2024/05/27 by Lucy Bailey · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Cinema and Media Studies #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #South Asian Cinema and Culture
paper · doi:10.1080/14680777.2024.2358098
openalex publication_date 2024/05/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Recently, there has been in uptick in Black horror in the horror genre, such as Jordan Peele’s Get Out, US, or HBO’s Lovecraft Country. Despite the recent growth of Black horror, many horror films continue depend on film technologies that contribute to oppression. The necropolitics of the horror genre is apparent as most horror films fail their Black characterss—often brutalizing or silencing them and using the screen to reify a life of suffering and death. I argue that horror can serve as a visual representation of white supremacist values and creates models of Blackness that perpetuate stereotypes and necropolitical control. The white monster, or the monstrous white, cannot allow the Black body to continue or, at least, not in an untouched state. Thus, recreating controlling images that contribute to viewers’ understanding and perception of the world around them. Using various staples of the horror genre, from the last 30 years, I will show how certain horror technologies function to oppress Black sexuality, survival, and hope by reinscribing suffering in an onscreen, affective, mimesis that is so widespread it has become almost inescapable within the genre.