There’s something in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s…does it matter? This is the question that horror aficionado, Jordan Peele, asks the audience in his latest sci-fi/horror installment, NOPE aka Not Of Planet Earth. The two-hour and eleven-minute movie centers around brother and sister OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer). After the mysterious death of their beloved father, Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David), the Haywood siblings are left with the impossible responsibility of keeping up their family business – Haywood’s Hollywood Horses. After witnessing what they believe is a UAP [ Unexplained Ariel Phonmonon] OJ and Emerald make a plan to capture the object in what they describe as an “Oprah Shot” meaning a clip of the object so good it will certainly capture them an interview with the media mogul herself. In short, if Haywoods can get the money shot of this “alien” they can pay back the farm’s debt and restore the family’s name to fame. Sounds easy in theory, right? Well, this wouldn’t be a true Peele film if that were the case. 

Without revealing the rest of the plot, things quickly go south as the Haywood siblings try to achieve their goal. At the same time, we’re introduced to the B story following a former child-star turned amusement park owner, Ricky “Jupe” Park, played perfectly by the engaging as hell Steven Yuen. The film actually opens with a haunting scene involving a chimp, Gordy,  which we later find out ties into Jupe’s story. We see this history unfold in a series of flashbacks, which in my opinion, is the strongest storyline in this film. I could have watched two more hours about what happened to Gordy – which isn’t exactly what you want in a movie centered on aliens. But the Gordy connection is important to the overall theme of NOPE – the dangers of society’s obsession with spectacles. This theme is threaded throughout the film, especially in this Gordy chapter. We, the audience, are riveted by danger, disaster, and despair. The more gruesome the better. We consume it, package it, and then sell it for money. The alien that the Haywoods are trying to capture on film is a spectacle – something they can make money from. Gordy’s deadly history is a spectacle, something Jupe’s still making money from. Where is the line between morbid curiosity and exploitation? That’s what Peele wants to know. 

Overall, I think NOPE is a huge swing with a brilliant undercurrent of theme, heart, and terror. The first two acts as a whole are very strong. Peele takes his time to set our table, introducing us to a group of versatile characters that we immediately care about. In particular, Palmer stands out as just so damn likable. It’s easy to root for her and she brings a much-needed lightness to the story. Another performance highlight is newcomer, Brandon Perea, who plays Fry’s techie, Angel Torres. If you’re a Burbank native you’ll remember Fry’s Electronics as the mega store with – you guessed it – a giant UFO on its roof. Brilliant. Sadly, Fry’s shut down during the pandemic, which seems to be an unfortunate and ironic metaphor for NOPE’s third act. 

This is where the film unravels for me, just like Peele’s last horror effort 2019’s US. Look, third acts are hard! I get it. But there’s something frustrating about watching two hours of setup just not deliver in the end. Mixed with some odd editing decisions, the last act of NOPE is overstuffed with confusing action that leaves this very strong ensemble cast essentially separated for the rest of the movie. If there’s one thing I noticed about Peele it’s this – he sets up the rules of his world, but quite often doesn’t follow them. For example, in this film, whenever the alien is around all electronics shut down. It happens numerous times in the first two acts, but suddenly in the third act, it only happens in a certain radius or only applies to certain electronics. Sometimes the cars won’t start at all and sometimes they have just enough juice to play a creepy slowed-down version of Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night.” Why? I have no idea. 

The other area of the film that didn’t quite land with me is the actual visual of the alien. I don’t wish to speculate about what happened here, nor do I intend to rag on the special effects artists, but the reveal of the alien both felt too early and too late. In a very Jaws-eque move, the alien also becomes bigger by the end of the film – but not in the way you would think. The actual design of the creature resembles more of a parachute than an alien animal, a fact that was quickly (somehow) discovered by OJ early in act two. It’s such a minute critique on my end, but as a horror fan, something I can’t ignore. Also, the design of the creature reminded me of another alien film that, frankly, does it better, 2017’s Life. Outside of that, what I will say is that NOPE is Peele’s greatest achievement technically. The cinematography is insanely gorgeous and the score is perfection. My only wish is that the story itself matched the visuals on screen. 
In the end, I definitely want to see NOPE again. What I love about seeing a Peele film is peeling back the layers behind them. It can take up to five or six watches to find all the hidden easter eggs. I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing an all-Gordy horror prequel either. For a B story, it’s still the chapter that sticks out to me the most when thinking back on the film and provided the most horror. Overall, NOPE is a seven out of ten. A huge swing, with great performances, expert technicality, and a pretty darn fun movie. With three features under his belt, it’s safe to say Jordan Peele isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and thank God for that!

