Okay, it took me a second to adjust my expectations with this book: In spite of the title, I looked at the academic credentials of the authors and assumed we were getting the "Men, Women, Chainsaws" of Black horror. It's not, but it IS a fantastic pop culture look at Black horror, and it's entertaining, informative, and incredibly thorough. Yes, of course we get the big titles from Blacula to Candyman to NotLD, and yeah we get lots of info about Black folks killed, if not first, pretty early on in various slashers and body count fests.

But we also get just about every film you've never heard of, starting with Spider Baby, a film from the same era as NotLD and the rare one in which, yes, a Black character dies first. And just about every big screen horror movie with a Black actor in the cast gets a mention (literally the only one that was overlooked, best I can tell, is Cube). We get deep dives into subgenres, we get an analysis of the different types of Black characters, we even get fun listicles.

Basically, if you're a horror movie fan, this belongs on your shelf near Zinoman's Shock Value and similar titles. Get it.

Interesting, informative, and funny! I love learning about the history of horror and this book taught me a lot, while being very accessible and amusing at the same time.

A fascinating journey through cinematic history and the tropes and dangers of being a Black Character in White Horror. The discussion around modern horror and the reclamation of the genre by Black creators was especially gripping. Interspersed with humor, run-downs of best performances, and fabulous tongue-in-cheek commentary, this was a terrific read. Highly recommend.

Incredibly insightful and essential reading for any horror fan (or anyone even a little interested in the topic!). There's been a lot of conversation about race within the horror genre, especially within the last decade or so, and this brings it all together really well. This does become a bit repetitive at times, but it doesn't take away from how needed this book is. We need to know more about the genre, and we need to know more about the struggles Black people have faced within horror.

This is easy to read, but doesn't feel like it's made to be too digestible (i.e. we still need to sit and think about what's being presented), so it'd be widely accessible to all audiences. It's really informative and interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Spectacular. This was informative and funny. I laughed out loud reading this more times that I have at a full on comedy book.

If you love horror and/or want to learn more about the representation of Black people in the horror genre then this is a must read.

It also added quite a few movies to my growing To Be Watched list.

Excellent and very funny exploration of the history of Black horror films, from the early days of the film industry through Jordan Peele's breakout films.

There are many aspects of this book that I adored. First of all, I don't reach for non-fiction often but when I do, I want to LEARN something - and boy, did I learn. Even though this book is extremely conversational - another aspect I loved about it because it makes it so accessible to a very broad audience - it is chock-full of data and statistics and builds a lot of good points thanks to both.

Secondly, I think this text, even if you're an avid horror fan and you're already aware of many of the issues discussed here, is essential. It brings so much to the forefront and really dissects the cause - be it racism, misrepresentation, or intersectionality, which horror as a genre has struggled with time and time again. It is, for sure, a must-read, especially if you don't have access to Horror Noire.

The one thing I didn't love was the unnecessary repetition - mind you, definitely not with the points it was making, but rather the plots of different movies; once or twice is perfectly enough.

One last note - I think this is not only a must-read for horror fans, I think it's a great book to have for anybody with even just a sliver of interest in the genre. It's easy to reference and go back to, as its theses are, as of right now, still very relevant. The book presents a lot in a fairly small amount of pages and has a lot of information to offer, and opens a lot of discussions.

I received a digital arc from the publisher via Netgalley though all thoughts are my own.

This was a fascinating look into the history of horror and the struggles that Black people have had not only in finding roles that involve being more than the token black guy or gal that dies first but also having to deal with racism and judgement in careers that have been predominately white since the start of cinema which has only recently within the last decade or so started to slowly turn around.

It was very eye opening and full of facts including statistics of the amount of times black people have been killed in horror films, the lack of lead black characters, judgement of the LGBTQ+ community and the frustrations of often being the comedic sidekick.

This is just some of the material that is covered in this book and I highly recommend checking it out whether you are one who typically watches horror or are like me and rarely watches horror.

