10 Black Horror Movie Characters That Really Let Us Down

Source: Brooke Palmer / Lionsgate

Grab your pumpkins, your popcorn and, well, maybe an extra pair of pants if you’ve got a weak stomach: Halloween season is officially among us! For the entire duration of October, many spooky season loyalists will be using the whole month to get more in tune with their ghoulish side. While the big day doesn’t arrive until the 31st, Halloween aficionados everywhere are already getting their decorations up and, most importantly, putting together some hefty horror movie playlists. Take a look at a few new ones currently in theaters now:

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Although generally rooted in fantasy, horror movies do such a great job at making the featured characters seem so believable that we end up getting invested in all the decisions they make throughout. Well, sometimes a bit too invested even! How many times have you screamed at the screen in a plea for a character in question to not go up that flight of steps, or to think twice before opening that door? Our people tend to do well in these situations when they’re not unjustly being killed off first, as we saw Brandy show us in I Know What You Did Last Summer as well as LL Cool J in Deep Blue Sea, just to name a few. However, for every Sanaa Lathan kicking some serious alien ass in AVP, there’s always a Tyra Banks getting choked and yolked to her demise in Halloween: Resurrection all while thinking it’s a big game. What. A. Letdown! Being that we’re in the festive spirit, take a look at a list we put together of Black horror movie characters that let us down the most as a culture. From poor decision-making skills that got themselves and/or others killed, to just not being all that smart in the head, these are the ones that we weren’t sad to see go at all!

Get yourself in the spooky season by checking out these 10 examples of Black horror film characters that definitely taught us a lesson of what not to do:

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1. Phil Stevens in 'Scream 2' (1997)

Played by:
Omar Epps

See what happens when you don’t mind your business?

2. Tyrell Martin in 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer' (1998)

Played by:
Mekhi Phifer

Literally asking for it!

3. Nora Winston in 'Halloween: Resurrection' (2002)

Played by:
Tyra Banks

Umm, it shouldn’t have taken that long to realize that it’s not Freddie!

4. Kia Waterson in 'Freddy vs. Jason' (2003)

Played by:
Kelly Rowland

In addition to her poor use of the “F” word, who told Kellz to go and be Captain-Save-A-Blonde in the first place?

5. Blake in 'House Of Wax' (2005)

Played by:
Robert Ri’chard

Bet he’ll think twice next time about his token status before following a bunch of white teenagers into the woods.

6. Jenny Tate in 'Cursed' (2005)

Played by:
Mýa

The handful of smart moves she made in trying to survive in this scene were immediately canceled out by the many, many dumb decisions.

7. Luba Gibbs in 'Saw V' (2008)

Played by:
Meagan Good

Such a poor display of our innate cultural reflexes!

8. Ryan in 'Texas Chainsaw 3D' (2013)

Played by:
Trey Songz

Aside from the abysmal driving skills, did this guy really think a shovel would win in a chainsaw fight?

9. "Kiss Me" Kimmy in 'The Purge: Election Year' (2016)

Played by:
Brittany Mirabilé

We were rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!

10. Detective Zeke Banks in 'Spiral' (2021)

Played by:
Chris Rock

So, you leave your dad to chase down the bad guy, and still lose your pops while letting the perp get away? ‘You big dummy!’

10 Black Horror Movie Characters That Really Let Us Down