An introduction to Ernest R. Dickerson and his horror legacy in “Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight” (1995) and “Bones” (2001)
Ernest R. Dickerson is an underrated auteur best known for directing the film “Juice” (1992) and being the cinematographer for “Do the Right Thing” (1989). Yet few film scholars acknowledge his lasting influence on cinema and the ways in which his films discuss the Black experience within a horror landscape, perhaps due to their camp and b-movie aspects. In recent years he received acclaim from filmmakers and cinema scholars; yet, the majority of horror fans do not know his name. “Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight” (1995) and “Bones” (2001), forgotten in the endless stream of 90s to 2000s b-movie slashers, are examples of Dickerson’s influential portrayals of Black experiences.
“Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight,” based on the EC Comic series, was the first horror film to have a Black final girl, played by Jada Pinkett Smith. In the documentary “Horror Noire,” Ernest R. Dickerson states
“I know that the producers wanted another actress, a white actress, for that role, but I had just seen Jada in “Menace to Society”…so I had to campaign hard to get her in there. I said, you know, it’s the perfect setup because everyone’s going to think “Oh, she’s gonna die”…And she winds up being the sister that ends up saving the world.”
Director Jordan Peele named the film as one of his inspirations and it regained a small cult following. However, reviews at the time of release in 1995 were middling. The Washington Post wrote that the film is a “dragged-out single story looking to sustain the series’ usual balance of gruesome gore and juvenile humor.” The New York Times states that “in its leering adolescent way, the film succeeds.” It’s not surprising that “Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight” was not given enough credit, given that many of the reviews are blatantly racist (which can be read in the resources section — I don’t want to give them the time of day in this paper).
Yet “Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight ‘’ is sci-fi horror and a true homage to the silliness of the comic books. In an interview, Ernest R. Dickerson reiterates the importance of science fiction horror, saying “I always loved the genre, and been very serious about it, I can never understand why critical voices didn’t give it its proper place in literature and cinema, because it has produced some of the best we ever had,” (Murray, 2020). The film’s impact on cinematic history by portraying strong Black women in contrast with immature white men is a massive win for Black audiences, the future of horror cinema, and movies as a whole. It’s camp at its finest: filled to the brim with goofy characters, gore, and supernatural thrills.
In a paper on Black youth cinema, David Seelow writes that “this self is defined through the images of youth subculture in opposition to the world of adults and their culture” noting that “for the black youth these images are almost always produced by a white media that reinforce the youth’s inferior social status.” Ernest R. Dickerson refutes these stereotypes in “Bones,” a film that tells the story of the spirit of a murdered community leader Bones who is accidentally resurrected by descendants of one of his murderers. The film has an all star cast, including Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier, and Bianca Lawson. Robin R. Means Coleman writes that in the 1990s “the ’hood, then, was also a place that had real meaning as it pertained to identity construction and understanding of community. For example, it was a place where Blacks were “real,” authentically Black,” (pp. 175).
“Bones” is a prime example of what Robin R. Means Coleman means when she writes that Black horror in the 1990s “brought a social realism, revealing that what was most threatening to urban Blacks, the stuff that haunted them while awake and in their dreams, was lingering racism, socioeconomic disparities, health crises, and specific forms of criminality, such as gun and gang violence, rogue cops,” (pp. 175).
Not only have campy horror and b-movies been ignored by critics generally, but Black horror directors were especially mistreated by Hollywood. While “Tales Beyond the Crypt: Demon Knight” had a mixed cast and a relatively large box office result, “Bones” was a majority Black cast and faltered at the box office. Hollywood simply did not know how to market the film and its more explicit commentary on Blackness, horror, and intergenerational trauma, and continues to ignore the tremendous filmography of Ernest R. Dickerson.
Works Cited and Black Horror Resources
Abbott, Stacey. “High Concept Thrills and Chills: The Horror Blockbuster.” Horror Zone. Ed. Jan Conrich. London: I.B. Tauris, 2010.
Alexander, George. Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk about the Magic of Cinema.
http://www.blackhorrormovies.com/
Burgin, Xavier. Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. (2019). Shudder.
Coleman, Robin R. Means. Horror Noir: blacks in American horror films from the 1890s to present. Taylor and Francis Group: 2011.
Dickerson, R. Ernest. Bones. (2001). New Line Cinema.
Dickerson, R. Ernest. Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight. (1995). Universal Pictures.
Emily, Murray. “Interview: Ernest Dickerson on Spike Lee, the Appeal of Horror and Being a Black Filmmaker.” Interview: Ernest Dickerson On Spike Lee, The Appeal Of Horror And Being A Black Filmmaker, August 28, 2020. https://www.zavvi.com/blog/interviews/interview-ernest-dickerson-on-spike-lee-the-appeal-of-horror-and-being-a-black-filmmaker/.
Harrington, Richard. “ ‘Demon Knight.’” The Washington Post. WP Company, January 14, 1995.
Holden, Stephen. “What’s Gooey and Ghoulish and has an Ax to Grind?” New York Times (1923-), Jan 13 1995, p. 1. ProQuest. Web. 16 Nov. 2022
Kronke, David. “Movie Review : ‘Demon Knight’: ‘Crypt’ Offers a Silly, Gory Tale.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1995. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-13-ca-19399-story.html.
Ravalli, Richard. “Snoop’s Devil Dogg: African American Ghostlore and Bones.” The Journal of American Culture 30, no. 3 (August 14, 2007): 285–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-734x.2007.00557.x.
Sachs, Ben. “An Interview with Cinematographer Turned Director Ernest Dickerson.” Chicago Reader, August 18, 2021. https://chicagoreader.com/blogs/an-interview-with-cinematographer-turned-director-ernest-dickerson/.
Seelow, David. “Look forward in anger: young, black males and the new cinema.” The Journal of Men’s Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, Nov. 1996, pp. 153+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A19095217/AONE?u=mlin_b_bumml&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=e7be3405. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.
Taylor, C. (1983). The new U.S. black cinema. Jump Cut, 46–48.
