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Eve's Bayou

Eve’s Bayou was produced by Kasi Lemmons in 1997. The film focuses on the Batiste family and is specifically from the perspective of the protagonist, Eve. The film delves into complexities in family dynamics, secrets, and the supernatural. As Eve navigates the challenges with adolescence, she becomes aware of the hidden truths and secrets that are beneath the surface. I would like to focus on examining the themes further and sharing my thoughts. A particular theme that stuck out to me was casual monstrosity. This was seen in the scene when Samuel L. Jackson is at the bar and has no business with Mrs. Morrow, but then they are on top of each other. His daughter walks in and he continues to do what he was doing. When he sees Eve is there, he tells her to wait for him while he goes to say bye to Mrs. Morrow. This brought me to surprise as I thought that he would stop and not allow his daughter to see that since she is so young. In other words, I thought he would be more protective of his daughter and what she is exposed to. Children as young as Eve should not be seeing infidelity like the one with her father as it takes away the child’s innocence and makes them be a witness to things that may scare or confuse them. From this, we can learn that parents should be more mindful of their actions when their children are around. Another theme that I noticed in the film was loss of innocence. Samuel L. Jackson is like a casual monster and he is able to lie to his family right to their face. Not only is he losing his innocence in a sense, but this is another form of casual monstrosity that we see in the film. I also thought it was interesting that although the director wanted to show trauma, she was not showing it through the lens of racism. This was interesting to me because it gave me a different perspective on how people can experience trauma. It was also surprising to me that it was not shown through the lens of racism because the cast was Black so initially, I thought the film would be about racism. Overall, the film is packed with many scenes and lessons which teaches viewers lessons, making it important for people to watch. 

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Beloved

Beloved was directed by Jonathan Demme and was inspired by a novel that Toni Morrison had written. While watching the film, I had many thoughts and questions going through my head about the storyline and what was being shown. To give a bit of background, the film is about a character named Sethe who was a former slave. We see that she was living with her daughter whose name is Denver, right outside of Cincinnati. 

Sethe is now free from slavery, where she is in this new world after coming from the spirit world which represents her time in slavery.

The first scene struck me as it involved a tremendous amount of violence when the mother, Sethe, was beating her child and we saw the children crying. She had a few children and some of them had run away from her because of her violent behavior as a way of avoiding being part of any trouble. However, Denver, who was the only daughter that was with her, was the child that she killed. It brought me to tears how a parent figure can be so harsh towards her children and to treat them in such a way. 

After this scene, we see this strange woman come to the doorstep of their house. Her name is Beloved and we are able to see what used to be a house where Sethe and her daughter live has turned into this miserable situation of being encountered by a ghost. This was difficult to watch especially when it portrayed the horrible situations and challenges that Sethe faced during her time in slavery. What makes this woman interesting is the way that she presents herself as not being able to manage basic tasks such as speaking and she almost makes herself look like a toddler who needs someone to teach them everything. I found it intriguing to see the way Beloved was depicted and compared to a toddler. At first, this made me wonder who this woman was and what she could be representing since there are past and present experiences being shown. It turns out that Beloved is representing the ghost of the daughter that Sethe had killed. Realizing this was eye opening because I was not only able to see the violence that Sethe brought on, but I was able to see how she is taking these past situations and allowing it to impact her in a negative way. In other words, she had this idea of slavery being very brutal when she was part of it and she thought that by killing her daughter, she would not have to go through what the mother went through. 

The scenes of violence throughout the film made me realize that as difficult as it was to watch, slavery was a difficult time. Furthermore, I was able to see that for some people like Sethe, it really caused her to do harm to her daughter but also to the family as a whole as they most likely would no longer see one another. I also think that with all this in mind, the director’s intention in making this film was to see the effects of horror-drama through the lens of more realistic situations and the culture that was created. Overall, Beloved gave viewers a difficult but eye opening experience on the persistent effects of historical injustices.

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Tales From the Hood

Ever wondered what it's like to watch a horror movie? Today, I will focus on Tales from The Hood which is four segments of stories and was directed by Rusty Curdieff. While watching the various segments, it was interesting to see how there was art to solve the problem and the way the themes were portrayed. 

A particular theme that stood out to me was child abuse. In this particular story, I was faced with feelings of sadness and a loss of words and it was difficult to watch the human violence. I could not comprehend why a young child has to go through such acts of violence by his father. It made me question what the child had done to deserve what was considered to be a severe punishment of being beaten. I always viewed a parent figure as one who is there to take care of their child and to protect them. However, as unfortunate as it sounds, it is a reality and something that happens. 

Now, to move on to more context and thoughts on this particular story, I would like to give a little background on who was involved in helping to solve the problem. This young child went to school with many bruises, but he did not understand what they were and what was happening. His teacher said to him “boys do get bruises” which really stuck out to me because it was her way of showing the child that she is concerned about him. 

Although we can see how the teacher feels bad for the child, the mother on the other hand made it seem as though she brushes it off when the child asks her out of fear and just says no to him. She does this as a way to say that it is not anyone’s fault in particular that the father is acting in this way. This was quite surprising to me as my initial reaction was “why doesn't she do something to stop it?”. As I continued to watch, it made me realize that it might sound simple to ask such a question, but there really wasn’t much for the mother to do because she was also being treated this way. With all these thoughts in mind, it is important to recognize the fact that it was difficult for her to really do anything about it because she did not have anywhere to go. Despite this, the teacher took every step to go to their house and intervene to protect the child. This was very heartwarming to me to see the fact that she really went out of her way beyond the school atmosphere too. It showed that she really cared and she shared encouraging words with the child such as “you are powerful enough to fight your own demons”. To wrap it all up, I believe that the use of artwork in this story was useful in solving the problem and bringing a sense of healing in a creative way while solving the issue of the abusive figure. 

