Movies
I’m Dreaming of a Black Girl Christmas
The holiday season is upon us, and I have a hard time feeling merry. After all, most of the Christmas horror movies are a little exclusionary outside of ignoring other cultural December festivities. Most of our go-to watches for this stretch of time have no room for POC, and especially Black women, in their picturesque settings. Which is why I took notice a few years ago when two genre movies gave me exactly what I wanted – a Black Girl Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Black Christmas (1974), Krampus (2015), and The Lodge as much as the next broken millennial. However, like most movies in this subgenre, we’re rarely seen unless it’s for a trope. We can be sidekicks or day players, but we cannot be involved in the central conflict. We cannot lead, but we can serve. Part of my deal as an intersectional horror lady is asking and looking for movies that do better. So, imagine my surprise when Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night and Jenn Wexler’s The Sacrifice Game not only remembered Black people exist, but specifically thought Black girls deserve some Christmas magic too.
Black Girls Deserve Christmas Magic Too
The Sacrifice Game is set in a 1970s boarding school where a handful of students are staying over Christmas break. The movie opens with a ritualistic massacre that pulls you in before introducing you to the core group at the school, though. Once in the halls of academia, which will obviously serve as the location for an impending blood bath, we meet Samantha (Madison Baines). Unlike most movies, this Black girl isn’t here for stereotypes and to be pushed to the fringes of the story. As she continues to survive this hellish night, we realize she might be the final girl. This hope is rewarded in the end when we watch her walk off to travel the world with her supernatural friend Clara (Georgia Acken). Because we have so few Christmas horror movies with Black girls getting to do anything, the movie heals something in me every year.
Violent Night is a completely different vibe than The Sacrifice Game. It’s more of an action-comedy with some cool kills and a supernatural thread. The movie is set on Christmas Eve, present day, as a group of mercenaries interrupts a wealthy family’s celebration. The team of naughty killers has the misfortune of starting their plot when Santa (David Harbour) is dropping off gifts. Santa also has a past and opens a can of whoop-ass to save the family as he bonds with the adorable Trudy (Leah Brady) over walkie-talkies. No matter how many mercenaries tell her Santa Claus isn’t real, Trudy knows that he is coming to save her because she’s on the nice list and has a direct line to him this Christmas. She gets to keep a children’s sense of wonder as her family’s infighting and the trained assassins try to ruin her Christmas.
Representation Really Matters
Samantha and Trudy might be in different subgenres and might be a few years apart, but they have plenty in common. Both are surrounded by white characters, although Trudy’s is her family. They are also both a little down in the dumps, as are most characters in holiday films. Samantha has just been told she will not be coming home for the holidays and is feeling discarded. Trudy’s parents are heading for a divorce, and her extended family is too focused on money to be supportive. So, both feel utterly alone during the most depressing time of year and need a win. When things get violently bad for both, it’s nice to see supernatural entities whisk in for some problem-solving and to save them.
That’s not to say that both of these resourceful girls don’t take out some of the intruders on their own. They just don’t have to do it all alone, and are not expected to save the day for everyone else. That’s right! We have two Black girls who get to be kids. I love the few movies where people actually help Black girls and women for a change. I want to live in world where that wasn’t such a rarity. It’s one of the reasons I loved A Quiet Place: Day One. I wish more films that did this were greenlit. Instead we get ones that continually waste talent like Alfre Woodard in Annabelle. Sadly, this is the world I have to live in.
Watch Both ASAP
It is also not wasted on me that both movies take a standard holiday setting and make it inclusive. We have so many all-girls boarding school set movies that have exclusively all white casts. Seeing Samantha not only exist in this creepy school where The Sacrifice Game is set, but survive it felt like a Christmas gift itself. Watching Trudy light up from excitement as she navigates this huge house in Violent Night made me think of Home Alone and all of the other Christmas movies I grew up with. Movies that refused to acknowledge that Black people exist and blended families might also celebrate the holidays. Again, both of these movies heal something every year.
