Get Out and African Americans in Horror Films

Film 1070
Devin Wilson
Spring 2017

(SPOILER ALERT.DUH)
 African Americans have had a rough run in films as far as big leads and movies

that are focused on a white audience. Most films that do include a black cast are

blaxploitation films in which is the exploitation of black people, especially with regard to

stereotyped roles in movies. (Webster) Blaxploitation films have their roots in the time

(1969-1976) when the rise for such films began. These films use popular stereotypes,

tropes and cliches which create a film culture that leaves out many groups of people.

These cases are incredibly prevalent for African Americans in Horror films. In this essay

I want to discuss the stereotypes and cliches used, go ever the history of blaxploitation

and how it has been used in horror films, and analyze the movie Get Out (2017) and

what it does to help change these standards. (hope you enjoy reading as much as I did

researching)

Black stereotypes, tropes, and clichs

"The black guys always dies first" A phrase that many of us are very familiar with

and with good reason! Black characters have been used as the "Token minority

characters" in films and horror films especially. These characters fill the role of having a

minority, but rarely have a major part in the film. Because of this filmmakers use them

more as plot points then as characters. "If the writers throw in a Token Minority to give

the cast more believable racial balance, who do you think is going to die first, them or

the folks who have a bigger role in the script? "( TV Tropes) "The black guy always dies

first" clich is one part of many that are reoccurring themes for minority and specifically

African American characters in horror films. This clich is prominent in most horror films

even resonating today. (As above so below, the decent, ect) This is clear in many

popular movies, Alien(19790 for one, as well as Jurassic Park showing black characters
that are taken out very quickly. ( NPR.) Jurassic Park (1993) Is a great example of the

next trope that I would like to discuss about African Americans in horror films, In

Jurassic park near the beginning there is a black security guard who is the first

character killed by the velociraptor. This trope is as Robin M Colman, A film critic and

racial studies researcher, puts it in the podcast The Horror, The Horror: "Get Out" And

The Place of Race in Scary Movies, "Tough black guy" trope. She describes it as

basically, white individuals are intimidated by a strong black man so an easy way to

make the baddie look even stronger is to have him kill the black guy. This happens in

(2005) Doom, when the strong African American is killed by one of the demons. This

leads to the last Clich/trope I wanted to discuss that Robin M Colmen Discusses in the

Podcast that has to do with this same theme of the African American dying at the

beginning of the film. Because they fall victim to the monster/killer at the beginning of

the film, this shows a sort of, as Colmen puts it Racial superiority and intellectual

superiority for the white protagonists over the fallen minority groups. ( NPR.)

There is a more recent clich that has appeared that falls to the same

discriminatory follies of the prior though attempts to be a moral high ground for these.

This one has its best example in the shining (1980) Where the character Durkin has the

link with the child Danny which they call the shining (Oh my gosh they said the name

of the movie in the movie clich) When Durkin comes to save the day he barely survives

more than a couple of seconds before being chopped down by the crazed Dad. Why?

Says Eric Deggans during the interview. ( NPR.) Well it seems that it is an easy plot

point. Most movies are directed to a young white audience who have more trouble

relating to minority characters. Using them as a noble sacrifice lets the filmmaker add
suspense to the movie, while feeling warm and fuzzy about the inclusion of their token

minority character. All together these casting techniques have been at the very least

somewhat harmful to the black community. So where did it start?

Squee comic(Vasquez)

Blaxploitation and African American's in horror films historically:

Blaxploitation has its roots back in the late 60s, but these issues of black

characters and actors being exposed to less than just roles as well as proportional parts

stretches way further back (TV Tropes) (Suprise early America was pretty racist). The

example used is a movie that was very popular in the early 20th century called Birth of

a nation (1915) This movie clearly potrayed members of the Klu Klux Klan performing

heroic deeds? What? Though this may not be a horror film in nature it most certainly

was for black Americans at the time. The movie even contains parts of a rapist chasing

a girl. The rapists character is...you guessed it! Black! ( NPR.) This movie by today's

standards is considered downright disturbing. So, what's the effect on modern

cinematography? This movie along with movies such as Swamp Monster (1966)

portrayed villains as black as well as monsters with attributes of African American

characteristics (Such as large eyes and lips) Which has continued a created this

negative stereotypes of minorities especially that of African Americans in film. ( NPR.)