Trigger warnings: death, sexual abuse, sex, stalking, other horror themes, murder, violence, racism, gaslighting, segregation, abuse of those who identify as LGBTQ+ , other potential triggers

I'm not really a horror girlie, but I do like learning new things, particularly if what I'm learning is in some way related to the history of the entertainment history. I definitely had that here. Really the only reason I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I could have were the copious listicles that were included. Sometimes they were formated in interesting ways to drive home a point that had been made in the examination of whatever we were talking about before we broke into the listicle, but other times they seemed to appear to pad the book and not really offer anything more than a plot synopsis. It was often when the listicles appeared that I started to question the particular format that I was reading. If the same content had been presented in a podcast, and those same lists had just been a cohost rattling off examples that illustrated their point, or if the authors hadn't been so invested in making sure that the non horror girlies like me understood so much why a particular movie was an illustration of their point then maybe the lists could have worked. As they were I started to just highlight the introductory sentence of any list that I thought I might want to revisit later because I wanted to go back and watch the film for the trait highlighted while glazing over the lists that just felt like they weren't really there to add anything.

Other than the lists I did think that the book did a good job of giving a solid history of the developments in Black Horror from the early days through to today, while allowing for some tangents and even brief examinations on how the progress of Black Horror has had ripple effects in non-genre content that Hollywood puts out. I wouldn't be surprised if I were to revisit this book again once I take a few more steps down the path to being a true horror girlie and can engage with the text in some more meaningful ways, but even just experiencing it as a primer of sorts feels like I was able to get something out of it.

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris from Gallery/Saga Press via NetGalley.

My mom was a horror fanatic, and she passed that love onto me. So when Gallery/Saga Press offered me the opportunity to read The Black Guy Dies First, I couldn't resist. I've seen many of the movies mentioned in the book. I still think Candyman is one of the scariest films I've ever seen. You won't catch me saying that name, let alone repeating it. I didn't even see the new version because NOPE. This was an easy-to-read, informative analysis of the history of black horror and people of color in horror. It was also surprisingly funny for a scholarly book. It made me think about many of these movies in new ways, going beyond the surface scares to what they really represent and how they reflect society. If you like horror, you owe it to yourself to read this.

The Black Guy Dies First is a well written and erudite monograph by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris on black cinema portrayals especially in the horror film genre. Released 7th Feb 2023 by Simon & Schuster on their Gallery/Saga Press imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

Horror cinema has had a long and fraught history with black actors and until recently, as the title says, when an actor of color appeared on screen, viewers could be fairly certain s/he wouldn't be long for the world. This book is full of horror film trivia and humor and often surprised a chuckle out of me for the wryly funny observations which were spot on. Throughout it's clear that the authors 1)know what the heck they're talking about and 2)have the research and sources to back it up.

This is a beautifully researched book *full* of horror films with which I was unfamiliar but which I intend to look up asap. This book contains enough film trivia and obscure cult favorites to stump even horror mavens who *always* win the film categories at their local pub trivia nights. It's also full of background info and film history and culture as well as some profound and thought provoking object lessons and a couple of uncomfortable moments of self-reflection. It really made me think.

Although it's written in completely comprehensible layman accessible language, it is well annotated and the chapter notes and annotations make for a very educational additional reading. I was delighted by the depth of trivia contained here; list after list of credits, history, background, and awards.

Four and a half stars. Strikes a perfect balance between humor and serious critique/history. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition as well as a must-have for any serious lover of film (especially, but not only, horror).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I absolutely loved this book so much! I’ve loved horror since watching The Exorcist at 12 years old, but being a white woman, I’ve never considered the history of black horror films. (Aside from always hearing - “the black person always dies first”). This novel was a wild ride: educational, a great combination of stats, lists, and examples. I love the tone and writing style of the author. I will definitely be picking up a hard copy and checking more out from the author in the future.

