I’m Not Your Bestie: An Examination of Black Women And Tokenism In Horror
Horror is notorious for tokenism. Everyone fits into a trope and the most common trope for people of color is comic relief and bestie energy. As a woman of color myself, I’ve been there in both life and on screen. What’s a girl to do when cinema and TV have told me my place is to make a funny quip and die first? Who am I to look up to?
Despite this being our most common fate, there have been some epic breakthrough characters and portrayals for women of color, proving, that we are more than just your bestie.
More Than Just A Horror Bestie: Brenda Meeks
Brenda Meeks, played by the always perfectly timed Regina Hall, of the Scary Movie franchise is a prime example of this trope. While embracing the sassy best friend energy she busts through with quick and intelligent commentary on cinema and life itself as a woman of color. Whether telling people not to separate and realizing all the white people have already left or providing comic relief by saying “Why are you scared of a skeleton? Would you run from Calista Flockhart?”, she leads the story along, carries her leading lady around, and protects those she loves. She is a true force to be reckoned with, so get out of her face. Out of her face. Out of her face.
Mixing comedy and horror is something that has often been put on the characters of color in film. A smooth-talking villain is often where we see a woman of color. And while I don’t want to rest here too long, there are some iconic performances to shout out in this area.
Iconic Black Female Horror Villains Who Deserve Their Flowers
Sue Ann from Ma!, played by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer is a villain you think, “Hey she’s a little weird but I might wanna party with her.” Sue becomes the cool adult in the neighborhood providing a seemingly safe haven for the teenagers in town. She gets them alcohol and allows them to do any extracurricular activities they want in her basement, which is always a true crime red flag. While Sue Ann can party with the best of us, she is not so good at navigating attachment and rejection. So she may do what our teenage fantasies of rejection and revenge dreamed of but would never do. When all is revealed it turns out she is even more of a villain than we could even imagine, and we can imagine an awful lot.
Sissy in the title role of the film portrayed by Aisha Dee takes on the world of social media self-care. Something often gate-kept and white-washed. In Sissy, we see a group of friends get together after a while of being apart. One of the women, Sissy, has truly had some amazing headway on building a social media empire, which impresses her white friends, who always overlooked her. She takes this opportunity to enact revenge for all they did to her in the past. Dee is funny and brutal in this revenge fantasy, making it nearly impossible not to root for her to get every single one of them. She was the sidekick, the bestie, the entourage, but she proved she was so much more and one to not underestimate in the end.
Morally Gray And Loving It
Then there are those who straddle the line. I love an anti-hero and a gray area. These women take on the gray and make it look bloody good.
Ganja from Ganja and Hess, played by the legendary Marlene Clark is a classic in Black Horror. Ganja’s character becomes a vampire and seemingly, in the end, decides to embrace this new life despite Dr. Hess taking his life rather than face a life as a monster. One can imagine her truly stepping into the power of this new role.
Dre, from Swarm, portrayed by Dominique Fishback is fandom at its worst in human form. She is us and our insecurities and desires to be with our Gods. But she’s not us with her lack of restraint and her murderous rampage. Overall you see elements of her in so many and she is our fear if we neglect those who are truly overlooked.
Now on to the badass final girls we deserve to represent on screen.
Black Final Girls Who Transcend The Idea of Bestie
Arguably the most iconic character that comes to mind for most people when you ask them to name an iconic black female horror icon will say Jeryline from Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. She’s smart and tough, taking on the powers of darkness and walking away from the fight with her cat in hand. Nothing more badass exists.
Sweetheart, an underseen horror film finds Jenn (played by Kiersey Clemons) stranded on a desert island. Quickly her companions die and she is there alone to fight a monster and try to survive. When his boyfriend and his friend end up on the island they begin doubting her and even tie her up! But she knows she’s not crazy, which is quickly proven when the monster makes quick work of the two. She lives on taking down this ancient monster, because, you know, she was right all along!
Us brought us not one but two pitch-perfect performances by Lupita Nyong’o. Playing a twisted set of doppelgangers, she keeps you guessing about who is truly good and evil. And asks you the question, what would you do for a good life? Or for that matter, what would you do to get it back?
Continuing down the Jordan Peele route, Keke Palmer’s character in Nope, Emerald Haywood, cannot be left unmentioned. She takes advantage of uncomfortable situations but hell yeah she fights for her life and for those she loves. Plus, she also gave us the iconic response to seeing a creepy monster, “Nah nah nope!”
All That We Destroy brought us science fiction horror in its greatest form with Ashley Prime proving she’s way more than the girl you take home to mommy played by the epic Aurora Perrineau. While the film explores what one woman will do to protect her son, its true star is Ashley with her quick thinking, and her ability to understand what the heck is up with mommy and son.
More Badasses, Less Besties
These are just a few of the amazing performances of black women in horror. I could go on forever and go by decade and subgenre. That being said, more is more. Let’s see more moments of epic Black female-identifying characters. Let’s green light more projects that reflect the community and don’t always lean into villainizing or belittling the strong black women beside you. We’re more than just your bestie. We are badass, fully-formed women worthy of our stories being an A plot, not B or C. We are not your bestie; we are so much more.
Categorized:Editorials