Again, these movies have very little in common aside from the same holiday and understanding that Black girls deserve some holiday cheer, too. However, they are two of the very few movies that do this. Which is why both make it into my yearly rotation. Most other movies are soaking in white feminism. They may have a Black sidekick and creative teams who need to research colorism and anti-Blackness. However, they are somehow usually more offensive than being ignored entirely.
So, Trudy and Samantha getting a slice of the Christmastime magic so close together stood out to me. They both warm my cold little black heart. As I hope kids are sneaking in watches of these movies behind their parents’ backs. I know they both would have been in heavy rotation when I was a kid. If these kinds of movies were getting made back then, anyway. Ideally, we’ll see more movies like these someday.
Shudder knows summer is the perfect time to watch scary things in air-conditioned places. Which is why the beloved streamer is giving us newer movies like Heresy, Whistle, This is Not a Test, and Smothered. While it’s always fun to see recent titles arrive alongside classics and deep cuts, my eye isn’t on the films this month. Most of my picks this May are television series and documentaries. Maybe that means I want longer comments with my media and an open library. Or perhaps I’m just reminding myself that I’m a cool nerd and making it your problem too. Whatever the case may be, I have curated another list of titles that I believe deserve our attention. Check out my top five priorities while surfing our favorite streamer below.
Tales From the Crypt (1989 – 1996)
Our beloved 90s anthology is finally making its way to our most cherished streamer. As someone who hasn’t seen Tales From the Crypt since I was a tyke, I’m so giddy that I get to watch it as an adult. More importantly, I get to binge it as John Kassir (the voice of our favorite ghoul) intended. I have been floating since this news was announced at the Overlook Film Festival in April. My insomnia and my Crypt Keeper are about to be reunited, and all is going to be alright in my little world. Come for the celebrities and stay for the puns and wicked deaths. I sincerely hope you call out of work each Friday as a new season gets added to Shudder.
You can watch Tales From the Crypt: Season 1 on May 1st. Subsequent seasons will premiere on Fridays, concluding with Season 7 on June 12
Horror Noire: History of Black Horror (2019)
Based on Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s book of the same name, Horror Noire: History of Black Horror is simply that girl. It unpacks the complicated history of Black people in the genre with humor, honesty, and heart. It even gets into the conversations no one seems to want to have and makes room for Black horror icons to actually be heard for once. You could hear the record scratch on Bluesky when this Shudder Original disappeared a few months ago. So, we can all rest easy knowing that it’s coming back home and we can continue to have it in our regular rotation. Horror Noire made many of us feel seen and made us better cinephiles and critics. It’s worth the Shudder subscription on its own if we’re being completely honest.
You can watch Horror Noire: History of Black Horror on May 4th.
The Terror: Devil in Silver (2026)
Your favorite unsettlingly stoic anthology has returned for a new season, and this time, Dan Stevens is in the mix. Stevens plays Pepper, a man with bad luck and a bad temper who gets himself committed to a psychiatric hospital. Any horror fan knows that’s the recipe for many horror bangers, and that’s why I will be sat. The cast also includes CCH Pounder, Judith Light, and Marin Ireland. However, my heart belongs to Karyn Kusama, who is in the director’s chair and the queen of tension. As a Momma Kusma stan account, I am so ready for her to raise my blood pressure and send me to the ER. The demonic duo of AMC+ and Shudder is cooking with this one.
You can watch episode one of The Terror: Devil in Silver on May 7th. Subsequent episodes will premiere weekly, concluding with the season finale on June 11th.
In Search of Darkness 1990-1994 (2024)
We all love to see our faves get together and discuss the horror eras we have romanticized. Which is why watching genre royalty unpack the “lost” decade of horror is something we all probably want to see. As a 90s kid, I feel like we ate pretty well in my day. So, I want to collect all of these stories like infinity stones. Some of the faces we can expect to see are Heather Langenkamp, John Carpenter, Frank Henenlotter, Tim Balme, and Michael Gross. My little nerd heart could bust, and I am happy Shudder is opening the library this May.
You can watch episode one of In Search of Darkness 1990-1994 on May 11th.
