Anthology series, especially horror anthology series, vary a lot. There are way too many terrible horror anthologies out there. Thankfully, the few black horror anthology series I have seen have been amazing. Let’s look at the latest one.
Horror Noire is a six-story anthology show on Shudder. “The Lake” stars Lucifer’s Leslie-Ann Brandt as a woman who moves into a lakeside house. She is told not to swim in the lake but she doesn’t listen. “Brand of Evil” gives us Brandon Mychal Smith as an artist commissioned to draw some mystical brand artwork for a mysterious client. “Bride Before You” is the story of a new bride (Lenora Crichlow) tasked with giving her husband a son. When she has difficulties conceiving, she turns to a magical old woman. “Fugue State” has Malcolm Barrett becoming a victim of a cult. “Daddy” turns a insecure father (Luke James) against himself. “Sundown” twists racist sundown towns into the supernatural.
These are all amazing stories. I don’t think there was one that I didn’t enjoy. My favorites were “Sundown,” “Brand of Evil,” and “Bride Before You.” I love that all of these stories took stereotypical black issues and twisted them into something new. Yes, for the most part, they all still held onto their racist core but they took that history and gave it a supernatural life.
I absolutely recommend watching Horror Noire. The show definitely needs more eyes on it. And since each story is only about 20 minutes long, if you don’t like one particular story, another will be starting soon!