• By sadesellers
• In Guest Blog
• 0 comments

      Now that American Horror Story Red Tide is wrapped up, and we all are searching for something to keep our minds off the train wreck that was Death Valley. I would like to propose an alternate for how Red Tide should have gone. As of now Red Tide Is it decent Horror Story about the dangers of the pursuit of greatness, or some contrived pretentious ******** like that. Now of course you’re reading this on Afro horror so you can probably guess but I’m about to propose some black ****, And as the great prophet OG Maco one said “***** you guessed it!”. Though I’m not just proposing make the main character black, I am asking for something a bit more interesting. Red tide should have been lowkey the Tyler Perry story.

    In AHS:Red Tide we see the story of the Gardner’s, a lovely white family that is shaken to their core when the father Harry ( Finn Wittrock) is given a pill to unlock his talent but as with all American horror stories the price talent is too high for the entire family. Not to say that this wasn’t a good story but let’s be honest this is just limitless with vampires. Yes, the black version would still be limitless with vampires, but it would also have a meatier subplot due to the switch. When Harry is given the pills, he is apprehensive at first because he truly believes he doesn’t need them. The sell to a Black creator would be much more harrowing, not only would they have to consider the ultimate price of taking the pill, but they would also have to think about what that pill symbolizes for them. Right now, it just is a gateway to fame but with a Black creator it becomes a key into the White creative space. Watching a character come to terms with their humanity is cute but imagine if they were worried about their humanity and the fear of losing their culture as well.

Naturally the next storyline we look at is the wife, but since they decided to sideline her I guess we will too; moving on to the daughter then. Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is a violin prodigy who takes the pill to help with a seemingly hard piece of music, which at the moment is giving “I took Adderall to help me study” vibes. While I found Ryan to be great in the role I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to watch a young black child deciding to take the pill. Not just so they can finally play harder pieces but because they know that without that pill they might just end up another un-noticed Black musician because they don’t play societally acceptable music for a black musician. Feeling the sadness of them accepting the price of the pill because they have watched their talented father struggle in a similar way.

Finally we get to the Mother, which seems messed up but hey that’s how they decided to do her in the series. Doris (Lilly Rabe) is sadly given the chore of stumbling around confused and worried that A) Things aren’t going well for her business, and B) Things aren’t going well at home. Lily is such a great actress it’s lowkey a crime the way they played her this go around. Steamrolling past how they set her up to be a non-talented shrew whose fate is sealed because she just wanted a connection with her family. (who said all that) Anywhozzle, Now there are two ways we could go here we could keep her white and the story becomes about the White wife of a Black creator watching them lose their humanity and culture while skyrocketing to fame, or if we make her Black it’s the same but now with the added element of “will this ungrateful negro leave me for a white girl”. Just sayin we got options BABY!

Baby! 

Oh no it seems that in my ranting I have forgotten all about the baby. I haven’t. Switching up the family just allows the Chemist (Angelica Ross) to move in the world easier with a black baby so there are no questions to slow her mission down. I know that was a lot to throw out there especially for a seemingly decent season of AHS but let’s face it, it could have been better. Also knowing how Ryan Murphy operates, It could have been much worse. If you have any other ideas to add, or think that I missed something important out of this drop a comment below. And please if you find yourself reading this and you start to feel a bit uncomfortable just remember :

Former Artist, Current Deviant Timothy Rush. Twitter: @timmyvendetta | Insta:@vendetta234

• By Timothy Rush
• In Guest Blog
• 0 comments

By RJ Joseph 

The inimitable Toni Morrison told us to write the stories we want to see. I’ve seen a whole, whole lot of horror films in my half-century on this side of existence. While there’s nothing new under the sun, there’s definitely a plethora of lenses through which we could offer horror to provide fresh takes on tropes that are growing stale from the overkill of homogenous viewpoints. Alas, my beloved genre loves its same old sameness…