I never thought about the role and the representation of black people in horror movie. This well researched and informative book is full of food for thought and I learned a lot.
If you are interested in horror movies and want to learn more about how the minority were represent this is the right book.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

As a white guy in a 100% white town, I grew up not thinking much about how black people were portrayed in horror movies. I loved Candyman and The People Under the Stairs, but I did not think of them as black movies or the impact they had in the community. It was not until I was older, when I was listening to a lady at the video store yelling at the worker because she accidentally rented Tales from the Hood instead of the Disney movie Tall Tale that I was aware of black movie makers making horror for black audiences. This was an eye opening experience I had in 1995. Many people had this same experience with Get Out in 2017. The reaction to Get Out and the rise of horror that does not have straight white guys as the target audience has grown since Get Out. It is interesting to read a book like The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar now because you can see the change in the sheer amount of examples from the past five years versus the previous four decades. 

Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris start with the first two real examples of black people in horror, Spider Baby and Night of the Living Dead, to the present day films like Us, Candyman (2021), and Bad Hair. Harris runs the website, blackhorrormovies.com, and some of this book, particularly the first 100 pages, feels like a long blog post. There are many lists that break up the introduction, and this feels like it is intentional to let us know that even though there are some very important, uncomfortable conversations they are going to bring up about race in horror movies, they want the reader to be disarmed. It is interesting because one of the first topics that they mention is how black people in early horror movies were used as comic relief, ways to cut tension in the scenes. They use some of these tactics in their writing.

Some of the early films are repeated over and over because they match many of the subjects discussed, but also because many decades, particularly the 80s and 90s were not very rich with black horror cinema. I would like to see a follow up to this book in another 10 years, because we are in a golden age of inclusive horror, with more cinema including people of color and other marginalized groups in lead roles in horror movies. Personally I think this is a good thing. The more films I watch and the more books that I read that I feel like I am not the target audience, the more I know that other people are getting films that mean more to them. 

The Black Guy Dies First is an interesting, well researched study. I have seen many of the films mentioned, but there are a few that I now want to revisit, and a few I never really considered watching before now (like Surf Nazis Must Die). There are a few times when this book feels repetitive because there are so many of the films that fall into several different categories, but as a whole this is a good, well research study. I really want to visit blackhorrormovies.com and use it as a resource for movies I need to watch.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really a great book for anyone who loves movies, horror or really any pop culture. It was really fun to read and while I learned a lot about movies I already have loved, it didn't feel too "academic" or heavy which I think gives it broad appeal.

“Somewhere in the pit of your stomach … you know his fate as soon as he walks on-screen. It’s not because you’ve read the script or watched an overly thorough trailer that gave away the whole damn plot; you just know. It’s because he’s Black, and you’re watching a horror movie.”

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Gallery Books for an invitation to read and review an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar’ by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris.

Written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, I found this overview of the history of Black Horror Cinema both informative and entertaining.

As the opening quoted above indicates, the idea of the demise of the prototypical “Black Guy,” often the token minority in the cast, has become a running gag within the horror genre. Yet they also point out that socially conscious messaging has long been part of horror cinema, despite their reputation as ‘shallow entertainment’. Many examples are provided.

Its authors’ backgrounds indicate that they were ideal for this project, blending an academic and popular approach. Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman is an internationally prominent scholar, who focuses on media studies and the cultural politics of Blackness. She has written a number of books and articles on film. Lifelong horror fan Mark H. Harris is an entertainment journalist, who created a website in 2005 that chronicles the history of Black representation and achievement in horror cinema.

The text is accompanied by a number of photos from various films and Notes.

As a long time fan of horror films, I quickly purchased both its digital and audiobook editions. The style of the book was very conversational, which made it perfect for the audiobook format. The narrator’s comic timing was perfect.

While reading I was making a note of films mentioned in the text that were not previously known to me. It enhanced my appreciation of horror films that I was familiar with bring a new perspective even to the satirical ‘Scary Movie’ franchise. I also was pleased that a few television horror series were mentioned.