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Candyman

Welcome back to my blog! Today I would like to talk about the Candyman films. The original Candyman film was based on a short story called “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker. I found it quite interesting to see the difference between the short story and the original Candyman that was filmed in 1992. 

A specific part of the film that stood out to me was when Helen is trying to go to a ghost town, Cabrini-Green. One of the themes in the film is “Sweet to Sweets” being written on the wall with feces. I found this to be disturbing as it made it seem like the people of the town did not care ro maintain the town and keep it clean. It made me think that the people lived like animals. I don’t think I can even imagine a time where anyone would do such a thing to leave such a mess and not even care about cleaning it up. 

Cabrini-Green was also referred to in the film as an urban jungle or a monster which I thought was interesting because it was referring to the people who were part of the housing project. In other words, they were referring to the black people as being monstrous, and made it seem like they felt they had to do whatever they could to make the town look worse than what it actually was. As I reflect and think back on Cabrini-Green in the film, it makes me think that it used to once be a place for low-income residents; however, the conditions become worse as a way of symbolizing the systemic neglect of marginalized communities. 

Now to explore the themes in the film, I would like to focus on slavery and racist violence which was portrayed in the original Candyman. Candyman was a character who was scary and when his name was called five times in front of a mirror, he would appear. When watching this particular scene in the film, it brought feelings of fear as I did not fully understand where this idea of calling him came from. It was interesting to me how a frightening character with hooks as hands was a symbol for the racism and trauma that was experienced within black communities. It was also pretty haunting to see that the result of calling Candyman was that he would kill the person that called him. However, I noticed in the second film that rather than solely killing the person that called for him, he would also kill the people that were with that person. I also recognized that between the first and second Candyman, it was evident that he did not kill black people in the second film. 

Overall, the Candyman films gave me insight on the way that black people were treated at the time and the fact that there was an element of the film feeling like it was unfinished made me think that it was trying to give off the message that black people continue to face these struggles.

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"Get Out"

I recently watched the film “Get Out” by Jordan Peele and wanted to share some of my thoughts. I was interested in the way that he chose to portray the film to showcase racism in a way that is different from what one would typically expect. It seems like Peele’s intentions were to hide what racism looks like rather than showing it deliberately. This choice was interesting because it allowed me as well as other viewers to use their mind to figure out the hidden message. Get Out follows the life of Chris who is going to meet his girlfriend Rose Armitage to meet her family at an estate. Prior to this visit, Rose and Chris had an ordinary relationship with each other but at once it all takes a turn. Chris, a black man, is dating Rose who comes from a white family and they thought it was acceptable. Sooner rather than later, Chris begins to see how uncomfortable it is for him. He wonders how he did not have these feelings before which are evident when the film explores racial dynamics, systemic racism as well as the discomfort that may arise in an interracial relationship. 

With all this in mind, there are several themes that stood out to me which I believe are crucial to understanding the message of the film. As Chris spends more time at the Armitage family’s home, his fear and discomfort turns into isolation. I believe that this is the main theme that I resonate with because feeling isolated can be challenging to navigate. Seeing the way that Chris felt isolated because he was black made it evident how systemic racism is apparent. This is important because I believe that it brings awareness to the broader society to understand systemic racism. In addition, it was surprising for me to see how Chris had to maintain his identity while, but change the way he conformed to the social pressures and societal expectations. This stood out to me as being crucial because I was able to understand what it truly took for him to feel accepted by the Armitage family. Through the theme of isolation, I am able to see how alienation goes hand-in-hand. Overall, the film was interesting to watch and I was able to learn a lot about the themes of isolation and alienation as they play a role in everyday life and more specifically to those who are working to present themselves a certain way in society. 

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The Comet by W.E.B Du Bois

In my blog post today, I will be talking about “The Comet” which is a short story that was written in 1920 by W.E.B Du Bois. It is important to note that W.E.B. Du Bois does not typically write about Black horror. However, seeing him take a chance to write “The Comet” made me intrigued to learn more about what he wants to share. It focuses on catastrophe as it is reflecting on the destruction that he believes will come upon society which is a form of symbolism of what occurred during the incident with “The Comet” in New York City. 

As I was reading the piece, I was faced with feelings of sadness when learning about the incident that took place. At the start of the story, we are introduced to the protagonist, Jim who is a Black man and a white woman. They were both survivors of the comet. Although the story states that the Black man’s name is Jim, I found it interesting that he was also referred to as a messenger. On the other hand, there was also the white woman who was not given a name at first, but later in the story we find out that her name is Julia which I found to be interesting. It made me wonder whether the author was trying to give a message by not giving her a name until later in the story. 

A significant theme that I noticed throughout the story is interracial love. Interracial love refers to a white individual being in love with a Black individual. In this particular piece, it was symbolizing the love of Jim who was a Black man and Julia who was a white woman. This theme caught me by surprise considering that at the time there were segregation laws in place. However, I found it to be heartwarming that they did not let the laws of segregation prevent them from showing the fond love that they have for one another. 

The theme of respectability also stood out to me at the part of the story where Jim was “seizing a tray from dead hands, hurried into the street and ate ravenously, hiding to keep out the sights” (W.E.B. Du Bois). I believe that Jim was intentionally going against the norms that were set within society about who should be served and the way to behave. In other words, he is doing it for the purpose of survival and does not care about what others around him may think. This is interesting to me because he must’ve had a lot of courage to be able to do that. From this, it seems that an action like the one that Jim took may seem very simple and not be considered a big deal; however, it can change the scenario in an instance.