Photo credit: KnowYourMeme.com

To be given the chance to unleash the pent-up horror creativity fed for years by some excellent—most, mediocre (and a few, downright shameful)—horror filmmaking in the past four decades…what a fantasy! Please, indulge a colored girl in this play-pretending, and let’s go to the movies to imagine:

1. An anthology format, feature film with a Black, female emcee of an ambiguous religious background who ushers characters from four short stories into various interpretations of the afterlife. Tales from The Hood meets This Is Where You Fuc**ed Up.
2. A feature film where a middle-aged Black woman collects ghosts in the furniture she uses to decorate her huge, fancy house. She traps the spirits to protect them from fading into forgotten oblivion and if she stops, she will face the same malevolent entity, The Voider, she protects them from. [Insert any one of the various haunted museums in The Universe here] meets Decorating in the ‘Hood and Protecting the Ancestors. 
3. A children’s animated series where a Black girl with cerebral palsy can see and command ghosts and teams up with them to solve mysteries. Scooby-Doo meets Black Girls Are Magic (phrase coined by Cashawn Thompson).
4. A coming-of-age feature film about a group of five, inner city pre-teens who wonder about the story the mysterious Whistling Woman who lives in a lavish home outside the city center but visits the homes in their ‘hood for meals and entertainment. She is treated with reverence by their families, in hopes that she doesn’t begin to whistle inside their homes and ring in the death of a loved one. The truth they discover is more terrifying than her mere domestic visitations. It meets Let Black Kids Be Kids and Have Coming-of-Age Stories.
5. A television series centered on the experiences of a Black, lesbian vampire couple that describes their origins in antebellum United States, their fight against slavery during the Civil War, the strategies they used to work towards eliminating Jim Crow, and how they continue to advance civil rights in current times. Interview with a Vampire meets Let Black Folks Be Vampires before Y’all Decide to Cancel the Bloodsuckers.

Photo credit: Keep Calm O’matic

See how fun those would be from perspectives we don’t often get to see on screen in fully developed lives and stories? And they’re just on the fly, right off the top of my head. I’m full of horror movie stories and scripts (I saved the REALLY stellar ones in my portfolio—can’t give away all my good-good in public!). 

Industry professionals, holler at your girl. Let’s make some movies!

R.J. Joseph is a Texas-based Bram Stoker Award™ nominated writer who writes academically about and creatively within the horror genre. You can most often find her on Twitter, @rjacksonjoseph, and (after November 1, 2021) on her newly minted, teenager-created website at www.rhondajacksonjoseph.com.

• By rhondajacksongarcia
• In Guest Blog
• 0 comments

By Timothy Rush

I’m not sure if it’s the over use of summer camps or the lack of any school time antics, but summertime feels like slasher season. Let’s be honest no one wants to be running for their lives in the snow nor during the upswing of Black History month. So with that in mind the Season of the Slasher is upon us and I think it’s time we try to figure out what a wholly Afro Summer Slasher looks like. From possible locations, to possible killers, even down to possible survivors. Let’s take some time to imagine what a black slasher could be.

Heavyweights (1995) while not being a Horror film for most of you thin kids this childhood thriller always raised one big question for me. How rich were Kenan’s parents? I only ask because I truly never thought black people went to sleep away camps. With that idea being a foreign notion to me the Camp setting just doesn’t sit right with the Spirit of this Black Slasher. Leaving me to think of black exclusive summer settings like The Cookout. The Cookout being one of the most sacred of functions held in the summer is a perfect setting for a Summer Slasher. Being one of the few functions to take place outside and that can last all night, the cookout provides many opportunities for some excellent kills. Plus you actually have a believable reason for Black Folks to be out in nature. The next thing that comes to mind when I think of my “Black summer experience” is destination family reunions. Whether it be Atlanta, Orlando, or even New York I can still remember the long chartered bus rides with too many family members for my comfort. Then without fail once we get to our destination the weekend becomes a flurry of scheduled activities and multiple family meals allowing for multiple fun set pieces for familial slaughter. 