We start to see a change in these characteristics during the blaxploitation era

which we can analyze the film Night of the Living Dead (1968) to see this. George

romero casts a black actor named Dwayne Jones as the protagonist in this film. Now

George claims that he did not do this on purpose, but that seems doubtful. The

interesting part of this film is that even though we have the hero as an african american

character the ending still is the same as most films of the time. The black hero doesnt

get to live. At the end of the film Dwayne's character is shot and graphically killed by

police officers (coincidence? And they say pop culture doesnt affect society!). So, even

when we have a black hero! They still dont get to make it to the end of the movie! What

gives Hollywood? ( NPR.)

"I'm the one black guy. Do you know how precarious that makes my situation?"

T-Dog, The Walking Dead (source)

This can easily be attributed to the movies of the past that we discussed and

ones like it that started these stereotypes. So, how is it changing? And why?

Get Out and today's changing standards of the black experience in horror films.
 Get out (99% Rotten Tomatoes, Curse you The national review) ( IMDb) fights

all of the tropes and cliches that we have discussed this far and strives to fight these.

Robin M Colemen says, it is so different because the director is not a white director

dictating how the black character will react in certain situations and what they are afraid

of! It hits home to a lot of people. But I wanted to represent the fact that what many

people may not understand is the fear that a black man has walking in a white suburb at

night is real. And I wanted to put the audience in that position so they could see it and

feel it. Jordan Peele Director of get out explains ( NPR.)

You can't make a horror movie with black people in it 'cuz the movie'd stop, you'd see n*****

runnin' down the street, the movie's over! ... That's the movie. You can't have a movie like that.

See, white people, you all sit on the toilet, see blood in the toilet, and you all go get Ajax.

~Eddie Murphy Saturday Night live S8 E9

In Get out The protagonist Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) ( IMDb) goes on a

trip with his white girlfriend out to meet her parents. He is concerned about whether the

parents know he is well, black! The Girlfriend calms him and they go visit when

everything seems normal at first, But then stuff becomes very strange. The

groundskeeper and maid seem very odd and a sinister plot of the family is revealed!

Jordan does an excellent Job portraying the protagonist with reasonable characteristics

for a horror movie. He doesnt fall for the dumb horror cliches we see in every film we

watch. The reason this movie does so well is because it offers to a non white audience

something that is scary. (first off we are all scared of meeting the girlfriend's family so

that makes it a good horror film in and of itself. The pulling in of the racial fears as

Jordan said himself really make the film strong for that audience. This movie truly
tackles the racially divide in film and more importantly the racial divide in horror film. We

are seeing a white family as the sinister force rather than a black man. (Blah Blah Blah

scream reverse racism all you want pansies) And not only does it do all of this and fight

stereotypes at the same time it is an excellent and critically acclaimed movie! Truly a

win for minorities in the film community. (At this point Peele should pay me for

advertising, huh)

Conclusion

In the end I think that it is great news to see the movie Get Out do so well and is

a step in the right direction to help with stereotypes of Blacks in horror films. The past in

pop culture has had a major effect on society and modern society for better or for

worse, and film makers like Jordan Peele can take up a torch in hopes to make some

good change! Thank you for reading!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Black Dude Dies First." TV Tropes. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2017.

"Blaxploitation." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 May 2017.

"Get Out (2017)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 04 May 2017.

Staff, NPR. "The Horror, The Horror: "Get Out" And The Place of Race in Scary Movies." NPR.

NPR, 23 Feb. 2017. Web. 04 May 2017.

Vasquez, Jhonen. Squee's wonderful big giant book of unspeakable horrors. San Jose, CA:

Slave Labor Graphics, 2013. Print.