Overall, I feel that ‘The Black Guy Dies First’ is a must-read for horror film fans.

Highly recommended.

I was provided an ARC of this book vi Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

Let me first start this review by saying, I haven't seen or heard of many of the movies that were mentioned in this book. I tend to consume my horror via book instead of movie because it tends to follow many of the formulas mentioned some with and some without the racial issues brought up within this book. I have seen a few of the book to movie adaptations that were mentioned in this study of horror movies, and often they are poorly done. I did discover a few movies I'd like to check out after reading this book.

This book does a good job portraying and explaining the lack of people of color in movies, horror specifically, and the racial stereotypes that are portrayed in movies that do have people of color in them. In more recent years Hollywood has seen more diversity behind the camera in the writers, directors, and producers which has changed the casting and portrayal of people of color in movies and the roles they are cast in. There is still work to do, but there has been change in the right direction.

This book has a lot of great points to make about the lack of representation in the movie industry especially when it comes to the horror genre. The authors did a good job with the one liners to add humor to the book. You can tell that the authors are well versed in the horror genre and they did their research. They gave lots of examples of different stereotypes and tropes portrayed by the Black actors in horror movies throughout history. They also went into the various racial stereotypes that are portrayed in movies that hurt how people of color are seen in movies and in life and how the on screen portrayal is hurtful. People of color have often been portrayed as violent, promiscuous, and savage in horror movies or they are killed off early and often.

I did find that the repetitive nature of the format and the long lists of synopses that are repeated in each chapter take away from the message that the authors are trying to convey. I found that after about chapter 3 I started to lose interest because the same information on the same list of movies was listed multiple times. Given that the authors felt this information was important for the reader to have perhaps an appendix would have worked nicely instead of adding bulk to each chapter. I felt more like I was reading an academic research paper.

Overall, this was a very informative book. If you are a horror movie buff and interested in behind the scenes history, this is a great option.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ebook ARC! I read it alongside the audiobook that I borrowed from the library.

I appreciated how thorough this book was. It offers a detailed look at the tropes used in movies and television that make black characters 2-dimensional and expendable rather than accurate portrayals of people. However, this thoroughness was a double-edged sword. It would have better served the structure of this book to have the long lists of example movies at the end. This was particularly needed in the audiobook because listening to lists being read aloud isn't enjoyable. These lists are an intrinsic part of illustrating what the author meant and they should be included, but an addendum would have made much more sense, as the reader gets to choose whether they want to read through it, and they're usually easier to navigate when they're organised all together than having to flip to each section of the book.

That aside, this book celebrates the very recent progress the horror genre, and Hollywood as a whole, has made in contrast with the portrayals we're used to. While accurate representation of black personhood is still far from the norm, there seems to be some hope for the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this advance copy for review. This was an entertaining look at Black representation in horror films through the years.

**4.5-stars rounded up**

The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar is exactly what the title describes, an examination of the role of Black actors and characters in Horror cinema, from the dawn of cinema through the present day.

Upon starting this book I was immediately taken with the humor of the authors. While the topic they are tackling is important and worth examination, they present it in a way that makes it fun and engaging. You're learning so much, but it doesn't feel like a chore. Win!

It was so interesting to tackle each section that the authors covered. It really took you through every aspect of Black Horror. They also included so many examples of the films that they felt exemplified the different topics/influences/aspects they were discussing.

It would be interesting to rewatch some of the films mentioned keeping in mind things that I learned from this book. I wish there were a complete list of every title they mentioned. I would love to watch them all.

Overall, I think this is an informative, fun and engaging piece of nonfiction. I loved the way the authors chose to present the information by using humor, honesty and a conversational narrative style. I feel like it makes it so much more appealing to a larger audience that way. I would definitely recommend this one to any fan of Horror, or the history of Horror cinema in particular.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Gallery / Saga Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I was fascinated by this and am so glad that I picked it up!