May I just take a moment to reconcile the fact that my life is at a place where I have typed the words “ Familial Slaughter” at 10 AM on a Monday morning.  Moving along, my final suggestion for our Soul Slasher setting (Sorry) is the classic Beach Party. Am I thinking of what  I used to see on B.E.T during Freaknik as a child, Possibly. Might I also be calling to the wild days of Memorial Day weekend on South Beach? Yes, the answer is YES! For years the trope of the all white beach horror has existed and I think it’s time it’s done right. In the immortal words of King Kendrick “ I’m so fuckin’ sick and tired of the Photoshop ,Show me somethin’ natural like afro on Richard Pryor.”

Now that we have some places for bodies to be hidden and discovered as a distraction, We need to talk about Killers. I guess not just killers but what kind of people usually become killers in a slasher film. Traditionally it seems to be either a bullied kid, or the parent of a bullied kid, or a kid harmed from lack of care, or the parent of a kid harmed from lack of care. (SOCIAL COMMENTARY?) I guess to break the chain slightly we could consider what type of people Kill the vibes within the spaces mentioned for our film. Not to start with the obvious but any unvetted, questionably invited or unannounced white person is getting all of the looks when sussing out a killer. Even before the bodies start piling up we need to know why are you here, who are you with, and why do you have a plate?  No matter what the answers to those questions are, this character is not to be trusted until proven not guilty ( never innocent though!). Stepping away from the colonizer to a normal interloper, we have the ex that’s still cool with the family. They spent time as your cousin’s partner for a few years and even though they aren’t an item and haven’t been for some time now they still show up to functions and you never really know why.Their love died years ago, they are either here trying to win Auntie Dana’s heart or they are here for revenge. Moving ever closer within our last suspect is that one family member everyone knows to look out for. We all know that member of the family that can’t be left alone in your Grandmother’s House let alone the kids. (Yikes!) Sometimes it be like that though. 

These are starting to look like very lived in and well thought out universes for our Slasher film. Which means many will survive and many will die, but who will steal everyone’s heart as the Favorite Survivor? All of the aforementioned backdrops for our summer slaughter-land are all made better by that one cousin that has the GAS. Without fail there is the one member of the family that will eventually ask you if you wanna “take a walk” with them. They are universally liked and are usually a great source of positivity and Magical Stoner Survivability. They always come out on top so defeating a Summer Psycho is no problem. Someone who can be a stark difference from that cousin is the Former Athlete in the family. Reaching as far back as to their high school glory days , college defeats, and even some semi-pro big shots they always remember when. They usually can turn anything into a competition and are the only people keeping score. Sometimes clunky and boring within the group dynamic, they offer us the chance to see someone do something physically amazing to defeat the enemy. I’m thinking Gymnastics Vs Raptor kinda awesomeness ( Hey Simone!). Last but definitely not least we have the Disgruntled Elder, This can be an uncle who is proverbially “Too old for this shit!”, Or an auntie who is “ So damn sick and tired” of all this mess. I know it seems like a weird choice but I feel like this is how we can make up for how wrong they did Alfre Woodard in Annabelle. 

As the thud of the killer’s body is heard by our surviving party, we come to the end of our Summer Slasher. We screamed, we ran, we immediately were sus of that white guest. However you decide to mix and match them, these are just a few ideas to think about while making your plate at the cookout and wondering if you could get away with turning the function into your own blood stained wonderland. If you have any other ideas to add, or think that I missed something important out of this drop a comment below. And please if you find yourself reading this and you start to feel a bit uncomfortable just remember :

Former Artist, Current Deviant Timothy Rush. Twitter: @timmyvendetta | Insta:@vendetta234

• By Timothy Rush
• In Guest Blog
• 0 comments

By Jada Slyvest

The first scary movie I ever saw was Child’s Play. I remember waking up from an evening nap on my step-father’s couch as an adolescent. I rubbed my eyes, & immediately heard a woman yelling at a kid’s doll. Then, before I could sit up on the couch, the doll yelled at her, cursed at her, and bit her- hard! I was probably five or six (much too young to watch a scary movie), so I did what anyone of that age would do. I started crying & ran outside, while barefoot, onto the gravel road in front of our trailer in search of my mom.

“It’s just a movie! Chucky isn’t real! It’s for fun, people like to get scared for fun. Like a rollercoaster.” 

