What was the first horror movie made by a Black director?
In recent years, Black horror has undergone a remarkable renaissance, driven by the visionary work of filmmakers like Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta.
While the genre often uses horror as a lens to explore the historical experiences of Black Americans—racism, slavery, and social politics—it is far from a modern invention. Its origins stretch back to the 1920s, long before its surge in popularity during the Blaxploitation era of the 1970s. Over the years, key figures have emerged in Black horror, including trailblazing actors like Duane Jones of Night of the Living Dead. However, for decades, Black creatives behind the camera were lamentably scarce. This raises an intriguing question: what was the first horror film directed by a Black filmmaker?
Amazingly, the first horror movie made by a Black director came out in 1922 during the silent era. During that period, Oscar Micheaux – an author, director, and producer who is regarded as the first African-American feature filmmaker – made his first foray into horror with The Dungeon.
It tells the story of a Black woman who is forced to marry a corrupt politician who has made a secret deal with white power brokers to support segregation in exchange for political influence. She calls him out on this and, in return, is thrown in a subterranean dungeon her husband used to murder his previous wives.
Unfortunately, nobody can watch The Dungeon today because all prints have been lost to history. Interestingly, though, it received criticism at the time from Chicago Defender writer Damon Ireland Thomas, who accused Micheaux of casting predominantly light-skinned Black actors to appeal to white audiences and raise his box office takings.
Thomas dismissed Micheaux for “relying on his name alone to tell the public that it is a race production, or maybe he is after booking it in white theatres”.
Enter history maker Jordan Peele…
In 2018, Jordan Peele took home the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for his incredibly unique Get Out screenplay. That film was not only the first horror movie made by a Black director to win an Oscar, it was the first horror movie made by a Black director to even receive a nomination at the Hollywood’s most prestigious awards show.
“This means so much to me,” Peele said during his acceptance speech. “I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible. I thought it wasn’t gonna work. I thought no one was gonna make this movie, but I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, that people would hear it and people would see it.”
In the wake of Get Out’s enormous success, which led to Peele also making Us and Nope, other Black horror directors admitted that doors had been opened to them in Hollywood that may have previously been closed.
Even William Crain, the director who pioneered Black horror in the ’70s with Blacula, told The Daily Beast that Get Out had created more opportunities for Black creatives, allowing younger directors like Nia DaCosta (Candyman), Justin Simien (Bad Hair), and Remi Weekes (His House) to bring their visions to the world.
Who else is changing the landscape?
Well, Nia DaCosta didn’t just seize her opportunity when she was hired to direct the 2021 sequel Candyman – she created history. That film, co-written by Peele and produced by his company Monkeypaw Productions, shot straight to the top of the box office charts on its opening weekend. This made DaCosta the first Black female director to top the box office with any film, let alone a horror movie.
She then made history again two years later when her MCU movie The Marvels made $110 million on its opening weekend – the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie directed by a Black woman.
