Amazon Prime’s ‘Them’ is the latest in a horror renaissance reflecting the Black experience in America
This subgenre is flourishing at the moment, thanks to Jordan Peele’s movies, ‘Lovecraft Country,’ ‘Bad Hair,’ and more.
The idea that “the Black guy dies first” in horror movies is just a myth. It does memorably happen in films such as Jurassic Park, which is not a horror movie, and Scream 2, which is a metatextual commentary on horror movies, but not nearly as often as legend suggests. Unfortunately, that’s probably because far too many horror movies historically have either scrimped on Black characters altogether or saddled them with patronizing, voice-of-reason dialogue before unceremoniously offing them midmovie.