"'I didn't plan on spending the evening killing my friends.' - Delia, The Hazing"
Women of Color in Horror
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 12:51
Well I was thinking about this a lot being a Latina and a big fan of horror movies and still think I'm not represented a lot in the genre. Hell movies in general, but still there is some improvements, but all in all there are some movies out there that brake the mold. Some will say that these roles still incoperate some sterotypes of gender and race, but I guess that's up to the viewer. But I do like these movies and when I saw them as a kid I was like "Hell yes I feel represented!". But well name some movies that you think are good examples of women of color in horror movies. Good or bad characters.
Hell there is still some I don't know about and would like to see and if you know some movies that show characters like this let me know.
One of my personal favorites of the zombie movies and I have hardly seen any latinas in zombie movies even in George Romero. But I haven't seen every zombie movies so maybe I'm wrong
Paquita Maria Sanchez from Dead Alive.
She was a resourceful woman who had a survival instinct and wasn't afarid to fight.
Jeryline from Tales From The Crypt Demon Knight.
I think this is very underrated movie, but I think it was damn cool to see a short little african-american woman kick some ass who was smart and very capable. I really liked the fact she wasn't very tall and little and put under very scary situations and make it out alright.
Vasquez from Aliens
Don't know if I should put this on here because she wasn't played by a Latina but she was a Latina character, but oh well she was one of my favorites and didn't take shit from no one and protected her team mates from the Aliens and even gave her life for them and that makes her a true heronie in my book. She wasn't going to be no aliens meal so rather be blown up.
Juno in the Decent
I really love this movie I haven't seen many movies with a strong female cast that did really well at the box office. But who cares about that but its nice that it happen I think. I really do like her character even though she wasn't might of not have done some of the best things and put her friends in danger.
I will be back with more please post away with your favorite women of color characters
This has got me going since I have been struck with illness again and left me a lot of time to write I have been wanting to write my own horror screenplay for a while. I have a few ideas should I jsut write away or read some books? Your advice people?
I was watching Latinos in America on CNN and I was watching how we are still misrepresented in Hollywood and people still want to see sterotypes and Eva Langoria says only way for people to change that is for Latinos to be the creators and producers of what is out there. That's how real change is made. I remember when Selma Hayek making Frida that they will only invest in you if they think it will make money. But there is still a lot of barriers for women of color in hollywood. I know in the independent world is different, but is it better or what do you think?
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 17:50
#2
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 18:34
#3
Oh my god how could I forget the wonderful sci-fi horror low-budget classic spiders does anyone remember this I'm sure you do!
I mean silly and goofy as it was it showed her to be a very capable and smart journalist student trying to uncover the truth! alien dna mutatining spiders man I'm laughing right now as I'm writing this. Although she was swimming in nasty toxic waste water in a white tshirt but oh well. Anyways I liked watching it even though I'm scared to death of spiders
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 23:33
#4
I really do love Monica she is great and cannibal sisters was intresting and I forgot they had latina actresses!
That's right. "Cannibal Sisters" stars Natalie and Melisa Cardona in lead roles. Few micro-budget directors can say they made a movie where real-life latina sisters lick blood off of each other.
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 14:05
#5
several years ago we featured this extremely informative essay on the history f black women in horror movies by Mark harris, who runs www.blackhorrormovies.com
http://pretty-scary.net/content/scary-sistas-brief-history-black-women-h...
I think its a really great essay and i am so proud he wrote it for us.
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 18:14
#6
Oh this is really great article Heidi.I'm still sad to say I haven't seen Omega Man I need to see that.
Oh yes how could I forget my favorite
Selena in 28 days later
Body Bags (1993): This anthology's first tale, "The Gas Station," is one of the rare non-"urban" slashers starring a black woman (Alex Datcher).
The Stand (1994): Ruby Dee is the Yoda-like prophet on a mission from God
Oh yes I forgot about these
I enjoy Queen of the Damned it wasn't as great as the book, but I did enjoy Aaliyah performance. I just don't think the writing was all that good. Plus her death that I think cut a lot of her role out I think? I know people were throwing a damn fit about her being black and in the book Akasha was suppose to be almost invisable, but that didn't bother me.
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 19:08
#7
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 19:28
#8
Speculative fiction is defined as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Within those categories exists many other subcategories, for example cyberpunk, magical realism, and psychological horror.
The terms "multicultural," "person of color," "women of color," and "people of color," are generally considered American terms that came into use in order to redefine what it means to be a part of historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups within Western society. A writer of color is generally defined as a writer that is a part of a marginalized culture in regards to traditional Euro-Western mainstream culture. This includes Asians, African-Americans, Africans, Native Americans, and Latinos.
