Assemble! - Horror Victim Archetypes - The Black Guy

Welcome to Assemble!

Here, we'll look at several different characters across multiple series to see who would form a perfect team for a certain genre. From fighting game rosters to RPG adventuring parties, different types of characters tend to show up frequently. What we'll do here is look at those archetypes to see what character is the best fit for that slot, and in the end, we’ll have the best team for the job. These articles will also be shorter entries, compared to some of the more long-form articles here, focusing on one or two characters at a time.

When talking about horror, the villains, monsters, and killers are often the first things that come to people’s minds. The people they hunt are often an afterthought, but these characters show that not all survivors are that easy to kill. The right group with the right people can make things very difficult for the killer. Here, we’ll be looking at that can represent different archetypes of horror movie characters, to build a strong squad of survivors.

THE BLACK GUY

This term may not be politically correct, but a lot of early horror films aren’t exactly known for political correctness and the existence of this trope is proof of that.

The Black Guy is a common talking point of a character in horror films, often included as a token character to add a drop of diversity in an otherwise completely white cast. Such films often depicted them in stereotypical roles, like service workers or shady people on the street. A frequent portrayal is casting them as a thug, having them be a gang member, robber, or other dangerous criminal. The black character, especially if there is only one of note, is usually the first or among the first to die, becoming so noticeable in 80s slasher films that it’s become kind of a joke.

In recent years though, things have gotten fairer for black characters in horror, with them having a better chance to survive to the end of the movie or even becoming the heroes. That is who we’ll focus on for this entry, a black character who not only manages to survive, but triumph over the threats that terror tries to throw at them.

Our pick for the Black Guy is…

Moses from Attack the Block

While Moses may be shown as a thug and a gang member, one of the negative portrayals mentioned earlier, it could be said that his actions through the rest of the film make up for it. When aliens invade Earth, landing in South London, Moses and his small band of friends decide to chase after the aliens to hunt them down. When one of them attacks him close to the start of the movie, he stabs it with a knife, then decides to chase after it to finish the job. At a point towards the end of the movie, he comes up with a plan to have all the aliens chasing after him, so he can lead them into a trap to blow them all up. He does what he can to watch out for not just himself, but also his friends and everyone else in the apartment building once the aliens start swarming it.

For staying calm in the face of danger, ending a large threat, and living to tell about it, we now add Moses to the roster.

ADDED!

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Honorable Mention: Chris Washington (Get Out) 

One of the most major horror movies in recent years, Jordan Peele's Get Out follows a young African-American man who is targeted as he is visiting the family of his white girlfriend. He is a normal, mild-mannered person stuck in a terrible situation who manages to fight their way out and avoid the fate that his assailants have in store for him. While what Chris was able to do is impressive, Moses went up against inhuman creatures attacking with terrifying ferocity and unknown abilities or motives and managed to triumph against them, so he had more credit here to his ordeal.

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. 

Thanks for coming!