Twenty-sixth review is for the first Black horror movie. Has been on my to watch list for some time now and after watching, I’m sad. Ancient Eastern and African spiritual objects, experiments, practical effects, Black stereotypes. Includes #spoilers :
•
Son of Ingagi (1940) Pros: The intro of a wedding with lots of Black folks celebrating a union was beautiful. Acting, singing, introductions to new characters, and the hijinx were top tier. When Dr. Helen Jackson hit that gong after she set up her will, I was ready to go wherever this movie was tryna take me. “Last thing you took was 10 years in the penitentiary,” shady. The spiritual object conjuring a caveman like creature was maaad unexpected. The creature seemed like a gentle giant, misunderstood and died trapped alone, but the main characters end up safe with mad gold in the end! That was unexpected.
•
Cons: I think any con I can think of would be tied to how film has historically flattened, sterilized, and controlled Black people. Ingagi (1930) was a film about a tribe of gorilla-worshipping women in the Congo who sacrificed African women to be Ingagi’s sex slaves. Reading about this after helped me figure out where this creature comes from. So he’s part monkey, got it. Can he leave the basement when he wants or when the gong is rang or that line from the Bible is said? I was entertained by the sandwich shenanigans. I just have so many questions about how this huge man/creature is in this woman’s basement? He’s there to guard the gold? Why did she not tell the newlyweds about him? This Zuite suite wearing mf calling the son of Ingagi a Jungleman, like someone really made a movie about killing off your roots to Africa for bags of gold.
•
I rate this a 4, for the all Black cast, how they grew the tension of fear around the creature’s presence and the curiosity the creature felt observing the new family. I can’t shake the vibe of killing your savage, spiritual Africaness to conform to Western rules about what is “proper.” Like Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Frankenstein, and my favorite horror movie The Zombies of Sugar Hill.
#halloween #horrormovies #blackhorror #explorepage