Much like a roller coaster, over the years Horror and I have had our ups and downs. It’s sad & frustrating not seeing yourself represented on TV. Then, if & when you finally are, you’re the first to die. The first to be sacrificed. Even made to be the bad guy despite having the least amount of screentime. I first started paying attention to my relationship with Horror when I was young and enthusiastically watched the Scary Movie series by the Wayans Brothers. Playing on the many horror tropes proved to be a slashing success (albeit most of their jokes relying on bigotry & stereotypes don’t hold up). That series taught me something valuable; Horror and comedy go hand-in-hand. Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of nervous laughter? But even in these movies, the white protagonists are centered. What I wouldn’t give to have a movie focusing on Brenda, one of the main Black characters on screen! These movies don’t withstand the test of time, but I like to think nostalgia paints a pretty picture in my mind. 

I can remember seeing The Lazarus Effect in 2015. I was sixteen years old and a huge Donald Glover fan. I liked his comedy, I liked his music, and now he was going to be in a scary movie?! I was so excited! I was even going to the theatre to see the film, something I was always too poor to do until my Great Uncle took me in a year prior. I remember making jokes on my blog about how Mr. Glover was the only Black person in the film and if he died first I would walk out of the theatre. I thought, “Surely, in the year 2015, they wouldn’t kill the Black man first? Especially not a Black man who’s outspoken against racism in everything he’s done!” If you’ve already seen The Lazarus Effect I’m sure you sighed knowingly a few sentences ago. My jokes were suddenly in bad taste. The movie wasn’t fun anymore. 

I’m now 22 years old at the time of writing this. Horror is much, much older than me. It was only recently in my life that I discovered Blaxploitation films, with further inquiry  within those films the sub-genre of Black Horror made, directed, and produced by Black Horror fans for Black Horror fans. Scream Blacula, Scream (1973). Blackenstein (1973). Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976) . Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984). Def by Temptation (1990). The list goes on! I was happy to learn that Horror was in fact a genre for everybody, and racism wasn’t going to put a cap on collective Black creativity. It’s sad that not every Black Horror movie gets the screen time or praise it may deserve. It’s sad I didn’t hear about these movies until I found myself in my late teens and early twenties. For some reason Hollywood only likes to see Black People in pain. I found that apparent after Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) broke the box office and now, years later, people are still trying to use his film as a blueprint and attempting to catch lightning in a bottle, all while trying to tell a simple truth every Black person already knows: White people can be scary. The idea of more white villains committing hate crimes and torturing Black main characters became thrilling to white America. In universes where we can transcend the rules of life and death, use magic, and fight supernatural monsters I always found it sad we couldn’t transcend racism. 

My relationship with Horror is complicated.

• By jadasylvest
• In Guest Blog
• 0 comments

By Brittney Perkins

Spoilers for Doctor Sleep and Bird Box 

While trying to pick from the endless horror theme streaming through my mind, I couldn’t think of anything to write, and my mind went to all the worst possible scenarios. Then like a well-aimed baseball bat named Lucille, a thought struck me. Why is it that when you read a horror novel, you hate the movie? There are numerous reasons, but the ones I want to talk about are the visuals. The visuals you conjure within your mind when you give life to a scene as it unfolds. The way you visualize the hair-raising struggles and how these visuals, when brought to your local movie theater or streamed on your favorite electronic device, more often than naught leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

A good example would be Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep. I want to preface that I am a fan of the 2017 adaptation from writer and director Mike Flanagan. The mental imagery of the battle between Rose the Hat and Abra (the filing cabinet scene) is phenomenal. From ‘seeing’ Abra on the bike, the alarms, and then the jousting duel between them had me drawn in. Although the movie showed us the flesh on Rose the Hat’s hand being peeled off like a boiled tomato, the rest of the scene can be described as leaving much to be desired for those with the book’s imagery stored in their mental archives. 

The ending of the cultural phenomenon that is Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box” would be another case. At the conclusion of the film, Malorie, Girl, and Boy have finally reached a sanctuary where they can live safely within their community. As they walk into the School for the Blind, they pass the smiling faces of the community members as they take in all of the beautiful sights. However, Josh Malerman’s book takes it to another level. When the trio finally makes it to the sanctuary, Malorie discovers the facility’s gruesome past of consensually blinding to have “absolute protection” and the complexity of choosing to remain and reside within a “safer” location. So, when comparing the two, you have the “that’s it” look stamped on your face as you finish the film that completely ignores an arguably necessary part of the story.

