ABSTRACT
Chapter 8, “Black Is Back! Retribution and the Urban Terrain: 1990s,” hails the return of “Black horror” films defined by the reintroduction of autonomous Black subjectivity, and the recognition of resilient, empowered characters—they represent the new race films. This chapter describes how Blackness is once again displayed as whole and full, diverse and complex, and therefore seen in horror roles and situations that have been largely elusive for Blacks over the decades. Black horror films in the 1990s also offered a unique reversal of racial majority/minority roles. If whites were presented at all, they were the ones seen in the role of sidekick or as incompetent, comic relief. During the 1990s, particularly in “Black horror,” it was whiteness that became the symbol of deficiency. In these films, there is often a self-consciousness in the narrative that makes it plain to audiences that the disruption and reversal of type are purposeful—part retribution and part forced atonement. In all, this era describes a period in which Black characters’ survival and/or demise does not rise or fall on the will and favor of non-Blacks. Films of this era additionally present the battle over good and evil as being played out within the confines of predominately Black urban neighborhoods.