Something Is About to Happen (2023)
Things take a turn for a woman who loses her job as a computer programmer. The only movie in my roundup this month goes to the one I perhaps know the least about. Truthfully, I am just here for horror movies about women going through it. Excuse me as I gesture to the world and my bank account. More importantly, Spanish-language horror rarely fails me. So, I am willing to look past the two-hour and two-minute runtime. I am ignoring that it is listed as a romantic horror. I’m doing this because I expect my kind of chaos, and I hope I am right. From one down girl to another, I am rooting for this character on sight.
You can watch episode one of Something Is About to Happen on May 15th.
That is what I plan to use my Shudder Saturdays for this month. Let us know what you’re plotting to hit play on in the comments because we’re nosy.
Is anyone else remembering we have movies at home and logging in a lot of Netflix hours this spring? I know I am, and I keep finding more hidden treasures on this app. They collect so much international media and never tell us they have it. I find this frustrating as I pull up late to things I’m probably going to love. Quite a few foreign films make it into my lineup this month. Two of them I have never heard of before and are newer titles that should be getting some attention, in case they’re some of the best of their respective years. One is French, and we all need to revisit it for reasons that I’ll explain later.
Another thing worth noting about Netflix’s recent additions is an American show called Man on Fire. This serialized adaptation of A. J. Quinnell’s novel of the same name stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. He’ll be playing the character my generation associates with Denzel Washington because of the 2004 film adaptation. As a nerd who has been wondering why Yahya hasn’t been on my screen for a minute, I will probably have finished binging this before you even make it to the end of this article. I digress! Here are the five movies I plan to watch this month on Netflix!
180 (2026)
An act of road rage leaves a young boy in critical condition and his father seeking revenge. As usual, Netflix has not really advertised this South African thriller. However, I love revenge and am always game for a new release. So, I’m happy the powers that be put this in the recent lineup. It looks good, which gives me hope that this is going to be a gritty and bloody adventure. Fingers crossed, a few of you also hit play on this one because I’d like more quality South African thrillers that are easily accessible in America. I’m tired of hunting them down years after the fact.
Benedetta (2021)
A nun has religious visions that threaten the core of the Church while she is also having a secret affair in the 17th century. You are probably confused as to why Paul Verhoeven’s French psychological romantic drama is in my Netflix round-up. Especially if you clocked the long run time, and now I love a 90-minute or less movie. Listen! If you give me a nun having visions and having a lesbian affair in a period piece, it is my sworn duty to tell everybody. It is also my job to rewatch it for reasons. Don’t say I never did anything for you!
Him (2025)
A young athlete discovers why you should never meet your heroes when he is invited to train with a football legend. People were way too mean to this movie. It’s giving Neon Demon and Black Swan for Black male athletes. It’s not perfect, but the aesthetics and vibes are on 10. More importantly, Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers deliver some pretty fantastic performances that keep you locked in. I’m excited to revisit it and see if I like it more (or less) than when I caught it in theaters. Hopefully, more people will do the same now that the more biased discourse has died down.
Mudborn (2025)
A spirit terrorizes a video-game designer and his pregnant wife. I have no idea what to expect from Meng-Ju Shieh’s Mandarin supernatural horror film. However, I’m excited to see what this spirit is about. Again, Netflix continues to drop the ball on advertising international films. So, it’s up to us to find it in the streets and raise the alarm. In a perfect world, this movie will be the nightmare fuel I’m always seeking out. However, at the end of the day, I’m just happy to show up and support international films helmed by people of color. It’s a win-win situation, however I look at it.
Scream (2022)
A new Ghostface is terrorizing Woodsboro 25 years after the original killing spree rocked the town. As a Wes Craven stan account and fan of Radio Silence, I was so happy this movie turned out awesome. I can still say this is one of my favorite horror wins of this decade because it showed this franchise still had some life in it. It also introduced us to our Core Four, led by my new favorite final girl, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera). As someone who enjoyed these first six movies, I will always clear my schedule for a marathon and am happy to see Scream (2022) on Netflix this month. I plan to rewatch it and continue being salty that I will never know how this new trilogy was supposed to end.
That’s what I have this month. Happy Netflixing to each and every one of you!