Transferring these novels into the physical world, using film/television as the vehicle for avid book readers is like cutting on the lights to brighten a dark room. We see that it’s not as bad as we imagined, the figures that terrorized our minds have become tangible, and there is no need to fear this version. Budgets, runtimes, and writer/directing differences give the film constraints that the mind doesn’t have. Movies must focus on creating a film that is appealing to general audiences and cannot financially sustain creating all the complex imagery bound within the spine of its source material. The novels freed from these restraints allow for our minds to interpret the events under the umbrella of our own perception creating the sometimes-haunting imagery that scares us, lingering in our mind like the faded outline of a burn. While movies must focus on creating a film that is appealing to the general audience 

I would argue this is the same logic as to why scenes in horror where the kills happen off-screen, and all we can hear are someone’s dying screams, the wet sounds of a blade, and the distinct crunch of bones breaking that terrify some of us the most. It’s all because our imagination and the potential possibilities our mind dutifully creates for us are terrifying, and films can’t match the personal terrors that each person’s mind has crafted.

• By brittnayperkins
• In Guest Blog
• 0 comments

By: Haley Powell

(Contains spoilers for Ready or Not, Midsommar, and The Witch)

With genres always evolving, different tropes are constantly defining new decades of cinema. The last decade or so has seen many new approaches to well known archetypes and plot devices, and especially in the age of social media, more and more people are becoming able to voice their film opinions online. Inevitably, this has led to the use of memes not only for jokes, but also to describe subgenres of film.

“Good for Her” began as a quote from actress Jessica Walter on the show Arrested Development, which was turned into a gif that has become a popular response on social media sites. The original scene consists of an offscreen voice that says, “Claiming she could take it no more, the young mother released the emergency brake, allowing her car to roll backwards into the nearby lake,” (Arrested Development) to which Walter’s character replies, “Good for her!” The gif is used in countless contexts, but recently and predominantly in reference to women of horror or thriller movies. “Good for her” is not only the name of at least two hundred letterboxd lists, but it has also grown into its own subgenre of films.

But since the growing popularity of the phrase, there has been constant disagreements on social media over what technically qualifies a film for the phrase. Is “good for her” just a joke taken out of context, or a serious display of how viewers can misinterpret a film’s central themes? Ready or Not, Knives Out, and The Invisible Man, are some of the most common examples of “good for her” films, but many feel that the inclusion of movies like Gone Girl, Midsommar, and The Witch, where the female lead makes increasingly morally gray decisions as the film progresses, go against the basic meaning of “good for her.” 

Ready or Not is one of the more widely accepted “good for her” examples. The film’s lead bravely and consistently defends herself against attackers and ends the film victorious against her enemies. With only a small portion of any of the bloodshed her own personal doing, and all of it done in self defense, she gets revenge against her lying husband by surviving his family’s attacks which in turn triggers the curse that kills them instantly. This leaves the protagonist as a virtually completely innocent victor that the audience can happily root for.

A “good for her” example that is less widely accepted is the popular horror film Midsommar. Depending on your perspective the movie may seem like an odd contender for the trope, considering the movie ends with the female lead joining an evil cult that’s responsible for her friends’ horrific deaths; but others defend protagonist Dani’s placement amongst the other “good for her” leads. She ends the film as May queen. She’s finally able to express her emotions in a cathartic way after the death of her family. She gets “revenge” on her abusive boyfriend by allowing the cult to sacrifice him. With these factors, one could argue that Dani ends the film in a more powerful position than she starts. Though she is no longer our morally pure protagonist, Dani outlives her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend and finds a new family in her fellow cult members. 

The Witch is another intriguing example of this. At the film’s end, lead Thomasin becomes a part of the evil she was threatened by in the beginning; the evil she was wrongly accused of being involved with the entire time- but in doing this she escapes her controlling and abusive family. Obviously, nothing about her dead family is “good” no matter the circumstances, but one could argue that Thomasin’s joining of the coven shows her finally escaping the unhappiness and persecution that she felt before. After all that’s happened, Thomasin ends the film not only free from further judgement or accusations, but able to live “deliciously” and presumably go on to join the other witches in torturing settler families. Though this makes her a villain and shows that Thomasin has lost her original morality, this wouldn’t necessarily disqualify her from “good for her” status in the eyes of many horror fans who enjoy and appreciate more morally gray characters.

