The presence and power of Black women on the screen knows no genre bounds.
With the standout performance of Jurnee Smollett-Bell in a horror hybrid series like Lovecraft Country and the upcoming release of the horror-comedy film, Bad Hair starring Elle Lorraine, Vanessa Williams, and Laverne Cox, Black women are solidifying their place in the horror genre.
But this isn’t anything new.
Black women have always played a huge part of the genre. Keep scrolling to check out a list of some of our favorite actresses who have played badass Black women in horror.
*Additional reporting by Rivéa Ruff.
01
Teyonah Parris
Teyonah Parris stepped into some huge horror shoes with her role as Brianna Cartwright in the 2021 sequel/soft reboot of Candyman. Her turn as the fledgling art curator in Chicago with a troubled family past and a disturbed artist boyfriend (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) was tortured and relatable, and her badass quick-thinking survival skills come in clutch in the movie’s climactic third act. Not to mention her style remaining hair and wardrobe goals throughout the full runtime.
02
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o solidified her status as a leading woman in her tragically underrecognized breakout role as Adelaide and her doppelgänger Red in Jordan Peele’s horror-genre examination of identity and class, Us. Playing both monster villain and final girl – though it’s up for debate which is which – Nyong’o pulled a frightening double-duty, with a chillingly unforgettable vocal performance for her turn as the undereground uprising mastermind.
03
Loretta DeVine
Loretta DeVine’s innately comforting and maternal nature is played up to 11 in 2020’s Spell, but the context takes it to a chilling level. Her portrayal of the seemingly sweet country grandma Eloise quickly becomes unsettling as she transitions from a kindly good samaritan to tyrannical captor in this HooDoo-themed suspense thriller. Omari Hardwick’s character Marq doesn’t know which version of the matriarch he’ll get from moment to moment, or what her true motives are.
04
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett is an acting powerhouse, and fans of the American Horror Story franchise were graced with three seasons of the ageless beauty on their TV screens. Bassett played Marie Laveauth in the Coven season, Desiree Dupree in the Freakshow season, and Ramona Royale in the Hotel season. Every character Angela Bassett has portrayed for the franchise is unquestionably beautiful and badass.
05
Jada Pinkett-Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith played the role of Maureen Evans in SCREAM 2. Though her character meets her demise very early in the film, Jada’s death scene is one of the most iconic in the history of the franchise. And that was by design. In a 2018 EW interview with Lola Ogunnaike, Jada reveals how she told SCREAM director Wes Craven that “I want to die the most horrific death that has ever happened in a horror film”. Jada wanted to go out like a badass and her death was definitely memorable. It was parodied by her future Girls Trip co-star Regina Hall in Scary Movie.
06
Reign Edwards
Though she’s best known as Franklin Saint’s next-door neighbor and former love interest Melody on FX’s Snowfall, she’s also the quick-thinking, bat-wielding badass Brooke in 2018’s Hell Fest. When a crazed masked killer starts stalking (and killing) Brooke and her friends through an amusement park, she has to stay on her toes to make it out of the situation alive…if she can.
07
Cynthia Bond
A lesser-known Black horror gem, Def By Temptation finds actress-turned-author Cynthia Bond portraying the sexy & sultry Temptress, a woman with an (evil) eye on several of the men of New York City. She spends her nights trolling local bars for Black men who are eligible and willing…and after she takes them home very few of them leave with a story to tell the next morning. Obviously, there’s more than meets the eye with this beautiful seductress, but will Kadeem Hardison’s K and James Bond III’s Joel be able to uncover her secret before it’s too late?
08
Lisa Bonet
Lisa Bonét broke out of her Cosby Show typecasting with her appearance in 1987’s Angel Heart. This psychological horror-thriller finds Mickey Rourke’s character Harry Angel hired as a private investigator searching for a missing rock star. When his clues lead him to New Orleans, he becomes enthralled and romantically involved with Bonét’s character, 17-year-old Epiphany Proudfoot, as chaos, calamity, and “black magic” ensue. Bonét bared it all in a then-controversial love scene, and the film notoriously garnered an X-rating, having to be heavily edited to be screened for US audiences.
09
Octavia Spencer
Octavia Spencer is an Academy Award winning actress. Though this could be seen as a crowning achievement for most actresses, Octavia continued to challenge herself after winning this prestigious award. In 2019, she branched out into the horror thriller genre with her portrayal of Sue Ann in the movie Ma. In this movie she plays a hometown hermit who uses the youth in her town for an intricate revenge plot. Octavia is masterfully able to channel childhood trauma into a creepy horror villain in this film.
10
Betty Gabriel
Betty Gabriel may not have the most recognizable name, but she has one of the most iconic faces in horror movie history. Betty’s breakout role was as one of the survivors, Laney Rucker, in the third installment of the purge franchise. Betty Gabriel is most famously known for 2017’s Get Out where she played Georgina, one of the Armitage victims who had a white consciousness trapped in her body.
11
Brandy
Brandy was cast in the sequel of I Know What You Did Last Summer for the role of Karla Wilson. Karla steps in as Jennifer Love Hewitt’s best friend for part two of the trilogy and even manages to survive her encounters with “The Fisherman” to break the stereotype of the black characters always dying in horror movies.
12
Queen of The Damned – 11/30 (Hulu)
Aaliyah brings her undeniable charisma to her role as Akasha, Queen of Vampires in this popular Anne Rice adaptation.
13
Joy Bryant
Joy Bryant plays Jill Dupay in the 05’ horror film The Skeleton Key. In this movie she supports Kate Hudson’s character in her supernatural battle on a New Orleans plantation. The story revolves around Hoodoo rituals and the main characters learning and using them to defend themselves against sinister spirits inhabiting the plantation. Though Joy Brant isn’t the main character of this story, she is positioned as a central piece to the unfolding story.
14
Halle Berry
Halle Berry, has enjoyed a one of a kind movie career. But when you think of Halle, horror movies aren’t the first to come to mind. However, she shattered all misconceptions about her acting range in 2003 when the horror thriller Gothika hit theaters. Halle Berry carried the role as a psychiatrist possessed by a ghost and received critical and fan acclaim for her acting in the movie.
15
*Bonus* Tyler Perry as ‘Madea’
In Boo! and Boo! 2, the matriarch gathers her family, 17-year-old Tiffany and her rebellious friends like only the Bible-quoting gunslinger could, and keeps them safe from a slew of ghosts and ghouls in the process.
