October 30, 2025
Black creators aren’t merely slipping into horror, they are bending the genre’s spine
Horror has long served as a litmus test for the anxieties of its age. A fresh cohort of Black creators is now turning the genre on its ear. From blood‑soaked thrillers to slow-burning chillers, these horror filmmakers are weaving stories in which the monsters are less specters and more the social forces that haunt everyday life. Bringing viewpoints, cultural texture, and unapologetic imagination, these storytellers are breathing life and fresh screams into horror cinema, proving that fear resonates distinctly when it springs from lived experience. These Black creators aren’t merely slipping into horror; they are bending the genre’s spine. Whether it’s wielding satire like a scalpel, resurrecting myths, launching critiques, or re‑imagining classic tales, they pour fresh scares, fresh backdrops, and fresh faces into cinema’s darkest visions.
Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele, a comic who swapped punchlines for picture frames, stepped behind the camera in 2017. Peele dropped Get Out, a film that fuses rattling dread with a take on race, sparking what many now call a Black horror renaissance. When the movie rolled out across U.S. theaters and then globally, Peele’s brand of terror introduced a vernacular to the genre: protagonists at the center, cultural layers woven throughout, and a relentless poking at horror’s tired tropes. The buzz his breakthrough film generated has cracked doors and ushered in a wave of creators eager to claim their space in horror.
Dewayne Perkins & Tracy Oliver
Dewayne Perkins, Tracy Oliver, and director Tim Story joined forces for the horror‑comedy, The Blackening (2023). The film follows a circle of friends celebrating Juneteenth, who end up trapped in a cabin with a killer that forces them into a contest of ranking their own Blackness. After debuting at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, The Blackening opened in U.S. cinemas on June 16, 2023, and drew a wave of reviews. The flick tosses the playbook aside, thrusting protagonists into the spotlight while slyly ribbing the usual racial shortcuts.
Bomani J. Story
Bomani J. Story steps onto the feature scene with The Angry Black Girl and the Monster, a spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein told through the eyes of a teen navigating a violent neighborhood and convinced that death is just another disease. The movie premiered at SXSW, opened on June 9, 2023, had a VOD release on June 23, and then rolled out to independent theaters and streaming platforms. Using horror as a vehicle, Story delves into trauma, systemic inequities, and family pressure, underscoring how terrifying it is to live inside a web of falsehoods.
Ryan Coogler
Ryan Coogler, Oscar‑nominated for his work on Black Panther and Creed, stepped into the realm of horror with his 2025 feature, Sinners. The movie fuses the bite of lore with a blues‑saturated 1930s Mississippi setting and the oppressive melancholy of Southern Gothic. Coogler reconfigures genre expectations, stitching Black history and cultural aesthetics into a horror framework and, in doing so, stretches the very definition of what “Black horror” can encompass.
Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta’s 2021 version of Candyman serves as a sequel to the 1992 original. The remix reshapes the narrative to echo a wave of cultural and economic anguish. Still based in Chicago’s Cabrini‑Green and the glossy, gentrified after‑effects that have replaced it, Candyman lets the city itself become a character. DaCosta leans into horror as a tool, layering Black trauma, the sting of gentrification, and the lingering myths of violence.
Nikyatu Jusu
Nikyatu Jusu’s first feature, the 2022 film Nanny, is a horror‑drama that follows an immigrant nanny living in New York. While caring for a family and trying to bring her son to the United States, her life begins to unravel. The movie weaves spiritual folklore into a chilling folk‑horror backdrop while probing class, immigration, and motherhood, expanding the scope of Black horror. It premiered at Sundance on Jan. 22, 2022, was released the same year on Nov. 23, and is now available for streaming.
Mariama Diallo
Mariama Diallo’s first feature‑length film, Master (2022), unfolds as a horror‑thriller set on a white Northeastern college campus. The story wades into the web of racism, elitism, and the lingering ghosts of injustices. It premiered at Sundance on Jan. 21, 2022, then moved to Prime Video on March 18 in the same year. By framing the narrative in horror, Diallo probes women’s experiences inside institutional spaces and delivers a fresh mix of psychological tension and incisive social commentary.
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