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American filmmaker Jordan Peele put "black horror" on the world stage with his twisted, double-meaning plots, starring compelling African American protagonists.
Rarely do everyday cinema-goers see horror films with a political edge, but Peele graced them with two in just a few years; the Oscar-nominated Get Out and his most recent box office hit, Us.
Now, a growing number of Indigenous filmmakers are branching into horror, using it tell their own stories about their history, strengths, obstacles, and what they see for their future.
Director and actor Bjorn Stewart and screenwriter Kodie Bedford have both created films for an Indigenous horror anthology, premiering at Sydney Film Festival. Source: SBS News
In a quiet patch of the Blue Mountains, film-making power couple Kodie Bedford and Bjorn Stewart have dreamed up two wicked narratives.
Stewart's "splatter comedy" Killer Native features outback zombies, while Bedford's directorial debut Scout she calls "the black Kill Bill".
Actors Charlie Garber and Clarence Ryan in Bjorn Stewart's horror debut Killer Native. Source: Sydney Film Festival
Stewart has been obsessed with the idea of creating "blackfella zombies" since he was a teenager, he tells SBS News. It’s an unlikely aspiration, considering he wasn’t allowed to watch horror films growing up in a traditional Christian household.
But everything changed when he saw a screening of the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead – which some say is one of the best zombie films ever made.
“It just made me feel - whether it was good or bad - I felt alive,” he says.
Actor and director Bjorn Stewart has made his first horror film as part of an anthology called Dark Place. Source: SBS News
Bedford has wanted to tell empowering female-centric stories since she was a child growing up in Western Australia.
"Indigenous filmmakers always have something to say and I feel horror is such a perfect genre to say those things," she says.
They have both created short films, alongside three other Indigenous filmmakers, which form part of a 75-minute Indigenous-themed horror anthology called Dark Place, which premieres at the Sydney Film Festival on 15 June.
"I liked this idea of letting the audience know the truth - that we've got dark secrets in our history and showing that side of the horror," Stewart says.
“Blackfellas were attacked with smallpox to lessen the numbers so I always had this idea of a virus like smallpox that didn't work for the white fellas… what if we came back from the dead”
Bedford says her new work “is about exploring females, in particular, Aboriginal females who are exploited in society and they're finding their place in the world”.
Initially, she didn’t want to direct it, but when it was suggested, jumped at the opportunity to go one step further with her script.
“By the end, I want women of colour to stand up and go 'yeah'.”
Praise for Peele
Peele’s razor-sharp social satire Get Out highlights racial issues in the United States, and he made history himself when he became the first black person to win an Oscar for an original screenplay in February.
"I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible," he said in his acceptance speech.
"But I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it, people would see it."
The then first-time filmmaker became the first black person to win an Oscar for original screenplay for Get Out. Source: Getty Images
Peele's follow-up to Get Out was the somehow even scarier Us, released earlier this year.
"He's taken stories which have probably been said around families in campfires and laughed about for years," Bedford said.
"That's what's so remarkable about what he’s doing. Often I'll pitch an idea and they'll say there's no audience for that ... but Jordan Peele proves there is an audience."
Stewart agrees Peele is an inspiration.
"It just feels like there's this wave... a new generation of voices wanting to change up the way we tell these things," he said.
'Marginalised stories'
Sydney film critic Travis Johnson says genre in cinema has always been an avenue for minority groups to find their voice.
"People always like to think horror is making a resurgence or genre is making a resurgence, it never does, it's always been there, it's just every so often the mainstream pays attention," he said.
Film critic Travis Johnson says minority groups have always embraced film genres such as horror. Source: SBS News
“Some wouldn't necessarily watch a movie about, let’s say, suburban Chinese people dealing with economic pressures, but they might if Jackie Chan is in there kicking guys in the head.
"So that's why we get people from marginalised spaces telling these stories."
Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley said: “We have a really enthusiastic audience for films that aren’t common or not easily seen ... We want to showcase those films."
