Ahead of the 2020 Halloween season, the spooks come early for Black women and men who don’t often get to see themselves represented in mainstream horror on their TV screens. In ways that center Black culture, struggle, and horror. Jordan Peeles newest HBO series “Lovecraft Country”; Is a refreshing addition to the Horror Genre because for the 1st time ever we are the center of the story and everyone else is plot development.
While I intend for this review to be spoiler-free I cannot guarantee it. If you have not seen episode 1 of this series I strongly suggest signing up for a free trial of HBO max via Hulu. If you have seen episode 1 come take a walk with me as we proceed into why this was a horrifying and anxiety-inducing episode.
Let’s start with the title of Episode 1 “Sundown” when I first saw this hit the screen my Black self immediately knew where this episode was going (I didn’t) I have known for a very long time what sundown meant for Black people in the rural south. My Non-black husband however wasn’t privy to this until last Sunday night. The entire episode I was confronted with discomfort at the racism expressed to Black people otherwise just going about their daily lives. Just taking a bus while Black and having it go out of service was a struggle that I can’t imagine ever having to face.
Going out of town and sitting in a restaurant to get lunch and not having to worry about being attacked is something I can say that I for sure took for granted (Especially now in these Covid-19 times) The truth is while I have read and heard many stories about racism in the south from Black people some being my own family. I was never as emotionally and mentally compromised as I was while watching this episode. Watching people who look like me get mistreated, shot at, and blatantly sacrificed just for looking the way I do was the real horror that I experienced sitting on my couch that Sunday night.
As I prepare myself for Sunday nights episode 2 I realize that this was the point. In a world full of blood driven beasts, the real monsters are the people that walk among us. I have heard the stories, the tales, I’ve been given the cautionary by my mother “Be home before the street lights come on” I’ve been trained from an early age to never let the sun come down on me while I was away from my home. Jordan did such a great job expressing the anxiety, and fear that happens when Black people of the 1950’s south didn’t heed that warning and while I am uncomfortable I am eager to see what happens in tonight’s episode.
Kasually Kia 