The recent horror film Antebellum is part of a recent move within the genre to expose the racist horrors that are such an unfortunate component of American history, piercing the veil of sentiment that typically surrounds the Confederate mythology.
While the plot is at times a bit predictable, it’s still a terrifying movie, and it forces the viewer to confront some of their own assumptions about history. Fortunately, there are quite a few other movies that have been produced that provide some of the same pleasures and frights as this one and that similarly play with the conventions of the genre.
Us (2019)
Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort is even more chilling than its predecessor. It focuses on the character of Adelaide, who finds herself terrorized by a group of doppelgangers whose motivations remain opaque.
In fact, it’s precisely the fact that these creatures remain so far beyond comprehensibility that makes them so terrifying. The film’s reveal is particularly chilling, and it’s the kind of film that stays with the viewer far beyond the final scene of the film. It’s a testament to Peele’s skill as a filmmaker.
Get Out (2017)
The first film from acclaimed director Jordan Peele is one of the best horror films of the last decade. In it, a young Black man finds himself ensnared by a seemingly benevolent white family whose motivations are anything but kind.
It’s one of those films that really makes the viewer think critically about the world around them, and it’s a reminder that, beneath the chills and the scares, horror films have the capacity to provide searing social commentary.
The Village (2004)
Night Shyamalan has developed a bit of a reputation for crafting films that have a surprise ending that makes the viewer reconsider everything that came before. This film is no exception and, like Antebellum, it explores the ways in which American history has something deeply pathological about it.
At the same time, it also has a lot to say about the desire that a lot of people have to escape from the pressures of modernity and into the seemingly simple world of the past.
Ma (2019)
Octavia Spencer is one of the finest actresses of her generation, and time and again she has shown that she brings a powerful warmth to the various roles that she appears in. That’s precisely what makes her role in Ma such a brilliant overturning of her established star persona.
She plays the character of Sue Ann, who befriends a group of teenagers but ultimately shows herself to be a very sinister type of person with motivations that are not at all benevolent.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
John Goodman is another of those actors who has shown time and again that he has tremendous range, as shown in this horror film, in which he plays an unstable man who kidnaps a young woman.
It’s a chilling film, to be sure, and its focus on a young woman who has been kidnapped by a man whose motivations remain unclear makes it very similar to Antebellum. What makes it especially frightening and disturbing is that it leaves the most horrifying aspects of its narrative largely unseen.
The Pale Door (2020)
The western is, in some ways, the ultimate American genre. Whether set in the distant past or closer to the present, it remains interested in the ways in which American identity has taken shape and changed over the decades.
Movies that straddle the divide between horror and the western are relatively rare, and when they do appear they tend to be truly terrifying. That is certainly the case with The Pale Door, which is one of those films that really sticks with the audience.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead is, of course, best known for being one of the most influential zombie films to have ever been made.
What some viewers might not recognize, however, is that it’s also a powerful, and cutting, commentary on the nature of race relations in the United States in the 1960s (definitely one of the most turbulent decades in that regard). In fact, the fate of the sole Black character is one of the film’s most potent critical moments.
Candyman (1992)
This film has started to return to public consciousness due to a very highly anticipated remake. It’s one of the types of horror movies that were very popular for much of the later 1980s and the early 1990s, but in this case, it actually gives the villain a bit of a backstory that packs a social commentary punch.
The brilliance of this particular horror film is that it manages to have a lot of ideas packed into it, while also providing the blood and guts that are such an important part of the horror genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)
In most zombie movies, the creatures are mostly mindless automatons driven by nothing other than a relentless and insatiable desire to feast on human brains and bodies. What’s more, in recent years, zombies are part of a general post-apocalyptic landscape.
Every so often, however, a film comes along that challenges all of the conventions, and that’s where one gets a film like this one, in which the titular character is a zombie who still has the power to think like a fully-fledged human being.
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
There’s still some debate about whether this film truly counts as a horror film, but anyone who has seen this film knows that it has more than a little about the Southern gothic about it.
The issues that it explores--African American identity, family histories, desire, and the like--make for a moody and atmospheric film, one that is designed to stay with the viewer, to continue pushing them to think about the nature of memory and of the ways in which the past constantly impinges on the present.