While writers of color focus on experiences unique to their cultural heritage, which have sometimes been considered "subcategories" of national heritage (i.e. the black experience within American culture [1]), many do not only write about their particular culture or members within that culture, in the same way that many Americans of European descent (traditionally categorized as Caucasian or white [2] [3]) do not only write about Western culture or members of their cultural heritage. The works of many well-known writers of color tend to examine issues of identity politics, religion, feminism, race relations, economic disparity, and the often unacknowledged and rich histories of various cultural groups.
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 11:03
#9
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 11:06
#10
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 11:15
#11
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 11:14
#12
http://thearabobserver.blogspot.com/2009/05/horror-films-make-women-less...
While it is hard for a lot people to imagine a genderless human being - which exist -, it is as hard for Arabs to imagine a genderless objects due to the nature of the Arabic language that genderlizes objects. There is no "it" in Arabic, we only have a he and a she. Nearly everything can be defined as either to be masculine or feminine depending usually on the ending of the word: those with 'ah' at the end are defaulted to be feminine, and those without it tend to be masculine!
With such a language heritage, it comes to no surprise the strong emphasize on gender roles in the Arab societies, and while it is impossible to attach every single object to females or males based on its own gender, sometimes people subconsciously do the attachmenet and build on it. For instance a spoon in arabic (mel3akah) is feminine but it cannot be explicit for females usage only! In the other hand, a flower (wardah) which has other feminine attributes such as being delicate and soft is strongly attached to females.
The rigid apply of gender roles on both sexes where masculinity and femininity come as a based for classification usually triggers some awkward situations that limit the behaviour of both men and women in our society. The other day, and while reading the daily Al Ra'ee newspaper, an article about horror movies caught my attention.
The article highlights how Jordanian women are getting more interested in horror movies. It is written in a way that shows the issue as a strange phenomena in Jordan where women are behaving in a way that should be limited to men! The writer comes with a mentality that can't see how *fragile delicate feminine* creatures like women can betray their own gender and watch films that are full of violence and horror. Ofcourse different absurd reasons came up in the article such as that Jordanian women are forced to watch these movies because it is usually their brothers who take control of the remote control and they are who decide upon what to watch and what not! and so helpless Jordanian girls just sit down and watch their brothers choices of violent horror films!
To make it worse, it follows the guidlines of researched articles we are used to from such a newspaer, it goes further into consulting a social professional in the matter whom with his so called expertise condemn the phenomena and warns Jordanian women of losing their femininity by watching such films! (bullshit!)
The article even shows statistics! It claims that 14% of women who watch horror films on a regular basis suffer from lack of femininity! I wonder who is the genious behind those numbers! Really? How do *science* people conduct their research in this country?
It is not uncommon to read such articles who claim a scientific credibility by caughting a so called professional in our newspapers. I wonder whether the problem lies in the writers of those articles or in the professionals in this country who seem to be detached from what real science has achieved around the globe.
Isn't it time for people to come up and complain when they catch a lie in a newspaper? We have an arabic saying: El saket 3an el 7a2 shitan akhras (The one who doesn't stand up for justice is a silent devil). Newspaper writers should start hold accountability for what they write and take responsiblity for it.
I also found this film:
http://www.buyarabic.com/storeItem.asp?ic=VIAR000363
and this, the first Libyan horror film, which I am sure has women in it:
http://memriarabmovies.blogspot.com/2007/10/first-libyan-horror-movie.html
casting notice for Persian horror film shot in Los Angeles:
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 12:17
#13
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 12:21
#14
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 16:06
#15
I don't know if I count as a women in horror so much but I'm Metis. Actually, some of the most frightening stories I grew up with were ones based in our culture. I think it's mostly the feeling of isolationism in them though. Deep in the woods where no one can hear you or in a farm house in the middle of no where surrounded by nothing but grass land of prairie has always been the most frightening places for me so I'm actually surprised by the lack of horror movies using those cultural motifs.
Of course, The Painted Door gave me nightmares so take what I think of as scary with a grain of salt.
- M
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 16:18
#16
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 16:28
#17
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 16:39
#18
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 21:31
#19
I just watched a seriously bad indy horror flick called Edge of Darkness which featured a lot of ethnic characters, kinda nice to see. Unfortunately, it was cheesy, cheap, bad acting and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're absolutely bored. The movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a zombie film, a vampire film, killer computer film or a save the world from the anti-christ film and just ended up a muddled mess.
I think "Death Factory" and "Frankenfish" were rarities of low-budget horror in that they featured women of color as the leads.
I think someone needs to do a horror version of "Banditas".
I think Vanessa needs to move to GA and join Gonzoriffic.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1751788/
http://www.gonzoriffic.com
http://www.myspace.com/gonzorifficfilms