Horror Noire 2021 [Anthology]

The Lake

The Lake is a strong start to the anthology. It’s an adaptation of a short story by the impressive Tananrive Due. It follows a beautiful high school teacher named Abbie who moves from Boston to rural Louisiana following an unspecified scandal. She moves to a home on the coast of a lake. Abbie is warned by her caretaker not to swim in the lake because nefarious things happen soon after. The lake has some sort of abilities that bring the darkness out of people. It’s not stated what Abbie did but she apparently has a dark past that’s magnetic to the lake. Of course she ignores the warning and takes multiple swims. She quickly starts to transition into some sort of sea creature and her behavior begins to darken. She makes increasingly more pronounced passes at one of her students who she hires as a caretaker after firing her first. It’s hinted that she left her old teaching job because of an inappropriate relationship with a student but this is left ambiguous.

The segment ends with her coaxing Derrick, her underage interest, and his younger brother into the lake. Derrick goes missing as the OG caretaker is heard in a voiceover declaring that it’s too late and that “he’s gone”, admonishing them for failing to listen. The Lake is strong because it maintains a very dark tone throughout. The segment should have been longer. It might not be long enough for a feature-length film, but it would be perfect for a 50 minute television episode. Time-constraints rush the segment, so we don’t get full characterizations from Abbie, Derrick or a fleshing out of her previous scandal. I haven’t read the short-story yet, but I suspect that it answers these questions and is a strong read. Despite its limitations, this a good lead-off for the film.

Brand Of Evil

The Lake gives Black Noire a strong start that Brand Of Evil fails to carry. The segment is corny with some bad CGI. I can forgive the poor CGI because the segment takes a camp approach to its story. This is a mistake because the story has a moral to it that’s undermined by its tongue-in-cheek tone.

Brand of Evil follows a graffiti artist who works for an outreach program painting their building. A mysterious person reaches out one day offering a simple job that will net him $5,000. Of course he doesn’t ask questions and takes the job. The caller makes further propositions with him offering more money each time. Unfortunately, he has to renege on his obligations to the community center to finish them. He soon finds out that the unknown images he’s drawing are actually Nazi occult symbols. Unbeknownst to him, these symbols are being used to conjure a demon that is killing his acquaintances who all are black. The segment is an allegory about selling out. Despite realizing that he was drawing Nazi symbolism, the lead looks past it because the price was right. This has dire consequences for him and his community but unfortunately the story didn’t take itself seriously enough for this point to resonate. The story itself is just illogical and silly. Definitely a downer following a solid start.

Bride Before You

Third on the list is Bride Before You. This segment is set in the 19th century and follows a bourgeoise couple as they try to make a baby. The woman initially struggles conceiving until she sees a witch doctor who performs her magic on her. Much to her delight, she becomes pregnant with a fair-skinned little boy who will fit the beauty standards of the time. As with all stories such as these, however, her conception comes with a hefty price. She also gives birth to a twin that’s a monster that they bury. The witch woman’s magic allows her to forget about her second child and she tries to live happily ever after. Soon after the birth, strange cries permeate through the walls of their home. The cries are incessant over the years, despite their best effort at ignoring them. The monster in the walls kills two people and the subsequent social fallout of the mysterious deaths drives a wedge between the couple, resulting in him leaving. Her son also becomes estranged, so she’s left with only her dedicated servant. The story is pretty lackluster because why don’t you just leave the house? They have the money but for some reason they stay in the house for decades with wailing and a murderous creature living in the walls. That’s dumb and they deserve whatever happens to them. This story was pretty bland and didn’t move the needle too much with me.

Fugue State

The slump continues with Fugue State. Rachel True gives a nice performance but ultimately the segment falls victim to its previous shortcomings: time-constraints. There are other issues but the short needed to be longer to do its due diligence. The short is about a cult that Rachel True’s husband falls victim to after visiting their church. His cognitive skills decline and he becomes illiterate. He also enters the titular fugue state. In an effort to understand what’s befallen her husband, Rachel True’s character attends the church, and the same metamorphosis affects her. The segment ends with True and her character’s husband embarking on the murderous rampage that news clips mention throughout the short, confirming that the cult is behind them. Again, this had promise if it were longer but it wasn’t and the ending was cheesy and atrocious.

Daddy

I hate to be a Negative Nancy but this is another dud. There isn’t too much to say about this other than it’s a doppelganger story that falls flat. It includes a creepy old man who has insider knowledge on the life and backstory of the main character. This is probably the worst segment of the bunch because even the other bad ones had an interesting enough premise to keep me engaged til the end. Even with a diminutive run-time, this short lost me about halfway. It was boring and uninspired with a lame ending. Probably the worst of the film.

Sundown Town

The final segment of the film is Sundown Town which does a decent job of righting the ship. It goes full camp and gives a pretty funny story and a new and interesting twist on a “sundown town”. So, instead of being a place that black people aren’t allowed after dark, this West Virginia town is inhabited by vampires. The film is ridiculous and goofy but funny and charming, but most importantly it’s good. The camp may not be for everyone but I enjoyed it. It’s also worth noting that placing this segment at the end was a nice touch, as it ended the film on a light note after some heavy shit prior to it.

I really wanted to enjoy Horror Noire. I’ve been vocal about black creatives making our own works to tell stories by us and for us. I’m glad that this film exists and I hope that it resonates with others and that it’s enjoyed. Unfortunately, I don’t fall into this camp. I only enjoyed two of the six segments. Bride to Be wasn’t entertaining to me, but it wasn’t a bad story. The remaining three were pretty trash, though. The running theme is that these shorts would have been better suited as individual episodes on tv. They just simply ran out of time. It’s gotta be a Cardinal Sin for an anthology episode to miss on the ending but most of the segments in Horror Noire did just that. There were some straight up garbage endings and some stories that just didn’t pique my interest. I say that as someone who’s pretty lenient. I’m not grading a black work on a harder scale, either. Despite my negative review, I really do hope that this work finds its audience and that it’s enjoyed even if it’s not by me.

------4.3/10