Blaxploitation horror films

Blaxploitation horror films are a genre of horror films involving mostly black actors portraying black stereotypes for cultural identity or humor and in contrast to the usual white dominance of this genre.

Blaxploitation films, regardless of subgenre, spanned from race movies. These were films that started appearing in the 1930s–1940s. They were meant to segregate films featuring an all black class from mainstream Hollywood movies. Many of these films already had the element of horror integrated into them. Over time these films transcended into their own subgenre of film, blaxploitation horror films. In the 1950s to 1960s Hollywood started to integrate films produced and starring African Americans into mainstream media. There was backlash by several African American directors and actors that did not want to be integrated into mainstream media. They wanted to stay independent which caused them to create more of what were originally known as race movies. This happened during the 1960s–70s which was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans were in fury at ongoing white oppression and wanted something that they could call their own. They began creating films that were directed, starring, and produced by African Americans. In an effort to maintain their cultural identity they made it a point to emphasize the stereotypes the white media was portraying them as. They called this genre blaxploitation. Many blaxploitation films has a mix of comedy and horror. However, director William Crain to the aspect of horror in these films one step further and created the first blaxploitation horror film, Blacula. As a result, a new subgenre of blaxploitation was created, dedicated solely to horror.

To better understand the subgenre of blaxploitation horror films it in necessary to understand what it is meant by the term "blaxploitation". Blaxploitation is a mix of the words black and . It makes a point to enforce stereotypes that have been afflicted on African Americans by the so-called white media. The first movie to be considered blaxploitation was Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971). Melvin Van Peebles directed, produced, and took the lead role of this hyper sexual film. It is about a male prostitute who is out to fight "[the man]" (white oppression). It spanned a new type of film genre that evolved all the way to what is now the urban blaxploitation horror films of the 21st century.

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