre because she’s been killing it!

Special Case: McKayla Hooper- Tragedy Girls

Did McKayla Hooper (Alexandra Shipp) survive an encounter with a deadly serial killer? Yes. Was she an innocent victim? Well, not exactly. Tragedy Girls flips the horror trope of the final girl on its head as it follows a pair of high school girls who would KILL for a chance to become internet famous. When an actual serial killer comes to their sleep town, the girls plan to use his spree to reach social media stardom. This plan involves abducting the killer and starting a spree of their own that they can blame on him, allowing them to be one step ahead of the press when it comes to breaking news. McKayla does survive a horror movie, but she also happens to be a killer. Either way, I think she’s a black horror character that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition.

There are definitely a lot more black horror characters who survived their cinematic ordeals. Let me know who some of your favorites are out there in the comments below. As always, I’ll be updating the selection above as new and improved black horror protagonists fight their way to the end credits. So, be sure to stop back from time to time in order to see who else earns a spot.