Horror in particular is a genre known for its villains. Characters like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees are praised as the stars of slasher movies without much need to discuss the objective despicableness of their actions. No one has to specify that their appreciation of those characters are in purely a fictional way; we all know that slaughtering camp counselors and babysitters is something not meant to extend into real life. But does this same idea apply to the cult of Midsommar, the coven of The Witch? Or are Dani and Thomasin excluded from “good for her” because we must specify that evil cults are, of course, bad and not exhibitors of behavior that should be emulated in real life/

 Is there a difference between appreciating the brutal work of Mr. Krueger, and feeling satisfied that a woman has survived deadly circumstances and ended the movie more powerful than they’d ever been? Are these characters critiqued differently because they’re women, or because they begin the story as morally pure protagonists?

Is “good for her” literal, and meant to only be used in morally black and white situations? These questions all come back to what you think “good for her” means, and whether or not you know that the context of the original quote is in reference to a woman driving into a lake. 

REFERENCES

Feig, Paul, dir. “Arrested Development.” Arrested Development. Fox. 19 Sept. 2005. Television.

• By haleypowell
• In Guest Blog
• 2 comments

*spoilers and TW: mentions of sexual violence and discussion surrounding it

The world of horror is wildly vast and exciting. From all the sub-genres and a plethora of movies that rattle our brains as fans, there’s always something new to learn about horror. It’s still an under-appreciated genre and quite frankly mocked by the haters. Though we know the truth: Horror is queer and political by nature. Meaning horror often covers the hard topics directly, such as sexual violence. 

Now, rape and revenge horror isn’t for everybody. And there’s nothing wrong with needing to avoid that kind of body horror. But what’s strange to do is tell survivors of sexual violence that we shouldn’t watch those films. That somehow it’s glorifying that type of violence. When it’s usually quite the opposite, meaning it’s empowering to see the survivor get revenge. Horror has managed to give survivors that empowerment. Whereas other genres don’t always get it right. A recent example is Promising Young Woman (2021), which didn’t handle the subject matter properly. And instead centered the trauma of a straight white woman, who consistently put herself in dangerous situations on purpose,  and wasn’t even the survivor of sexual violence. 
Though even with empowerment comes the possibility of being triggered. And many rape and revenge horror is triggering for viewers. Such as films like the original I Spit on Your Grave (1978) or the remakes that came long after it, American Mary (2012), or The Perfection (2018). Then there are the rape and revenge films where the victims aren’t the ones seeking revenge. Controversial horror like The Last House on the Left (1972) or even the 2009 remake (which features an even more gruesome rape scene). In the original there’s no survival for the victims, they are brutalized and murdered. Whereas the remake is still brutal but one of the victims manages to survive. Resulting in the same outcome as the original – her parents seek revenge for her.

The concept of taking back control and reclaiming your body after it’s been violated is a radical act. It’s powerful to experience and to witness in horror. While returned violence is seen as not justifiable to people who have cookie cutter ideals – it’s certainly satisfying to some. I Spit On Your Grave (1978) is a perfect example of someone, a woman in this instance, who reclaims her body. And she uses that power to destroy those who took from her in the first place. It’s a graphic horror movie, but it displays how explicitly political horror tends to be. There’s not a lot of subtext in this movie because it’s direct with its intention.

Unfortunately rape revenge usually is written off as too controversial. Sometimes even banned because of the content (occasionally that’s a good thing as there’s a line between glorification and otherwise). The Last on the Left (1972), written and directed by the iconic Wes Craven, could be seen as too horrific and tragic. Which of course it is tragic and gruesome, but it’s also the otherside to rape and revenge horror. Victims don’t always make it to the end of the film. It’s something that makes people ask: why watch rape and revenge horror that has no payoff? That question can’t be answered the same for everyone. For myself it’s an unfortunate reminder of those who don’t survive. And maybe understanding that truth is just as important.

Vanessa Maki horror fan, writer, and Afro Horror contributor.

• By vanessamaki
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